Simplifying Isaiah 58

Just as Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel did
served God with fasts and prayers night and day inside the temple throughout
her life time, likewise should every serious and spiritually minded Christian
to serve God continually with fast, prayer and almsgiving to the end. These are
three binding lifestyles and principles the Lord enjoins every New Testament
believer to engage in as a customary way of operation or behaviour if they
truly understands the scriptures that they should pray without ceasing, to fast
oft, and always seek for opportunity to give alms to the poor.

You should understand the doctrine of the New Testament
fast as taught in the scriptures to make yourself available to be established
and strong in the true grace and to continue growing in it. The Lord reveals
the religious spirit and the zeal of the egotistical Pharisee righteousness to
serve God while praying in the temple – the Phar­isee stood and prayed thus
with him­self: ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extor­tion­ers,
unjust, adul­ter­ers, or even as this pub­li­can. I fast twice in the week and
give tithes of all I possessed. In contrast to the self pleasing and glorying
practices of the Pharisees righteousness the Lord expect us who has received
the gift of his righteousness and the power of godliness to do more than the
self promoting and justifying Pharisees when he declared: for I say unto you,
except your right­eous­ness shall exceed the right­eous­ness of the Scribes and
Phar­isees, you shall in case enter into the king­dom of heaven. Luke 2:36-37.
Luke 18:11-12. Matthew
5:20.                      

Fast is one of the doctrines of Christ, but sadly to say
that many churches and believ­ers have considered it as an emergency vehicle to
get to God in times of danger and not the normal way of living the spiritual
life as intends by Christ as is becoming a long for­got­ten or non-​existing
doctrine today. Many people ask­ for the rea­son they should fast when all
things are accom­plished on the cross and it’s time to eat and drink; and for
man to enjoy the fruits of his labour. But when Christ disciples were
reproached before him by the Pharisees that they loved food as gourmand, his
response was that they were taking advantage of his presence with them to
prepare for the time when they shall be engaged for the spiritual work and
warfare, when he shall be taken away to heaven: then shall the church which is
the bride­, (you, me and the rest of his brethren) shall fast. Mark 2;
18-20.                                                                                                                                      

The New Tes­ta­ment fast­ is an oblig­a­tion and neces­sity
instructed by the Lord for con­stant spir­i­tual exer­cise for refilling and
renewal to mount up always with wings like eagle. It should be a nor­mal way of
life and habit in our walk and rela­tion­ship with God; that though our out­ward
man may per­ish (my knees are weak through fast­ing; and my flesh fails of fat­ness
(Psalms109:24) yet the inward man (Christ within – the inner or the new man) is
renewed day by day. 2 Corinthi­ans 4:16. 

Bodily exercise profits little, but Godliness is profitable
unto all things, and believ­ers are expect to exer­cise them­selves in god­li­ness
by building and developing­ their spir­i­tual mus­cles through prayer, fast­ing
and giv­ing of alms – to excel in living out the imputed right­eous­ness of
Christ in our lives beyond the limit of the self righteous Phar­isees and
Scribes as pre­req­ui­site to enter into the king­dom of God. Matthew 6, verses
2, 5 and 16. 1Tim­o­thy 4: 8-9.  

To be able to do this, we must set the heart upon it in dis­ci­pline
through the help of the Holy Spirit to do better in prayer, fast and giving
more than the Pharisee’s who fasted twice in a week with­out the aid of the
Holy Spirit. Luke18:12.

When fast becomes your weakness and the stomach reign as
your god, how can you overcome your personal Goliath and the battle against the
Amalekites in your life? How can you have power and victory over the moral
weaknesses not to prevail and destroys you? But to serve God weekly
consistently in fast, you can have power and grace and help you overcome every
other weakness confronting you – spiritual or moral. 

