Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Post-Fast Post
Hey there!
I know that I said that I would try to add new entries every day of my fast these past two weeks or so, but as with many things in my life, I was not able to keep faithful to that commitment. I chose to try and focus more on drawing closer to God through the experience of this fast and feed my spirit more than my fleshly desires. I feel that fasts are much easier to accomplish successfully when one has free time to spend in God's presence, uninhibited by the worries of a lot of work and school assignments. As I am still on Winter break for one more glorious week, I would try to take advantage of the situation and re-establish my relationship with God for the coming new year.
I decided that one of my resolutions for this year was that I want to witness and experience a miracle in person this year. These past couple of weeks, I have been praying that God would be able to use me in such a way this year that I would be put in the right place at the right time so that I could be a good influence to others and further God's plan for my life as well as theirs. I don't want to waste my life doing the mediocre anymore, but my dream is to be the most effective person that I can possibly be; to have a lasting effect on the lives of those around me.
A week ago yesterday, I had the chance to view an awesome Christian documentary with several of my friends at our weekly Bible Study. This movie was called Furious Love and was created by people who wanted to see what would happen when God's pure and holy love was brought to the darkest spiritual areas of the world. Testimonies were given by spiritual warriors from all over the world who minister to people in places which many believe are inpenetrable by God's Light. Some of the first minutes of the film are of Christian rallies in Africa where thousands are brought to Christ through evangelistic teaching and outreach. The narrator, the director, commented on one of the rallies. He said that it ran much like any other rally out there: praise and worship, a teaching by an evangelist, followed by people flocking to the front to enthusiastically receive Christ into their hearts. However, he said that before the rally had started, he had noticed a tiny white tent off to the side of the field. He took no real notice of it until towards the end when the spiritual warfare broke out as people were prayed for in the front of the crowd. Several people began to manifest demons by shaking uncontrollably, crying out, etc. As they did this, they would be carried over into that tiny little tent to be prayed for away from the crowds to avoid a scene. The narrator then learned that this was the "Demon tent." It was at this rally that he began to fully realize the extent of the ongoing spiritual battle that rages on everyday around us.
The film went on to gain testimonies and firsthand footage of people who would travel to both foreign countries and to the neighborhoods just outside their door to pray for people that needed to hear the news of God's unconditional salvation and to feel the warmth of His all-consuming love. From one Christian woman who had the opportunity to reach out to a young woman who was trapped deep in a Satanist cult and deliver her from its clutches, to a 30 year old young man named Philip Mantofa in Indonesia who pastors a church of 30,000 people and preaches with such conviction that people literally sprint to the front of the room to pray the salvation prayer by the hundreds.
Jason Westerfield was another such person that was featured in the film as a spiritual warrior on fire for God. Ever since his younger years, Jason has developed a strong level of communication with God, frequently receiving visions and prophecies about things that have happened and are still to come. He also has been known to have the spiritual gift of healing as he prays for random strangers that he happens to meet throughout his day. In Furious Love, Jason and a few of his associates decide to travel to a Witchcraft festival in Salem, Massachusetts to pray for and minister to people that attend the festival. After praying for several people, they happen upon a group of four young men, one of whom seems more into the occult than his three companions, due to his hooded, velvet red cloak. Jason approaches them, and tries to share his beliefs with the young men. The hooded man asks his questions to Jason about the God Jason prays to and also asks who Jason's medium is to communicate with God. After Jason satisfies their curiosity, the man allows Jason to pray for him, even removing his hood before starting the prayer. To think, even a man who practices witchcraft can sense the respect that is due to the creator of the universe in order to remove his head covering before allowing another to pray for him!
