Day 43

5:10 - What we are about to do is what makes healing possible.

5:30 - Healing stories continued - only 2 people not healed after first prayer. No change in one fellow.

6:25 - Receiving Communion - Blood - the act of sin. Body - to take away the effects of sin. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.

➡ 12:45 - Fasting - We are going to talk a little bit more about it.

13:15 - Regarding question from yesterday - Col. 2:21+ - Does Paul contradict the need to fast in this verse about self-denial? -

14:25 - In that day everything they did was so legalistic, so traditional. It was to find approval with God.

15:15 - Tax collector - has sin consciousness. Beating chest and won't look up - God have mercy on me, a wretched, miserable man. There is a place for that but only for a moment at salvation. It was a works thing for the Pharisee.

15:55 - So Paul isn't saying it's wrong to fast. He's saying don't fast for the reasons that men usually fast.

16:05 - Col. 2 - v.23 - Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. - Such things have an appearance of wisdom. False humility. No value against the indulgence of the flesh.

16:40 - When you are in a religious way. "Man I am glad that I am not like that man - I fast twice a week. - He doesn't. I'm more spiritual." Wrong. Paul is saying that when you do something for that reason it has no value against the indulgence of the flesh. But the whole purpose of true Bible fasting is to crush and to bring into order the indulgence of the flesh.

17:45 - Grace of fasting - perspective that will keep you from all that.

17:50 - You're not just trying to not eat for a week. That accomplishes little. I've seen people fast and then eat more than they ate before. And yet feel like they are doing good because they are fasting. But when they are not fasting they are eating more. They are actually feeding their appetite because of their wrong perspective of fasting.

19:00 - Todd fasting every other day and gaining weight. Routine?.

➡ 26:15 - In Col. 2 - He's talking about fasting being a work - just duty. Paul wouldn't be telling the Colossians that fasting is wrong and then in 2 Cor. 11 say that I am in fasting often - 2 Cor. 11:27. Paul is not discouraging fasting. He's discouraging that motive in fasting.

➡ 27:00 - It feels like we need to drill that a little bit more so let's go to Is. 58.

27:25 - Religion - creates a dilemma. It walks in a form of godliness but denies the power of godliness. 2 Tim. 3:5 - Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. - Often we think as if he is writing about denying the power of God but he is actually talking about godliness - a holy life - through their inner heart - their motives. They appear to be right with God. But it's not what goes into the mouth but what comes out that defiles a man.

28:15 - v.1 - Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. - Don't hold back. Don't soft pedal this. This is serious. People need to hear this. You are speaking on my behalf.

29:40 - v.2 - Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. -

36:15 - v.2 - Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. - It seems like you have a heart for me but your life doesn't speak it. Here is where the motive comes...

36:55 - v.3 - Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. - They are fasting just for a breakthrough - just to find favor - for God to bless them - to approve their own conscience that is already violated. Rather than repent they are doing a religious act to qualify them - instead of really changing them. So when they are doing that and not getting results, they are frustrated. Their whole goal is self - self-centered. It's all about them.

40:00 - Emotions around healing. Fasting helps put all of that in right perspective.

40:30 - Human affections.

40:45 - v.4 - Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. -

41:10 - v.5 - Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? -

54:10 - Indulgence - Americans spoiled. All you can eat. Pampered. We've learned to live to eat. We don't have a strong discipline.

1:06:00 - Crankiness - How do you handle being irritable because of fasting? - That is something for prayer. And that arises because of the way that you are seeing the fast.

1:07:10 - Participant comment - You might not even want to fast because of it.

1:07:20 - That's the thing that God wants to kill in the fast - the right to be in that place - reserving that right to nurture the flesh. Crankiness when things don't go our way.

1:08:00 - David Hogan - discipline. They fast all the time. The whole work fasts as one - as a church. It took them into a whole other level of understanding and authority.

1:10:30 - Unity in fasting.

1:10:45 - Crankiness. Jesus wasn't cranky.

1:11:20 - Do you stop running when you fast? - I exercise a lot when I fast - walking - I don't actually jog. Maybe the first or second day but not probably after that. But stay active. The reality is you can still function.

1:12:30 - Living by the flesh - We are so used to living by the flesh. Nurturing the flesh. We are a very spoiled, pampered people. Grow up in the things of God.

1:18:05 - v.5 - Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? - God is not interested in you mourning the death of your flesh.

1:18:40 - v.6 - Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? - Read this through NT light. See the effects and benefits of a fast - more authority, more grace, more wisdom to move in this next list. He is bringing love into this. A true fast is when you deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. That's a true fast. When you live the Christian life, it's a fast to the things of the flesh. The Christian life is designed to be a total fast because you deny yourself. Fasting food helps you in that process of really coming to the place where you are denied in yourself - where you have no carnal cry. You're not eating and not cranky.

1:36:20 - v.6 - Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? - Everything that you see in this list will be accomplished in your own life when you fast and pray. Mentalities - the right to think that way - get rooted out. Mentalities - selfishness - comparing to others - the need for fairness.

1:39:00 - Objections to healing. "Well if she prayed and she is a woman of God..." These ways of thinking are found in us... These subtleties and tendencies are exposed by fasting and removed through prayer. I submit my soul in prayer, my body in fasting and come into alignment with the things of the spirit.

1:41:30 - Unfairness.

