The Fundamentals of Fasting XXI

 If you have sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, or friends with young children, you’ve likely played the would-you-rather game at some point. Even adults get in on the fun once in a while, but with them, it’s usually some unspoken desire or dream of what they think their life should be. While children ask you if you’d rather have the ability to fly or the ability to become invisible, adults usually ask questions along the lines of whether you’d like to be married to an oil billionaire or a tech billionaire.

Your answer should be neither. Be happy with Fred. He treats you right, works hard, and provides for his kids. Yes, I know Fred doesn’t have a private jet, but we can’t always get what we want. Plus, if you live in the Louisiana Bayou, chances are you’ll never run across an oil or tech billionaire anyway.

Sometimes, the choices you have seem simple enough. Would you rather lose your sense of taste or your sense of smell? Personally, I would pick my sense of smell because I like to taste what I eat. Other times, the choices are more complicated, and you find yourself thinking about it even though the question was posed by a little human who’s only been out of diapers for a couple of years.

When it comes to what’s available to you as a child of God, exclusively yours, and not accessible to anyone outside of the family of God, there are two competing narratives. On the one hand, you have all the things God says He will give those who seek Him and desire to know Him, who obey Him and submit to His will and authority. Then you have the modern-day narrative where what God has for you can be obtained by those of the world as well, but you just won’t have to work for it. A thousandfold return is a thousandfold return; I don’t care where it comes from as long as I don’t have to sweat for it. That’s the prosperity gospel, in a nutshell, isn’t it? You give God a little, so He gives you a lot, but you’re not really giving to God; you’re giving to the guy with the jet and the cars and the mansion on the beach.

Those who give as unto God do so because God has called them to share their bread with the hungry and cover the naked, not because there’s a pot of gold waiting at the end of their giving rainbow.

So here’s the question: would you rather have stuff that will either end up in a landfill, or your relatives will fight over when you’re gone from this world, or the things that God has promised His children that cannot be purchased with silver or gold, no matter how much one might have squirreled away.

Would you rather have the shiny car or to loose the bonds of wickedness? Would you rather have the trinkets or undo the heavy burdens? Would you rather have the mansion or a relationship with the Almighty so profound that when you call, the Lord answers? Would you rather have the fleeting things of the here and now or the eternal ones of the hereafter?

We choose what we pursue. We choose what we chase after. We choose what consumes us. We choose either the things of God or the things of this earth. It can’t be both. They are diametrically opposed and at odds with each other. I can’t tell you what to do; that’s not my job. I can, however, tell you your options.

If you pursue the things of this world, that is all you’ll ever have. Once you attain them, once you reach the mountaintop and have everything you’ve ever wanted, you will discover the hollowness, the emptiness, the utter lack of satisfaction for having achieved the things your flesh insisted you needed and still not being anywhere close to happy, content, or fulfilled. It’s why rich people get depressed just as readily as poor people. There is no fulfillment in the things of this earth, and any satisfaction one might feel at having attained their dream car or their dream house is temporary and fleeting.

If you pursue God, you may not have the biggest house on the block, but you will have God. You may not have the newest car in the neighborhood, but you will have God. Your bank account may not read like a phone number, but you will have God, and He will be there when you need Him, an ever-present help in times of trouble. If you pursue God, you will delight yourself in Him and understand that true joy, peace, fulfillment, and purpose are found in Him and Him alone.

Does pursuing God mean you shouldn’t be ambitious? Does pursuing God mean you shouldn’t do your best in your chosen field? No. It means that every day, God must be the priority and not just a name at the bottom of a long list. What it means is that your reverence, obedience, and worship of God do not change based on your circumstances, but that in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, in times of peace or times of chaos, He is Lord, He is King, and you are satisfied in Him. It means that He is your purpose, and knowing Him, serving Him, and growing in Him take precedence over every other area of your life. Every time people try to serve two masters, they end up failing both. Choose this day who you will serve, and be diligent in it. Once that choice is made and firmly established in your heart and mind, fasting will not be the chore so many deem it to be but a reason for rejoicing because you are getting to spend time with Him, and He is in fellowship with you.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Fundamentals of Fasting XX

 We want everything from God but bristle any time He asks anything of us. We try to find reasons and excuses not to obey, not to follow through, not to do as He commands that we might receive what He promised, then grow bitter and angry at Him for not overlooking our duplicity and ignoring our lukewarmness for the sake of keeping the peace.