The film's ultimate message was that the church needs to get its head out of the sand and acknowlege that there IS a spiritual battle that rages all around us, invisible to the naked eye. Followers of Christ need to stand up and fight for those who are lost, stumbling around in the darkness of their own sins. We need to become more active in our spiritual fight because the battle cannot be won on its own. The easiest way to combat the darkness is to spread the all-consuming light of God's perfect and holy love. By this, I don't mean to echo the song that says, "All you need is love." What I mean is that by taking the time to notice the situations of the people around us, we can then take time to listen and just be there for them to show that someone actually cares about them. By living by Jesus' example of loving unconditionally, more people can see the true purpose of following Christ: not to live according to the dogmatic rules of religion, but to strain towards a better relationship with God, our loving Father and all-powerful Creator. It was for those who stumble in the darkness that Jesus came to the earth to save, not the religious and righteous people. As His followers, we are to inform others of this truth.
Today, I pray for both myself and for anyone who reads this post: God give us the faith to follow your will and not our own. I pray that today and for all the days to come, that I will have the courage and boldness to share my faith and beliefs with people that are in desperate need of hearing the truth. Let me speak truth into people's lives and let them see You shining through my eyes. I pray for the faith and conviction to believe that the impossible things can happen through me by your power, God. Help me to love BOTH the people that are easy to love as well as those who I do not want to show love towards. I know that by your help, anything is impossible, turning the hardest hearts to soft, malleable clay that can be molded into something beautiful and precious.
I pray this in Jesus' name, AMEN.
I know that I said that I would try to add new entries every day of my fast these past two weeks or so, but as with many things in my life, I was not able to keep faithful to that commitment. I chose to try and focus more on drawing closer to God through the experience of this fast and feed my spirit more than my fleshly desires. I feel that fasts are much easier to accomplish successfully when one has free time to spend in God's presence, uninhibited by the worries of a lot of work and school assignments. As I am still on Winter break for one more glorious week, I would try to take advantage of the situation and re-establish my relationship with God for the coming new year.
I decided that one of my resolutions for this year was that I want to witness and experience a miracle in person this year. These past couple of weeks, I have been praying that God would be able to use me in such a way this year that I would be put in the right place at the right time so that I could be a good influence to others and further God's plan for my life as well as theirs. I don't want to waste my life doing the mediocre anymore, but my dream is to be the most effective person that I can possibly be; to have a lasting effect on the lives of those around me.
A week ago yesterday, I had the chance to view an awesome Christian documentary with several of my friends at our weekly Bible Study. This movie was called Furious Love and was created by people who wanted to see what would happen when God's pure and holy love was brought to the darkest spiritual areas of the world. Testimonies were given by spiritual warriors from all over the world who minister to people in places which many believe are inpenetrable by God's Light. Some of the first minutes of the film are of Christian rallies in Africa where thousands are brought to Christ through evangelistic teaching and outreach. The narrator, the director, commented on one of the rallies. He said that it ran much like any other rally out there: praise and worship, a teaching by an evangelist, followed by people flocking to the front to enthusiastically receive Christ into their hearts. However, he said that before the rally had started, he had noticed a tiny white tent off to the side of the field. He took no real notice of it until towards the end when the spiritual warfare broke out as people were prayed for in the front of the crowd. Several people began to manifest demons by shaking uncontrollably, crying out, etc. As they did this, they would be carried over into that tiny little tent to be prayed for away from the crowds to avoid a scene. The narrator then learned that this was the "Demon tent." It was at this rally that he began to fully realize the extent of the ongoing spiritual battle that rages on everyday around us.
The film went on to gain testimonies and firsthand footage of people who would travel to both foreign countries and to the neighborhoods just outside their door to pray for people that needed to hear the news of God's unconditional salvation and to feel the warmth of His all-consuming love. From one Christian woman who had the opportunity to reach out to a young woman who was trapped deep in a Satanist cult and deliver her from its clutches, to a 30 year old young man named Philip Mantofa in Indonesia who pastors a church of 30,000 people and preaches with such conviction that people literally sprint to the front of the room to pray the salvation prayer by the hundreds.
