Mat. 9:14-17:
The disciples
of John the Baptist did not understand about fasting and came to Jesus
and asked Him;
"Why do we and the disciples of the Pharisees
fast often but Thy disciple fast not?"
Jesus gave this Parable
of the Bride chambers and the Parable of the New Cloth and the New Wine
in relation to fasting.
Jesus said “can the children of the
bridechamber (bridal room) morn, as long as the bridegroom is with
them?
when the bridegroom shall be taken
(apartee; from apairo, which
is from 572; apo, off ;and 142; airo; lift,
carry)
then they will fast.
When the Lord is resurrected
from His death and gone to heaven His disciples will morn because of the
emptiness of the soul.
They will fast to subdue their longing
of their souls, their emotions.
FASTING:
The purpose of Fasting and what it does.
Fasting
subdues the desires of the soul
and makes the
mind the dominant ruler of the person.
As humans when we
do anything, we must feel good about it.
Doing it when we do not feel good about
it, then we do it because the mind is telling us it is better or for the
best of all concerned that we do it.
There is an involuntary and a voluntary
fasting.
An involuntary fasting comes when a crisis
is at hand.
When something is
troubling you or your family,
such as sickness, death, or other uncontrollable
situations you immediately lose your desires for physical and material
things.
The desire for recreations
and pleasures diminishes almost completely,
and even food and other necessities
can be curbed to some extent.
Your appetite for
food diminishes greatly, because the crises at hand
has occupied your soul.
The crisis has taken over, and your emotions
and your mind and your thoughts, are centered on the crises.
What has happened
is that your soul (emotions) has taking over
your heart and mind, and they are
occupied with the crises.
Your emotions are yearning for relief
of the crises, and eating and pleasure will not do this.
The person who is weak in the mind, will
be overwhelmed, by the feeling of lack and havoc in the soul;
finding no relief will cause such pain that drinking is a way of escape,
from this unbearable pain that is in the person's soul.
If it is overwhelmingly
unbearable, some will emotionally go into the state of deep despondency,
and will not be able to function rationally in the world.
The person knows in
his or her mind that drinking or suicide is wrong,
but the mind is not functioning rationally
and the emotion has taking over,
and reacts to overcome this agony.
To
some suicide is the only way out of this pain.
Whatever it is,
we try to remedy the situation, and until we do, we are concerned
only about the essential things in life such as food and clothing, but
even this diminishes to a great extent.
Some even commit suicide
if the pain is unbearable, and until it is resolved
we are centered on one thing, the crises.
Voluntary fasting is to let the mind
control the soul's emotional desire (flesh) without any crisis,
and to activate the mind of the person that he is,
in the spiritual state and not in the
carnal or soulish state.
The mind is to control
and to subdue the emotions, the desire of the soul.
The spirit of the person is in control,
for the mind has determined not to satisfy the desire of the soul and body,
by depriving it of food.
The soul once satisfied with essentials
such as food, clothing and shelter,
will go on to the next less essential
things.
The flesh which comes from
the heart, the core of the soul, is never
completely and forever satisfied.
After
essentials, it craves for satisfaction through pleasure and so on.
Fasting then deprives
the flesh, to dominate and to let the mind be in control,
and to open the way to God.
The mind is the spiritual channel to God
(Rom 7:25; 12:1-2; 2Co. 10:5; Phil.
2:5).
In voluntary fasting,
abstinence of food and water may be for a day,
or for many days. It depends on
the circumstances for the fast.
Moses on Mt. Sinai
fasted for forty days.
David fasted 7 days
until his son died.
His servants knew of his fasting and after
his son died,
he washed his face and anointed himself
and changed his clothes
(2Sa. 12:16-20).
Fasting in the Old
Testament times was done openly.
They also had a national fasting time.
In the New Testament, Jesus said to fast
in secret unto the Father
(Mat. 6:16-18).
Fasting in the New
Testament is not a ritual as in the Olden times as a day was set aside
for fasting. There are some religious group that do it as a ritual
today.
Fasting
has a purpose.
Before we can understand
the purpose of fasting,
we must understand the basic behavior
of our spirit, soul and body of a person.
In the person, the emotional desires which
come from the soul,
rules and is dominant. A person
behaves by how he feels.
He does things to
satisfy his emotional needs.
The soul is always
seeking to be satisfied (as Esau did in the O.T.)
and does this by soul dominating;
'overruling the sensibility of the mind,
and uses the mind to satisfy its physical
needs, and thus satisfying his emotional needs.
His
heart is the core of his soul and the heart is where the motive, intent
and desire comes from.
(Pro. 23:7; )
"For
as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."
This does not
mean that the heart also has a mind of its own.
