From the desk of David Falls. I am in, because I have several ruts. How about the rest of you guys?
Fasting Direction and Instruction
Observation: We are not seeing the power of God poured out upon the church to the extent that the New Testament describes as normal. Supernatural healing is the exception rather than the rule. Many people have been struggling with the same mental, emotional, and spiritual bonds and addictions year in and year out. For a people walking with the all powerful Almighty God, Creator of the universe, we experience a shocking degree of powerlessness. Churches in many 3rd world nations do not seem to have this problem.
If it is available to them it must available to us as well.
Roots I have found that contribute to our current condition:
We are not persistent, we frequently settle for less than God has for us in multiple areas of our spiritual walks. We trust the world’s solutions whenever possible; could it be that we have begun to walk the line of friendship with the World, which is enmity with God. God is a part of our lives, not the center. Many honestly believe that what we are experiencing is the way God wants it right now. This is a deep delusion.
I consider the almost complete lack of God’s healing to be a sign of a more serious spiritual condition. Jesus called healing, “the children’s bread.” If that’s the case then we are half starved. In most situations the natural condition parallels the spiritual one. Generally a fundamental change in one creates a fundamental change in the state of the other. I conclude that our structures are mostly healthy, but we as a people are not. I believe we are a very sick people, both physically and spiritually. The roots listed above are not traits of spiritually healthy people. In the same order the above roots could be called: lack of perseverance (a necessary fruit of the Spirit), lack of faith (without which it is impossible to please God),
idolatry (see the first 2 commandments), and lack of intimacy (if we are His sheep we should know His voice). These are not just God’s lofty hopes for His church; they are His minimum expectations. We are not healthy.
Solution:
We need to repent of the aforementioned roots and actually turn away from them and not go back. We need to break with the attitude of the time we live in and get serious about seeking God.
I have noticed that we experience God’s power in the areas that we have relationship with Him. If we know Him as healer and relate to Him as our healer, we will tend to see Him heal. If we know Him as a warrior, our enemy goes from being a serious threat to just being occasionally annoying. We do not know how to partner with Him in walking in power in many areas. We also do not know how to partner with Him to get answers to prayer in many areas. I believe this is really not a result of a lack of techniques, but rather it is a result of not knowing Him.
We need to admit that we can’t get ourselves to know Him in this way. We have a problem and we have no ability to fix it. We also have been content to stay where we are for a rather long time which puts us in a very deep rut. We need God to break us out of this rut. To that end I am going to start fasting until God removes me from this rut (and keeps me out of it) or I complete 40 days of fasting. If I finish this fast and He still hasn’t answered, I will immediately make the necessary preparations to go on another one.
The situation we are in is this serious. I believe it demands this kind of attention and dedication. Anyone want to join me?
My intent is to take on a liquids only diet for the duration of the fast. I have found I can get most of my needed nutrition through liquids so I can keep up this kind of fast for quite a while. If you don’t have any serious medical conditions (diabetes, pregnant, nursing, on many medications, etc.), I would request you join me on the liquids fast. If you have do health issues and you want to join me do what you can without posing a serious risk to your health. One way or another either we will break through or He will break us through; we just have to decide not to give up.
Blessings,
Pastor David Falls