Making your Fasting Effective part 1 - Apostle Joseph Simwela

Making fasting effective part 1

*Text*

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

*Psalms 51:17 HCSB*

Have you been fasting, and still not getting results? Or still feeling insecure in front of trouble? Here is the solution for you - compare your fasting with scriptures. 

Fasting is a spiritual sacrifice, not everyone would want to fast - and it is important to understand the things that takes off eyes of God on our fasting or sacrifice.

The greatest offering you can give to God is your broken spirit - an honest repentant heart.

During your fasting, make sure to spare time and sweep around your heart - take all unwanted peace's of your heart and present them before God.

Take all of me, and give me you. I can't trust my own spirit any more - I need your Holy Spirit.

A repentant heart must be offered during your fasting so you can effectively yield results. 

*Text*

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: 

“O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. 

*But we have sinned and done wrong*. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations.

*Daniel 9:3‭-‬5 NLT*

_but we have sinned and done wrong_

Our strength in the Lord lies in the understanding of our own nature as men - destined to fail or die, we are mortals.

No matter how strong we have grown, there is always time to be replaced - if we have not failed before, it means time is still coming for our fail.

Such a revelation calls for humbleness - regularly create in you a state of incomplete within you before the Lord.

Whenever you are fasting, this must be your first step - present your repentant heart to the Lord - then, you can focus on feeding the new heart with new wine - the desires of the Holy Spirit.

When you deny yourselves the physical needs of this world, make sure that- the hall or gap you create is filled by Spiritual food. 

Fasting is not only abstaining from food to be with the Lord, you must also stay away from other usual activities that eat up your time like watching movies, chatting with friends and the like. . . .

*Text*

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

*Matthew 4:4 NLT*

Much of your time in that period you have specified should be devoted into *prayer - worshiping God*, 

tell Him who he is, what he has done upon your life- 

*read the bible and meditate upon his word*. 

Jesus illustrated it that the substitute to the food we abstain is the scriptures. Without the scriptures and prayer - our fasting will be a burden to us as the physical pain will be so intense to the point of giving up. 

Abstaining from food and then spending much of our time on TV, friends or our daily schedule will be of no help - total denial must be accompanied by total devotion to God - then our attention will shift from ourselves to the Lord. 

our thinking will become more clearer and our ability to understand his plans will sharpen because we are not distracted by other things. 

*Text*

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

*1 Kings 19:12‭-‬13 NIV*

Our God communicates through a gentle voice and if we are preoccupied with many things, we will not be able to hear Him speak.

He speaks more to our life through our thought pattern and He demands a free state of our mind to express himself fully.

You cannot see a vision while on TV or doing your usual schedule - you need to have time in isolation to listen from God - He speaks in silence and if you do not learn to tune in to the voice, you miss important signals from the Lord which were meant to bless your fasting period.

*Text*

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

*John 10:27 NIV*

Bible study, praying time, repentance and time alone for meditation should be a substitute to whatever you abstain during your fasting then you will see God working upon your lives.

*May the good Lord grant you the grace to effectively conduct your fasting, in Jesus name!*