Day 16 ~ 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting

Fasting Brings Focus to the Real Issues.

Today's Daily Reading: Mark chapter 7

You're on the home stretch! Its our third and final week in our 21 days of prayer and fasting. Whether you began with us two weeks ago or whether you're finishing with us in our final days, the focus of fasting is all about impacting our heart (soul) and strengthening our spirit. Let's finish strong and get the most out of these final 6 days. God has something significant for you!

Fasting, in its definition, is about adjusting diets, minimizing food intake, and removing certain foods altogether. With that said, simply focusing on food does not necessitate a "spiritual" fast. Food isn't the real issue. Food isn't the heart of the problem. If it was just about food being bad, we wouldn't call it "21 Days of Prayer & Fasting" but "21 Days of Dieting".

The focus in a spiritual fast is to get to the "heart" of the issue. Food feeds our flesh, and our flesh hates our soul (mind, will & emotions) and our spirit. Our flesh, when left uncontrolled will destroy us. Fasting food for the purpose of spiritual growth weakens our flesh. This enables us to uproot the real culprits in our soul (thoughts, choices and emotions), which in turn empowers our spirit man to be in control; which in turn controls our flesh. Did you get all that? I had to read it again after I wrote it. ;-)

Jesus said in Mark 7:15, 21-23 NLT, "It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart (soul). ” For from within, out of a person’s heart (soul = mind, will, and emotions), come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

Jesus refers to the heart of our problems stemming from our soul. So here's what I want to challenge us to do today as we're fasting. Ask God to reveal certain ways of thinking that don't line up with His way of life. Ask for spiritual strength to break patterns of the will or choices that have been made that are damaging. Pray for supernatural help to overcome destructive emotions like depression, fear and anxiety. Get to the heart of the issues in your life and experience spiritual strength.