The Fundamentals of Fasting VII

 I’d rather have you as my enemy and tell you the truth than have you as my friend while feeding you lies. It’s not that I don’t like having friends or that I revel in having enemies. I fear God above all, and it’s because I fear Him that men’s friendship or animus are irrelevant to me. No, I’m not one of these above-it-all individuals who are unaffected; I’ve just developed thick skin over the years because, funny enough, those who are the first to call you names are always the last to apologize, and that’s even if they do, which most don’t, because that would mean they were wrong and that’s not within their ability to allow for. They have to pretend to be right even when they know they’re wrong, and that’s just part of the game they choose to play.

What God says, how He sees a particular situation, and what He says about certain practices must be preeminent and top of mind whenever we offer counsel, advice, or an opinion. What we say must be in harmony with what He says; otherwise, we are not being the good and faithful servants He expects us to be. Imagine being sent as an emissary of the king, only to get to your destination and offer your opinion rather than what the king said, and likely contrary to what the king said. Could you still call yourself a servant of the king? Would there be no repercussions for having taken it upon yourself to deliver a message other than what the king commanded?

One of the things I hear most often when discussing the present power and presence of the Holy Spirit and how, through fasting and prayer, we prepare ourselves and create the environment for its manifestation is that any claim of supernatural experiences or revelation is purely anecdotal. That’s just a fancy way of saying something is based on personal experience while insinuating that the subjective experience itself is unreliable because there are no independent facts to buoy the claims.

Those who insist that God decided to be an Indian giver and rescind the offer of the Comforter whom He promised would be with us and in us until the end of time fail to prove that there is Biblical support for these claims or that the facts are on their side. While I have anecdotal evidence and Jesus' promise that the Holy Spirit would be a present help until His return, you have the words of an individual who is parroted by other individuals and take that as gospel truth.

Again, what if the reason for the scarcity of the Holy Spirit's presence and power has less to do with their availability and more to do with the lack of discipline and spiritual maturity on the part of those claiming to be His followers?

What if the spring is there, but you failed to bring a cup? What if the fire is there, but you failed to bring a firepot, or the vessel you hoped to carry the fire in was not adequately prepared for the task?

It’s easy to say God can’t do something, but when you make such a declaration, you have to contend with the reality that you are limiting God, calling all those who claim to have had those experiences outright liars and contradicting the words of Jesus which you have to twist into a pretzel to make say something different than what it says. That’s a tall order for anyone, and it’s something each of us will have to answer for when we stand before the almighty one day.

Fasting was not an occasional practice of the primary church; it was a constant. They practiced it so routinely that you see them spending time fasting and in prayer over and over again because it was the only way they knew of to grow spiritually and mature as a servant of Christ.

There were no workshops on how to experience the Shekinah, no prophetic mantles on offer for the low, low price of five thousand buckaroos, just a group of men and women who hungered for God and realized that prayer and fasting were par for the course in preparing oneself to receive all that He had to give.

That’s not to say the skepticism isn’t warranted. We’ve all seen the clowns on parade insisting that the power of the Holy Spirit resides in fleshly outbursts and uncontrollable delirium. There are a handful of silly people who have made a mint off the gullible, and they’ll go to great lengths to protect their cottage industries. Coincidentally, they’re the same people who never mention prayer and fasting because to immerse yourself in these things is to be fallow for the true infilling of the Holy Spirit, which will produce the true power they fear.

The last thing lukewarm leaders want is true and unflinching soldiers in their midst. It will either reveal their compromised state or compel them to come out of their comfort zone and pursue God more fervently. Most want neither, so they insist on keeping the tepid, tepid, and the lukewarm, lukewarm. Between the children of darkness who are terrified of the true power of God and the compromised leaders in the church who would rather not see it manifest, it’s up to the individual believer to pursue the promises of God in the manner in which He prescribed. Fasting, prayer, and supplication are those ways. There’s no barrier to entry when it comes to drawing closer to God. You don’t need a seminary degree or to attend a workshop on hermeneutics to declare a fast, get alone with God, learn to hear His voice, and do as He instructs.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.