A Deeper Christian Life

https://youtu.be/dBUKFdpCpMQ

Recently, I felt like the Lord put me on a true “alternate day” fasting schedule whereby I eat, on average, the equivalent of two meals over the course of a 6-to-8-hour feeding window, followed by fasting for the next 40-42 hours. I’ve lost about 10 pounds over the last month or so since undertaking this approach to weight loss and incorporating this practice into my spiritual life. But the thing I love the most about fasting regularly is that it helps me draw so much closer to the sense of the Lord and His presence and divine life within that I long for. So my word to you is, if you aspire to a closer walk with Him, you might want to consider making fasting a regular part of your spiritual discipline. May the Lord be with your spirit always.

What a mysterious and miraculous thing it is, that a fallen human being can glory in the holiness of the Lord. You may be sure that you are under the direct and immediate influence of the Holy Spirit of God when you do so. Praise His Holy name forever and ever, world without end, amen! May the Lord be with your spirit always.

In my Adamic flesh, I can be pretty judgmental sometimes. One example is how annoyed my flesh can get when I’m sitting in a work meeting or some other presentation and have participants/speakers who are prone to extensively using verbal crutches, such as “umm, like, ah, you know,” etc. But as I continue on the deeper path, the anointing within recently gently suggested I use each such occurrence as a prompt to turn to the Lord by calling upon His name. So, now when I’m in these circumstances and find myself getting annoyed, I recognize this is just my flesh acting up, and the Holy Spirit reminds me to silently call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. And every single time I do, lo and behold, God instantaneously delivers me from the evil! And you know what else? I find myself getting less annoyed in my flesh to begin with these days. Thank you, Lord Jesus! May the Lord be with your spirit always.

Scriptural references: *Psalm 101 *Matthew 5:22, 28 *Matthew 22:1-14 *Ephesians 4:30 *1 John 3:3 For much of my devotional time with the Lord this past week, I have been prayerfully contemplating Psalm 101, which the English Standard Version prefaces with the heading: I Will Walk With Integrity. This morning, as I began to pray-read this Psalm again, I got the sense to read it as a declaration of the Triune God to the Church. As I did so, it increasingly felt like a letter to the Church right out of the Book of Revelation. I would humbly exhort you thus: If you hope to walk closely with the Lord Jesus Christ and have intimate fellowship with Him, please heed this rendering of Psalm 101, which I have based on the ESV translation (despite some of the early Elizabethan English usages, which I believe He wanted, in order to set the right tone): Verse 2: “Hear, all ye who fear the Lord: Truly, I say unto thee: ponder the way that is blameless, that ye may walk therein. Then will I feel welc