Genesis 1:24-25
DAY SIX God said, “I command the earth to give life to all kinds of tame animals, wild animals, and reptiles.” And that’s what happened. God made every one of them. Then he looked at what he had done, and it was good.
The tame animals and wild animals came on day five in my life. They were camped out in my family room to watch the college football national championship tonight. Just in case you missed it…. my team won 🙂
GEAUX TIGERS!!!
Today I have found myself struggling with the fast. I woke up excited about the idea of getting creative with Daniel fast-friendly football food and then realized that I had to drive my oldest to a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for her high-school crew club. With no time to dig into the Bible or drop to my knees, I suddenly had two dozen circles of sin sitting on my kitchen counter. How nicely they would go with a hot cup of coffee….
In a desperate attempt to avoid cooking up some bacon and eggs and making myself a feast, I went to my room and began looking for fasting encouragement. I’ve read a ton today, but the devotion at the following link gave me the most motivation.
http://www.newlivingtranslation.com/03spiritualjourney/column1.asp?aID=661
Nice to know that I’m not the only sinner around with “hell in my heart”.
A few weeks ago our family joined another family in purchasing half a cow and half a pig. At this moment I have two freezers full of meat that I can not eat. Tonight I began to think about how tasty a steak would be for dinner. First I realized that the grilled piece of meat I was visualizing was just a symbol for all that God is doing in me right now and then I came across this verse.
Philippians 3:18-20 CEB
As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross. Their lives end with destruction. THEIR GOD IS THEIR STOMACH, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things. Our citizenship is in heaven. We look forward to a savior that comes from there—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ummm….. I don’t particularly like that part about lives ending with destruction being linked to “THEIR GOD IS THEIR STOMACH”. Before I release my steak fantasies, I need to document their symbolism in today’s journey through fasting, prayer and revelation (revvies).
As I stood in the kitchen preparing to eat a bowl of purple soup that my friend Julie promised would be good I got one of those little cartoon bubbles over my head. I’m sure if you were standing there you could have actually seen it. Inside the bubble were two raw ribeyes that were roughly the same size. One was just a big slab of bone and beautiful red meat. The other had big chunks of white fat all the way around it. In my mind, I chose the one with the least amount of fat. Don’t get me wrong. I love me some crispy grilled fat on the edge of my steak. But if choosing between two steaks that are the same size, I’m going to take the one that will give me the most meat. Why? When placed on a fire the fat will melt away and the meat will not. I like meat. Therefore, I chose the steak that would yield the greatest amount of meat when placed on the fire.
This brings me to the fat God is trimming from my life today. Today I grasped that every single thing in my life that is not 100% aligned with what I was put on this planet for, is fat. I’m tired of all the things in my life that melt away and get charred when I walk through the fire. This realization has led to some decisions that have been difficult to make, but those decisions have left me and my dear hubby with total peace.
There are really only three things in this world that bring me total fulfillment: 1) Loving my husband and having him love me in return. 2) Seeing the fruits of my parenting efforts reap a harvest in my children. 3) Writing.
Now. If I had been given a third option of a Kobe steak that is well-marbled with the fat blended so finely with the grain of the meat that it would be impossible to remove, I would have taken option number 3. I feel like I need to add that last bit of information because my life would be quite void without friends, extended family, our church, and my many hobbies. But when those things become priorities, they become the kind of fat that needs to be trimmed.
For those of you fasting with me, I do hope that you’ve thoroughly enjoyed my steak story. 😉
Tonight I will lay my head on my pillow thanking God that I am free to choose whether or not I want to keep those things in my life that are not aligned with His will or keep them and live a life that is full of good-purposes, just not His purposes. He is indeed pretty great!
Here is the invite I sent to several women in my life a few days ago. If you feel called to join in on this journey, I’d love to hear about it. God is doing something BIG!
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting.” – Daniel 9:3
There are several websites with information on the Daniel fast that I will provide at the end of this message. I’m sure if you go searching you can find a few more. They all have books and material for sale, but the printed material is not necessary to participate in the fast.
“In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.”
Daniel 10:2,3
If you want to do a literal interpretation, feel free to skip bathing and spit out anything that tastes good. I don’t like to stink, soooo, I think I’ll keep anointing myself. However, I will be giving up meat/animal products, my occasional cocktail or glass or wine, and pretty much anything other than veggies, fruits, nuts and beans.
That covers the what of the fast, so now I guess I need to cover the why. For the past two weeks, God has been speaking to me about fasting before Thanksgiving. At first I thought, “Hey! Good idea! I’ve gained about ten pounds since we moved into our new home (I like it here and I’ve grown quite fond of just sitting and eating all day). I thought maybe I was being called to fast so that I could shed the extra pounds in order to gain them all back over the holidays. But, no. God doesn’t work like that. In the last 48hrs, I have taken a spiritual beating. Several things have been revealed that have left Chad and I trying to catch our breath. We’ve been hit from completely unexpected angles and we’ve been kicking ourselves for not heeding discernment much earlier in the year. We do not want to land in October of 2012 repeating the same lessons simply because we haven’t listened to the voice of Holy Spirit. We want to be obedient. I will begin the fast on Tuesday November 1st and break it on Tuesday November 22nd. In those 21 days, I hope to lay down all the pieces of Kaci that are detrimental to God’s purpose for me in 2012. These 21 days will be about death and revelation. I know that there are pieces of Kaci that need to die and I pray for revelation on what God is trying to develop in me. I am seeking the heart of God inside of me. On November 22nd I want to wake up with less of me and more of Him than what exists today. And… I’m hoping he gives me some pretty clear answers on a couple of issues.
My own personal plan is to study the sermons of Christ. I’ve done this before and found that his preaching delivered a love story written just to me. This time I hope to find his heart buried in me, but I’m open to whatever he wants to tell me or teach me. I already know that at least one of you is being called to a study of the book of James. I plan to blog (big shocker, I know) through the scriptural and spiritual journey of the fast. I would love to hear what God is revealing to you if you decide to take this journey with me. If you’re interested in walking through one of the gospels or all of Jesus’ sermons, I found this site that has a pretty good guide. http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/default.asp
http://daniel-fast.com/
http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/
http://danielfast.wordpress.com/
Lux, Libertas 