Like the Old Tes­ta­ment patriarchs who were used to fast
in the fourth, the fifth, the seventh and the tenth months of the year
(Zachariah 8:19) some New covenant believ­ers will not fast unless it is toward
the Easter period of the year for forty days and unless there is a particular
problem: but know this that the New Testament fast is meant for self-​ chastens
to keep you spiritually and sober minded: and a sign and demonstration of self
consecration before the
Lord.                                                                                                                                         

The Jews of old com­plain­ed that God does not consider
rewarding their fast observations.

The Lord sent a message of rebuke through his prophet to
cor­rect their errors in man­ners and ways they acted and behaved during
fasting as opposed and contrary to his expectation and standard while men are
on fast. They were instructed to dimin­ish their appetites for food and to
increase their hunger and thirsti­ness for God – a day to afflict one’s soul
through fasting and think it should be enough is delusional – a day is not
enough in a week, says the Lord, and they should increase days in the week to
fast­ and be more seri­ous with life in the Spirit.

God is not unjust not to reward anyone who diligently seeks
after him, as it is impos­si­ble to seek the Lord in vain (I have not spo­ken
in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek
me in vain: I am Jeho­vah, speak­ing right­eous­ness, declar­ing things which
are right. Isa­iah 45:19) if we sin­cerely sep­a­rate to afflict our­selves
to seek him in fast and prayer than to expe­ri­enc­e great changes, pow­er­ful
testimonial results with pos­i­tive out­comes and bless­ings from the fast.

Jeho­vah expects to see cer­tain prac­tices and atti­tudes
from us if our fast should be effec­tive, accept­able and reward­ing before
him. If we claim to seek, serve and walk with God, it ought to be done accord­ing
to his ways and for his glory, val­ues and stan­dard – this is what it meant to
serve Jeho­vah accept­ably with rev­er­ence and godly fear. The bless­ings of
fast are count­less if we chose to live such life often­est. It is not only for
our ben­e­fit, but the peo­ple in our lives as well as the strangers liv­ing
among us shall be blessed through our fasts, because the secret to well­ness
and over­all spir­i­tual, phys­i­cal and men­tal fit­ness is in the true fast.
Detox­i­fi­ca­tion of body toxin, vibrant, and the fresh­ness and vital­ity
char­ac­ter­is­tics of a young per­son than his actual cal­en­dar age as the
Lord promised that ‘as your days, so shall your strength’ is part of the ben­e­fits
that can be derived from true fasts because just as he promised, the Lord will
renew your youth like the eagles. God shall bless your bread and water, so that
what­ever you eat and drink should be super­nat­urally nutri­tious enough to
supply proper nutri­ents for per­fect func­tion­ing of your inter­nal organs
with great phys­i­cal appear­ance to his glory.

In the wilder­ness, Israelis were only served manna which
tasted like bread and honey for forty years; were it not for their sins and dis­obe­di­ent,
they could had lived phys­i­cally, men­tally, morally and physically long and
ener­get­i­cally like Joshua and Caleb with the rest that made it to the land
of Canaan. Longevity is not guar­an­tee by expen­sive diet with the attendant
of spe­cial per­sonal doc­tor in addition to body guards and secu­rity pro­to­cols
and experts around you. God hold our souls in life — in his hand is the life of
every liv­ing crea­ture and the breadth of all mankind. Walk­ing obe­di­ently
with God accord­ing to his holy writs shall make us strong to live and enjoy long
life — none can keep alive his soul. ‘My son, give atten­tion to my words;
incline your ear to my say­ings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep
them in the midst of your heart. They are life to those who find them and
health to all their body. Psalms 22:29. Proverbs 4:20-22.

Under­stand­ing the con­sti­tu­tion of true fasts

Isa­iah 58 Verses 3 —
to find plea­sure and exact all labours dur­ing fast should be avoided. You
don’t fast with­out engag­ing your­self in a seri­ous spir­i­tual activ­ity.
Even if you are at office, you can still med­i­tate and focus on God because a
true fast should draw your focus more on God in a ten­der heart, to be kind and
gen­tle with your col­leagues and junior staff if you are the boss in the
office and your mediation of God is sweet.

