welcome to episode 25 of Raised to deliver podcast it's been my joy to share some of my thoughts
with you and we try to keep this very short so that you can listen to them on your way
on your drive on your bus ride or somewhere on your workout as well and i hope that these were
a blessing to you and these are a blessing to you if they are make sure you let me know
leave a comment or leave a review where you're watching these or listening to these so that
we can also know that you are participating in this and share them with your friends it would
mean a lot to me i would like to talk about how fasting is the key to fervency fasting is the key
to fervency a lot of times you know a hot heart a heart burning for jesus doesn't burn all the time
i like to use the example of when the apostle paul got to the island of patmos and the bible
says that that the natives kindled the fire but Paul was putting the sticks into the fire
and that's kind of how it is with our heart a lot of times somebody jumpstarts somebody kindles the
flame in our heart whether it's a conference an encounter with god or a book or a sermon but we
do have the responsibility to put on the sticks into that flame for that flame to keep on burning
and one of those sticks one of those logs of wood that keep the fire
burning in us is fasting fasting a key to fervency you know when disciples of jesus came to
uh excuse me actually the disciples the pharisees came to jesus and they said the disciples of John
are fasting and your disciples aren't fasting and Jesus told them this he says when the
you know bridegroom is at the wedding he says his best friend is not fasting but after the wedding
he said you know then they'll begin to fast he was talking about his disciples that once jesus will
be taken away the disciples will continue will begin to fast and we see this history of early
church that disciples were fasting in fact two days out of the week the early church would fast
and but there's a spiritual application there that when you begin to sense the closeness with god
is no longer where it used to be you will need to fast when the bridegroom is taken
away then they'll fast i really believe that if you want to stay on fire for god
you have to keep fasting as a habit in your life not just as a response to some kind of a crisis
not just as a response to some kind of a calamity not just like when you're in some deep
deep deep spiritual bondage and then you fast because there's no other thing that you can do
at that point but as a habit as a lifestyle it will keep your heart recalibrated and keep your
heart burning it's like keep on putting wood into the fire it will keep the fire burning
i like to say like this that fasting helps you to last if you want to last you gotta fast fasting
helps you to last even after 21 days to extend the time i really want to encourage you to make
fasting a habitual thing in your walk with god in this year make it a weekly thing maybe one day a
week maybe a monthly thing three days a month or something like that live your most radical year
now not some day not one day not when crisis hits but now the bible says in Romans that when
sin revived i died you know a lot of us we spiritually die because sin has a revival
but it's time for you to have revival and for sin to die for flesh to die but for you to be in
a spiritual revival and one of those things that helps you to live in spiritual revival is a fasted
life fasting is the key to fervency with the lord in revelation chapter 3 the last church that Jesus
addressed lukewarm church we call it you know it says things like i know your works that you are
neither cold or hot i wish you were cold or hot so then because you are lukewarm neither cold or hot
i will vomit you out of my mouth you know it's speaking about a believer particularly a leader
particularly a church that is a mouthpiece of god a church that's you know in God
and that's not fervent but also not frozen let me say that again this particular believer
or church is not fervent it's not on fire but it's also not frozen it's somewhere in between
and Jesus says it this kind of a christian is tasteless they're honestly they're they're not
good to the lord the lord is not pleased with a half-hearted part-time barely getting through
i'm not on fire but hey at least i'm not frozen kind of christianity bible calls it lukewarm and
then he says this to this person he says because you say i am rich and have become wealthy have
need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked you know
there's this illusion of prosperity and deception that well of wealth and this honestly cockiness
that comes in because of self-righteousness a lot of times the more financially prosperous we
are if we are not careful it can go into our head and it could give us an illusion that we are also
spiritually rich that we are also spiritually wealthy and we could be completely spiritually
bankrupt spiritually wretched and yet financially prosperous especially western christians you know
we are doing well financially a lot of us are and a lot of us have applied biblical
principles and our finances and we are doing good and praise God for that as long as we're generous
we keep our hearts pure but if that creates a notion that now i am spiritually the same way
it's really sad i remember there was an awakening moment in my life where i already had a second
