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prepare-for-the-new-year fasting

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I am starting a fast today. Anyone wants to join me for the journey?

I am fasting to get closer to God, to pray for my extended family, to upgrade my prayer life, and to prepare myself for a new blessed year.

So far I am dry fasting. I will drink water when I am thirsty.



The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer. (by Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
 
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I am 40 hours into my fast. So far I am doing dry fast. I felt a very mild headache for a couple of hours yesterday. Otherwise I have felt fine physically, although not having as much energy as usual. I have to call upon the Lord for emotional/spiritual strength to continue this fast from time to time.


Have you ever noticed that Jesus launched the Christian church…while people were praying (Acts 2)? What does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in a prayer meeting and prayer meetings today are almost extinct? Am I the only one who get embarrassed when religious leaders talk about having prayer in public school? :blush: Out of humility, you would think we would keep quiet on that particular subject until we practice what we preach :preach: in our own congregations. Let’s not play games with ourselves. Let’s not divert attention away from the weak prayer life of our own churches.

In the community where you live, what church do you know that takes a prominent night of the week, with all the leaders present, and say that because prayer is so great, so central to Jesus’ definition of the church, they’re going to concentrate on prayer? Americans designate one day a year as a National Day of prayer. Do we have any right to ask mayors and senators to show up for a special event, with the television cameras rolling, if we don’t have regular prayer meetings in our churches? If prayer is that important, why don’t we do it every week? (from Fresh Wind Fresh Fire
by Jim Cymbala)
 
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Yesterday afternoon I felt very tired and I also had a mild headache and I felt unmotivated to go on fasting. I took a 3-hour nap and then felt refreshed. At nighttime I slept another 10 hours. This morning I felt a slight headache, a mild thirst, and much weakness. Apparently some detox was going on. I had to be somewhere in the afternoon to do a prayer ministry. So I ended my 60-hour-long dry fast at noontime. I ate nutritious small-sized meals throughout the rest of the day. I also went to the gym to do strength-training (to help preserve muscles) and to take a prolonged steam bath (to detox). I intend to resume dry-fasting tomorrow.

I do thank God for having given me strength to do a 60-hour dry fast.
 
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I am 46 hours into my second dry fast. Physically I have felt fine. No headache this time. I am feeling a mild thirst--and that's when fasting gets easier....the temptation is water rather than food; and water is easier to resist than food.
I have to call upon God from time to time for power to strengthen my resolve to fast.
I feel more spiritual hunger and I seem to better feel God's heart for the lost and for our present-day weak church.



One Sunday about 20 years ago, I said something impromptu while receiving new members into the church. “I charge you, as pastor of this church, that if you ever hear another member speak an unkind word of criticism or slander against anyone, you have authority to stop that person in midsentence and say, ‘Excuse me—who hurt you? Who ignored you? What slighted you? Was it Pastor Cymbala? Let’s go to his office right now…we’ll pray together so God can restore peace to this body. But we will not let you talk critically about people who are not present to defend themselves.’” …what most easily destroys church …is gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit.

“Anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” When we seek God, He will bless us. But when we stop seeking Him, all bets are off, no matter who we are.
The Bible teaches that we are always either drawing nearer to God or falling away. There is no holding pattern.

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” Day after day goes by, and God keeps looking, looking…. Doesn’t anyone want to call out for His blessing? Upon whom can He pour His grace? Isn’t anyone interested?

Whenever God stirs us to establish His kingdom in a new place, the enemy is sure to taunt us. The devil always tries to convince us that we’ve tackled too much this time and we’ll soon be humiliated.
If we are courageous enough to go on the spiritual attack, to be mighty men and women of prayer and faith, there is no limit to what God can accomplish through us.
No personal or church situation is too hopeless for the all-sufficient power of the Holy Spirit. God will be no more eager to act tomorrow than He is right now. He is waiting for us to take His promises seriously and go boldly to the thrones of grace. He wants us to meet the enemy at the very point of attack, standing against him in the name of Christ. When we do so, God will back us up with all the resources of heaven.

