The purpose of fasting
is to subdue the soul,
and to make the mind the dominant ruler of the person. 
It deprives us from satisfying our desires, 
and stops the dominance of the soul’s desire.

It makes the mind the dominant ruler that we walk by; 
so we walk by  knowing, and not by feelings.
 

What Fasting Does Within a Person:

    When you deprive the body of food, the soul's yearning is centered on food,
and it's deisre for other things such as pleasure is diminished. 

People's main concern is for the basic necessities 
such as food and clothing and shelter;

and without them, the concern for other less necessary things,  are diminished. 
Once we have these things, then we think of other things that we want,
such as pleasures to satisfy the hungry soul’s desires. 
The soul like Esau's, always wanted things, no matter how much it has.
(Gen.
 

    When we fast, it is to kill this desire of the soul to every craving for satisfaction,
and to turn to spiritual satisfaction which is the mind dominiance.
One yearns for the things of God, who can really satisfy our longing,
which comes from the soul. 
The person can now fill his or her mind and soul (heart) with the things of God.
The desires of the soul will be in harmony with the will of God. 
 
 

    The person will not walk by how he feels, with the soul in subjection, 
but will walk by faith, by resting on the Word of God. 
When one is satisfied with everything to the comfort of the body,
the soul is satisfied and the things of God becomes vague and secondary. 
 

    A person lives by the craving and satisfying of the emotions of the soul. 
Everything he or she does, must satisfy his or her heart’s desire,
that is have a good feeling about it. 

The soul is dominant and controlling the mind to do things through the body,
to satisfy the emotions of the soul; this is the problem that we have. 
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,
and gives in to the temptations of the world and Satan. 
We are controlled by our emotions and we decide with our mind 
if it is beneficial or harmful for the body, and make our decisions.

Those who cannot control their emotional feelings,
are overruled by the mind,
and become  slaves to the soul, and are said to be soulish. 

    By fasting you are depriving the body from it basic sustenance. 
The basic things that are needed to survive, are food and water. 
We can survive without anything except these two things. 
By fasting you have made your mind active and dominant,
for you are thinking of food. 
Although the soul is craving for satisfaction, because you have purposely deprived it food by fasting,
and by not giving  in to the craving of the soul, the mind is dominant. 

    The person is not thinking of pleasure or other things when the basic necessities are not met. 
When we have the necessary sustenance,
then the next things of importance are considered,
and so on down the line of importance.
 
 

    In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were living a life of fluctuation. 
When the children had everything, and things would go on well, 
they forget God and went into idolatry. 
Then Jehovah would cause something to happen to them to deprive them of their satisfied life,
and they would cry unto the LORD and promise to obey him. 
This went on for many generations. 
God would use the prophets to warn them from time to time. 
 

    Fasting is liken to this, but in a spiritual way. 
To deprive you soul from satisfaction in the physical. 
To bring your soul (emotions) into submission to the spirit.
Now you can rest (your soul) and have closer communion with God through His Spirit. 
And it is voluntary.

Fasting is not to make you more holy.

You cannot be more holy than you are in Christ. 
Some people fast thinking that they are getting more holy or holier by fasting.
 

    When the spirit (our mind) is filled with the Word of God, 
the spirit is the authority of the person.

The soul is then in submission to the spirit of the person,
and he walks by faith according to the Word of God. 
He will say, "I know" and not "I feel" toward the will of God. 
If he does not know, he waits until he knows. 

Feelings comes from his soul through his emotions that are aroused under law,
and knowing comes from his spirit, through the Holy Spirit under Grace. 
 

    A person who becomes involved with drugs is controlled by his soul, 
his emotions, because he is longing for something to fulfill his soul's desires. 

He is not longing for the drug, but the fulfillment of his emotional needs,
until he becomes hooked. 
The person is really hook on the emotionalneed for drugs,  and not too much physical,
as one may think.  He goes through therapy to cut the supply of drugs to the soul. 
He is said to be cured when his body no longer craves for the drug. 

However he is not emotionally cured, 
and still has the desires of the soul in dominance.
When things in his or her life is not fulfilling, his will fall back into drugs or liquor,
to satisfy the pain that comes with failure or rejections of this world. 
 

