Fasting Supplement Day Eight

Fasting Encouragement Supplement - A Response to Trial
Halftime Adjustments - Winning Twice…in one game

Good day to you!!

Well, my family got sick, and so have many of your families. Ironic huh? There’s a stomach flu going around and, of course, the COVID challenge also. Here we are pressing into God, fasting, praying, having a corporate push into Soul Care to promote our inner health, and preparing for Advance. And then these sicknesses come through the congregation. Frustrating? Yes. Discouraging? Yup. Tiring? For sure, especially for those who have kids fighting through it.

And it’s thrilling! It means we’ve struck a nerve with the enemy. It means he is threatened by our advances and thinks that sicknesses will push us back. It means we are gaining ground!

Now at that same time, we need to use common sense. We face some very contagious sicknesses and need to be aware and not simply ignore that reality. So, not every challenge is entirely spiritual; however, there will be spiritual implications, and the enemy will undoubtedly capitalize on that.

Even so, throughout the pandemic, we haven’t had a wave of sicknesses go through the church in this fashion. Then, suddenly, we experience this swift wave of illnesses in the first week of the fast. It seems very possible to me that the enemy is on the attack in both the physical and spiritual realm, hoping that we will back down.

Halftime Adjustments
This was a great weekend of NFL football. If you watched any of it, you would have likely seen one of the best weekends of playoff football ever. I love how teams will go into the locker room at halftime and make adjustments to their schemes based on the play of the other team’s offense and defense. Then, in the second half, the adjustments they made pay off, and they can score on or stop the other team based upon what they learned in the first half.

In the same way, we can adjust to the enemy’s attack. For some, sicknesses have required that you make changes in your fast out of the need to combat it in your body or family. And without fail, the enemy comes and declares the fast null and void because you had to change it. But I’ve got great news. He doesn’t get to declare anything. He has no authority over what God will accept or decline. His opinion means nothing.

At the same time, if there are ways that we let our guards down or were leaning into religiosity or self-reliance, we repent, ask for forgiveness, and return to Him with all boldness.

So, what do we do? We take AIM!
Adjust
Implement
MOVE FORWARD!

Adjust your fast. If the sickness is such that you’ve had to eat a bit, so be it. Adjust your fast to fit the situation. Maintain your stance on social media or media. Press harder into the word. Catch up where you possibly let your reading lag. Don’t let the sickness overrule His presence. Put on the worship music with a box of Kleenex nearby.

Implement the change. No team goes into the locker room and adjusts their plan without coming out and implementing the changes. Do the same. Implement the change, redeem the time and re-engage the posture of the fast even if your methods have been adjusted.

MOVE FORWARD! James wrote:
James 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We are producing steadfastness in this season. And it will have its full effect on our lives.

Think of this trial from this perspective. It can be a double loss for the enemy. Not only will we receive the full benefit of the fast, greater infilling, impartation, and impact, but we will also get faith that results in steadfastness. So, in his attempt to stop us, not only does he lose the ground that he would’ve lost as a result of the fast anyway, Satan sets us up to grow even more as it tests our faith and we grow in steadfastness.

Let’s make his plan backfire on him!

Jesus, you’re so good, only You could set us up in a way that we get to win twice in one game!