Fasting for Fulfillment 3-1-06

Good morning, Lord Jesus. On the morning of this Ash Wednesday, take the ashes of my soul, burned and purified by the fire of Your Spirit, mingle them with living waters of Your Word, and impose them upon my heart and mind as mark and seal of Your redemption of my life. I belong to You, and I submit to You in humility and faith as best as I can and all by Your grace. ... "I humbled my soul with fasting" (from Psalm 69:10). Many of the spiritual leaders of our generation are calling for a season of fasting between Ash Wednesday and Easter this year -- Francis Frangipane, Mike Bickel, Dutch Sheets, and others. Their call bears witness in my spirit. From the beginning of this year, I have had a sense that this would be a year of fulfillment of many hopes and promises that seemed to have been stuck in a wilderness of delay and hindrance. But this is a year of Your favor, a year of fulfillment (Isaiah 61:1-2). And though it is through many tribulations that we must enter in to the kingdom of God, we will enter in if we keep pressing through in obedience and faith (Acts 14:22). Fasting speaks of humility. It is choice of our will to be emptied of ourselves and to be filled with You, to join in the fellowship and sacrifice of Your sufferings, that we might share in the joy and power of Your resurrection (Philippians 3:10). You purify our souls through obedience to Your call to trusting surrender and desperate dependence upon You alone as the Source and Sustainer of our lives (1 Peter 1:22). "But in your hearts, sanctify Christ as Lord" (verse 3:15). Fasting in obedience to Your call and in faith for the fulfillment of Your promises humbles the pride of our self-sufficiency and self-centeredness. It causes us to hunger and thirst for You alone -- the Bread of Life and the Living Waters which alone can sustain us through the valleys of the shadow of death and into the land of our destiny in Christ. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time" (verse 5:6). Yes, Lord. I choose to answer Your call to fast and pray in the way You will lead for these forty days, until You bring me through my Jordan and into the Land of Your Promises for me. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Let these days of fasting be a death to my flesh that I may arise into the newness of life in the fullness of Your Spirit (Romans 6:4). In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe, or to order my teaching and prayer dvd's for spiritual transformation through inner healing and deliverance, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Address: 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, Kentucky 40502.On the Web: http://messiah-ministries.org Come to The Fountain the 3rd Friday night of every month at 7 pm for our citywide gathering for prayer and worship in the chapel. Daily archives: http://morningbymorning.injesus.com