Verses 4. Dur­ing fast, you are to avoid con­tentious
and argu­men­ta­tive spirit – smit­ing with the fist of wicked­ness. This could
hap­pen as a result of an attack from the enemy just to inter­rupt and spoil
your fast. You can be sure that Satan will try to dis­tract and pol­lute your
fast by send­ing or programming a vain fel­low to stir you up to unfruit­ful
debate or strife of words if you are not at alert to dis­cern­ and to avoid
such things. The enemy will try to cre­ate a chaotic sit­u­a­tion to draw you
along for a ner­vous breakdown – watch out. 

Help­ful scrip­tures against var­i­ous unac­cept­able behav­iours
dur­ing fasts. Psalms 12: 5. Zachariah 7:1-13. 2 Tim­o­thy 2: 23-25.

Verses 5. To fast just for once in the week is not
enough for a spirit filled believer to live a strong and healthy spir­i­tual
life. The uncir­cum­cised Phar­isee in the tem­ple con­fessed to fast twice in
a week in the power of his flesh for reli­gious pur­pose, how much more should
a Spirit born and filled child of God fast thrice in a week for a watch­ful and
bal­ance spir­i­tual life! ‘Except your right­eous­ness shall exceed the right­eous­ness
of the scribes and the Phar­isees, you shall in no wise enter the king­dom of
God’. As New Tes­ta­ment believer, your prac­ti­ce of right­eous­ness also
consists in your habitual fasts
life.                                                                                                                                    
    

Verses 5b……bow­ing the head like a bul­rush is to mak­e
impres­sion on oth­ers and this action should be avoided (false humility and spirituality
– changed mood, make a bass voice whatsoever and pull a face to contort it to
indicate a certain mental or emotional state) and spread­ing sack­cloth and
ashes under is a forbidden indi­rect pub­lic­ity of fasts­ atti­tude that ren­ders
it unac­cept­able before God. We should avoid the appear­ances of spir­i­tual
super­fi­cial attrac­tiveness and styl­ishly – showy spirit and
mannered. 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. But thou, when thou
fastest, anoint your head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to
fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which sees in
secret, shall reward thee openly. Why are Christians of today making an
unscriptural ceremonious display of fast in the period of lent to make noise
and publicity of it? Help­ful Scrip­tures. Joel 2:12-14.
Matthew 6: 16-18. Proverbs 27: 9a.

Verses 6, to lose bands of wicked­ness, undo heavy bur­dens,
release the oppressed and break heavy yoke. Seek for opportunity to min­is­ter
within your capac­ity to peo­ple around or along your way. Bless them with the
word of God and encour­age­ment. Min­is­ter­ing dur­ing fast has a great impact
and effects on the hear­ers, if you will make yourself available for it. Things
are much eas­ier in this dig­i­tal age to reach many peo­ple and to min­is­ter
to them on line dur­ing our fast period. Help­ful Scrip­tures: Job 29: 12-17.
Proverbs 31:8-9.

Verses 7 and 10a are identical.  

–Give the food you ought to eat when you are on fast­s to
the hun­gry and do not keep your day’s meal added to the din­ner. You may even
give money meant for lunch’s meal to the poor if it is possible with you. 
                                                                                                                          

 –Accom­mo­date and invite the home­less to your home
and enter­tain them or donate the money to associations with such
vision.      
                                                                                                           

 –Clothed the naked or give unused clothes instead of
throwing into dustbin to the charity organisations and they in turn shall give
to the needy.  

–Hide not from thy own flesh: do not make pro­vi­sion for
the flesh to increase on that which profits nothing. The devil will use peo­ple
to dis­cour­age you from fast­ by their neg­a­tive com­ments on your phys­i­cal
appear­ance or whatever. You may feel bodily trembling when you start to fast,
but ignore it and ask God for strength to carry on –take authority over the
body’s feeling and reaction to speak to it and to keep it calm by the power of
the Holy Spirit within you – man shall not live by bread alone. Help­ful Scrip­tures:
Matthew 25: 33 – 40. Proverbs 21:13. Proverbs14:21 and
verses 31. Psalms 109: 24.
Ezekiel 16:26. 1 Peter 4: 1-5. Romans 13:14.
John 6:63.