We must face the fact that for our churches and ministries to be all God wants them to be, they must be saturated with prayer. No new revelation or church growth technique will change the fact that spiritual power is always linked to communion with God. If you and I are prayerless, if our churches have no appetite for God’s presence, we will never reach our full potential in Him.
God has never changed. The only changing that can occur is within us. Let us purpose in our hearts to change in His direction, and see Him do incredible things to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Dear Father, thank You for Your mercy and the salvation You have given us in Jesus Christ. Pease forgive us for all our sins and shortcomings. Draw us to You, and begin a new work of grace in all of us. Make us the people You want us to be. Fill our churches with Your fresh wind and fresh fire. Break our pride, soften our hearts, and fill us to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit. (from Fresh Wind Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala)
 
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Pink Spider

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This poor sinner (me) is starting a 10 days fast
tomorrow 2014-12-06.It's going to be a water fast
and will include vitamin supplements as well as
electrolyte supplements but no food.

I have learned from previous fasts - and I want to fast
safe. Hence the vitamins and electrolytes + enough water.

I will update on the progress in a separate thread:
http://www.christianforums.com/t7854940/
.
.
.
 
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Hi, Pink. I pray you will do well in your 10-day fast.

Once I took a vitamin while doing water fast and I experienced very unpleasant nausea. So I dare not do it again. At present I do short fasts and during re-feeding days I eat healthy foods.

BTW, I like to call myself a happy greatly-blessed saint. My sins are totally washed away by my Lord. And my Lord's strength is mine as long as I cling to Him. So I am strong and rich because of my Lord. :amen:
 
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Pink Spider

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Hi, Pink. I pray you will do well in your 10-day fast.
Thank you Jennifer! With God's help I am sure I will! :thumbsup:

Once I took a vitamin while doing water fast and I experienced very unpleasant nausea. So I dare not do it again.
Oh - I see. I will check on the net if there's some information
regarding fast and vitamin supplements. :)

At present I do short fasts and during re-feeding days I eat healthy foods.
That's great. I will do the same.

BTW, I like to call myself a happy greatly-blessed saint. My sins are totally washed away by my Lord. And my Lord's strength is mine as long as I cling to Him. So I am strong and rich because of my Lord. :amen:
That's awesome! Good for you! :thumbsup:
 
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I am switching to half-day fast. I will water fast till 5pm everyday for the next few days.

God has given me more burden to pray for the lost and for His Church these past 10 days. I am very thankful for that.



from Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill
What is “the filth of this world”? (1 Cor. 4:13)
“We apostles,” Paul says, “are the filth of this world, the off-scouring of all things.”

Any man who has so assessed himself “filth of the earth” has no ambitions—and so has nothing to be jealous about. He has no reputation—and so has nothing to fight about. He has no possessions—and therefore nothing to worry about. He has no “rights”—so therefore he cannot suffer any wrongs. Blessed state! He is already dead—so no one can kill him. In such a state of mind and spirit, can we wonder that the apostles “turned the world upside down”?
Only when we are thus dead to the world and all its toys, its idle pomp and fading joys can we feel the freedom that Paul knew. The plain fact is that we followers of Christ respect the world and its opinions and appreciations and qualifications. A modern critic says that we believers have gold for our god and greed for our creed.

Such blessed apostles, with their healthy, holy disregard for the world and its men, shame us.

“They climbed the steep ascent to heaven
Through peril, toil and pain;
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.”
Soon it will be “Farewell mortality, welcome eternity.”

Here’s wishing you, beloved believer, a year of sacrificial service for Him who was our Sacrifice.
 
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I finished 3 days of half-day fast. I am to take a break. Next week I will come back to a more intense form of fasting.



Quotes by Leonard Ravenhill

"The only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it!”

"If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere."

"Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"

"A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning."

"God pity us that after years of writing, using mountains of paper and rivers of ink, exhausting flashy terminology about the biggest revival meetings in history, we are still faced …with the most prayerless church age since Pentecost."

"My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."

