FASTING - Part II
A follow up on my Fasting blog of 1 week ago. Yesterday was my 2nd Tuesday of my commitment to fast 52 weeks during 2013.
I have not done very much fasting but from the limited experience, I know that God does, and will, use a time of fasting to speak to us and give us direction in our lives.
In 2004 Mickey and I were doing our first "snow-bird" RV journey to Arizona. We had made connection with a group of RVer's, Campers for Christ. We made the decision that we wanted to do a serious 2 week fast. Not knowing much about fasting we went to a little Used Bookstore and found a book on fasting. The Hidden Power of Prayer & Fasting by Mehesh Chavda.
So, in the dessert of Arizona outside Quartside, on January 23rd we began. This was a water with lemon juice only fast. The first 3 days were HARD but then it became easier. We had no TV or radio, we were in the middle of no-where, and we knew no one. We spent each and every hour in prayer, reading our Bible and another Christian book, taking walks in the middle of no where, talking and seeking God to speak to us. We were completely isolated, did not go into town or talk to another soul.
It is amazing how much time of our daily lives are spent around eating: 1) thinking about food, 2)going to the store and buying the food, 3) thinking and planning what to eat, 4) preparing the meal, 5) eating the meal, 6) cleaning up after the meal; and repeating the last 3 three times a day!
At the end of 12 days we KNEW that God was speaking these words to us: "Go home and redeem the time."
We broke the fast, after those 12 days, and did not complete the remaining 2 days. We went into town, we did not even have cell service on the little cell phone we had, and called the couple that were living in our Coweta home. We informed them we were going to be returning and they needed to make plans to fine another place and move. (These were personal friends who we went to church with). We continued on our journey westward as planned.
On March 4th, while we were in San Diego, we received a phone call from these friends saying that the deal on the house they were trying to buy fell through and for us not to return yet. We told them we knew we were to come back and they would have to find something. We proceeded on to San Francisco to visit son David.
April 12th we left Morgan Hill, CA (outside of SF) and headed home.
