Want FAITH that can MOVE Mountains… Ask God for a NEW SKIN!

I don't know about you…but I have some mountains I'd like to see God move in my life. Mountains that revolve around spiritual battles, around victories needed for those I love, around financial struggles that need to be overcome, and around territory that needs to be claimed for God's Kingdom.

Maybe we've become luke-warm in our walk with God, maybe we aren't feeling the close connection we once knew…maybe there's a huge Goliath that stands before us. I'm sure we all have a few mountains we could name that we need God to move…

In Matthew 17:20 it says:

"And Jesus said unto them…IF ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and NOTHING shall be impossible unto you."

This verse has always intrigued and inspired me…and awhile back, I studied the significance of the mustard seed and wrote about it. (You can read that HERE! After all, there must be SOME reason God used the "mustard seed" as an illustration. He could have used an "apple seed" or a "tomato seed" or any other small tiny seed. But for some reason, He used the mustard seed.)

However, last time I was studying this verse in Matthew, I was fixated on "if only we can have just a little faith…."

Well...now I've moved on…the next verse is equally challenging and inspiring and gives a secret that I think we all might have missed before…at least I missed it.

"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Matt 17:21

The context of the passage is that Jesus disciples tried to cast a demon out of a man, but they could NOT! So they brought the demon possessed man to Jesus. Jesus simply rebuked the demon and he was gone. The boy was healed. But the disciples were perplexed…after all, they'd been given power to heal and perform miracles and had already been doing so with success. So WHY couldn't they cast out this demon.

Jesus told them… they were unsuccessful because of their unbelief. This belief, this faith, that they were lacking, didn't have to be very big for there to be success…but it had to be at least as big as a grain of mustard seed. And if so, they could move mountains. NOTHING would be impossible to them. But - Jesus reminded them... This kind of faith they would ONLY acquire through prayer AND fasting!! Only then would they have the faith needed to rebuke demons...

So recently I have begun to study the topic of Biblical fasting more in depth.

To be honest, I've fasted off and on over the years…seeking to get God to cooperate with my wishes or desires! (Looking back, while I wanted His blessing, I can see that often my motives were selfish and self-centered. As if I could co-herce God to do anything by my pious activity.) Yet, God has been gracious to me…and despite my short-sightedness, He has worked in a lot of ways, and He has answered a lot of prayers. But… I've still often felt that I was coming up a bit short…something was missing! I think I know what was missing now… I was fasting for MYSELF and not for HIM!

In Isaiah 58: 6, God tells us specifically what we should be fasting for…

• To loose the bands of wickedness (There's a lot of wickedness seeking to bind up our lives…we need to be delivered from this…and we need to pray for others to be delivered as well!)
• To undue heavy burdens (How many of us carry heavy burdens… burdens that we should be giving to Christ? How many of us know people that are burdened and can't seem to keep walking the Christian walk?)
• To let the oppressed go free (How many of us are often oppressed? How many are struggling with oppression in some form… maybe depression, doubt, discouragement, despair, apathy, spiritual indifference, financial slavery and debt…If you aren't oppressed, I'm sure you know people who are! Unfortunately I know quite a few...)
• To break every yoke (God tells us, "Don't be unequally yoked!" We should be slave to no one except our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our King! Unfortunately Satan has been quite successful at putting many yokes upon us… yokes that God did not call us to wear!)
• To deal thy bread to the hungry (Think about it, if you fasted for a bit - even from your favorite foods, you'd have more money that you could spare to feed the hungry! And believe me, there are a lot of hungry people around the world! But more then physical hunger, we need to be fasting to know how to feed the spiritual hunger in the world….is your neighbor saved, how about your family? Why aren't we fasting and praying that God will help us feed the spiritually starving in our lives????)
• To bring the poor that are cast out to thy house (It's not easy to share your space with others, but fasting can bring us into the mind of Christ so that we will WANT to share our space with others…the less fortunate we will want to serve! That's what He came to do…and we need strength to follow His example!)
• When thou seest the naked that thou cover him. (Many people are living in shame and apostasy…we aren't to gaze or make fun of their ignorance (like Ham did to his father Noah!), we are to seek to cover them (like Shem and Japheth did), to clothe them with truth. Only a converted person will seek to cloth the naked though…the unconverted only gaze and look! We need converted hearts…we need to be doers of the Word and not hearers only!)
• That thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh. (I know that sin in our lives and hearts makes us want to hide. Adam and Eve, after they ate the fruit in the garden of Eden had to hide from their own flesh and from God…they were ashamed! But we shouldn't have to do this! God wants to deliver us from this. I believe fasting will help purify - not only our bodies - but our minds to such a degree that we will not desire to hide from ourselves or others! We will have no need to…There will be NO SHAME!! Our confidence will be in Christ….) 

