Fasting and Living a Fasted Life 2
(week 28/03)
Olubi Johnson
In last week’s article we saw that fasting on a regular weekly basis as a habit is spiritually expedient and indispensable for growth into the perfection and fullness of Christ.
In fact, not only do we need to fast regularly as a habit to grow into the perfection and fullness of Christ, we also need to live a fasted life daily as a habit.
A fasted life is one in which we let the Holy Spirit control what, when and how much we eat so that we can operate at maximal spiritual power and sensitivity daily.
It is a fact that our physical eating habits affect the degree of the efficacy of our spiritual effectiveness in prayer and righteous living.
Isaiah 7:15(KJV): Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Here, the prophet says prophetically that what Jesus ate, physically: butter and honey, would affect His spiritual discernment to know and to refuse the evil and choose the good.
This same thought is brought out when the scripture says that John the Baptist, in his separation in the wilderness for his prophetic ministry, ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew. 3. 4).
Luke 21:34(KJV): And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Here the scripture reveals that you can overcharge your heart or spirit by surfeiting or overeating, just like the battery of a car can be run down.
1 Corinthians 6:12-13(NIV): “Everything is permissible for me”– but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”– but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food“– but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
In the scripture above Paul makes a direct link between sexual immorality and indulgence in physical food: If you cannot control your food intake, or you let it rule over you, then your body can easily yield to sexual immorality.
We have found out by practice (Hebrews. 5. 14) that it is spiritually expedient, as a habit (not law to be in bondage to) to take fluids in the mornings, light foods, like vegetables and grains, during the day so as to be maximally spiritually effective and sensitive during the day. Then you can take meats and solids foods in the evenings, so that digestion takes place when you sleep and will not draw spiritual power from you when you need it in your conscious times during the day.
Of course, even at night you try and eat early and not too heavily so that your sleep is not disturbed.
Ecclesiastes 10:16-17(NIV): Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time-– for strength and not for drunkenness.
Really it is not how much you eat that makes you healthy and spiritually effective but how well you eat: foods that give your body balanced and complete nourishment and at the same time makes you maximally spiritually effective.
When we fast regularly and live a fasted life, we will enjoy maximally the rewards of fasting shown in Isaiah 58. 8-13: Spiritual effectiveness in prayer, clarity of communion with God and increase in revelation knowledge, rapid spiritual growth in character and power and spiritual and material prosperity.
