Except Fasting, I Can Do All Things Through Christ in Me
What has it cost you to follow Jesus? Sharing my baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit and a kingdom-soldier lifestyle.
I will not eat until You bless me.
Genesis 32:26
We don’t realize how much comfort the thought of the next meal brings us.
If we replace our meals with liquids that can provide equal nutrition, we will find out that our daily hopes actually hang on food, not God.
Fasting, at the beginning, is the courage to confront hunger, but essentially, it highlights and smashes idols.
No one just can’t fast. Be cautious with that catchphrase—“I just can’t” blablabla.
If fasting 100% earns you a million dollar, will you fast?
If fasting 100% brings you closer to God, will you try?
Chances are, you will be WAY more motivated to fast for a million dollar than for intimacy with God.
With so many testimonies about fasting, there’s a reason you still resist the idea—
It is unbelief and idolatry:
Unbelief is when you refuse to believe for your convenience.
Idolatry is when God is not your “everything,” however much you would love to claim.
By refusing to fast, you’re missing out on God’s best—not merely His blessings for your physical life, which He gives out of grace—but His knowledge, understanding, and, above all, an intimate relationship with Him.
In this article:
I was born again but lived in the sin of idolatry
Fasting, the lifestyle of soldiers
You praycrastinate and call it worship
At what cost you followed Jesus?
“Having a form of Godliness yet denying its power”
Fasting will break your reward system
If a nasty food worshipper like me can fast, you can
I was born again but lived in the sin of idolatry
Have you ever wondered why what happened to Job happened to Job?
He idolized his children. He tore his robe when his children died. And he said, "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me"—when he shouldn't have dreaded anything but losing the presence of God.
David was the opposite of Job, fearing nothing but losing the presence of God. That’s why David, not Job, is the man “after God’s own heart.”
What I dreaded the most has also happened to me.
It took God only a year of relentless storm to transform me from being someone who paid $100 monthly gym membership to someone who was homeless for three days.
Maybe I should never have asked God what “baptizing with fire and the Holy Spirit” meant a year ago.
In this baptism of fire, each day I lose a bit of myself—impurities that cannot withstand the heat. I cried out for hope and mercy but never regretted walking into the fire.
Had I not first experienced all I wanted and then what I dreaded the most, I would never have realized how many idols I had propped up.
What I thought I wanted, I no longer desire; what I dreaded losing was not nearly as dreadful as losing the Holy Spirit.
Only in His presence am I truly living.
Do not brag about how long you’ve been a Christian; the longer you remain stagnant in your faith, the more distant you become from the Lord. It took Jesus only three years to conquer the world. God is not slow; He intended to deliver the Israelites from the wilderness in 14 days, not 40 years.
You're not waiting on Him—He is waiting on you.
Fasting, the lifestyle of soldiers
I had to fast—I couldn’t afford not to. If I hadn’t, I’d have become ashes in the baptism of fire.
I lived with the reminder of Paul, who had a "thorn in the flesh"(2 Corinthians 12:7) and had "despaired of life itself"(2 Corinthians 1:8); I was inundated with Godly sorrow, not for myself but for the suffering of others who knew not what they suffer from; I became intolerant of evil, angered by carnality.
Before I fasted as a lifestyle, I was at the mercy of Satan—he turned me wherever he wanted, instilling thoughts of anxiety, rage, arrogance, discouragement, selfishness into me for hours, using people I loved to attack me, paralyzing me with physical lethargy, financial stress, and relational confusions.
Not anymore. I no longer sit and resist but stand up to fight.
A carnal Christian can’t expel spirits of demon. A part-time believer can’t defeat a full-time devil.
Demons know you are weak—they aren’t afraid of you who avoid fasting or any inconveniences.
Here, a believer tried to cast out demons in the name of Jesus:
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Acts 19:15
So, because you haven’t cast out demons or witnessed a deliverance, you decide to call demonology BS. Because you’ve never prophesied or been prophesied to, you deny the gift.
Have you even read the Bible?
Most of your knowledge about God came from your church, right?
Your denomination programmed carnal Christianity into you, didn’t they?
Have you ever evangelized and tested how unbreakable the wall of unbelief is without the gift of prophecy and deliverance?
“Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.” 1 Corinthians 14:1
The difference between disbelief and unbelief—unbelief is refusing to believe. If you feel offended or insecure about spiritual gifts, you don’t disbelieve; you refuse to believe—anything that does not fit into the box you put Jesus in.
And the size of your box is the size of your imagination.
If you quoted, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” then rather than denying it, ask God:
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
You praycrastinate and call it worship
Will fasting unlock your spiritual gifts? Maybe. But continuing in your carnality certainly will not.
Fasting puts me in a battle-ready mode. I don’t waste time on "feelings," and if I notice any sign of self-pity, anxiety, worries, or even despair, I fast.
What you called "non-medical mental illness" was indeed demonic oppression, mental strongholds, and even generational curses. You can't destroy the satanic altar set against your life and lineage without the Almighty's power.
Your daily therapeutic Bible reading, praying, and journaling, which I call a "holy formula," will only maintain you, keeping you from backsliding. It won't level you up—you remain passive in front of the enemy. Your best bet is to wait for his attacks and resist.
Haven’t you had enough?
People who follow this holy formula are technically not in the category of "lukewarm"; rather, they are passive—I can at least speak for myself.
I was complacent with my holy habits, and my degree of surrender was as low as it was convenient.