property a second investment property that i lived in and it wasn't a new property was an old beaten
up duplex but nevertheless it was the second one that i owned i was only 25 years of age and the
ministry was struggling the ministry wasn't doing good i was spiritually honestly not doing as good
as i should have been doing but financially i was doing better the church didn't pay me a lot
but i used other means and to make money and investments and different opportunities and the
Lord convicted my heart and he said you're getting better at your finances that at your fire your
finances are growing faster than your fervency for me and he said that's not how it's supposed
to be in your life you're supposed to outgrow your finances with your fire with your fervency for me
i got so convicted i actually me and my wife we took all of our savings and we gave them away
right after that we started to radically give everything that came into our life why because
i don't want to grow financially and outgrow my fervency my passion and my love for Jesus Christ
and fasting helps to add that fuel to that fervency to that passion to that fire for god
you know maybe you are there right now maybe you're a leader pastor or
a small group leader and you lost that fire you lost that fervency i just want to encourage you
maybe you're growing in other areas maybe you're picking up physical weight maybe you're growing
financially maybe you got more degrees than a thermometer your your ministry is growing your
number of followers are growing and everything but if your heart's passion for God is the same
and you're simply comforting yourself and saying well but at least i'm not frozen
Jesus is sick of you exactly he is tired of you you need to repent you need to repent Jesus is not
pleased with a lukewarm believer he gave his son he gave his life for you he gave his spirit for
you not so that you will be just lukewarm not so you will be chosen frozen not so that you will be
complacent but so that you will be dedicated and burning for God you know one time i got a picture
of myself actually that honestly wrecked me of a homeless man digging through the garbage
i don't know if you ever seen a picture or maybe a film or a video
of a homeless person going from one garbage can to another looking for scraps and when all we do
is go from the garbage dump of a social media to movies tv shows switching from hulu to amazon
video to netflix to apple tv to youtube videos and all we do day in day out is looking for scraps
honestly we are spiritually homeless wretched people and God wants us to purchase gold
his valuables he wants to clothe us with his clothing and he wants us to anoint our eyes with
his medicine he wants us to come back he wants us to repent he wants us to realign our life he
wants us to be burning for him he wants us to be on fire for him not be homeless but to be holy
not to go through scraps but to feast and have an appetite for his word
to go into his word to go into the things of God he says i will vomit you out from my mouth
if you're a man of God a woman of God a preacher or a leader and your heart is not burning for the
Lord very soon you will have nothing worth to say nothing convicting nothing that's going to feed
bless other people because you will no longer be in the mouth of Jesus meaning you will no longer
be used of Jesus to communicate his word and maybe today you've set that standard so low for yourself
and you said well as long as i'm not frozen i am doing fine
that's not good the standard shouldn't be that low we shouldn't aim that low having the Holy
Spirit live inside of us having the eternal home understanding the spiritual world our standard
should be fervent in spirit and one of the things that helps us to go from complacent to fervent
is fasting is a life of fasting you know i heard of a little kid who didn't want to improve his
basketball basketball skills and he couldn't jump really high so what he did is he went to the
basketball court and reduced and lowered the basketball hoop to his height so that he doesn't
have to jump really high to score three or to score two points and that's that's how a lot of
people live today is they lower God's standards to the level of their convenience to the level
of their complacency they find scriptures to justify their half-hearted complacent you know
watered-down christian life that's no longer burning for the Lord and they justify it they make
excuses for it but honestly painted fire doesn't burn if your heart is not burning for God it's
God is not pleased with that and maybe you're not doing big sins that don't get you in trouble i'm
not talking about not going to heaven i'm talking about living in the reality of God's kingdom today
living in the most radical life today for the lord and so i just want to encourage you get
on fire again start fasting again start praying again start giving again become
more rich toward god than you are in your bank account become more rich toward the Holy Spirit
than growing in your social media or growing in so many other areas let your passion for God grow
even if your ministry doesn't even if your small group doesn't let you grow in God in Jesus name
thank you for listening to this episode i hope that it was encouragement to you
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and also as every week i'll remind you that all of my content all of my books my sermon
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