This means that the person is living by
his soul,
by his feeling and by his desire that
come from his heart.
His heart is controlling his mind,
and doing things by how his feels,
and not the sensibility of his mind.
A Christian whose
mind (spirit) has been made alive by the Spirit of God,
can now fill his heart with the Word of
God through his mind. The Word secures his desire
and feeling and intent of his heart.
The Word of God,
begins to secure his heart and his mind; and he does things according
to the Word of God and not according to his own desire,
nor by his own feeling, that his
intent be pleasing to God.
He does not say, " I feel God wanted
me to do" this or that; but now he says I know. When
a Christian is walking by the dominance of the soul, and according
to its emotions,
the person is walking by sight.
He is walking
by how he or she feels, and these are the words that he will use.
When he is walking by faith, and
resting and trusting in the Word of God, he knows.
When
a person says “I feel or I felt”,
you
can be sure it is the soul that is talking.
When a person knows,
he or she will say “I know”.
Do you feel you have eternal life?
You know! Feeling is based on hunches,
and faith is base on the Word of God.
When a person is always satisfying
his or her emotional needs without thinking of the physical, legal or moral
consequences, the person is soulish, carnal.
A drug addict, an alcoholic or an excessive
overweight person,
who cannot control his eating habits,
a person who cannot control buying things is really trying to satisfy his
emotion cravings.
Unless the mind takes
control, he or she will continually have this problem.
A drug addict or an alcoholic who goes
to dry up,
will usually return to the habit,
if his mind is not dominating the soul.
It is the soul that really needs to be
rehabilitated, or in the real sense the mind
(his spirit) must be born again
by God.
The soul must be subjected to the mind
of his spirit,
that is strengthened by the Spirit of
God.
A person who
is not a Christian, cannot fill his heart with the Word of God.
His spirit (mind) is dead towards
God, and is dominated by his soul,
and lives by his heart's desire and will
overrule the sensibility of his mind.
Before I became a Christian,
I smoked for 11 years.
I tried to give it up, and did,
many times, but it lasted only for a short duration. When
I was emotionally down and needed to satisfy my emotional need,
I began to smoke again.
When I took up weight lifting I gave up
smoking because my mind was filled with the things of health and the mind
was in controlled.
After a year I gave up exercising and
I began to smoke again.
The soul or the emotions of the soul, began
to arise and overpower the sensibility of the mind, which knew that
it was bad for the body and its health.
The soul dominated and controlled the mind,
and I began to smoke once more.
The body did not have the craving
of the nicotine, but it was the soul's
craving that was being satisfied.
This happens when the person is in a low
state.
It is the soul or
emotion of the person that is not happy at that moment,
and wants to fulfill this desire with
anything that will satisfy it at that moment.
Each one of us satisfies our craving through
the body in different ways.
This is when the person is constantly
doing things by his emotions and saying "I feel this" and "I feel that",
etc.
The soul is satisfied but it is usually
short lived.
Throughout the day, the soul of
the person is always seeking for satisfaction,
in one form or another.
Some enjoy
playing and others enjoy working.
Whatever it is, it is to satisfy the emotional
needs.
The body is
the physical part that is relative to this world, to tangible things.
We do things because of our good or agreeable
feelings toward it.
It is difficult to do anything if our
emotions are not satisfied, or do not feel good about the thing we do.
It is the emotions or the soul that is
craving for the satisfaction.
If you listen carefully in many interviews
of people on radio or on television,
they use the word I feel and I felt allot,
when asked about their opinion about a subject.
This means that the person does not know
for sure and the person is speaking from his or her soul, according to
how the person feels about it..
When a person eats allot,
and is extremely over weight, the person is in reality feeding his emotional
craving rather than his physical needs.
The person can live off his excess weight
without consuming much food until he gets back to his normal weight.
A person who is also living by his soul
will buy things that is unnecessary,
and later regrets spending the money;
but finds it difficult to control his appetite for buying, because
of his emotional desires and the emptiness in his soul.
He again goes and buy another and another
only to satisfy his emotional craving, and ends up with a lot of things
that he or she really can do without.
Others
are alcoholics, workaholics and pleasureholics, etc.
Whatever the addiction
is, it is related to satisfying the craving of the soul.
The person needs to be stronger in
the mind (spirit) and overrule the craving (flesh, desires) of the
soul.
An unbeliever's spirit that is dead towards
God, will have a more difficult time.
A Christian who has his spirit quickened,
and made alive towards God,
will have more success in dealing with
the craving of the soul.
Only God can truly satisfy this craving.
A Christian whose emphasis is on works
and doing something for the Lord,
will awaken the craving of the soul,
for under law the conflict of soul and spirit will be evident
(Rom. 7:5; Gal. 5:17-18).