Verses 9. You must seek and set time aside to pray dur­ing
fast time, it is sweeter and energetic when com­bined with fast. Fast serves as
lubri­cant and flame to prayers to make the prayer of the right­eous man fer­vent,
pow­er­ful and effec­tive to be reck­oned
with.                                              

–Stop find­ing faults and point­ing fin­gers of accu­sa­tion
on peo­ple, but inter­cede for them. Stand in the gap for others for prisoners,
hospitalised people and those that are
suffering                                                                                                                    

Help­ful Scrip­tures; 2 Chron­i­cles 7:14.
Isa­iah 17:12-14. Psalms 56:5-6. Psalms 64: 6-8.
Luke 18:11. James 5:16.

The remaining part describes the effects, the spir­i­tual
power and the bless­ings of the right fast. Verses 8 – you shall have
light as day – light means spir­i­tual rev­e­la­tion, sharp spir­i­tual eyes of
fore­sight, unclouded dis­cern­ment of spir­its, and spir­i­tual
insight.                                                       

Help­ful Scrip­tures:
Daniel 2:16 – 23. 5:10 – 11. 10:12 –

-Your health shall spring forth speed­ily– renewed like the
eagles-​youthfulness and vibrant look. And Moses lived for hundred and twenty
years old when he died; his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.
Deuteronomy 34:7.  

–Your right­eous­ness shall speak for
you.                                                                 
                             

–The glory of God shall be your reward– you will be glo­ri­fied
in Christ and the Lord will be glo­ri­fied in you. Divine back up is secured.
God has your back in every sit­u­a­tion and in all your
ways.                       

Help­ful Scrip­tures: Psalms 103:5. Proverbs14:30.
Daniel 5:10-11. Isaiah 57:12. Matthew 17: 14 – 21.

Verses 9. Access to constant spiritual update 
concerning your life and the will of God – then shall you call, and the Lord
shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, here I am– power and favour with
God in prayer – close­ness and inti­macy in rela­tion­ship with God. You are
not clueless without information necessary for the time and season you are in
your life and whatsoever useful information from any brethren; it is just to
confirm what you’ve already known for encouragement and solidify you in the
faith.

Verses 11 – God will guide you continually with
sharp vision to know unseen opportunities and to avoid or escape the enemy’s
trap or pit. 

–God Sat­isfying your soul in drought and make fat your
bones.                                                             

–You will be like a watered gar­den, like a spring of
waters, whose water fails not– con­stant spir­i­tual freshness and fruitfulness
in the Lord, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in your hand. 

Peo­ple around you or in your life shall build the old
places

— There shall be recov­ery and restora­tion of every lost
and stolen blessing from the enemy.  

– You will create the foun­da­tion of many gen­er­a­tions
to come – bless­ings and inher­i­tance for your chil­dren and grand
children.                                                                                                                                

Help­ful Scrip­tures: Psalms32:8 –9. Hosea 6:
1-3. John 7:37 – 38. Isa­iah 27:2-6. Joel 2: 23-27.
Proverbs 29:18.

Finally, as we all know that there should not be any sex­ual
inti­macy or plea­sure between the hus­band and his wife dur­ing the days of
fast by mutual agree­ment, encour­age­ment, co-​operation and under­stand­ing
to optimise the power and effects of true fasts. 1 Corinthi­ans 7:5. 

Believer should work out in a way that glorifies God in
moderation and not in erotic attraction or flirtation. Med­ically, a paunchy
(abdom­i­nal obe­sity) belly is dan­ger­ous for your over­all health. It is the
cause of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, Alzheimer dis­ease,
type two diabetic and hyper­ten­sion with var­i­ous forms of can­cer,
stroke, and asthma asso­ci­ated with other degen­er­a­tive dis­eases.  

