Wrapping Things Up - God is Faithful

Well, today is the last day of my 40 day fast; although for the last two weeks I have tried to have a little soup each day, in preparation for the Prime Rib dinner I am having tonight. There are some around me that want to think that this intensity in my postings is due to the fast; I tend to disagree, because there is something I have done in conjunction with this fast. Every single morning I wake up before 4:00am to meet with the Lord and to commit myself to at least one hour of prayer. This is what I believe has ministered into my life the most, because as I have continued to meet with God every morning at this specified time, He has continued to meet with me. Another thing that has taken place in my life is this blog; to earnestly ask God to provide me with a word to share every morning. Not only do I ask Him to give me a word to share, but I ask Him to make it meaningful; to mean something for my life, and possibly the life of someone else. I know it may not seem like much, but if you want to experience what I am talking about, you should try it for yourself; try it for at least 30 days, 40 days preferably. Set your alarm clock for 3:50am, start your prayer time at 4:00am and pray until at least 5:00am. Make sure that when you pray you do the following: Ask Him to forgive you for any sins in your life and to fill you with His Spirit; Seek Him with all your heart, and just begin praising Him; spend at least the last 20 minutes of your prayer time praying for those that God has placed in your life. Then go straight into a time of reading God's word for another 20 minutes; on top of the one hour of prayer. After your through with the prayer and devotion time, write a blog or in a journal something that God is putting on your heart to share; I like the blog idea best, it makes it more public and keeps me more committed to doing it. Do I think I can do it every day, all year long? I don't know, but I do know this; God is Faithful! Each and every day I ask Him for something to share, and as I said in several blogs over the last several weeks, there are some nights I go to sleep without even a clue of what God wants me to write, but by the time I start my prayer time, wow!!! Some nights, I hardly can sleep, because God has given me something to write the day before; I have made a solution for when that happens, by keeping a tablet of paper by my bed and writing things down, otherwise I would get no sleep at all. I am willing to make a wager with anyone who is reading this blog, (say $500.00, if you feel so inclined); that if you try and do what I have listed above, (and I mean really do it), that you will experienced God in a whole new way, that I can not describe in words. This much I do know, God will meet you there! The fasting part of this last 40 days, may or may not have been an issue; all that the fasting did was help me to deny my flesh of something that it wanted, and to remind me that I was doing something; but I do not think it was key; (after about 30 days maybe I will address that again, we will see). I think that committing the time to get alone with the Lord was key, because that is what He wants from me most; He wants my fellowship, and I can not fellowship with Him if I do not make the time for the fellowship to take place. Like I said before, you might choose 9:00am or 9:00pm, but good luck getting alone with God for one hour at those times. I really, really, really feel that it is vital for us to commit to pray every day for at least one hour straight, (for those in Rio Linda that means if the big hand is on 5, you don't stop praying until the big hand is on 5 again). Several things happen when we do this; we are placing God first and foremost in our day, as we start each day devoted to Him; we are making Him the priority over what we would sometimes rather be doing, like sleeping; we are not trying to jamb some kind of a quick prayer time into our already busy day; and when we make our prayer time at least one hour long, we make time for Him to speak to us, instead of us doing all the talking. If you can't see how you can do this, try this: Based on the time you get up now, back your alarm clock up 1 1/2 hour, (3 hours if your doing a blog!); so if you are currently waking up at 6:00am, set your clock for 4:30am; but you also need to adjust for other people in your home. If your spouse or children get up at 5:45am, then you need to set your clock for 4:15am; oh, what the heck, just set it for 4:00am and go all out! I can not describe to you how important this is for you to do; I can only tell you that you must experience it for yourself to even begin to understand what I am talking about. There was something God was showing me this morning, how it relates, I am not quite sure. He was showing me how when Peter was able to walk on the water, for a short time, and what it was that made him begin to sink. I have always believed that it was just because he took his eyes off Jesus, and then was effected by the elements around him, I still do believe this; but something else caused him to take his eyes off Jesus in the first place, and that was his flesh. Because in that moment, as he was walking on that water, by what I believe was God's power, he realized that he was still flesh and bone, and that what he was doing was not really possible, so he began to sink. When he cried out, Jesus reached out and saved him while saying these words, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?". Jesus would not have told Peter to 'Come' out onto Him if it were not possible for Peter to do it, just like He would not tell each and everyone of us to 'Go and Sin No More', if it were not possible to do it. The problem is that our flesh gets in the way; Why?, Because it is still a part of who we are, that's why. When we are told that 'we must crucify the flesh daily', in essence I believe that we simply must remind ourselves daily that this flesh has already been crucified in Christ. Everyday, this mortality that is still here, will want to be feed, clothed, groomed and satisfied; but we are not to be letting it rule the day. Instead, we need to be focusing on the things of the Spirit; keeping our eyes on the 'High Calling Of God, Which Is In Christ Jesus'. This body of flesh, though still attached to our Spiritual Body, is no longer to one in charge; it has been made dead in Christ; we have a new body that is made alive in Christ; and guess what??? This new body is able to walk on water! Think about it...