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ACTS 29 TODAY

COMING THE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH

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BREAKING DOWN THE CEILING OF FLESH

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Sometimes it’s not only that subtle kind of unbelief, but

the flesh that constructs a ceiling over our lives. The

devil will erect some kind of stronghold in our flesh

realm, such as smoking, drinking, anger, gossip, or lust.

Then he uses that stronghold to control us. Every time

we attempt to receive from God or to accomplish

something for Him, he turns up the pressure in those

areas so that we feel hopeless and out of control.

So what do we often do? We pray superficial prayers;

we go to church; we try to minister; we implement

programs; we substitute many things for the power of

God that is absent because of the ceiling of flesh over

our lives. But our lives stay the same all the time, never

increasing. We may instigate more programs, but the

power never changes. Our lives keep bouncing off that

ceiling of flesh.

Then one day, we decide to fast and pray. We begin by

praying in the Holy Ghost and worshiping God. Then as

our spirit begins to be built up, we start to fast. As we

add fasting to our prayer lives, we slam the door on

Satan’s accessibility to the control center on our lives.

Pretty soon the ceiling of the flesh over our lives begins

to drop down. It isn’t long before the operation of the

flesh is at the same level as the operation of the Spirit

in our lives, so we continue to fast and pray.

Finally, the operation of the flesh drops below the

operation of the Spirit; its power is broken. When that

happens, answered prayer is the automatic result, and

the things we’ve been believing for begin to come to

pass. We start seeing answers to prayers that have been

lying dormant for years — even prayers that we forgot

but God didn’t.

At this point, if the devil comes to inspect that

computer-like program he implanted in our soul to

destroy us, he will find it gone— and God’s program in

its place! Why? Because through fasting, we have

enforced the positional truth that our “old man” was

crucified with Christ.The flesh is rendered powerless to

force us into sin. We have released the operation of the

Spirit.

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Fasting Doesn’t Move God

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Personally, I thank God for fasting, because many times

I have come to a place where I didn’t know how to go on

in God. I didn’t know how to break the last barriers of

flesh down. In those situations, I found fasting to be a

tool, a means to an end. It was the “super-charger” I

needed, combined with praying in the Holy Ghost, to

push me over into victory.

But we make a mistake if we think that we move God

with our fasting. How can we move Someone who has so

expressed His willingness to move on our behalf?

Romans 8:32 makes it crystal clear:

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up

for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us

all things?

Our fasting doesn’t move God; it moves us to a place

where we can receive from God. Fasting destroys the

hold that the flesh has had on our lives so that, instead

of operating out of the flesh, we can continually operate

out of the Spirit!

You see, God isn’t the One holding the power back. If He

had His way, every one of us would be operating in

raising-the-dead type of power tomorrow!

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY