Aug 13
23
Do You Want More?
Brad Cullen
I have written no little about fasting in the past and fended off no little argument because of it; particularly from those who have escaped the horrors of certain legalistic religious backgrounds and danced happily into the doctrine of “grace” and wrote to me that fasting smacked of legalism.
I confess that I started off arguing with our SPIRIT-PARENT this morning when I kept getting nudged to write about fasting …because I didn’t want to precipitate a bunch of ridiculous comments about “legalism vs. grace” …neither do I wish to get into the health pros and cons nor the “biblical” pros and cons. As to the latter, oh yes, I have seen some of the longest, driest, most boring diatribes on both sides of the argument about whether fasting is “good” or “bad” sent me by individuals using any number of Bible passages to shore up the particular argument they happened to offer.
All I know is that I am supposed to write about fasting this morning, whether you should read it is a simple matter. Are you being nudged by our SPIRIT-PARENT to read it? Have you asked? Do you want more SPIRIT-PARENT involvement surrounding your life?
Is Fasting for you? Ask Source.
Is fasting for you? This is not a recommendation for anyone to attempt to fast …this is a treatise about one man’s experience and something this one man is able to say: I have never personally known anyone who lives and operates in the presence, power and influence of SPIRIT that produces the seemingly supernatural through an individual who hasn’t gone for a significant period without ingesting food.
In the early 1980s I had been invited to share in a spacious home, near a large Bible college that was prominent within the so-called “faith movement.” A group of about forty students from that college had gathered to hear what I had to say. These were mature adults from all walks of life who had chosen to take sabbaticals from their professions and businesses to take part in a semester of “Advanced Training for Ministry in the Power of the Holy Spirit” which was being offered by the college.
The reason I had been sent there was that I had been quite active until just recently, at the time, in a “deliverance ministry.” If you are not familiar with the term, deliverance has to do with casting out “demons” or “evil spirits” …both of which are terms that are used in various English translations of the Bible.
You can be delivered from the body's addictions.
I had come to the place of believing that every person who took Jesus’ words, “I give you all authority” (over the works of the “enemy”), seriously, should know what that authority is, how to access it and that it should NOT be a specialized “ministry” among a few select individuals. I had become outspoken in that stance and hence the reason for this invitation to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
One of the men present, a successful building contractor in his mid forties, interjected during a question and answer period that he had fasted for forty days and “it hadn’t changed anything.” I encouraged him to say more – he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m just telling you that fasting didn’t do anything for me.”
“That’s interesting,” I said, “can you tell me why you fasted?”
“Just to prove that I could go without eating anything or drinking anything except water for forty days …and I did”. . .
“That’s amazing, you are the first person I have ever run into who has fasted for that reason …that’s wonderful.”
“I don’t see how you could call it wonderful, you are telling us that fasting is important to operating in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and I’m telling you that it didn’t change anything.” He was almost combative in this response.
Power is abundant when choosing just this.
“Oh, but it did,” I responded, “you fasted to prove you could and you were successful, a perfect example of something very important – because of the purpose for which you fasted you reinforced belief and trust in your own ability – which gets in the way of operating in the presence and power of Holy Spirit.”
He came up to me afterwards and thanked me profusely for helping him.
“What on earth did I say that was any help to you?” I asked, flabbergasted at his sincere thanks after what he had said during the discussion perhaps two hours previously.
“All my life I’ve been very successful knowing that I could do anything and this has been true for me in business and sports …what an idiot,” he said in total humility, shaking his head, “You woke me up to the fact of a raging ego getting in the way of doing anything, as you put it, in Holy Spirit presence and power. I intend to fast now, with total concentration on breaking through to dependence upon Him rather than me …thanks again, really” . . . he patted me on the shoulder and walked out still shaking his head and smiling in a self-effacing manner, chagrinned at awakening to the ridiculousness of his own self-will.
Many breakthroughs come with fasting.
Here’s the thing, you can believe it or not …and intellectual belief doesn’t enter into the equation, you can like it or not and personal preference changes nothing – Jesus said we have an adversary, an enemy, if you prefer that term, who is the “god” or archangel who owns and controls the physical realm or “world” …this adversary rules over every aspect that some (even some scientists) refer to as the grand illusion – that which our five senses tell us is “reality.” Einstein referred to that which we see with our physical eyes as “merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
When we begin to have our spiritual eyes opened that this adversary actually owns and controls this realm then we can begin to understand the degree of deception that goes into our mindsets related to what we think of as reality.
So, then, what is the big deal about going without food? The example that started me questioning its validity was the incident over which Jesus literally called his own, hand-picked, twelve closest “students” we commonly refer to as disciples, as “a bunch of faithless perverts.”
Your miracle can be found in this glass. Ask Source.
As I stated somewhere in the foregoing I had been involved with a rather well-known evangelist who had recruited me into his deliverance ministry. Because I had seen and heard manifestations of demons and watched people be cured of all sorts of physical and emotional ills when these entities were eliminated – I was a willing recruit.
The processes that the referenced well-known evangelist used and taught were quite involved and would normally take up to two, even three hours to complete in getting rid of the invading spirit-agents. What caused me to begin to speak against this methodology was stumbling across the passage where Jesus, again, literally, called his own disciples “faithless perverts.”
That he was less than happy with them is self evident, but what caused his dissatisfaction was that they couldn’t get rid of a spirit-agent that the passage was clearly revealing was creating seizures in a small boy. After blasting away at his disciples for not being able to do what he had clearly expected them to do, the passage only says that Jesus merely “rebuked the demon and the boy was immediately cured.”