Con­sider the vast num­ber of car­nal believ­ers today with
‘beer belly’ though they don’t con­sume alco­hol like the worldly peo­ple. Many
peo­ple in the world are rig­or­ously work­ing out to reduce their belly’s
fats: and they delight greatly with pride when some pounds are lost or shed.
Lit­tle won­der the works of the flesh are on daily increases and the fruit of
the Spirit is fast dis­ap­pear­ing in the church among the brethren because
they are build­ing on that which does not profit – flesh.

The New Tes­ta­ment believer’s fast­ is an oblig­a­tion and
a nor­mal spir­i­tual way of life and liv­ing with but through temperance and
self control from the Holy Spirit. It is a spir­i­tual weapon to over­come the
works of flesh – the sins which dwells in us: for he that hath suf­fered in the
flesh hath ceased from sin (suf­fer­ing the flesh here means to put it in fast­ing
through which you can have power to dominate it: fast with prayer for power to
sub­ject or sub­due the flesh) that he should no longer live the rest of his
time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of
God. 1 Peter 4: 1-5.

Christ forty days fast was per­sonal, led by the Holy Ghost
into the wilder­ness to fast to prepa­re for his min­istry. Are the Spirit
filled Chris­tians really have to be like the hyp­ocrites Mus­lims in their
yearly pub­li­cised Ramadan fast to observe yearly Lent?  The unique ordi­nance
the Lord gave command to observe and to make known or make unannounced
publicity of it before the world is the cel­e­bra­tion of his body and blood
(the Lord’s Sup­per or Eucharist) which was offered as burnt sac­ri­ficial
offering for our sins. Fasts should not be noised abroad as Chris­tians are mak­ing
noises of fast every Easter period: but should be in secret, that men should
not even know the days you are on fast­s so that your heav­enly Father who sees
you in secret may reward you openly. 1 Corinthians 11:24. 

The New Tes­ta­ment fast is not a yearly event but a nor­mal
and con­stant way of life like the Phar­isees habit­u­ally fasted twice every
week. Dis­ci­ples of John fast very often, why should you as Christ dis­ci­ples
be wait­ing for Lent period before you fast and after that what’s next? Let us
eat and drink for tomorrow we die? And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen,
and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for
tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts,
surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, says the Lord
God of hosts. Isaiah 22:13-14. 

Born again believer’s fast is not a yearly prac­tice
limited to the obser­va­tion of publicised hypocrites yearly Lent. The Lord
says when you fast, when you pray and when you give alms. Christ fast lifestyle
ended not after his forty days wilder­ness fast as you can understand that he
was on fast when he was evan­ge­lis­ing the Samar­i­tan woman as the dis­ci­ples
obliged him to eat, but he objected. Then they asked them­selves, has any­one
brought him food to eat? And he answered, my meat and drink is to do the work
of him that sent me and to fin­ish his work. Sin­cere bib­li­cal fast is
designed to create power to break every yoke of sin, flesh and sickness, just
as Jesus told the dis­ci­ples that there are some demons and prob­lems which
shall not go unless and until a mean­ing­ful seri­ous fast­ and prayer is done.
Matthew 17: 14-21.

At the begin­ning in the Garden to occasion the fall, the
devil appealed to the appetites and food as instruments to steal the heart of
man and to remove and destroy his rela­tion­ship with God. If we really want to
walk with God, we must learn the way to have power over appetites and to be
able to con­trol it thrice weekly for nec­es­sary use – the king­dom of God is
not in meats and drinks, but right­eous­ness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Romans 14:17. 

Through the con­stant and con­sis­tent fast­ life, we have
more of the Spirit and less of the flesh – how often do you
fast? 2 Corinthi­ans 11:27. Spir­i­tual lazy Chris­t­ian work­ers,
min­is­ters and believ­ers who are not ready to pay the price to fast, but are
at the same time hun­gry for power manifestation in their lives and ministries
shall undoubtedly fake the appearances of the glory of God to set­tle for the
alter­nate power sim­i­lar to Simon the sor­cery anoint­ing of div­ina­tion or
the mag­i­cal anoint­ing from demonic spir­its and
sources.                                                                                                                                          

Are you long­ing and cry­ing in your heart to be freed from
sin­ful habits — the works and the lusts of the flesh, but are yet to sanc­tify
or set days apart every week to real­ize this? Start now, and you’ll be sur­prised
that the bat­tle is half won as you set out for a con­sis­tent fast­ing life to
break the yokes of besetting sins in your life. 