Although almost three thousand years removed, the people of Isaiah’s day weren’t very different than those of today. We want God to speak, to move, to manifest His power, and for our healing to spring forth speedily, but we aren’t willing to entertain any requirements, standards, or criteria He might have. He’s supposed to do it just because we say so. Because we want Him to and because we demand it.

God laid out all He would do if we approached Him with sincere hearts defined by justice, mercy, and faith. When we fail to approach Him in such a manner or outright refuse to do so, then when He is silent, it’s no one’s fault but our own. I understand that taking responsibility for anything is taboo nowadays, but we can’t skirt the issue in the hopes of sparing feelings.

God gave instructions on what we need to do to receive, and if we choose not to follow His instructions, we have no reasonable expectation of receiving what He promised. We must determine whether we followed the instructions before we start whining and complaining that something didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to.

Some time ago, there was a lady who took the time to film herself complaining to some frozen food company that her chicken pot pie had not come out the way it was supposed to, panning across a burnt box with ashes on top of a pie tin, talking about suing for false advertising. What everyone who watched her video noticed was that she never took the pie out of the box, nor had she removed the plastic cover from the pie tin. The company was not to blame for her failure to follow instructions. God is not to blame for our failure to follow His instructions either.

God is waiting for you in that environment of justice, of mercy, and of faith. If you are His, you will pursue Him, you will seek Him, you will desire Him, and He will not hide His face from you. You will call to Him, and He will answer, “Here I am.” What greater thing can one ask for? What greater blessing can one receive than to know that they can call to God, and God will answer?

Even if that were all God promised, it would be more than enough, but He also promises that if we walk in His ways, if we are His not just in word but in deed, if our hearts beat for Him, and Him alone, then our righteousness will go before us, and His glory will be our rear guard. It beats having to look over your shoulder every two steps, doesn’t it? The glory of the Lord will be your protection from the sneak attacks of the enemy. He will guard the one place from whence you can’t see the attacks coming, and He will be a mighty champion on your behalf.

We’ve tried it our way for so long with minimal results; why not try it God’s way and see what He can do? There’s a saying that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. The same goes for your spiritual growth and your intimacy with God.

What the modern-day church has been doing clearly isn’t working. The only thing we’re willing to change is the face beaming back from the television. The message, the inflection, and the parables of how seeds must be planted to yield a harvest have all been heard so often that you can tell what’s coming before they open their mouth. The number of desperate souls has not decreased; those fumbling in the darkness have not lessened. The only thing that has seen any real change is the bank accounts of the unscrupulous who would treat God’s sheep as their own personal woolen mill.

No matter how many times they ask their adherents to give, no matter how much they’ve given already, there’s always another request, another promise of thousandfold returns, and an attempt to preemptively blame a lack of faith when that thousandfold increase doesn’t materialize.

Imagine if someone were courting you, or if you were courting someone, only to discover that their only reason for being around you, the only reason they were spending any time with you, was to ask for things and feel wholly entitled to getting them. In order to be in their presence or enjoy their company, you would have to acquiesce to every whim or desire without retort or question and do so in a timely manner. Otherwise, they’d find someone else. Imagine how that would make you feel. Imagine how incensed you’d be.

Somehow, some way, we’ve convinced ourselves that we can treat God that way. We’ve convinced ourselves that He is on our level, that He is myopic, and that He doesn’t see past our vested interest and feigned adoration. Every time He speaks, and we don’t like what He has to say, we just skip to the next track, hoping it’s better than the last.

