Fasting, our ‘feasting’ time!
When satan tempted Jesus asking Him to make bread out of stone after His forty days of fast, Jesus answered: “it is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ “(Matthew 4:4 )
Yes, for forty days Jesus was actually ‘feasting’ on the Words that proceeded from the mouth of the Heavenly Father! Even though His outward man was not eating for forty days, His real inner man was feasting on the Words of God!
We who are born through the Word and Spirit of the same Father God, can live an overflowing and radiant life, just like Jesus lived on this earth, by being fed on the same Words that proceed from God towards each one of us personally all the time!
Jesus defeated the devil with the knowledge of the written Word, but lived the extraordinary life by being fed on the Words that were proceeding out of the mouth of God! We must
learn the written Word thoroughly so that we can stand against the wiles of the enemy. Jesus once said: “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures ( written Word)or the power of God.”(Matthew 22:29)
But this knowledge of the Scriptures alone cannot bring life in us. We have to hear and receive into our spirits the life giving ‘Rhema ‘ word which is the food of the inner man! “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”(John 6:63 ). In this verse Jesus is using the present tense, which means that He speaks to us all the time. Let’s listen to Him. Inorder to listen, let’s sit with Jesus just like He sat with the Father during His fast and also everyday early in the morning. He taught us to pray: ‘ give us our daily bread ‘!
Yes dear ones, we have our bread delivered to us daily; not weekly nor just on Sundays.
We never forget to feed our stomachs thrice daily and our minds with loads of information; but many a times our real personality, the inner man- the born again spirit is starving even though the feast is ready all the time!
– Dr. Thomas Abraham
( Thomaskutty brother)