I’ve heard and seen peo­ple going into days and weeks of
fasts­ for finan­cial break­throughs, mar­i­tal sta­bil­ity and fruit­ful­ness,
pro­mo­tion at job, pro­tec­tion and vic­tory over their ene­mies, but only few
had ever been heard or seen to declare serious fast­ against lusts, envy, steal­ing,
lying, anger, in-​temperance, cov­etous­ness, strife, pride, evil speak­ing,
talkative spirit like popinjay, jeal­ousy, back­bit­ing, for­ni­ca­tion, adul­tery
and other damnable works of the flesh. Men go into fasts to­ ask­ and beg God
for for­give­ness after com­mit­ting sin, why couldn’t they go into seri­ous
fast­ and prayer for bro­ken­ness and power to over­come and sub­due the sins
and lusts of the flesh which war against the soul? 

The New Tes­ta­ment fast is a pre-emptive fast. It is meant
to keep you in stand-by and capable to avert any unfore­seen evil and dan­gers
ahead of you, and to get you ready for any possible head on confrontation
against the adversary for vic­tory over immi­nent evil or temp­ta­tion. Such
fast could have solved sev­eral un-​foreseen prob­lems in the life of King
David and won sev­eral un-​foreseen wars and per­sonal bat­tles of his life.
Had King David suf­fered the flesh in fast­s, he should not have brought divine
curse of con­tin­u­ous suf­fer­ing of war into his home and gen­er­a­tion by
his adulterous heinous sin to receive the curse of God over the house of Judah.
‘Sword shall never depart from thy house, says the Lord, because thou hast
despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hit­tite to be thy
wife’. 2 Samuel 12:10. 

Had he suf­fered the flesh and fasted against the lust of
his eyes and of his flesh, he should not needed to fast again for the spar­ing
of the life of the inno­cent child slain by God for the pun­ish­ment of his
adul­ter­ous act with Bathsheba, the wife of
Uriah. 2 Samuel 12:16. 

If king, beloved of his God, the man after Jehovah’s own
heart had suf­fered his flesh in fasts ahead of time, his cap­tiv­ity occa­sioned
by Absa­lom revolt could have been averted and the king­dom divided into twelve
to lose ten to another would not have occurred.  

If David had fasted at the appro­pri­ate time, Absa­lom
(his own son) should not have com­mit­ted sex­ual incest against his father’s
con­cu­bines directed through divine vengeance and he shouldn’t not had died
pre­ma­turely in bat­tle against his father loy­al­ist: and the fate of She­mei’s
life, the man from the tribe of Saul which cursed David with a griev­ous curse
when he ran away from Absa­lom should not have been given into Solomon’s hand
to decide for vengeance for his insult on king David. These are the advan­tages
and the neces­si­ties of pre-​emptive fast­s, to put you in a better and safer
posi­tion against any spir­i­tual or phys­i­cal attacks and even­tu­al­ity, and
to solid­i­fy your stand­ against any unfore­seen evil, dan­ger or the sud­den
floods of the
ungodly.                                                                                                                             

This same mistake was found in the life of Moses, the great
man of God. He could fast for forty days on two occa­sions for the work of God
– the tables of law for the first time written by God’s finger and for the
second he angrily broke. But it never dawn on him for fast to receive help to
have the yoke of his anger removed and bro­ken by God for proper con­duct
against moral failure…..thus they angered (pro­voked) Moses in the waters of
strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sake. Moses was pro­voked and
was emo­tion­ally moved to insult the peo­ple and furi­ously smote the rock
that rep­re­sented the pres­ence of the Lord that fol­lowed them in the
wilderness! That great man of God could not make it to the Promised Land
because of his moral fail­ure despite all that he has done and endured for the
peo­ple of Israel. 