Isaiah 58:13-14, “If you turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Fundamentals of Fasting XIX

 I like to barter; I really do. I’ve been to countries such as Turkey or Tunisia, where if you don’t try to haggle, barter, or otherwise get a better deal, it’s viewed as an insult. I once spent three hours in Kusadasi talking a chess set down from two hundred dollars to forty. I could’ve likely gotten it for twenty-five, but by then, I’d had so much apple tea that my bladder was ready to explode, and it was an open-air market that did not have what one might call facilities. I still have the chess set somewhere; I think it’s in Romania. Jade pieces, with a marble board that weighs a good twenty pounds, all told.

God, however, doesn’t barter. He’s not interested in playing let’s make a deal. He’s not trying to sell you anything, nor is He so hard up on cash that He’s willing to take less than the offer on the table. Your life for His because He gave His life for yours. Your dirty, filthy rags, for robes of righteousness. Your broken ruin of a present, for a born-again you that is whole, healed, and purposeful. And yet, somehow, people want more. That’s not enough. Throw in a Bentley or a mansion. Throw in a jet or fame and fortune. And God’s reply is “no”. This is the offer on the table; take it or leave it. I hope you take it. He’s facilitated the opportunity for you to be reconciled to Him, but He won’t force you to or compromise Himself.

Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

While most believers know the previous verse in Ephesians and can quote it verbatim from a dead sleep, about being saved by grace through faith and not of works lest anyone should boast, few can quote the next verse, which is a continuation of Paul’s exhortation, bringing a much-needed balance.

Yes, we are indeed saved by grace through faith, but once we are born again and we are created in Christ Jesus, it is with a purpose. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, and these are works God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

How hard does one have to twist to get from “you were created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared that we should walk in them” to “do what thou wilt?”

So what are these good works we should walk in? That is the question, is it not? They’re not something subjective that we can choose on our own; they’re something God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Isaiah 58:6-7, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?”

God has long established and prepared the ways in which we should walk, and they have nothing to do with flash and everything to do with substance. Jesus encapsulates all the things that make for the fast that God has chosen into three words: Justice, Mercy, and Faith!

Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

If you go through the itemized list of what Isaiah relayed to the people of his time, they can all be boiled down to either justice, mercy, or faith. The roots of every one, from loosening the bonds of wickedness to undoing the heavy burdens, breaking every yoke, or sharing bread with the hungry, can be traced back to justice, mercy, and faith.

Fasting doesn’t change God; it changes us. The closer we draw to God, the more we change, the more we are transformed, and the more justice, mercy, and faith God will see in us. We walk in His ways by walking in His ways. Not by talking about it, thinking about it, pretending to do it, or telling others that we are. You can’t fake walking in His ways because He will search your heart to the innermost and know the truth of it.

You can call it cause and effect, reciprocity, or Newton’s third law, but God said if you do these things, your light will break forth like the morning.

Isaiah 58:8-11, “Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take the yoke away from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Through the prophet Isaiah, God lays out what the people will receive if they pursue justice, mercy, and faith. As individuals and as a nation, relationally with each other and with Him, and what He promises can by no means be readily dismissed. Just one of the things in this long list of things God promises His children if they would pursue Him as He desires is worth anything He would ask.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Fundamentals of Fasting XVIII

 God sees everything. God sees more than you, or I can imagine. That’s a difficult concept to wrap our minds around given that half the people into their forties wear readers to be able to see if the can of creamed corn is microwave safe; then they ask their husband because even with all the squinting, they couldn’t make it out. In case anyone else had a similar dilemma, the contents yes, the can, no.  

God sees. He sees past the image we try to present to the world, past the words we speak when we think others are listening, past the devotion we exude when we think others are watching, to the heart of man, the inner thoughts, the inner desire, and the purpose for which we do what we do. God sees what is there, what isn’t there, and what should be there instantly, from the outside in, and nothing can be hidden from His eyes.

