Don't Neglect Fasting

The speaker starts by expressing gratitude for the new day and welcoming the listeners to Harvest Chapel International Kumasi. They lead a prayer and a confession from Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. The morning devotion is titled "Don't Neglect Fasting" and the text is taken from Mark chapter 9 verses 14-29. The speaker emphasizes the importance of routine maintenance in both physical and spiritual aspects of life. They highlight the disciples' failure to cast out a demon because they neglected fasting. Fasting is described as a tool for denying the desires of the flesh and aligning oneself with the spirit. It is compared to a spiritual hospital and a mechanic shop for spiritual checkups and adjustments. The speaker encourages listeners to engage in fasting to access deeper spiritual realms and achieve desired results. They conclude with a memory verse from Mark chapter 9 verse 29 and a prayer for strength in fasting. Beloved in the Lord, we thank God for opening a new day unto us and I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. This is Harvest Chapel International Kumasi and it's Pastor Daniel speaking to you and we'll be going through our morning glory devotion together. My prayer is that God himself would touch our hearts in the name of Jesus. Beloved, you can be grateful unto God that he is with us. You can be grateful unto him that he's doing great and wonders things. You can be grateful unto him this day for he has come to Tabernacle with us even within this short time in the name of Jesus. Father, we thank you. Father, we give you praise. Father, we give you the glory. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Amen and Amen. Beloved, God bless you. Let's take a confession from Joshua chapter 1 the verse 8 and let's read it together ardently. Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of my mouth but I shall meditate during day and night that I may observe to do according to all that is written therein for then I shall make my way prosperous and then I shall have good success. God bless you, beloved, for participating in that confession and I keep saying I believe that God himself is working out this confession in our lives day after day in the name of Jesus. This morning's glory devotion is titled Don't Neglect Fasting. Don't Neglect Fasting and our text will be taken from Mark chapter number 9 the verse 14 through 29. Mark chapter number 9 the verse 14 through 29. I'm reading from the King James Version verse 14. And when he came to his disciples he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning with them and straightway all the people when they beheld him were greatly amazed and running to him saluted him and his acts describes what question ye with them and one of the multitude answered and said master I have brought unto thee my son which hath a dumb spirit and wheresoever he taketh him he teareth him and he foameth and gnashes with his teeth and pinneth away and I speak to thy disciples that they should cast him out and they could not he answered him and said all faithless generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you bring him unto me and they brought him unto him and when he saw him straightway the spirit tore him and he fell on the ground and wallowed for me and he asked his father how long is this ago since this came unto him and he said of a child and oftentimes it hath cut him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him but if thou canst do anything have compassion on us and help us Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believer and straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears Lord I believe help thou my unbelief when Jesus saw that the people came running together he rebuked the false spirit saying unto him thou dumb and deaf spirit I charge thee come out of him and enter no more into him and the spirit cried and rent him so and came out of him and he was as one dead in so much that many said he is dead but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose and when he was come into the house his disciples asked him privately why could not we cast him out and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting and that is the uncle verse the verse 29 I take it again and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting beloved just ask yourself when was the first time you took your car to a mechanic shop for routine maintenance not to fix a fault but to undergo that routine maintenance do you know anyone who does regularly if any maybe just a few and for many of those few who do is just because the company is bearing the associated costs factually many car owners don't because they feel nothing wrong with the car they wait to the suffer a major breakdown in the highway they quickly call on one roadside mechanic to fix the problem now the question is what if the fault is beyond that highway hands-to-mouth mechanic best practice has proven that the bolts and nuts of automobiles gradually get loosened and other components dislocated with time and use that is the essence of routine maintenance to get the automobile back in shape fit for the road avoiding the highway frustrations similarly not many people have built the culture of routinely checking up their health and unfortunately we have carried the same attitude into the spiritual affairs in Mark chapter 9 that we just read the disciples were on the highway of miracle signs and wonders Jesus had just gone onto the mountain with a few of them and they had a spectacular experience coming now to meet the others who were just on that highway of doing some miracle they thought they could drive out the spirit on just an easy note but come to think of it they just couldn't get to that destination of casting out that demon and the demon was still there tormenting this young man their vehicle of faith broke down and they couldn't arrive at that destination of casting out the devil they were worried everyone looking on for them to do something but there they stood helpless on that highway left their beneficiaries in frustration only to hear later that it was just because they neglected a routine checkup shop of prayer and fasting do you think the disciples never prayed certainly not at least being with a master they had learned to offer some level of prayer but this superhighway they were now on needed something beyond their simple prayers and that is prayer and are gathered with fasting I repeat again