Jason Westerfield was another such person that was featured in the film as a spiritual warrior on fire for God. Ever since his younger years, Jason has developed a strong level of communication with God, frequently receiving visions and prophecies about things that have happened and are still to come. He also has been known to have the spiritual gift of healing as he prays for random strangers that he happens to meet throughout his day. In Furious Love, Jason and a few of his associates decide to travel to a Witchcraft festival in Salem, Massachusetts to pray for and minister to people that attend the festival. After praying for several people, they happen upon a group of four young men, one of whom seems more into the occult than his three companions, due to his hooded, velvet red cloak. Jason approaches them, and tries to share his beliefs with the young men. The hooded man asks his questions to Jason about the God Jason prays to and also asks who Jason's medium is to communicate with God. After Jason satisfies their curiosity, the man allows Jason to pray for him, even removing his hood before starting the prayer. To think, even a man who practices witchcraft can sense the respect that is due to the creator of the universe in order to remove his head covering before allowing another to pray for him!
The film's ultimate message was that the church needs to get its head out of the sand and acknowlege that there IS a spiritual battle that rages all around us, invisible to the naked eye. Followers of Christ need to stand up and fight for those who are lost, stumbling around in the darkness of their own sins. We need to become more active in our spiritual fight because the battle cannot be won on its own. The easiest way to combat the darkness is to spread the all-consuming light of God's perfect and holy love. By this, I don't mean to echo the song that says, "All you need is love." What I mean is that by taking the time to notice the situations of the people around us, we can then take time to listen and just be there for them to show that someone actually cares about them. By living by Jesus' example of loving unconditionally, more people can see the true purpose of following Christ: not to live according to the dogmatic rules of religion, but to strain towards a better relationship with God, our loving Father and all-powerful Creator. It was for those who stumble in the darkness that Jesus came to the earth to save, not the religious and righteous people. As His followers, we are to inform others of this truth.
Today, I pray for both myself and for anyone who reads this post: God give us the faith to follow your will and not our own. I pray that today and for all the days to come, that I will have the courage and boldness to share my faith and beliefs with people that are in desperate need of hearing the truth. Let me speak truth into people's lives and let them see You shining through my eyes. I pray for the faith and conviction to believe that the impossible things can happen through me by your power, God. Help me to love BOTH the people that are easy to love as well as those who I do not want to show love towards. I know that by your help, anything is impossible, turning the hardest hearts to soft, malleable clay that can be molded into something beautiful and precious.
I pray this in Jesus' name, AMEN.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
"The Daniel Fast"
Hello, online audience. I have finally returned after a long absence from the writing scene. Due to my need to finish out my third semester of college with fairly average grades and staying busy with work, family events and procrastination, I have finally found time during my month-long winter break to catch up anyone who has happened to read any of my previous posts from last year. I used this blog initially to vent my feelings but then it evolved into a way of sharing any of my written works, thoughts and devotions that happened to spring upon me at the moment I started to write. I want to return back to writing in my blog because I have recently decided to take part in a period of prayer and fasting with my church to start the new year off right. It's going to last for about two weeks and if anyone out there decides to take part with me, I'd love to get any feedback or encouragement from you about your experiences.
I am starting the fast today by taking part in what is called a "Daniel Fast." This type of fast comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 1, in the Bible when Daniel and some of his Israelite friends were chosen to be trained to enter into service for King Nebuchadnezzar while captive in Babylon. Daniel was accompanied by other men from Judah: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were all given Babylonian names to replace their given names.
Daniel => Belteshazzar
Hananiah => Shadrach
Mishael => Meshach
Azariah => Abednego
Their Babylonian names are the ones that most people recognize because of the latter three's story later on in the book of Daniel about their trials in the firy furnace. However, these four men started out as regular Israelite captives, plucked from obscurity and brought into the palace for God's specific purposes for each man.
During their training period, the king assigned royal food and wine for the men to eat while they were trained for service in Babylon. Daniel and his three friends decided that since most of the items went against their religion, they did not want to defile themselves by eating food that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. They requested that they would be permitted to eat and drink only vegetables and water for ten days and at the end, be compared to the health of the other men who had dieted differently for the same time period.