Anyone who’s been house hunting knows how deceptive the outside of a place can be. From the outside, the house looks habitable, attractive, and even inviting, but once you open the front door and walk through, you notice that someone’s pulled up all the flooring, removed all the pipes, spray painted the walls, and there’s a funky smell coming from somewhere down the hall that you never want to identify. That’s how some people are, and dare I say, that’s how some Christians are. On the outside, they are prim and proper, wearing collared shirts and muted khakis, saying all the right things at the right time, but inwardly, they are a tumult, a raging storm, a soul absent of direction or conviction that seeks only its own ends.

Purity of purpose and purity of intent must be constant companions when we journey down the road of fasting and supplication because if the enemy can’t deter you from the act itself, he will attempt to defile your intent and purpose in doing it. Our enemy is not passive. He won’t see you pursuing a closer relationship with God and just shrugs his shoulders, thinking that another one’s gotten away. He will prowl, watch, and wait, looking for an opportunity, a chink in the armor, a moment of distraction and unwatchfulness to try again, using new tactics and new avenues of attack.

Just because you want to draw closer to God doesn’t mean the enemy of your soul has ceased desiring your destruction. On the contrary, you will become an even bigger target, and he will devote even more time to trying to ensnare you because less of you and more of God will eventually mean a greater threat to the enemy's plans and machinations.

Let’s be clear: you can’t impress God, ever, no matter what you do. Neither can I, for that matter. It is likewise a biblical truth that you can’t work your way into His affections or become entitled to something or other because you do a certain thing with all the regularity of a Swiss watch. The overriding desire we must have when we fast is to be called a friend of God, not to exploit the friendship to get something on the back end, but because being called a friend of God is all we’ve ever wanted.

God knows the why. He knows the purpose and intent, and if they are not pure, He will look upon our fasting and our supplication, our desire to know His ways, and our delight in approaching Him, and count them as transgression.

When I first got to America, I stayed friends with a kid who ate his boogers, smelled funny, and had some sort of intestinal issue just because his family had a color television. It was not my finest moment, but in my defense, I was only nine, and it was the first time I’d seen a color TV. I finally had to give up on the TV when his mom tried to serve Balut eggs for dinner. There was only so much I was willing to do for the Dukes of Hazzard. Eating an egg with a young chick inside wasn’t one of them.

That’s the thing. If you serve God for any other reason than that He is Lord, King, and Savior, when what you’re serving Him for doesn’t materialize as soon as you hoped, or in the matter that you hoped, you will grow disillusioned, bitter, and write a manifesto no one will read on why you left Christianity in the rearview. You didn’t abandon Jesus because He couldn’t satisfy your spiritual man; you abandoned Him because He wouldn’t satisfy your ego. You didn’t abandon Jesus because He was too strict and demanding; you abandoned Him because you were too proud and stiff-necked.

If you can demean the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, you never really knew Him. You were just trying to use Him as a catapult to achieve your desires. It’s as simple as that, and I’m tired of seeing people waste their time trying to entreat and convince these formerly Christian, newly-minted atheists that Jesus isn’t as bad as they think. Really? The Son of God who hung on a cross, bled, and died for your sins and mine isn’t as bad as some pompous, over-indulged, talentless naïve thinks He is?

There are only so many minutes in an hour, so many hours in a day, and so many days in a month. You only have so many years to live on this earth, and you must use your time wisely and judiciously. Trying to entreat the favor of someone who’s declared themselves an enemy of the cross, hoping that they lend you their ear, is likely not the best use of anyone’s time unless God specifically spoke to them about that particular individual.

There are many in the dark who do not know that light exists. They are waiting for someone to point the way and assure them that yes, there is light, there is hope, there is forgiveness, and there is healing. To try and catch someone running away from the light, fully aware that it exists, stop them in their tracks, and somehow convince them that they should turn around and return from whence they fled is a far harder task than opening the eyes of someone who desires to see.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Fundamentals of Fasting XVII

 You can do all the right things for the entirely wrong reasons. Most of the time, people get away with it because even when that new friend you made at the gym ends up stealing your car, or that gentleman caller who seemed smitten with the stories of your cats empties out your bank account, you don’t want to believe it because it would mean you were duped, taken, swindled, and bamboozled.

