During Your Fasting

Get Time Alone

Taking care of a church, business or family can make constant demands on your time. Time alone can become a rare privilege but the busier you are the more you need solitude. Your ministry, company or family will survive a few hours without you. Christ got alone each day to recharge. In the midst of constant demands, He made the time for solitude and prayer.

Read the Bible
Channel surfing is the furthest thing from a spiritual high. With each click of the remote, inner emptiness grows. In that state, it becomes exceedingly difficult to read the Bible. Yet, the words of the Bible are spiritual food that recharge our spirit and stir our faith. Psalms are great if you are going through hard times. Ephesians, Philippians, James, and Colossians are great for practical guidance. During your fast, make it a discipline to read the Bible each day.

Meditate

Many Christians, in North America, consider meditation a pagan practice. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:2). Meditation is a mental exercise where you take control of your thought life through focusing on a single thought or deep relaxed breathing. If you are distracted by sounds that cannot be silenced, use some earplugs. Do not fight with your thinking; just let it go and return to focusing on the one single thought. Stay aware of your breathing and the tension in your body. Breathe deeply and try to relax your muscles. If you can spend 20 minutes of time in meditation each day, you will be more at peace throughout the day. Here are some examples of thoughts to meditate on: I am loved by God. I have been forgiven for my sin. God is with me. If you lie on a bed, you will most likely fall asleep. Sitting upright in a chair is good. I prefer kneeling on a cushion and leaning over a chair or my bed as in a position of prayer.

Do A Spiritual House Cleaning

When I was younger, I studied the writings of Confucius, The Tibetan Book of The Dead, Buddhism, Astrology, Tarot and every interesting and weird philosophy I could find. Playing bass for a heavy metal band called Black Mass, I became morosely depressed and entered a state of continual torment. Strange things started to happen. Lamps flickered when I entered a room. The guitarist and I almost died. We passed out from a drug overdose and the band practice hall, which was in a barn, caught fire. We were on a farm in the middle of nowhere, but someone entered, dragged our barely-conscious bodies from the fire and put it out. I saw his feet through the smoke. Then he vanished. I did not care; I was becoming suicidal, and life no longer mattered. The next day, at the same time and without talking to each other, two friends visited me with the same message that I was possessed and had to go to a certain church. I flopped into the seat of the truck, and the electrical system died. They prayed and the truck started. I walked into the church, and the pastor kept looking at me and appeared unable to concentrate. I just sat there in some weird trance. Suddenly, he ended the service, and asked everyone to leave, but I was asked to stay. When the pastor spoke to me, I got dizzy and ran to the bathroom with extreme vomiting and diarrhea. When I finally left the bathroom, there were 20 people in a circle and one chair in the middle that I knew was for me. Now, I am free from bondage and living with the protection of Christ. I will never forget the dangers of the spirit realm.

The Bible states that there is a war between light and darkness; that Satan is alive and active on planet Earth and to be aware of his schemes. To get right with God, you have to repent of all the cult stuff in your life. If you have old Black Sabbath albums, crystal balls used for séances, Ouija boards, tarot cards or cult books, you need to destroy them. Remove anything in your house that is an insult to God. If you are reading this chapter because you want the best from God, remember that He is a jealous God and will have no other idols before Him.

By Tom Coghill of Fasting.ws Articles  may be copied or reproduced as long as the back links to fasting.ws are intact and the author’s name is included.