Shalom Torah Family. Please pray for Pakistani Christians as the Muslim Mob have burnt more than 10 Churches and many Christian Houses. Also the news are coming that they have tortured to death some of the Christians.
Life does not get easier -- So, sit back with a cup of tea, relax and watch this video. let the daily problems aside for a moment. Blessings to all.
How to Fast and Pray In A Way that Pleases YHVH:
What comes to mind when you think of Fasting and Prayer?
Let us do a reality check here… My first thoughts are ‘No Way, I can’t go all day without eating’. Can I be more honest? When I felt YHVH prompting me to dig into How to Fast, I sort of freaked out. Anytime YHVH walks me through something – I end up living it out in a hard way and I did not want to! So, imagine my shock when I began to search scripture for all the rules about How to Fast - and found none. The Bible does not give us rules for how to fast. What I expected was a list of acceptable fasting practices – maybe in Leviticus – to study and try out. In fact, most of the internet is obsessed with the logistics of fasting… while YHVH is more concerned with our heart during a fast. A Fast is about humbling our heart before YHVH. Fasting is about giving up the thing I seek for satisfaction in order to draw near to YHVH… allowing YHVH to satisfy us.
Biblical Fasting does refer to food.
When you think about it, food gives us nourishment, energy to get through the day and can reach a place of satisfaction for most of us. In the Biblical time, they would have spent a great deal of time preparing food. We don’t so much with our modern lifestyles. We can microwave a meal in 5 minutes that would have taken hours for them to make. Anyway, their focus was giving that time back to YHVH – in prayer and worship. That would have been a lot of time for all of their meal prep and eating. They also would have allowed the hunger pangs to remind us of our dependency on YHVH and drive them deeper in prayer. There are many types of fasting demonstrated in the Bible. Where the Bible does not give us rules per say, it does give us examples. And please notice that YHVH honoured every type of fast [where the heart was in the right place] so I see Grace in YHVH’s plan for a fast. Also, when people were just following the “rules” they had set about a time of fasting [and their heart was out of line] YHVH did not honour it. I love that about YHVH’s desire – Heart before Rules.
A 40-day complete fast [NO food or water]: Examples are Yeshua and Moses who took things to the extreme. [Exodus 34:28; Matthew 4:2] The complete fast which could last from part of a day to an entire day to several days or weeks. This was the most common in the scripture so I’ll just list a few. [Esther 4:16; Joel 2:12; Ezra 8:21-23; Jonah 3:5-9]
A Partial Fast: In 1 example we see they ate fruit, veggies and drank water for 10 days. Daniel and the 3 used this fast to honour YHVH while in captivity. [Daniel 1:12]
The Daniel Fast: No meat, no tasty bread, no wine, no oils for his skin [For 21 days] [Daniel 10:3; Daniel 9:3] These would have been things that satisfied Daniel, good food and relief from dried skin [Daniel was older by then and living in a hot dry land].
A Fast from Sex: We are told husband and wife can decide together to give up sex for a time and reason [1 Corinthians 7:5] Not all examples of a Biblical fast are about food.
The last 2 examples give me an understanding that this is really about replacing things that satisfy us physically with YHVH for a time and specific purpose. In the past I have fasted from food and found that to draw me nearer to YHVH in deep ways. The physical reminder of hunger is a prompt to pray, worship and draw nearer to YHVH. The emotional connection to food [believe me there is an emotional connection] can actually drive me to my knees more intensely! There have also been times I chose a SOCIAL MEDIA FAST – that is eyes opening! Another time I set aside my phone for an entire day – wow was that humbling and revealing!
A Fast is about a heart posture – not a diet: The reason I chose to give up my phone the last time – instead of a meal – is my habit of turning a fast into a diet… that is not a right heart posture. If your heart is in the right place – and you truly are drawing near to YHVH with a purpose, fasting in any form will quicken your soul for Him. Fasting is about giving up satisfying myself to let YHVH fill me… Allowing YHVH to feed my soul the way Yeshua explains it. John 4:32: [“I have food to eat that you do not know about.”]
Matthew 18:18-20 isn't carte blanche to ask anything you want "in Jesus's name". God isn't an ATM or magic genie. If you gather in Jesus's name in order to commit murder, is he there with you? Of course not! Doing something "in Jesus' name" means acting in accordance with his wishes and character under his authority. It has nothing to do with speaking his name.
When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
#proverbs 10:19
Wickedness is bound up in the heart of all men. If you let them talk long enough, it will inevitably come out. It's better to hold your tongue until you have something edifying and truthful to say.
The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.
Proverbs 10:18
Speech and silence can both be wicked, depending on the context.
-Concealing hatred might be better than speaking it, depending on whether it is concealing one's own hatred or that of someone else.
-To conceal the actual hateful acts of another person may be to become party to those words.
-To conceal one's own heart-hatred of another person might be dishonest, but it's usually better than speaking it aloud or letting it come out through hateful actions, for example in making false accusations.
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