The difference between pulling the wool over people's eyes and God's is that God knows the heart's intent. The best poker face in the world won’t be able to get past one glance from the Almighty, and every desire of the heart is laid bare before Him as though it were sitting in the light of day. It’s not that people don’t try. They still do; they just never succeed.

Objectively speaking, the people of Isaiah’s time did more to ingratiate themselves to God than most church-going folks today. God still called it a transgression. Just by that interaction alone, you begin to understand the dire straits the modern-day church is in. They sought God daily; they were delighted to know His ways; they asked for His ordinances of justice, took delight in approaching Him, and even fasted, yet God tasked Isaiah with itemizing their transgressions.

In most cases, church-going folk today are only interested in two primary things: is it entertaining, and does it end early enough that they’ll be the first ones in the buffet lines? Everything else takes a back seat to those two requirements, and if the answer is yes to both, then sound doctrine, biblical teaching, seeking God, or being delighted to know His ways would be a nice bonus but not necessarily a deal breaker. For some, insistence upon the truth is the deal breaker because everyone knows you have to change with the times to be relevant, and too much focus on biblical living will make everyone around you think you’re a stick in the mud.

It’s funny how a generation of people who have never known the true presence and power of God can insist with a straight face that they are the pinnacle of understanding and spiritual maturity. Being the apple of God’s eye isn’t a small feat after all; there can only be one unless God has multiple apples in His eye. It’s akin to someone who’s never been outside insisting that they’re an astronaut.

The men that today’s church looks down upon as backward and legalistic operated with more authority and power than this present generation can fathom. Their exploits on behalf of the Kingdom are such that they are remembered from generation to generation, all the while never claiming that they were anything more than bondservants of Christ.

In order to establish a given coordinate, you need the longitudinal line and the latitudinal line. For us to be complete believers, those whose sacrifice God receives and whose pleas He hears and responds to, we must be rightly positioned, both vertically and horizontally.

When a lawyer asked Jesus what the great commandment in the law was, His answer gave all the necessary coordinates required of an individual to be in good standing with God.

Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’”

Going through the motions may fool those around you, but it won’t fool God. That was the summary of the first part of Isaiah’s prophecy, and it was likely that its reception was akin to the reception any modern-day messenger would receive if they were preaching repentance today.

There is a difference between what we do, how we see what we do, and how God sees what we do—to our way of thinking, fasting once a year warrants God’s eternal appreciation. It warrants an answer to every prayer, whether silent or spoken. It warrants Him opening every door, making smooth every path, and fighting every battle.

I fasted for a day; why didn’t I win the lottery? Why didn’t my acne go away and my teeth straighten out? When our expectations are not met because they are unbiblical, we get bitter and morose and, like those of Isaiah’s day, begin to wonder if the Lord has seen or if the Lord has heard.

Isaiah 58:3-5, ‘“Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”

The people saw their fast as an affliction of the soul rather than an opportunity to grow in God. They were bitter and angry because they’d done this thing they deemed worthy of note, yet God seemed blind to their sacrifice. They were lodging complaints at God based on how they saw their time of fasting, and as clarification, God informed them of how He saw their fasts. Rather than worshipful sacrifice, God saw the truth of it, and it was far from what they pretended it was. Their fast was for strife and debate; they found ways around a true fast by justifying the practice of things they ought not to have practiced during their fast.

