Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Fasting - Week 3 of 3


This is the final recap of my experience during my 21 day fast. My biggest obstacle was praying all day long consistently which was difficult at times due to having a full time job.  I will be better prepared for a 21 day fast next January. 
This fast has led me through many different emotions and levels of God’s presence.  I have experience the reward of the humbling of my flesh that can only take place during a fast.  I have been dying to my own will and desires, and experiencing what desires  God wants for my life.

Keep in mind that my primary objective during the fast was to pray for my granddaughter who suffers so much, my wife, family, friends, and people who come to the Healing Room.  I really was the last person on the priority list.  What I found out was that God had to work a breakthrough in me first before breakthrough could occur in the people that I was praying for.  I hope to share in the future about breakthrough with others that I was praying for as they are revealed. Below are a few things that I want to share with you.

  • I have been able to truly receive God’s love at a level that I had never been able to experience.  Because of this, I have been able to express this love to my wife and children.  Understand, all my life I have guarded my emotions, but now I want to show myself and others the love that God has given me.
  • I received a word a couple of months ago.  The word is encumbrance which means weighed down.  When we are weighed down with the things of this world and the sin that we have, we don’t see clearly.  The Bible describes this as a veil (2 Corinthians 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing).  Fasting has helped me remove a huge part of the veil that was a hindrance to where God wanted me to be. (Ezekiel 13:21 I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people out of your hand, and they shall no longer be as prey in your hand. Then you shall know that I am the Lord).  I need a unveiled mind and spirit to be able to stand in the gap for others.
  • During the fast, I took Communion each day on a suggestion from Linda who is a sister in Christ.  During this time, my wife brought to me the importance of Communion and how I must be aware of what Communion really means each and every day (Matthew 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins).  Communion has taken on a very special meaning in my life.  I have decided to continue to take Communion each and every day.
  • I will continue to fast each Sunday and Monday leading into the Healing Room on Monday night.  I pray that you will come to the Healing Room and experience healing and deliverance in Jesus name from the things that are troubling you.  You won’t leave in the same condition as you came in.

I fully understand that God’s priorities are seldom my priorities.  That is the difference in the nature of man and the nature of God.  The Bible says in Isaiah 55:9  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. So how do we better positon ourselves to hear from God?  How do we free ourselves from our own desires to know His will?  For me, it has been fasting and it causes me to take the sword of God’s Word and separate what I want from what I need.

When you fast and sanctify yourself unto God, it moves you off the same old beaten track to a realm of unbelievable breakthroughs, including miracles.  There are far too many people on the edge of what God is doing, and not enough of us standing firmly in the middle of His will.  Do you want to change your life, your family, friends, and others?  You are the one that can make these changes – fast, sanctify yourself, and take a firm stand in the middle of God’s will.  When family, friends, and ministry people see you stepping off the edge of mere “Sunday morning religion” and getting right in the middle of what God is doing, they will follow and find God’s direction for their lives as well.

We all desire to be in the will of God and to walk according to His plans.  Sanctification is the key to being in God’s will (Joshua 3:5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”).  Fasting is an essential means of sanctifying yourself, pulling yourself away from the world, and getting closer to God.  Fasting allows you to filter your life and to set yourself apart from your fleshly life to see God in all His glory.  Fasting is what prepares you for a new anointing (Mark 2:20  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days). 

It is my prayer that you make fasting a part of your life, as we are instructed by God.

Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord.

Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly;

In Jesus name,

Tony Sanchez

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