“We may call prayerlessness neglect, or lack of spiritual appetite, or loss of vision. But that which matters is what God calls it. In 1 Samuel 12:23, God calls prayerlessness sin: God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”

“Prayer is taxing. Prayer is exacting. Prayer means enduring. Prayer means denying self, a daily dying by choice.”

“The early Church prayed; every revival church has prayed; every participant in revival prayer has known travail. Though there are some tearful intercessors behind the scenes, I grant you that to our modern Christianity, praying is foreign.”

“Satan fears prayer and offsets it at every angle.”

“Prayer is, I think, the language of heaven.”

“You can't live wrong and pray right.”

“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

“Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord the less entertainment you need.”

“Is the world crucified to you or does it fascinate you?”

“If we displease God, does it matter whom we please? If we please Him does it matter whom we displease?”

“One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed. We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a Book to be explained, whereas first and foremost it is a Book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed).”

“If we had more sleepless nights in prayer, there would be fewer souls to have a sleepless eternal night in hell.”

“But you know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you’d like on the fleshy table of our hearts I am quite convinced we’d be a very, very different tribe of people, God’s people, in the world today. We live too much in time, we’re too earth bound. We see as other men see, we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invests it. We're supposed to be a different breed of people. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God. We’re all going to stand one day, can you imagine it--at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body. This is what--this is the King of kings, and He’s the Judge of judges, and it’s the Tribunal of tribunals, and there’s no court of appeal after it. The verdict is final.”
 
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dude99

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I am starting a fast today. Anyone wants to join me for the journey?

I am fasting to get closer to God, to pray for my extended family, to upgrade my prayer life, and to prepare myself for a new blessed year.

So far I am dry fasting. I will drink water when I am thirsty.



The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer. (by Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
Good luck for the fasting. I will start my fast for most of the day tommorow and do it for the rest of the week day time only except for the weekend as it going to be very busy time at work then.

I am fasting as I am asking for the Lord for provision and to prepare for next year.
 
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dude, how are you doing in your fast?


I am in day 2 of a water/herbal tea fast. So far I have felt well physically. I have to send up prayer from time to time to ask God to strengthen my resolve to fast.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Introduction)

The Holy Spirit is readying the Bride of Christ—the Body of Christ—at this time for the coming days of glory and opposition. How radically the Lord must change the Church to prepare her for His return! What the Western Church today accepts as normal values and practices will be dramatically altered as our minds are renewed and we are transformed into the people God originally designed us to be.

By definition, fasting is abstaining from food. The fast that we are after, however, goes far beyond just denying ourselves physical nourishment. Our desire is to position our hearts to encounter Jesus as the Bridegroom.

What He delights in is our obedience and our pursuit of intimacy with Him. More important to Him than fasting is that we do His will.

When we fast it must be as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself.

Scripture teaches us to fast to strengthen us in our quest to be preoccupied with God and His will.
Jesus promised that God would openly reward those who approach fasting with the right spirit. Fasting is a grace that significantly increases our receptivity to the Lord’s voice and His Word. It allows us to enter into depths in our relationships with God that are beyond what we normally experience.
 
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dude99

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dude, how are you doing in your fast?


I am in day 2 of a water/herbal tea fast. So far I have felt well physically. I have to send up prayer from time to time to ask God to strengthen my resolve to fast.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Introduction)

The Holy Spirit is readying the Bride of Christ—the Body of Christ—at this time for the coming days of glory and opposition. How radically the Lord must change the Church to prepare her for His return! What the Western Church today accepts as normal values and practices will be dramatically altered as our minds are renewed and we are transformed into the people God originally designed us to be.

By definition, fasting is abstaining from food. The fast that we are after, however, goes far beyond just denying ourselves physical nourishment. Our desire is to position our hearts to encounter Jesus as the Bridegroom.

What He delights in is our obedience and our pursuit of intimacy with Him. More important to Him than fasting is that we do His will.

When we fast it must be as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself.

Scripture teaches us to fast to strengthen us in our quest to be preoccupied with God and His will.
Jesus promised that God would openly reward those who approach fasting with the right spirit. Fasting is a grace that significantly increases our receptivity to the Lord’s voice and His Word. It allows us to enter into depths in our relationships with God that are beyond what we normally experience.