As I've been studying the Bible and reading some powerful books on the topic of Biblical fasting, I've already gleaned a lot of very inspirational thoughts.  Here are a few more:

In Romans 12:1 we are instructed to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice. We are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Fasting helps us be sensitive to God's Spirit, enabling us to more closely follow God's plan of "holy living" in our lives. Interestingly, Paul was fasting when God called him and gave the assignment for his life! (Acts 9:7-9) Jehoshaphat called a fast when a great army came against Israel, and God delivered. God promised a REVIVAL in Joel’s time (Joel 2)… but it would only come as a result of fasting, and of turning in repentance back to God! In God's Word it doesn't say, "if you fast," but "when you fast." It's assumed…as God's people…we WILL FAST!
In Spirit of Prophecy we are instructed: "The object of the fast which God calls upon us to keep is not to afflict the body for the sin of the soul, but to aid us in perceiving the grievous character of sin, in humbling the heart before God and receiving His pardoning grace. His command to Israel was, “Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.” Joel 2:13. It will avail nothing for us to do penance or to flatter ourselves that by our own works we shall merit or purchase an inheritance among the saints. When the question was asked Christ, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” He answered, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:28, 29. Repentance is turning from self to Christ; and when we receive Christ so that through faith He can live His life in us, good works will be manifest.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, p. 87

God wants to give us an anointing. As II Chron 7:14 says, He wants to heal our land. But if He is going to pour out new wine (a new anointing in our lives), our old wine skins need to be done away with. The Bible tells us that no one puts new wine into old wine skins. (Mark 2:22) Again, I never realized this before, but this illustration of the NEED for new wine skins follows Jesus talking about the need for His disciples to fast after He leaves them…. If we want new wine, new anointing, new life, new closeness, new intimacy with Him, then it’s time to call a fast and shed the old wine skins!

Like I said in the beginning…I have some serious MOUNTAINS in my life that I'd like to see God move…but if this is going to happen, He has shown me that I need a new wine skin so that I can be filled with a new spirit. 

"We need to be constantly filling the mind with Christ, and emptying it of selfishness and sin. When Christ came into the world, the leaders of the Jews were so permeated with Phariseeism that they could not receive his teachings. Jesus compared them to the shriveled wine skins which were not fit to receive the new wine from the vintage. He had to find new bottles into which to put thenew wine of his kingdom. This was why he turned away from the Pharisees, and chose the lowly fishermen of Galilee. Jesus was the greatest teacher the world ever knew, and he chose men whom he could educate, and who would take the words from his lips, and send them down along the line to our time. So, by his Spirit and his word, he would educate you for his work. Just as surely as you empty your mind of vanity and frivolity, the vacuum will be supplied with that which God is waiting to give you,—his Holy Spirit. Then out of the good treasure of the heart you will bring forth good things, rich gems of thought, and others will catch the words and will begin to glorify God. Then you will not have the mind centered upon self. You will not be making a show of self; you will not be acting self; but your thoughts and affections will dwell upon Christ, and you will reflect upon others that which has shone upon you from the sun of righteousness." RH March 15, 1892, par. 4

Do you feel this need… to adequately reflect the sun of righteousness?

As we face this New Year … I want to challenge all of us to seek the Lord like never before…not just on our knees… but with our whole hearts…sacrificing whatever holds us captive…whether our appetite, our media diet, our mediocrity, our spiritual laziness, or anything else… That He may remove the old skins and give us new so that His Spirit can be poured out upon us! 

Then… we will have the faith to take on mountains….and NOTHING will be impossible!!!! Then our God will be glorified in and thru our lives!!!