In essence, you keep this holy formula to feel good—even to “praycrastinate”—but there are no ingredients of sacrifice in that formula.
At what cost you followed Jesus?
Think about this. What have you sacrificed since you were saved?
No?
After all, you found the most authoritative therapist in the universe—
"I sacrificed my sinful life! I turned away from sins!"
That’s good, but your sinful life didn’t work for you in the past, did it? You were depressed, anxious, insecure, lonely, and felt like a failure.
Unless you were a “young rich ruler,” a high achiever in the world, and yet chose to turn away from sins and serve God, then yes, following Jesus did cost you.
For most of us, turning from sin costs nothing; it only benefits us.
So what on earth has your faith cost you? What has it taken away that you dreaded losing and held dear? Has it taken away your comfort zone, your unbelieving family, your successful career, your million-dollar inheritance? Or has it taken your freedom, your human rights, your income, your health, or for the very least—your comfort from food?
I asked myself with these questions.
All my worship and so-called faith came from a place of taking. I took and wondered what more I could get. I freeloaded on churches and sermons and on digital content that had blessed me. I wanted to live for my selfish ambitions and material comfort with Jesus in my pocket, pulling Him out whenever I needed validation, whenever I got into trouble due to my disobedience.
“Having a form of Godliness yet denying its power”
As soon as I committed to a lifestyle of fasting and prayer, I was radically transformed—which made me question how some people can claim to hear and talk with God but remain unchanged.
There’s no way.
"Having a form of godliness yet denying its power"—
Doesn’t this vividly depict your dead church that is dusty of walking dead faith?
Carnal Christians not only remain who they are for decades but also don’t believe in the radical transformation that a true encounter with Jesus can bring.
If you do not believe, you will not see.
When the apostles asked the church if they had received the Holy Spirit, they said, “We don't even know there is a Holy Spirit.”
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” Romans 10:14
That's where many Christians are—carnal, soulish, therapeutic, just not spiritual.
God is Spirit. You must worship God in spirit and in truth.
How can you worship in truth when you don’t even hear God clearly?
How can you worship God in spirit when you still live by flesh and soul?
How can you know the spirit when you can’t crucify your flesh?
Fasting will break you reward system
You might think fasting is not as dreadful as other physical “punishments”—hold off that opinion until you try it; you would beg to work your ass off in the gym rather than fast.
Why?
Think about it: don’t you reward yourself with a meal after—basically anything? Fasting will break that reward system. So now, what do you hang your hope on while sweating in the gym and grinding through work?
Nothing. Despair. All of a sudden, you lose motivation to get through troubles of each day.
When you welcome people to your house, you prepare food and snack during conversation; when you go out on a date, you find somewhere to eat; when you celebrate, you order food and wine, eat, snack, drink, and cheers.
When you feel anxious, you eat; when you’re bored, you eat; when you’re discouraged, you eat; when you’re happy, you eat. You eat when watching a movie; you eat when going on a road trip, on a plane, or on a train; you eat when—anything, anywhere, anytime, with anyone, in any scenario.
Now, if that is not idolatry, tell me what is.
We are so unaware of this idol—food—so ignorant about our dependence on it in every part of life.
If a nasty food worshipper like me can fast, you can
American food idolatry is more about comfort, self-numbing, and distraction. Unlike Americans but more like Italians, Chinese idolize food with fastidious tastes, treating food as arts and a god on the altar of mundane life.
I was an unself-aware food worshipper since I was a kid.
I would lose my temper over a bad meal, a bad dish, or a bad dining experience. I kicked one nanny's literal ass, threw chopsticks at another (not the same situation, of course), screamed in the kitchen at a different one, and threw boiled egg yolks under my grandparents' bed (I hated egg yolks and they kept giving them to me for breakfast). I threw tantrums over food that was unskillfully cooked by my aunts (and got beaten up by my dad). I only ate the "good-looking" pieces, the ones that were perfectly shaped (particularly pork ribs, chicken legs, and wings); I dashed out of a diner—still hungry—because the “deep-fried boiled eggs” did not meet my expectations while my mom was still sitting at the table.
I was too ashamed to list more of my misconducts regarding food. I was an angelic kid whose demons only manifested when I wasn’t fed right.
I share my before-Christ evils to encourage you—if I can fast, you can.
At first, I fasted only a few hours, then a day, then a day and a half, then two days, and then three days. I still haven’t tried water fasting for more than three days. Fasting not only delivered me from my chronic anxiety; it crushed fear of almost all things, as if removing it from my DNA.
Yes, I still fear—but when I fear, I fast. When I fast, I’m fearless.
It’s easy to say that famous verse, “I can do all things through Christ in me” until you fast. But once you have fasted, that Word abides in you. You can now truly do all things through Christ in you.
Nothing dreads you any more. No such thing as despair. Nothing cannot be overcome. No bondage cannot be broken. No illness cannot be healed. Nothing is impossible.
“If you abide in Me, and My Word abides in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.”
With all that being said, pray about it and start fasting.
I pray that you encounter the Lord like you never have before, Amen.
Here are two other posts I wrote on fasting:
To get yourself out of your stagnation:
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Interesting article.
I'm convinced about your POV, but in the past i had the opposite problem- I basically had an eating disorder and because of that kept fasting at bad times. I've basically only healed by "binging"- eating properly, with medium-large amounts, and making sure never to skip meals. I'm wanting to fast but I don't want to slip back to the sickness I had before.
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