Thanks for sharing and best of luck and God bless with the current fast. Yes what is more important is doing God will than fasting. Thanks so much for the message regarding fasting. It need to be done with the right motives.
I did fast yesterday, except for breakfast. I skipped lunch, yet had water. Yet had dinner.
The day before I did not fast as it is very challenging if family is offering you food and I went to visit them.

The day before I did fast. I skipped breakfast, lunch and the only meal I had was dinner. I barely drank any fluids during my fast.

The previous day I did fast lunch time, yet had water.

The day before that I fastest the hole day and did not have breakfast. I skipped breakfast, lunch but had dinner.

I plan to fast again for a few days next week.
 
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dude, I feel happy for you that you abstained from several meals. God remembers all our efforts to get nearer to Him and He rewards us in the months to come.

Just a suggestion: Since you eat at least your dinner each partial-fast day, I suggest that you drink as much water as you want while you are abstain from meals. Digesting your dinner requires much water. If you don't drink water while you are abstaining from other meals, you are likely to feel thirsty while eating your dinner and you would feel like drinking at or right after dinner time. But drinking water/fluids up to half an hour before a meal or up to two or three hours after a meal--or at the meal time--is injurious to one's digestive system. In other words, it is better for your digestive health that you do not drink fluids from half an hour before a meal to two/three hours after a meal--depending on the size of your meal. Solid food and fluids should be taken at different times for optimal digestive health.


For the latter part of my day 2 I felt hunger from time to time, but the hunger could be calmed by sips of water. I also started feeling weaker. I slept well for over 10 hours last night. Right now I feel somewhat weak. Preparing a simple breakfast and a simple lunch bag for my husband left me tired. Sipping hot water makes me feel good.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Chapter One)
There is a growing hunger and desperation that flows from the Body of Christ’s recognition that we are spiritually barren. We understand that we are in great need of the in-breaking of God’s love and power. As a result, there is clearly a growing enthusiasm for fasting, even fasting as a lifestyle.

This new interest in fasting is God’s gift to the Body of Christ. It is part of God’s commitment to prepare the Church for the soon coming time of glory and crisis in the End Times. This ready response is surely the work of God in our midst. And it is unmistakably in line with the Word of God. With boldness Jesus emphasized that the Father rewards fast. This proclamation alone makes fasting of great importance to the true followers of Jesus. It is not secondary. The grace of fasting must not be neglected.

There is a tension in fasting and living the fasted lifestyle. While God does reward fasting, the rewards He gives are not earned or deserved by us because of our fasting. We are weak people who can never earn God’s favor or rewards, but can only receive them. We give ourselves to the grace of fasting by positioning ourselves before His infinite goodness. He wants to flood our lives with many rewards—rewards that are internal as our hearts encounter Him, external as our circumstances are touched by His power, and eternal as fasting impacts even our eternal rewards.

Truly the rewards that the Father gives to those who fast regularly are vast. And that is why, even now, He is preparing the hearts of believers worldwide to say “yes” to the New Testament lifestyle of prayer and fasting. He will prepare us as we experience Jesus’ affection as our Bridegroom God. Our ability to experience more of our glorious God is deeply connected to our embracing the grace of fasting.
 
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dude99

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dude, I feel happy for you that you abstained from several meals. God remembers all our efforts to get nearer to Him and He rewards us in the months to come.

Just a suggestion: Since you eat at least your dinner each partial-fast day, I suggest that you drink as much water as you want while you are abstain from meals. Digesting your dinner requires much water. If you don't drink water while you are abstaining from other meals, you are likely to feel thirsty while eating your dinner and you would feel like drinking at or right after dinner time. But drinking water/fluids up to half an hour before a meal or up to two or three hours after a meal--or at the meal time--is injurious to one's digestive system. In other words, it is better for your digestive health that you do not drink fluids from half an hour before a meal to two/three hours after a meal--depending on the size of your meal. Solid food and fluids should be taken at different times for optimal digestive health.