The message is clear: Don’t be like these people! Don’t fast to get noticed or jump to the head of the line; don’t approach it like an affliction but rather as a blessing- an opportunity to fellowship and be in the presence of the object of your devotion.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Fundamentals of Fasting XVI

 Every parent says it about their kids, but my oldest is pretty sharp. It’s not that my youngest isn’t, but she has her daddy’s type of intelligence, rather than her mom’s, which the oldest possesses to no end. While my wife is mathematically inclined, working with numbers, angles, areas of circumference, algebraic formulations, and other such mind-numbing things, I’m more of a creative soul, enamored with words, nuance, cadence, inflection, and delivery. My oldest is book smart. My youngest is street-smart, and even at the tender age of six, she knows more about how the world works than kids twice her age.

A few weeks back, my oldest came home from school thoroughly upset. She’d done her math homework the day before, and her teacher told her she needed to redo it because she needed to show her work. It wasn’t enough that she knew the answer; she needed to write out how she came to her conclusions. Her frustration was that she knew the answer and had no need to carry numbers over or write out the equation.

I told her she didn’t make the rules, and if the teacher required that she show her work, she needed to take the time and do as instructed. She wasn’t happy, but she understood.

When it comes to fasting, how we do it, the spirit in which we do it, and the mindset with which we approach it matter as much as whether or not we do it at all. An acceptable fast to God isn’t simply denying ourselves food and water, although historically speaking, that is one aspect of it. What we do during the time in which we are offering our fasts on the altar is of great importance and determines whether God receives our sacrifice or not.

We’ve known that not every sacrifice is automatically received since the time of Cain and Abel. Abel’s was received, Cain’s wasn’t, and Cain’s reaction was to bludgeon his brother to death out of jealousy. Just because we say we do something unto the Lord doesn’t mean we really are unless we actually are, and the one who gets to determine the truth of it is none other than God.

Isaiah 58:1-3, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’”

Some seven hundred-fifty years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah was given a word from the Lord, and unlike most supposed words from the Lord being bandied about nowadays, it wasn’t a pat on the head, an atta boy you’re doing great, keep up the good work sort of word. From the outside looking in, the people were doing all the right things. They sought God daily to know His ways and took delight in approaching God. It was today’s equivalent of “What is the Lord saying?” every day, all day, the question would be posed, the desire to know present, but never any follow through. The Lord spoke, the people heard, and the next day, they came before the Lord for a fresh word.

It’s not that they did as God commanded; it’s not as though they followed through with true repentance of heart; they just wanted to know. They wanted the message but not the responsibility of doing what the message tasked them with doing. They delighted to know God’s ways but not to do righteousness, and God had had enough.

Their transgression wasn’t that they didn’t seek God daily; it’s that they didn’t do as God commanded. Their transgression wasn’t that they didn’t delight in knowing His ways; it’s that they didn’t follow in them. Their transgression wasn’t that they didn’t approach God; it was that once they approached Him, they still did as they willed, unwilling to obey, submit, and humbly follow Him.

Even when they fasted, they did it for credit and were wholly offended when they felt as though God had not noticed or had not seen. They didn’t do it to draw closer to Him, to strengthen their relationship or intimacy with Him; they did it to get it over with and expected God to be beside Himself with flattery and praise for their endeavors.

If you’ve ever wanted an example of what not to do while fasting and how not to react having engaged in it, it’s the people of Isaiah’s time and their insistence that God was not impressed enough with their fasting and sacrifice.

You can want to know God’s ways and resist following them. If that’s the case, all you’re interested in is knowledge for knowledge’s sake, not so that it may transform you or guide you to a deeper understanding of God.

Many believers today are interested in prophecy; some are even consumed by it, and the chorus of ‘What is the Lord saying today?’ is being answered by the unscrupulous who would dare to speak on God’s behalf when He has not spoken. Supply, meet demand.

The Lord had spoken, the people had heard, but they had not done. The people had fasted, but their fasting was for selfish reasons, and when God did not respond, they became rebellious, stiff-necked, and angry. They performed the act of fasting, but in the wrong spirit, with the wrong heart, and the wrong frame of mind.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Fundamentals of Fasting XV

 If someone gave me a pickle jar to open when I was five and gave me the same jar to open when I was twenty-five, chances are almost certain that although I might not have been able to open the jar when I was five years old, I would have no difficulties opening it at twenty-five.