Let us first put aside the idea of min­istry and min­is­ter­ing
to other peo­ple for now and to focus most impor­tantly on the trans­formation
of our com­port­ment through spiritual brokenness. May the Lord open our eyes
to our great­est need, and help us to dis­cover our moral weak­nesses just on
time and to do some­thing about them before they found us out (your sin will
find you out to become a reproach to the name and per­son of the risen Lord
(Proverbs 14:34) to our destruc­tion: for such is the occa­sion the enemy
has of a long time been waiting to blas­pheme (Nehemiah 5:9) that wor­thy
and holy name that we share with God in Christ Jesus. 

We are saved and called to live in a con­tin­ual vic­to­ri­ous
spir­i­tual life in this vile and cor­rupt­ible phys­i­cal body because our
spir­i­tual life shall be the focus of divine judge­ment. We should never bow
to admit the lies of the devil that we are humans and not spir­i­tual to giv­e
room to the enemy to thrive in us by our igno­rance or the un-​willingness to
change in the process of per­fect­ing holi­ness in the fear of God. For
this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might
be judged accord­ing to men in the flesh, but live accord­ing to God in the
spirit. There­fore, let us mind the things of the Spirit of God and to walk and
live in the Spirit by cul­ti­vat­ing his fruit and grow­ing stronger in the
Spirit every day by
day. 1 Peter 4:6.                                    

It is not an over­state­ment that if we have power and
domin­ion over our flesh, the bat­tle over sin, Satan and the world is half
won. The forty days fast­ of our Lord Jesus in the wilder­ness before his pub­lic
min­istry can be divided into three parts. (a). It was a fast meant to­ receive
power for self-​con­trol over the flesh and its lusts. Our Lord fasted against
the flesh and he passed the test of self –con­trol and appetite sub­jec­tion
(as he refused to turn stone into bread) not only over food, and over other
desires that may arise from within him against the per­fect will of God –
​tempted in all points, (money, sex­ual immoral­ity, pride issue, etcetera) yet
with­out sin. When he was not received by the Samar­i­tans, two of his dis­ci­ples
were offended and very furi­ous have released fire from heaven to destroy the
peo­ple and the city, but he gen­tly restrained them not to. It was a big vic­tory
against pride, impatient toward sinners and self-display of power. Christ was
insulted but he opened not his mouth to com­mit­ him­self to him that judges
right­eously. It was a big vic­tory over self jus­ti­fi­ca­tion and
commendation. (b). The Lord fasted for power and had patience against the
desire, aspi­ra­tion and display for pre­ma­ture spir­i­tual glory and power.
Patience plays a major role in our rela­tion­ship with God but the lack of its
full power and devel­op­ment in us can destroy our faith life and walk: let us
there­fore fasts and beg for power to run the race set before us with patience,
look­ing unto Jesus, the author and fin­isher of our faith. Our Lord also
passed the test of wait­ing against spir­i­tual impa­tient for pre­ma­ture spir­i­tual
power, glory, fame, hon­our and break­throughs. He needed not to jump down to
tempt the unfail­ing man­i­fes­ta­tion of the pres­ence of God for the entire
nation to see him as super­man Jesus. He does not need to prove the unfail­ing
pres­ence of the min­is­ter­ing spir­its (angels) that always encamp round
about us to pro­tect and deliver us from any trou­ble by illogical behaviour or
action, for the angels of God shall man­i­fest their pres­ence at the appro­pri­ate
time to shut the mouth of the lions in any dens the enemy might throw us to
destroy us when the occa­sion demands. 

This was the fast­ for min­istry prepa­ra­tion for power
and pro­tec­tion, glory and hon­our, effec­tive­ness and fruit­ful­ness as
there is no need to rush for any pre­ma­ture power and man­i­fes­ta­tions of
God’s pres­ence, we all know that the heavenly Father is ever pres­ence and
will unfailingly show forth His power to heal, save and deliver wher­ever and
when­ever he sees nec­es­sary as long as we are walk­ing with him in Spirit and
in truth. 

