Fasting

Around these parts, meaning in the community of IHOP, they have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding fasting. Clearly, though, across the planet, the new year is often marked in Christian circles with some sort of season of fasting, and the expressions of that are as varied as the lengths of such fasts.

The Rock community, of which I am now a part, is communally engaged in a 21-day Daniel fast (or variations of it), and it's exciting to see how the Lord is changing and transforming people during this time. I, for example, am being wrecked, exposed, and I pray, transformed, but it is not a pretty sight. I am coming face to face with so much junk that still remains in my heart, from false props, to fears, to very twisted ways of thinking. A question I have been grappling with the Lord about the past 4 days or so is why am I ok when "X" is in need, but I'm not ok when "Y" is in need? Why am I quick to have an open hand and heart with "X" but not with "Y"? God is exposing some very, very deep issues in my heart, the root of which has not yet been exposed, or at the very least, I don't yet see or understand. It's clear there is something wrong with my thinking patterns, but the question remains, "what is the lie I am believing in that place or in those places?" Once the lie or lies are uncovered, then God's truth can come in and I know I will walk in increasing freedom to love, show mercy, kindness, gentleness, joy and self-control.

So, fasting brings on a hunger in people, at least in me; a hunger for the deeper things of God, a hunger for change and transformation; a hunger for intimacy with God himself. Truly, in my case, because of the physical hunger, my openness to the Lord exposing all sorts of things in me is increasing! Bring it on, Lord!