Babies can’t do what adults can. It’s not for lack of trying. Both of my daughters are strong-willed and insist that they can do things that require far more force than they are able to generate, but the worst they have to endure is a little frustration and humbling themselves enough to ask Dad for help. They try, they fail, and they ask for help. That’s the pattern every time they attempt something beyond what their maturity or physical strength allows.

When it comes to thinking we’re stronger than we are spiritually, the best we can hope for is that we try to cast a demon out, and it refuses to go, as in the case of the disciples and the little boy. The sons of Sceva discovered what the worst possible scenario was when they ran out naked and bleeding from before a demon they were attempting to cast out, as they had heard Paul had done.

That’s why we need to grow and mature our faith and continue in fasting and prayer so that we might have the full strength of a fully grown spiritual man and be more than capable of defeating whatever the enemy throws our way.

Jesus didn’t need to take the time to fast and pray to cast the demon out of the boy because He’d been fasting and praying throughout His ministry, one with the Father, having all authority. When Jesus said that we would do greater things in His name, he wasn’t being hyperbolic. The underlying assumption of His statement, however, was that you would continue in the practices that mature the spiritual man to the point that the devil would know your name as he did Jesus and Paul.

If none of the examples put forth thus far have inspired and motivated you to pursue fasting as your regular worship, perhaps Christ’s admonishment of His disciples insisting that they needed to fast and pray in order to build up to taking stronger foes will.

You employ different tactics when you’re shadowboxing and when you’re standing face to face with a foe whose singular desire is to watch you breathe your last. Much of today’s church is doing something akin to shadowboxing, and even then, they somehow manage to punch themselves in the face over and over again until they pass out from the strain. How will they stand before a real enemy when they are dismantled by their own shadow?

Even though you might switch up tactics and the way in which you approach battle once you determine the strength of your enemy, there is a constant, and that is God. The presence, authority, and power of God are what make the enemy flee, and we obtain more of these things by fasting and prayer.

If anyone knew what He was talking about when it came to power and authority, it was Jesus. If He encouraged His disciples to fast and likewise fasted Himself for no less than forty days at one point, what makes any of us think we are beyond the need to fast? What makes any of us think that we have attained to the point that we no longer need to do what Jesus did when He walked the earth?

All the shortcuts being offered for a price nowadays are utterly worthless. They do not work. They are not effective, and you will likely find yourself confronting an enemy you are ill-equipped to vanquish if you have not done what Jesus admonished you to do, which is fast, pray, and be patient in your maturing that you reach a level of strength and authority commensurate with the enemies you will come across.

It’s not one of those things you can fake until you grow strong enough. Fake it until you make it doesn’t work with casting out demons because if they sniff out weakness, they will exploit it, and nowadays, if you get spotted running down the road bleeding and naked, you may just get arrested.

It is a serious matter that the church has ignored for so long that we make light of it just to cope with our impotence. Because the church no longer fasts, because the church no longer prays, because the church no longer focuses on building up its faith, it no longer confronts the enemy, or attempts to do the things the primary church did. It’s far easier just to shrug our shoulders and say, “Oh, well, at least we have the Biblical accounts of what God can do, used to do, and chose a finite window of time to do it in,” than pursue the fullness of Him with all the gusto of a starving man searching for food.

If closeness and intimacy with God are not our preeminent desire, if it doesn’t overshadow every other want or need in our lives, we will always find reasons and excuses to put off fasting, avoid it, or do it so grudgingly so as not to see any benefit from it. You have to want to do it. You have to want to fast, you have to want to pray, and not just when you need a breakthrough or your back’s against the wall.

Fasting isn’t an eject button on a sinking ship. It’s not a last resort when you need something to happen. It’s a naturally occurring practice in the lives of those who want to know the fullness of the God they serve and have fellowship with Him in perpetuity. It is not elective; it is essential.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.