21 Day Fast | Day 17

21 Day VICTORY Fast | Day 17
From Pastor Brian Gibbs
January 20th, 2021

Good morning, dear friends! Today is day seventeen as we have entered a very special time of consecration and humility and we open the door to a deeper, more intimate and more powerful relationship with our Father!

Bren and I are blessed that you have chosen to participate in the VICTORY FAST by setting aside 21 days to pray, fast and draw near to God. Fasting is not just an exercise for super-spiritual people. It is actually supposed to a part of every believer’s personal and private spiritual life. Personally, we have found there is no better way to reset our spiritual compass and bring about change and discipline in every area of our lives than through fasting.

We pray that you will experience the presence and power of God in an extraordinary way as you commit yourself to Him over the next 21 days. May God continue to bless you and ignite your passion for Him as you seek Him first!

For these 21 days together, I will provide a daily biblical focus and some thoughts to encourage and strengthen you throughout the fast.

FASTING: UNLEASHING POWER

DAY 17

Acts 13:2
“As they ministered unto the Lord and fasted…”

There’s a special key right here in this short portion of this scripture verse above. Part of the early church’s love language was fasting and it was combined with their worship unto the Lord. As you read the book of Acts you begin see clearly that early church recognized fasting as a secret source of obtaining spiritual power.

The activity of the Church was to be in union and submission to the Holy Spirit—an interdependent activity. Their freedom and their authority as they went forth was gained through their absolute surrender to, and obedience to the Holy Spirit.

You do not have to be a prophet to see that in our times, many are spirituality drifting and the carnal spirit of this age flourishes in so many churches—even the power and gifts of the Spirit are sadly withdrawn because of lack of honor for the Holy Spirit.

This spiritual erosion has no doubt affected the lives of the believers today. But the good news is that God’s Word declares fasting and prayer are a secret powerful force that causes the fire of God to fall freshly again in a person’s life.

This fire produces the real fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22), but especially the fruit of righteousness and spiritual power over fruitless things of life, lusts of the flesh and the lies of the enemy of our souls.
Page 4 Fasting transforms us to be mastered by Spirit of God and crush the flesh and its desires.

Years ago, I watched a video from a ministry friend of ours where he described fasting as “a tremendous lesson in establishing who is the master and who is the servant. Remember, your body is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.” Isn’t that the truth! If my body was master, I’d be eating stacks of pancakes and Dairy Queen blizzards daily—not real smart. Back to real meat now—according to Galatians 5:17, the flesh, or carnal nature, always strives to be in control. But it must not be our master. Fasting is the vehicle that brings transformation over fleshly desire and make us more spiritually aware and alert to the wooing of the Holy Spirit where we can be directed and redirected to triumph.

As fasting and prayer bring surrender of body, soul, and spirit to our Lord, as I said above, it also
generates a heightened sense of awareness to the presence of the Holy Spirit, which creates a fresh, clean joy and a restored determination to serve God in purity. Simply said—fasting and prayer brings personal revival. And that’s what we all are pushing together!

Real power and revival for spiritual conquest and victory comes from the Holy Spirit as people seeking God’s face in consecrated diligent prayer with fasting.

I pray today is a mighty day of refreshing and renewal in your fast. Feast on the Lord Jesus!

Make it a great day and be blessed!
Brian
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