It’s a new year that may already feel too much like an old year.  The tyranny of routine and obligations makes its mark and dominates calendars. So many demands, so many people, so many needs not to mention political and social upheavals over which we have no control.

Come to the silence, the resting place.  It’s an invitation that stands firm in whatever circumstances.  It is a place of refreshment and renewal even within a demanding life. How on earth is this possible?  It sounds like heaven.

Well, actually it is heaven.  It is the miracle of the Kingdom of God on earth, the invisible realm of miracles, rest and glory.  Join me in reading Isaiah 60:1 from the Amplified.  Read it with a hop and skip in your soul.

Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

It’s such a powerful word, just like David addressing his own soul in Psalm 42:5.

Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.

In this soul-cry of David, the truth is undeniable—his hope is in the salvation that the Presence of God brings.  That’s where we live. Just as Acts (17:28) puts it,for in Him we live and move and have our being; 

Why is it so hard to be aware of this miracle promise?  It is God who has promised, so the vagueness cannot come from His side.  It is we who live jaded while our inner selves are overwhelmed with the world around us.

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us the power of spiritual disciplines—prayer, fasting, and giving. It begins with charity, the principles concerning giving, and continues to prayer and fasting.  His words echo in the teaching: when you… Don’t.

The three issues He addresses are essential to the Christian life.  When one thinks about the structure of rope and how it is made, one can draw a comparison with the spiritual disciplines that Jesus deal with here.

Ropes are made up of three main parts: fibers twisted into strands and three threads twisted together to form the final rope, a construction called three-strand or twisted rope, common for its strength, elasticity and easy adhesion, with materials such as nylon, polypropylene or manila. 

A threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Remember in everything what our purpose is.  We don’t give, pray, or fast as a ritual of religion.  It would mean nothing and would be a carnal exercise.

After all, our goal is always: Philippians 3:10-12, 

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

¹¹ That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

¹² Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.

It is essential to decide what we want to achieve through these three spiritual disciplines.  They are not the only ones, but all disciplines flow from this – praise, worship and study, for example.

All discipline is a result of hunger – a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God (Matthew 5:6) and therefore carries a blessing. 

Hunger arises from habit.  Your hunger for junk food grows if that’s what you feed yourself on. Hunger for food, hunger for politics, violent shows, poor reading material, more material things and greater gain for yourself, functions the same way in our body and mind.  All of these things are addressed in giving, fasting, and prayer. 

In a time of fasting, your body submits to your decision (mind) in harmony with what the Holy Giving is working in your spirit. Fasting submits your mind and body to the Holy Spirit.  It is a pursuit of life that functions completely opposite to an unbeliever who lives from the desires of the carnal needs of his body.

What do you want to achieve?

Ritual without purpose is empty and disappointing.  In all things Christian, the ultimate goal is to live effective, powerful lives.  We need to experience meaning from following Jesus.  Depression must lift when we pray for the joy of the Lord, sickness must depart and deliverance from demon oppression in the prayer of salvation must be effective.  Prayer without consequences is ritual — it’s not our spiritual walk.  We are in a relationship, not just involved in religious rituals.

This is not to say that every prayer for healing and deliverance will be answered according to our desire.  Sometimes the answer is: My grace is enough, or a prophetic promise of hope that strengthens our resolve. In everything, the voice of the Lord is guaranteed.  His voice is the miracle that answers prayer in all circumstances.

When we entertain friends, we make them a special meal, something that requires a little (or much) more effort than our daily routine meals.  When we give up food for God, it is like inviting Him into our being and daily routine to eat with us spiritual things; Word food and conversation with anointed ears take precedence over the normal.  It requires more effort from us than our daily eating routine, but we do it for that very special intimacy with God that our daily routine often misses.

I say can because it is quite possible to live daily in intimacy, an awareness of the Presence of God in the moment when your mind is fixed on Him.  

The discipline of fasting releases the anointing, the blessing, and the favour of God into your life.  We do this because we want more of God, not for physical discipline or spiritual pride.  Fleshly achievement is dangerous.

Biblical fasting is abstaining from food or other habits for a spiritual purpose.  It is part of the normal Christian life.  Notice the use of the word: When... you give, pray, fast…  Not if.

David said this in Psalm 42:1-3:

As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God.

² My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

³ My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?

Fasting makes us experience hunger, physically, something we may secretly fear and so often immediately satisfy or suppress with the abundance God provides in our full and blessed pantries.

Fasting, like everything Christian, is an invitation to participate in the “more” that God has for us. Here’s the invitation. (Isaiah 55:1-2)

Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing].

² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy].

Next time: Nothing is impossible.