So we are called to fast in church again, again. I have never managed it and don’t know much about it. This has been my response to these calls all down through the years until one year ago. I laughed in agreement with our Sunday morning speaker recently when he spoke about fasting, he said once the body comes under threat it responds and fights. This I know full well, but I also know now the fight then dies and surrenders, and fasting becomes easier.
My story? For my first 27 years as a believer I had not been able to complete one full days fasting, but this time last year I have had breakthrough in this aspect of obedience to the Word of God. I was preparing to have a SOZO (Greek word meaning “saved / healed / delivered”) and was encouraged by the SOZO ministry team to fast from something for a week before the SOZO. I was determined to fast in some way and determined to fast in a way that I would be able to complete and not have to abandon my plans and feel like I had failed. I wanted to be real with God and wanted to see real, measurable breakthrough in my life. I fasted for that week from tea and coffee as my girls were on my case as they said I was addicted to both. For five days my body fought and reminded me each moment by manifesting a dull headache for the duration of those five days. After those days I started to feel much more alert as if a fog had moved from my head, the headache now was completely gone and I was still fasting. After the SOZO I said I can fast unto God like this longer and have been so doing now for 11 months without coffee or tea.
A friend who noticed I was not drinking tea or coffee asked me was I fasting and why. I told them I was and, being slightly embarrassed that I was only fasting from tea and coffee, I told her in 27 years I had not managed to fast for one day as a believer. Instantly she prophesied over me that I would have breakthrough in fasting from food. I instantly stepped into that prophetic word and before I knew it I had fasted a full day. Did I have any amazing revelation from God while I fasted? No, none. All I had was the knowledge that I had now fasted for one full day and I was happy with this. The same day the following week I did likewise and the same again the next week. As time went by I started spending more time in the secret place (of prayer) on those days, the time I would have spent eating I was now spending in the secret place on top of my usual times in the secret place.
In January, three months after my break-through in fasting, I shared a prophetic word about break-through in Church from Micah 2:13 “One who breaks open the way will go up before them, they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the Lord at their head.” In these days I have learned of the connection with the prophetic and intentionality. Intentionally stepping into the word and seeing that word manifest, imitating Jesus in allowing the word become flesh in my body. I have since fasted for 2 full day periods and have built on that and completed three day periods without taking food. We grow into Him when we combine our intention and will and apply it to the written and spoken word. An obvious change for me day-to-day is not just learning more from Him, but learning how to release Him as I learn. In these days of break-through I am manifesting Jesus in my life; He brings the breakthrough. Can I state clearly that this has all to do with me fasting? No – but I can say there has been a marked change in me since this time last year. Was it the SOZO? Was it the prophetic word? Was it the intentionality? No, I can’t say, but I can clearly say it was the Heart of God responding to a heart that is learning to yield. In all these changes the common ground has been a willingness to “step in” to walk in intimacy.
I am currently feeling the call of the Holy Spirit to fast for 7 days, one day each to step into each of the Seven Spirits of the Lord as mentioned in Isaiah 11:2 and have that nature of the Spirit manifest in my body. Now this is something that excites me, the pain in the fasting is nothing compared to the possibility of encountering Him in these days. What if I experience nothing of Him in these 7 days? I now know that’s not possible.
The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy (Rev. 19:10) and I know by ministering unto the Lord in this way He will release a greater manifestation of Him in my life and a greater blessing on the world around me. This excites me.
Take the prophetic word that was given to me and claim it as your own and intentionally set in motion an encounter with Him.
Declan
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