No doubt some of you who are reading this are thinking "what in the world is fasting." In its most basic definition, fasting is doing without something in order to focus on God. There are several types of fasting mentioned in the Bible. Most of them involve doing without food for a set period of time. Moses, David and Jesus all did without food. Daniel gave up meat and sweets and other stuff, only eating certain veggies and fruits for 21 days.
John Wesley reportedly said that "A Christian who doesn't fast will no more go to heaven than a Christian who doesn't pray." I'm not sure if that is true, but I do know that fasting is a critical spiritual discipline that so many of us miss out on.
A couple of things happen when you fast. First, when you deny your fleshly needs in order to seek God, your sinful nature gets a slap down. As you do that you find that your desire for the things of God gets more intense. Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled." Second, supernatural things happen in your life. Fasting can be like pouring gasoline on the fire of your prayers. Jesus told his disciples that there were some demonic forces that could only be broken by fasting and prayer. Daniel received an angelic visitation and answer to prayer after a 21 day fast. I personally have had some unbelievable answers to prayer during and immediately after periods of fasting.
As a church we are not requiring that anyone participate in this fast. This is a totally voluntary thing. If you do decide to join us on this journey, we want you to ask God what He wants you to do. For some of us, it may be a good idea to spend the next 10 days unplugged from media. For others, maybe you will feel called to skip a meal and spend that time in prayer. Just be obedient to what God puts in your heart to do and follow through.
Our goal in this 10 day period is twofold. First, we want you all to grow in your personal spiritual walk with Jesus. As we focus on our relationship with Him leading up to Good Friday and Easter I think you will see some serious growth as a disciple of Jesus. Second, we want to be prepared as a church for what God is going to do on Easter and over the following weeks. We believe that in the next few weeks a lot of people that we don't even know yet will be connecting with LifeGate and experiencing the whole new way of life that only Jesus can give.
To help and encourage you through the fast, our lead team will be posting a blog per day on this site. We'll be talking about what the Cross and Easter mean to us. We'll be sharing some video and reflections from Pastor Ashley's trip to Israel. And we will be giving you some practical encouragement on your fasting journey.
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