For the latter part of my day 2 I felt hunger from time to time, but the hunger could be calmed by sips of water. I also started feeling weaker. I slept well for over 10 hours last night. Right now I feel somewhat weak. Preparing a simple breakfast and a simple lunch bag for my husband left me tired. Sipping hot water makes me feel good.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Chapter One)
There is a growing hunger and desperation that flows from the Body of Christ’s recognition that we are spiritually barren. We understand that we are in great need of the in-breaking of God’s love and power. As a result, there is clearly a growing enthusiasm for fasting, even fasting as a lifestyle.

This new interest in fasting is God’s gift to the Body of Christ. It is part of God’s commitment to prepare the Church for the soon coming time of glory and crisis in the End Times. This ready response is surely the work of God in our midst. And it is unmistakably in line with the Word of God. With boldness Jesus emphasized that the Father rewards fast. This proclamation alone makes fasting of great importance to the true followers of Jesus. It is not secondary. The grace of fasting must not be neglected.

There is a tension in fasting and living the fasted lifestyle. While God does reward fasting, the rewards He gives are not earned or deserved by us because of our fasting. We are weak people who can never earn God’s favor or rewards, but can only receive them. We give ourselves to the grace of fasting by positioning ourselves before His infinite goodness. He wants to flood our lives with many rewards—rewards that are internal as our hearts encounter Him, external as our circumstances are touched by His power, and eternal as fasting impacts even our eternal rewards.

Truly the rewards that the Father gives to those who fast regularly are vast. And that is why, even now, He is preparing the hearts of believers worldwide to say “yes” to the New Testament lifestyle of prayer and fasting. He will prepare us as we experience Jesus’ affection as our Bridegroom God. Our ability to experience more of our glorious God is deeply connected to our embracing the grace of fasting.
Thank you for the information. I did have slips of fluids and took Lozenges as I have a sore throat. I have skipped breakfast and lunch. I may skip dinner. Yet if I do I may have breakfast as I need to be at work and there is a lot of physical activity I need to do there. Normally I go to the gym and go running but I plan to abstain from it for now.

I do plan to do some fasting next month too as I really need some breakthroughs in life.

Good luck and God bless with the fasting.
 
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dude, how are you doing? Even just fasting a meal while we direct our eyes/hope to God is very pleasing to God.

Could your sore throat a detox symptom due to fasting? In that case, taking medicine would suppress the symptom and drive the toxins back deep into the body. It would be better to let the toxins exit the body. Doing a steam bath or sauna or just sweating in a prolonged hot bath could help toxins leave the body.


Thank you for your blessings to me. I enjoy God's blessings, but I do not need luck. "Luck" means that success or failure is brought by chance. As a daughter of the Almighty God, I am in Father God's hands always and He looks after me carefully each moment of my life.


I took a break on Sunday. Today I resumed my pre-Christmas fast. So far I feel well. On the first day after re-feeding I usually have good energy.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Chapter One)

Deep within the human heart is the desire to know that we are loved and valued. The dilemma is that though our desire for love is real, and though we are innately designed by God to be exhilarated by His love and acceptance of us, there remains a distance between the knowledge of this love and our actual experience of it. Believe it or not, fasting is one of the most practical ways to posture our hearts to experience more of God’s affection and love.

The gap between knowing that God loves us and actually experiencing that love is rooted in living from a false identity based on the way people receive us rather than on how God receives us. How we think and feel about ourselves is greatly impacted by those whose opinions we value most.

Our Creator is the only One who fully knows who we were designed to be. He tells us who we really are by revealing how much He loves us. Our belief in His affection for us determines how we feel about ourselves, how we approach life, how we interact with others, and how we deal with setbacks and difficulties. God wants our identity and sense of value to be rooted and grounded in the knowledge of His affections for us (Eph. 3:17-18). This is where our hearts come alive!
 
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dude99

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dude, how are you doing? Even just fasting a meal while we direct our eyes/hope to God is very pleasing to God.

Could your sore throat a detox symptom due to fasting? In that case, taking medicine would suppress the symptom and drive the toxins back deep into the body. It would be better to let the toxins exit the body. Doing a steam bath or sauna or just sweating in a prolonged hot bath could help toxins leave the body.