Many chil­dren and ser­vants of God are fail­ing woe­fully
in the first two tests and can­not wait enough for God to man­i­fest Him­self
to confirm them and the ministry they received of him. They dine with Satan for
strange power to exhibit for break­throughs in pre­tence for divine man­i­fes­ta­tion
in their voca­tion – cursed chil­dren, doomed for perdi­tion by going after the
error of Bal­aam for reward, and the dumb ass spoke with a man’s voice to
forbid the mad­ness of the prophet. (c). Our Lord fasted for the power of God’s
love above earthly mate­r­ial pur­suit and pos­ses­sion and he passed the test
against mon­e­tary lust and self- mate­r­ial accumulation. He learned obe­di­ence
by the things he suf­fered (Hebrews 5:8) dur­ing those forty days of fast
and refused to bow down to Satan in exchange for ungodly pos­ses­sions and
wealth through­out his short period of life. The fast enabled him to die to the
world and the world dead to him. Today, many men, women, sons and daugh­ters of
Zion are fail­ing and falling through the cares of this life and deceit­ful­ness
of riches and the cares of other things over­com­ing them in exchanged for
their souls (falling down directly or indi­rectly to Satan) in an unscrip­tural
and ungodly means. Jesus did not even know the bal­ance account of his min­istry
finance from his trea­surer (Judas) and this gave Judas the oppor­tu­nity to
divert the min­istry’s money for per­sonal use by steal­ing God’s money. But
today, the enemy has suc­ceeded to close or scat­ter many churches to estab­lish
unend­ing enmity between believ­ers because of finan­cial greed and embez­zle­ments
of church’s money.

How many are self-​called men and so called women of God
are around today for finan­cial gain, con­sid­er­ing run­ning the church as a
lucra­tive busi­ness organ­i­sa­tion? These are per­verse dis­put­ing men and
women of cor­rupt minds, des­ti­tute of the truth, sup­pos­ing that gain is god­li­ness:
from such with­draw thy­self. John 12:6. 1Tim­o­thy 6: 5.                                    

In the churches, we rec­om­mended that the brethren to
choose con­ve­nient three days in the week to fast and pray for their per­sonal
growth in their life and walk in the Spirit with God. They may not forcibly
fast from morn­ing till 6pm, con­sid­er­ing pro­fes­sional work­ing con­di­tions
or any haz­ardous fac­tor such as feeble health. This con­clu­sion is founded
in the teach­ing of the Lord in Matthew chap­ter 5 verses 20
that except your right­eous­ness shall exceed the right­eous­ness of the
scribes and of the Phar­isees; you shall in no wise enter the king­dom of
heaven: and from the gospel of Luke chap­ter 18: verses 11- 12,
the Phar­isee stood and prayed thus with him­self, God, I thank thee, that I am
not as other men are, extor­tion­ist, unjust, adul­ter­ers, or even as this pub­li­can. I
fast twice in the week and we need to do more than the hyp­o­crit­i­cal
Phar­isees through the quick­en­ing power of the indwelling
Holy-​Spirit.                     

Dry fast of any long period of days (1-7 days) should be an
initiative of the Spirit of God, and nothing should be forced or done in order
to impress anyone; by the way, it is between you and your Father which sees in
secret to reward you openly. In any fast, put your health into consideration,
if you are not in medication and there is no serious health issue in your life.

The brethren can break fasts by 12pm or 3pm or by
6pm as the Spirit of God empow­ers them and we are see­ing the effec­tive­ness
of this bib­li­cal prac­tice as tes­ti­monies are pour­ing in day in and day
out. The pas­tor time is spared for coun­selling, heal­ing or deliv­er­ance min­is­tra­tion
because the Lord is guid­ing his people con­tin­u­ally as their power and faith
is increas­ing in the Lord, while prob­lems and yokes are super­nat­u­rally
fading away: and their health is spring­ing up like the noon­day – mount­ing up
with wings as the eagles.