At the end of the ten day trial period, those who partook in the vegetable and water diet looked healthier and better nourished than all of the other men who had eaten the royal food. Therefore, the officials allowed them to continue their revised diet after that. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were then blessed by God with greater knowlege, understanding and wisdom which surpassed all the other wise men in the King's service by ten times and were honored for years to come. It says at the end of chapter one that Daniel remained in King Nebuchadnezzar's service until the first year of King Cyrus.
By taking part in this fast, I hope to spend more time delving into God's Word to find new insight and wisdom for the year ahead of me. I pray that I can make the right decisions in regards to my future education in the years to come and I also want to pray for the people around me that may need intercessory prayer or encouragement from a friend. Lately, my faith has not received a good diet of God's Word and prayer and I feel I must return to a new and better routine which includes these things.
During the coming weeks, I hope that I can find more time to write in this blog to encourage both myself and others by any insights I might receive during this time of fasting. I may not be sticking true to the Daniel Fast as I am including fruits in my diet of vegetables and water, but I know that the next two weeks will present a difficult challenge for me in enduring the temptations that will arise. Anyone who has done a fast before can attest to this. I hope that anyone who happens upon this entry will take a few minutes out of their day to pray for myself and everyone in my church who is also taking part in this fast. I will try to keep this blog going day-to-day throughout this fast, so try to keep up with the new entries that should be coming your way.
Thanks for reading!
I am starting the fast today by taking part in what is called a "Daniel Fast." This type of fast comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 1, in the Bible when Daniel and some of his Israelite friends were chosen to be trained to enter into service for King Nebuchadnezzar while captive in Babylon. Daniel was accompanied by other men from Judah: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were all given Babylonian names to replace their given names.
Daniel => Belteshazzar
Hananiah => Shadrach
Mishael => Meshach
Azariah => Abednego
Their Babylonian names are the ones that most people recognize because of the latter three's story later on in the book of Daniel about their trials in the firy furnace. However, these four men started out as regular Israelite captives, plucked from obscurity and brought into the palace for God's specific purposes for each man.
During their training period, the king assigned royal food and wine for the men to eat while they were trained for service in Babylon. Daniel and his three friends decided that since most of the items went against their religion, they did not want to defile themselves by eating food that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. They requested that they would be permitted to eat and drink only vegetables and water for ten days and at the end, be compared to the health of the other men who had dieted differently for the same time period.
At the end of the ten day trial period, those who partook in the vegetable and water diet looked healthier and better nourished than all of the other men who had eaten the royal food. Therefore, the officials allowed them to continue their revised diet after that. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were then blessed by God with greater knowlege, understanding and wisdom which surpassed all the other wise men in the King's service by ten times and were honored for years to come. It says at the end of chapter one that Daniel remained in King Nebuchadnezzar's service until the first year of King Cyrus.
By taking part in this fast, I hope to spend more time delving into God's Word to find new insight and wisdom for the year ahead of me. I pray that I can make the right decisions in regards to my future education in the years to come and I also want to pray for the people around me that may need intercessory prayer or encouragement from a friend. Lately, my faith has not received a good diet of God's Word and prayer and I feel I must return to a new and better routine which includes these things.
During the coming weeks, I hope that I can find more time to write in this blog to encourage both myself and others by any insights I might receive during this time of fasting. I may not be sticking true to the Daniel Fast as I am including fruits in my diet of vegetables and water, but I know that the next two weeks will present a difficult challenge for me in enduring the temptations that will arise. Anyone who has done a fast before can attest to this. I hope that anyone who happens upon this entry will take a few minutes out of their day to pray for myself and everyone in my church who is also taking part in this fast. I will try to keep this blog going day-to-day throughout this fast, so try to keep up with the new entries that should be coming your way.
Thanks for reading!
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