  A person who is excessively over weight cannot stop eating. 
Physically the body does not need the food to sustain his life. 
He can live off his excessive fat, but he is seeking emotional satisfaction,
and keeps eating to satisfy his emotions emptiness and gets even fatter. 
 

    A another person who is controlled by his emotions may keep buying things.
He may rationalize that he need the thing that he is buying. 
After he buys it, he realize he does not really need it,
and may even regret buying it in the first place.
He has satisfied his emotional need temporarily. 
He then goes and buy another thing to satisfy  his continual yearning,
that can only be satisfied by God. 

He thinks he needs it, but it is the soul that is in control of his mind,
making it think he needs it.
This is really to satisfying his emotional needs;  he is controlled by his soul. 
All go through satisfying our emotional needs in different ways. 
Some are alcoholics and some are workaholics and some are pleasureholics. 

It is really the soul that is yearning to be satisfied. 

    When a person is born again, his spirit is revived, 
and now through the Spirit of God,
and the Word of God, his mind filled with spiritual things. 

He can walk by faith, with his soul’s desire, in subjection to his spirit. 

He or she has come to realize that some one cares and loves them. 

The emotional needs are satisfied, and in subjection to the spirit of his or her mind. 
But we have the tendencies to forget this love of God for us,
and we get involve with other things to satisfy our emotional needs.

Some Christian gets involve with working very hard for the Lord,
thinking this is satisfying and showing that they love the Lord. 
This is putting the cart before the horse. 

    The church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-5) was working very hard for the Lord,
but was rebuked, for they had forgotten their first love. 
Their first love is not their love for christ, 
but God’s love for us
(Joh 3:16; 1Joh. 4:10, 19). 

They had forgotten the Cross!

    Jesus said, "As long as the bridegroom, or someone that we love and enjoy,
is with them, there is no need to fast".
 The soul is satisfied and there is no longing. 
But when someone that we love is away, we miss that person. 
It is our soul that is longing.  It is our emotions, our feelings that are aroused,
and it comes from our soul. 

Fasting then, is to bring the soul into subjection,
that our soul (emotions) does not control our lives.

We do not behave by our emotions, and do irrational things.
 

    When the disciples could not cast out evil spirit from the man, 
Jesus said to them, these cannot happen except by fasting and by prayer. 
To find victory over satan, one must know his total submission to Jesus Christ,
and in prayer and in supplication 
(Eph. 6:10-18). 

To be in this position, one's soul must be in total submission to one's spirit, 
and the person must be in the spirit and walking by faith in the Word of God.
He does not walk by how he feels in the soul. 
Fasting is the way to do this.

The Apostle Paul says in 1Cor. 7:5:

"Give yourself to fasting and prayer that satan does not tempt you for you incontinency"
(powerless). 
 Food is the basic thing the we need for survival. 

    If we are to give up anything to survive, it would come down to the bare necessities.
and the last thing will be FOOD. 

Without food, one will eventually die.

When a person is hungry, food is the only thing on his mind. 
After he is fed, he may think of other things. 
In America, where food is plentiful, we take food for granted. 
No matter what we do, we take time off to eat and feed our body. 
After we eat and are satisfied, we think of other things to please our longing, 
may it be pleasure or work. 

Fasting is to have the mind in control, 
by shutting out the soul's longing for satisfaction,
through the physical. 
It is to kill the desires of our soul,  that it be subject to the spirit,
and we walk by faith and not by our desires. 

    When the  flesh is being deprived of food,
then the only thing that can satisfied the person is spiritual things. 

When a person is ready to die, he does not normally think of food,  but will instead pray. 
 When you fast, what you are doing is bringing your soul into submission.
The soul (desires) do not  control the mind (spirit) of the person.

When food is deprived voluntarily, 
the mind becomes the controller of the soul (desires) of that person.

You do not live by satisfying your every desire. 

Food is the first and basic need of the person in survival. 
A person will eventually stop everything and anything that his doing,
no matter how enjoyable, and take time to eat. 

When one fasts his mind on food, and when food is not available,
because one is abstaining voluntarily, he is not feeding his soul's desire.
He brings his soul into submission to the Spirit of God. 

GO HOME
 
 
 
 

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