Day Nine = It’s Just the Beginning

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal. 3:1-3)

Through fasting God is calling His people to a wholly dependence upon Him. Our own religious rhetoric and antics are not sufficient for His spiritual blessings. Andrew Murray in his book, Absolute Surrender, wrote that “God has called the Church of Christ to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church is living for the most part in the power of human flesh, and of will and energy and effort apart from the Spirit of God.” (Murray)

Fasting in the times of Christ were very religious acts done ceremoniously out of tradition. Spiritual leaders would fast publicly making their spiritual authority known, but Jesus seeing all this taught His disciples this way: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face…… And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

Spiritual authority of Christ’s disciples comes not from religious programs but from the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Fasting for spiritual power is not so that we can put on appearance, but so that we can receive the empowering reward of the Spirit in and through our lives.

When Jesus was questioned further about fasting; He illustrated that one should not put new wine, which is the Holy Spirit, into old wine skins, which is our bodies. The new wine must be put into new wine skins so that the wine and its skin are both preserved and made useful (see Matt. 9:17). Physically and spiritually renewed through anointed fasting, the fresh power of the Holy Ghost can abide within. Fasting by the Spirit for the Spirit is just the beginning for His church.

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• Power in Fasting – Strength Conditioning (pastorstrom.com)