Day Sixteen
Ephesians 6:24
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Hello Lifecoast Family. God’s blessings upon you as we are in the last stretch of our 21 days of prayer and fasting. For those of you who have given up a substance, such as tobacco, alcohol, chocolate, at this point, your body has purged itself of the chemicals of those items and is clean. Congratulations.
But let me guess, you are still having cravings, desires, wants for these items you have given up, right? Understand that it is not your body that is doing the craving, it is your mind. The battle for your body is mainly in your mind. That is why God tells us:
“In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NASB).
The Apostle Paul also said:
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
The Greek word translated here as attitude is the word phroneo (sorry, but the Bible nerd has to come out sometimes), which also translates into “mind.” We are to have the same mind as Christ.
I know that it is just not as easy as telling our mind, “Now look here, mind, I am the boss, and you have to do what I tell you, ok?” It takes time and effort to bring “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Co. 10:5).
I was having a tough time with the fasting and praying this go around. I seemed to be able to give up the different foods and the time spent on electronic devices, but I was having a really hard time fully pressing in with my prayer life. While I was securing extra time to put towards prayer, I was finding that something new would pop up and interfere with my praying. I would attempt to examine what was going on, but the answer was alluding me. I couldn’t figure it out, and my anxiety about missing prayer was getting to the point that I was getting emotionally stirred up. I began to feel like Jacob when he was wrestling with God.
Genesis 32 tells the story of how Jacob was returning home and was bound up with his emotions concerning his brother Esau and how their reunion would go. At a certain point in his travels, he sends his family across a stream to go ahead of him, and he stays behind for a little bit alone. Suddenly there was a man there, and they began to wrestle all night long. Jacob was wrestling with God. This is how I was feeling. I felt like I was wrestling with God over my prayer and fasting, and it was doing a number on my emotions.
Then we had our night of Prayer and Worship at the community center. I was an emotional wreck. The Worship team plays a couple of songs, and my heart is pounding out of my chest. Then Pastor Ryan speaks and prays about how someone is feeling like there are so many things that have to be done when they first wake up, and I thought, “that sounds like me.” Then brother Greg came up behind me, laid hands on me and began to pray, and I heard God say, “You are not wrestling with me, son, you are wrestling with the world.” And it was at that moment when I realized what had happened.
The battle in my mind between the things of God and the things of the world was in full attack mode. My old self was not wanting to make the change that my new self was trying to make. I was struggling with the spiritual forces of wickedness. The influence of the world and its comforts were making a charge, and I had taken my eyes off of the fact that it is God who fights my battles.
That is when I made a total surrender to God. Up to that point, I had been trying to do this prayer and fasting under my own power and it was not working. I had to surrender to God and let Him direct my path. When I did that, a wave of total peace washed over my body, and I was at rest. I no longer felt like I was wrestling with anything.
Have you given a total surrender to God concerning your fasting and praying? Are you allowing God to direct your path? While there are some things that we can do for ourselves when it comes to prayer and fasting for Godly miracles, we have to surrender to God and allow Him to do His work. We need to get out of His way.
I pray that in these last days of our prayer and fasting, you go before God and fully surrender your life to Him. Give over any control you think you have over your life and “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Jeff Howell