prayer and are gathered with fasting because fasting will always add that cutting edge to your prayers your own may not be the superhighway of casting out devils but every one of us gets into one highway on the other on in this life that we are in and perhaps on that highway things certainly need to manifest in some supersonic speed and you are looking for things to manifest and you are not manifesting it's either you've already prepared for that moment or you lose out of the joy of accomplishment when Esther was preparing to get on a superhighway of fever or face death she checked into the fasting shop with her entourage they got to their destination safely and joyfully when Jesus was joining that superhighway of ministry he was led of the spirit Bible tells us he was led of the spirit into the desert and he was there fasting and praying he stayed there 40 days 40 nights until he was full of the Holy Ghost and beloved you and I can testify their results are incomparable Paul in his own writing added his routine fasting shop maintenance to his CV he didn't leave it out he added it how important that was to him he said to us in fastings often the generals of wood humbled themselves with fasting beloved when David was on his way to the throne of Israel and faced with the battles of life he confessed saying in Psalm 109 my knees are weak through fasting and my flesh fillet of fatness here what God has to say in Joel chapter 2 he said therefore also now say it alone can you even to me with all your heart in the verse 12 and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning in the verse 15 he says blow the trumpet in Zion sanctify a fast call a solemn assembly and hear the response of the Lord when his people obeyed and fasted in Joel chapter 2 the verse 18 then the Lord became zealous for his land he had compassion on his people the Lord responded to his people Luke I am about to restore your grain as well as fresh wine and olive oil you will be fully satisfied beloved but you just want to ask yourself this morning that when was the last time you actually went into that routine maintenance shop of fasting have you neglected it in your own life God is calling us on to this journey of fasting is one of the most difficult but needful disciplines of the Christian faith given that it is not one of the daily routines it can easily be ignored shelved and totally forgotten the more we feed the body the more the flesh gains power and can desire just anything and if not checked periodically it can indulge in itself fasting helps us to deny the body of its usual desires and thereby killing other possible fleshly desires which crop up when the body is satisfied it is admissible that the spirit gets sick of the flesh sometimes and it needs to straighten it by realigning the body fasting is that tool like the spirit level that helps to check and correct the alignment of the body to the spirit fasting is a spiritual hospital where the believer goes from time to time beloved for that spiritual checkup and routine maintenance it is a mechanic shop where the believer needs to periodically attend for that alignment adjustment for correcting every dislocation of desires replacing broken parts of desirable virtues tightening any losing confessions of faith and replacing any missing bows and knots of holy living your spirit will become stuffy with time without fasting beloved fasting actually ventilates the spiritual atmosphere usually during fasting the lingering remains of flesh are given a death blow to pave way for the spirit of God to gain easy and full access to the spirit of man when your flesh starts growing horns you actually need fasting to uproot them in fasting your body learns self-denial and that is what fasting is about self-denial the spirit gains ascendancy over the desires of the flesh the spirit takes charge of the steering wheel and navigates you back to the expected direction fasting is an access way into the deep zones of spiritual phenomena beloved we know that we are involved in spiritual phenomena as Christians and fasting actually gives us an access into the deep zones there are certainly highs that you cannot reach and attain without entering the realm of fasting and that's exactly what happened to the disciples they couldn't enter the realm of fasting and they failed to reach those high zones that could easily have delivered the result they needed it is not about a ceremonial separation from food it is about a hungry spiritual man who wants to pay the price to gain access to the deep things of God it is about a genuine believer who sees the need to kill the flesh beloved you've been on many super highways but have you recently and often gone for maintenance in the fasting shop don't wait till you get disappointed don't wait till you get frustrated before you remember there's something called fasting don't wait till you break down the best time to engage fasting is now you have to do those routine checkups those routine maintenance not because you have broken down but because you need to be up to be able to get your destination and I pray that you will get your destination safely and in the next assignment I pray that you will deliver in the name of Jesus God bless you even as you heed to this clarion call to engage yourself in fasting in Jesus let's take the memory verse again from Mark chapter 9 the verse 29 and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting let's take it again Mark chapter 9 the verse 29 and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting in the name of Jesus like it was said of Christ when he prayed afterward that the angels came to strengthen him I believe that God has sent for his angels to strengthen us this morning ahead of us whatever fastings we need to engage in whether corporately or on your own the Lord has strengthened us to do so in the name of Jesus and I pray that you and I will go in the strength of this power that God has given us this morning all to the praise of his glory in the name of Jesus thank you Lord and thank you father for this wondrous work in our life we give you praise and we give you glory now and forever in Jesus mighty name we have prayed God bless you beloved I know that God has touched our lives this morning by speaking unto us in the name of Jesus and I pray that we will keep this keep pondering over it and it will give us more strength and more power to even stay on this super highway in Jesus mighty name beloved have a wonderful day