When I saw that, I practically gasped in amazement. What on earth are we doing spending hours to do something he did with a mere rebuke? I have often cited the fact that his disciples at least were honest enough to ask Jesus later, in private, why they had been unable to get rid of the demon. His explanation clears away any confusion about the reason he was upset with them and the reason for their inability: A LACK OF PREPARATION OF ENOUGH FASTING AND PRAYER.
One glass will quench your thirst. Have only this and fill your Spirit.
They had previously been successful in casting out demons, but thought they didn’t have to continue the discipline of “much fasting and prayer.”
I had been introduced to some “ministries” that had set up offices and had people come in for appointments that took weeks to accomplish what we could do in hours …a comparison that I proudly made! Yuck!!!
I asked if I shouldn’t fast to overcome my own obvious shortcoming of not being able to do what Jesus not only did, but ALSO said any individual who believed enough would do as well …and immediately had a vision of a large glass of clear water …startled, I asked the meaning of the image: I knew immediately that I was to eat nothing and drink only water for a few days. I did so, and also asked in what kind of prayer I was to engage – which is a whole other topic I have also shared many times.
Could this be your prescription?
By the end of three days I had an enormous boost in understanding of all sorts of things that previously had eluded me. It wasn’t until I had gone, literally weeks without eating any food that I understood the reason for it – and it is just this simple: In this realm we refer to as reality, we are totally dependent upon food in order to live. I began to understand that we can survive quite well without food – I love and enjoy food, but I understand at a level that I cannot even begin to explain that I don’t need food.
Back to simplicity: Do you want more of what Jesus said/says is available to anyone? He said/says that nothing shall be impossible to any individual who believes enough. He said that the preparation that opens the door to believing enough so that we can be instruments through whom spiritual healing and healing power can flow freely in seemingly impossible situations.
I am being nudged to include something in this treatise that I have written many times before. People often ask me to pray for their healing I rarely do so. I have said many times that nowhere will you read that Jesus prayed for anyone to be healed …healings were a result of one of three things: He got rid of the spirit-agent causing the problem. He told the person that was healed that it was their faith that healed them, not him. He touched them and in one instance it took a second touch.
What's in each glass of water you drink? More Spirit than you have had access to before.
Back to praying …I always pray before I agree to be involved with anyone’s request for healing …people have the silliest notions about whether it is God’s will for them to be healed. I am guilty of having the same silly notion, but whenever I ask I always get the answer …which is what the real issue is that is preventing the healing – I’m going to repeat a true story to emphasize just how dangerous praying can be.
Waynesboro, Tennessee a couple, John and Lois, both in their seventies had invited me to go with them to visit her 76 year old sister who was dying in the local hospital there. The doctors had advised the family that she had days, at best, to live. They had stopped all treatment with the exception of pain killers.
When we arrived, Lois introduced me to her sister who was lying on her back, her abdomen so enlarged from a tumor that she appeared to be nine months pregnant.
Lois and John excitedly told her of several healings that they had witnessed and asked her if she didn’t want to be healed.
“I’m in too much pain,” she barely whispered.”
“What if you could be healed and the pain was gone?” Lois asked her intently.
I saw a flicker in her eyes that indicated a spark of hope and barged in vocally, “Yes, if the pain was all gone, would you want to live?”
She turned toward me and raised herself slightly, in obvious pain and discomfort at the effort, “Of course I’d want to live, you fool!”
There is another world in "just water".
I laughed uproariously. I don’t remember the conversation that immediately followed, but I prayed silently, asking what I was supposed to do next. I immediately had a picture in my mind that someone was fervently praying that she would die!
“Excuse me for just a moment,” I said, and motioned for Lois to come out into the corridor with me.
“Somebody is praying intently for your sister to die.”
Before I could say anything further, Lois recoiled in horror, “Who would do such a thing?” She cried out.
“Someone who doesn’t believe in healing who is praying that she dies to end the pain,” I responded, “and it needs to stop in order for her to receive her healing.”
She looked puzzled momentarily, then a look of understanding came over her and she blurted, “That would be Bill,” she said exasperatedly, he’s quite religious and believes healing is a work of the devil.
I asked, and was given the solution; “Just call him and ask if he will begin praying for God’s perfect will and not her death …say just in case it is God’s will that she lives.”
She walked off purposely toward a bank of payphones down the hall. I stood there waiting. She came back, “He finally agreed, that man is so stubborn,” she said fiercely.
What power resides in this? Find out, ask Source.
We went back in to see her sister. Within minutes, the gray pallor of death had been replaced by a pink glow of perfect health — her stomach was flat and her head was cool to the touch, where she’d had a raging fever just moments before.
To the amazement of the hospital staff she was released the next morning and within a few days it was reported that she was back tending to her own garden, doing her own housekeeping, driving her own car and doing her own shopping and telling everyone that she was feeling better than she had in years.
I am not telling this story for any self-aggrandizement – anyone can do the very same things I did and still do, when they break through into an understanding of the authority that is given to each of us. Again, I repeat what I stated earlier. I don’t know of anyone through whom the SPIRIT does HER/HIS/ITS* work of healing who hasn’t spent a significant time going without food.
I am not saying it is impossible, the only point – Jesus did say and confirms today, that this kind goes out only through someone who has spent time in much prayer and fasting. Another argument is worth mentioning – people argue as to whether “this kind” is making reference to “this kind of faith” or “this kind of demon” (that caused the seizures in the boy referenced in the passage – I say: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE?
Do You Want More?
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