1:42:00 - Disciplining Todd's bladder

1:43:00 - Break every yoke - Right there is the will of God. God wants to break every yoke. Who is He breaking them through? You. So if one is not broken, why do we reflect that back on God?

1:43:25 - v.7 - Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? - This is all love. This is all laying down your life. This is what makes you spiritual. Not abstaining from food, etc. It's loving the world around you.

1:44:00 - Don't hide yourself from people - becoming introverted - becoming an island - pursuing God apart from others. That's a terrible place. A lot of times it is because they are so hurt by people - hiding themselves.

1:45:20 - When you start to lay down your life and do these things then...

1:45:25 - v.8 - Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. - All of the sudden the heart of God, expressed and revealed becomes your reality and it can't go unnoticed.

➡ 1:46:05 - When we come back we are going to look at a couple of NT scriptures and wrap this topic up.

1:46:15 - BREAK

1:46:25 - Jesus was asked "Why aren't your disciples fasting?" It was a big deal because of the legalism in that day. Recorded in 3 of 4 gospels. It seems pretty important to God. Mt. 9, Mark 2, Luke 18:12.

1:48:20 - Mt. 9 - v.14 - Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? - Often.

1:48:30 - v.15 - And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. - Now this is powerful... He goes right into this teaching...

1:48:45 - v.16 - No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. -

1:50:00 - Jesus is with them everyday. And everyday He is pouring into them. But there will be a day when He is taken away and they are going to fast.

1:50:30 - Possible jealousies among the disciples.

2:04:35 - v.16 - No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. -

2:04:40 - v.17 - Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. - So Jesus is coming to introduce the new. He is revealing the dispensation of grace that is just about to come through His cross. And He is transforming the mindsets of men.

2:05:00 - You can't take the mindset of the law and the works to find favor with God and connect it to this grace that we live by. We're saved by grace through faith.

2:06:25 - If it's by works, there's a debt to be paid. If it's by grace then there is no debt.

2:06:50 - They will fast one day but it's not to find favor with God. They already have favor with God. He's changing the "why" behind our lives.

2:09:50 - v.3-4 - But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. - That's a super pure place.

2:10:30 - Fasting - v.16 - Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. - When you fast, not if you fast. It's your privilege to fast. And in the level of faith you will begin to receive grace. Even if it's something small. Step out and catch the joy of communing.

2:11:30 - Don't set a goal that you can fail. Just start to fast.

2:11:40 - Fasting in Feb. - I didn't have a goal. Don't come under the law in your mindset. Mindset of grace.

2:13:00 - v.17 - But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; - It's not to draw attention or admiration.

2:13:40 - Mrs. Hogan fasts. Fasts 21 days every month he is gone. Dying in the jungle - got lost - 4 wheel vehicle came along - laying on ground dying - wife interceding. Help came right when they were dying. Not about fear and anexiety.

2:18:10 - v.18 - That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. - Why would we walk around looking sad when in fasting we are crushing that very mindset? That defeats the whole purpose of the fast. The whole purpose of fasting is to crush the cry of the flesh and to subdue those desires. Get Spirit conscious, Spirit minded and walk through your life by the Spirit.

2:18:50 - Gal. 5 - v.16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. -

2:19:20 - Reading Romans 7 out of context - we're always going to live by the flesh.

2:20:55 - Voice of the flesh - and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. - Which means that the flesh has a suggestion - a voice - an enticement. And those things come back and try to test you.

2:21:10 - Rightness mentality. Unfairness. Just become love.

2:22:20 - Sentimental human love - expressions of love.

2:22:45 - v.17 - For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. - There was only an awareness of the difference between the flesh and the spirit when man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man's spirit, soul and flesh were in agreement up to that point - before sin. I thank God that the redemption of Jesus has not left me bound to the dictates of the flesh. Father, I thank you that I am a man of the Spirit - a spirit man and I have a soul and my flesh follows along and says, "Yes, sir!" (more)

2:29:30 - v.18 - But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. - That means that if God's love touches you and begins to motivate you... You can't fail if you step out in fasting because you are not under the law. Even if you stumble you jump up and run to Daddy.

2:30:00 - Do we sin because we are not under the law? Of course not. But it's not about failing. It's about growing up into Him.

2:30:30 - [Stopping short scenario in fasting - receiving grace - not condemnation]

2:31:20 - The works of the flesh - v.19-21 - Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. -

2:32:00 - God is answering our prayer - our spouses neglected - needed a season of healing. I strongly corrected. They are hurt - with failed expectations. Is this love or needs driven. Selfishness is a horrible thing.

2:33:50 - Everything else on this list is because of selfishness.

2:33:55 - Adultery continued...

2:34:40 - The church enables this with - prayer to go to heaven mentality instead of transformation mentality.

2:34:50 - Fasting - defensiveness of others when they find out you are fasting.

2:37:00 - You are not fasting because you are such a mess. You are fasting because you want to know Him more. Because of the privilege of getting my mind renewed.

2:37:15 - v.22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. - Love is the fulfillment of the law.

2:37:40 - v.24 - And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. - It doesn't just relate to sexual sin. It means "rightness", jealousy, selfishness, pride, "you shouldn't have", "he said, she said".

2:38:10 - The process of prayer and fasting is a tool that helps you to crucify the flesh and make sure he is dead and stays dead. Bury him deep enough and cover him with enough dirt that you don't practice the resurrection of the dead.

2:38:30 - v.25-26 - If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. -

2:38:50 - Conceit - works at root. Comparing to one another.