Thank you for your blessings to me. I enjoy God's blessings, but I do not need luck. "Luck" means that success or failure is brought by chance. As a daughter of the Almighty God, I am in Father God's hands always and He looks after me carefully each moment of my life.


I took a break on Sunday. Today I resumed my pre-Christmas fast. So far I feel well. On the first day after re-feeding I usually have good energy.



THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Chapter One)

Deep within the human heart is the desire to know that we are loved and valued. The dilemma is that though our desire for love is real, and though we are innately designed by God to be exhilarated by His love and acceptance of us, there remains a distance between the knowledge of this love and our actual experience of it. Believe it or not, fasting is one of the most practical ways to posture our hearts to experience more of God’s affection and love.

The gap between knowing that God loves us and actually experiencing that love is rooted in living from a false identity based on the way people receive us rather than on how God receives us. How we think and feel about ourselves is greatly impacted by those whose opinions we value most.

Our Creator is the only One who fully knows who we were designed to be. He tells us who we really are by revealing how much He loves us. Our belief in His affection for us determines how we feel about ourselves, how we approach life, how we interact with others, and how we deal with setbacks and difficulties. God wants our identity and sense of value to be rooted and grounded in the knowledge of His affections for us (Eph. 3:17-18). This is where our hearts come alive!
well I am 36 hours in the latest fast and I not just been drinking water but other fluids as I do a lot of physical work. I thought of having dinner last night but I skipped it and I did not really feel like breakfast either. I not really that hungry.

My sore throat could be a few reasons. I encounted a lot of dust on the weekend and that may explain that. I took medicine this morning for it. Yet I wont take any more. I do not have a sore throat any more.

Thanks for correcting me in regards to luck. I never knew it before.
 
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dude, since you need to do physical work, doing fluid fast is a good idea--as long as your fluid does not include milk shake or melted ice-cream.:D


I am starting a broth fast today. I take in the clear fluid of bone/vegetable broth--no solids.




THE REWARDS OF FASTING BY MIKE BICKLE (excerpt from Chapter One)

Jesus described the Kingdom of God as a wedding, and the Father as the One arranging a glorious marriage for His Son (Matt. 22). This is the highest revelation of the Kingdom of God. It is the revelation of Jesus as our Bridegroom God and of us as His cherished Bride. It is through receiving the taking to heart this revelation that the gap is closed and the dilemma is solved in our experience of God’s love.

The Holy Spirit’s final emphasis before Jesus’ Second Coming will be on the intimate relationship between Him and His Bride (Rev.22:17) John described the Church as being in deep unity with the Holy Spirit at that time, saying and doing what the Spirit is saying and doing. She will have completely assumed her identity as the Bride and will be fully participating in the bridal longing for the Bridegroom to come, to return.

The final prophecy reveals not only what the Holy Spirit’s primary activities will be in the coming days, but also three key things that will happen in and through the Church. (1) The Church will be anointed with the Spirit. The Spirit will rest on the Church in great power and revelation. (2) The Church will be deeply engaged in intercession, crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus.” (3) The Church will be established in her bridal identity.

The bridal paradigm views the Kingdom through the eyes of a Bride whose love is loyal, wholehearted and devoted. It is the bridal perspective of the Kingdom of God.

As sons of God, heirs of His power, we are given a position that allows us to experience God’s throne (Rev. 3:21; Rom. 8:17).

As Christ’ Bride, we are in a position to experience God’s heart—His emotions, affections, and desire for us. We must understand that being His Bride points to a position of privileged nearness that enables us to encounter His heart.

Being a “man after God’s own heart” implies that King David was a student of the emotions of God’s heart.

What empowered John the Baptist was the revelation he had of Jesus as the Bridegroom God. John spoke of hearing the voice of the Bridegroom as that which caused his heart to be overwhelmed with joy. (John 3).

The way we view ourselves is greatly impacted when we understand Jesus as a passionate Bridegroom. We begin to see ourselves as ones who have immense value to Him.
 
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