If it be of works then it not of Grace
and desire will eventually diminish,
and complaints will be evident as in the
case of Martha.
Service is good, but it must arise from
Grace and faith, and these comes from knowledge, by knowing
The soul satisfies its emotional
desires through the physical body.
It does this by dominating the spirit
(mind) of the person, and the mind makes the body do what
the desires of the soul demands.
No matter how much
he does, the desires of the soul can never be completely satisfied by the
things of this world.
A person can normally think, what
is harmful to himself, whatever it is, can control the soul's desire to
a certain limit.
But there are those
who knows what is harmful yet when caught in a negative situation such
as losing one's job or mate, will lose control and become irrational
(mind) and the desire of the soul takes over.
When something tragic happens, and the
person is emotionally disturbed,
he will not be able to think, as the mind
is weak, and the soul's emotions are overwhelming. This is a totally
soulish state, and the person usually submits to drinking, or other
kinds of drugs, to escape the emotional trauma, and find relief.
In truth, he
is addicted not to the alcohol, but to the relief and escape from the emotional
trauma that comes from the soul.
It seems that the body is addicted to
the drug, and it may be so to a certain extent.
In rehabilitation, the person is deprived
of the drugs,
he is depleted of the drugs or fasting
from the drugs itself,
but many go back again and again, because
he is addicted to the escape and relief from the emotion trauma and not
the alcohol itself.
In maybe other drugs, sleeping pills, eating,
buying spree, or even music, whatever it is to soothe the emotion of the
soul.
Music
is good, for it is not harmful to
the body as drugs and overeating can be.
Financial Squandering may hurt the
pocket book.
Music, however, maybe good for the soul,
it is the mind that needs to be strengthened.
Reading
of good inspiring novel and biographies
are very good.
Reading builds the mind, and the
Bible, the Word of God, is without rival,
the food for the mind and the soul.
It is the mind and soul that needs to be
rehabilitated.
The soul of the person must be in subjection
to the mind of the person.
The soul should not control the mind,
but the soul must be filled with the Word
of God through the mind.
God's way is to fill
the mind and the heart with His Word that it secures
the person, and he walks by faith, and
not by his emotions.
The mind (spirit)
of the person is the channel by which Gods speaks to us,
and He wants our soul (heart) to listen..
This is the spiritual message of why the
woman (body, soul) should be in subjection to the man (head,
spirit).
We may follow this in the church meetings,
but within the person this must also be true.*
Adverse circumstances
enters through our ears and eyes,
and it registers in our mind,
and into our souls, and the conflict begins.
Here is where some of our conflicts are.
If we remember God and His grace, our mind
will dominate our soul,
and victory will be ours.
It is God through
His Spirit who will lead under grace.
But if we go by the principle of law,
of right and wrong,
we put ourselves under the law, and
Sin will be strengthened under law
(1Cor 15:56)
and the soul's emotion will dominate.
We will behave by
our emotions and we will say "I feel God wants me to do this and I felt
God wanted me to do that, etc."
When we try, we fall again into
(Rom. 7:15-21).
Trying is the energy of the
person,
and opposed to the teaching of the Scriptures
that say, we entered into His Rest.
Trying is contrary to faith, as faith
comes from the spirit of the mind and knowing; and feeling is unsure and
comes from the soul.
Christians should
not go by what is right or wrong, for this what Eve did in the Garden of
Eden.
She did according
to what she heard from the temptation of the serpent,
and saw with her eyes,
and it entered into her soul and she dominated
Adam and he listened to Eve.
In the Old Testament, the story of
Jacob and Esau depicts the soul and the desires (flesh) of the soul
vividly.
Jacob and Esau were
twins, as our soul and our desires (flesh)
are closely related.
Jacob represents our
soul,
and
Esau represents our
flesh, the desires of our souls.
God
loved Jacob and hated Esau.
God loves us, our
soul, but hates our desires of our flesh, or fleshly desires.
Laban was Jacob's father-in-law.
Laban represents the law, and the
relation of Laban and Jacob
was one of service.
Laban always demanded
that everything is done according to law.
Jacob worked 7 years for the hand of Rachael,
but Laban gave Leah, the older daughter,
because it was according to the law.
Jacob (our soul)
had trouble with Esau (our flesh) and was afraid of him.
As long as Jacob was in relationship with
Laban (law) he had trouble with Esau.
As soon as Laban left
Jacob
(Gen. 32:44-55)
and went back to where he came from, Jacob
and Esau became friends
(Gen. 33:1-12).
As long as we put ourselves under the
law, our flesh will trouble us.
(Gal. 5:1, 16-18).
Under Grace our desires
will be pleasing to God.
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