Day 85: I trust you, Lord. Fasting as led by You. 2 Samuel 11 and 12
How do you feel when you have fasted and prayed, abstained and cried, and are yet to receive what you have fasted for? You hear it all over: fast for your mate, fast for your job, fast for… - fast, fast, fast. For what? Nothing has happened yet! How much fasting can one person do!! When God, WHEN!!!!
Is this how you feel? Waiting, longing, seeing nothing, and fasting some more. Why didn’t God do it? This is what you were taught to do: fast for what you want. So what happened?
There is a ministry whose fellowship is without a building because they understand that the veil is torn and fellowship is among the church not in the ‘church’. TMP they are called. In one of their teachings, they described one way you can live a fasted life. Keeping in mind that fasting is to abstain from something as directed by God and only by God (now you see one reason why you didn’t get it). One thing God has commanded we do is live a fasted lifestyle by abstaining from sin. Yes! You fast from sin FOR LIFE!! When you don’t, terrible things happen.
Look at David in the reading. He saw a woman. He wanted the woman. He ‘wifed’ the woman (in case you didn’t know, sex is how you became married). She became pregnant. He tried to get the woman’s husband to lay with her. He murdered the woman’s husband. The woman bore a child.
As is customary, all kings had at least one prophet and his was Nathan. Nathan told David a story. There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich man took the poor man’s only sheep, who was like a family member, to cook for a guest he’d received. Hearing this, David was upset with this rich man, only to find that he was the rich man in the parable.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. 2 Samuel 12:9-10
If you know anything about King David, he rarely fasted from sin. He was always in one situation or another. People like to blame God for their issues and loss, but really it’s your fault. You didn’t fast from sin. Like David, when you are a child of God, your sin done secretly will shame you publically.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. 2 Samuel 12:13-14
One of the things David lost as a result of his sin was his child. Keep reading. David fasted and fasted to keep his child from dying.
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. 2 Samuel 12:16-17
During this fast, David lost a lot of weight (if that) but gained nothing. His fast only resulted in him having a slimmer look because after seven days of being sick and David’s fasting, the child still died. David went on to explain to his servant’s that he was hoping to receive mercy from God for his unfasted lifestyle. You may ask how can his lifestyle be unfasted when David just finished fasting, but if he’d abstained from sin in the first place, he wouldn’t have to pull an impromptu fast to try to convince God of anything. And he knew this.
But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. 2 Samuel 12:19-23
David’s sin received no favors from God. No one’s sin will. It’s only a repented heart and a confessed tongue who will receive the promises of God. Jesus was always found preaching repentance. Do you not believe that it was very important to Him?
Repentance means to do something no longer. Living a fasted life, by default, means sinning no more. It is said that for every action there is a reaction. This saying can be said to be taken from the Bible. It was a Bible thing before it was a science thing.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7
Whatever you plant, that is what will grow. It’s not maybe. It’s not possibly. It is so! It is for sure. Fasting all willy-nilly will get you nowhere. Fast as God leads you. The important thing is to fast from sin. Repent! Change course. What you are doing is not working and as David saw, fasting will not change the end result of your sin. Obey and know that He has a perfect, good, and bright plan for you.
Living a fasted lifestyle,
Keiyia JOYet George
Trust Walk: Walking in His Steps coming soon!