Day Twelve, January 23rd – United With Christ for His Glory

Day 12

Well done! You have made it to the last day of our fast, by both your obedience and the strength that Jesus provides! For those who have testimonies from the fast, please share them with us. You can email them to [email protected] so we can share them with the rest of the church family. 

We want to remind you that tomorrow evening, we will gather to worship and encounter the Lord together as we start our Advance weekend. As a reminder, our services are at 7 pm Saturday evening, then regular Sunday Morning Service at 10:30 am, and lastly we will gather to celebrate God Sunday evening at 7 pm. Sunday evening service will be impactful, as our GSS students and grads will join with Pastor Tim to prophesy a good word over your year during our ministry time after worship and the word. Make every effort to come out to our worship gatherings this weekend. God has been manifesting His glory in wonderful ways, and you don’t want to miss out. 

Now on to today’s encouragement. 

Perhaps this was your first time fasting, or maybe you have fasted many times over the years. It is still a wonderful feeling to come to the end of a fast. There is a healthy sense of accomplishment due to obedience, not a self-centered type looking for glory, but a satisfaction to have followed through with your commitment to your Heavenly Father. It can also feel like being set free as the restrictions imposed during the fast are lifted, and it is a liberating feeling. 

We often misinterpret the liberation we feel as a cause to return headlong to food or media, as if to “fill up” the void we experienced in their absence. But as we close this year’s fast, let’s consider what Paul wrote to us in Ephesians. 

Ephesians 2:10  (ESV) 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Twelve days ago, when we started our fast, we reminded ourselves that fasting is intentionally setting aside time to bring our flesh into a place of need to deliberately deny it and to focus on sustenance from our true source of life. In the scripture above, Paul writes that as we are beholding Him, we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. While we all had various things we were fasting and praying for, our corporate aim was consecration, inviting the Lord to remove the things that obstruct us from beholding Him. 

And He has been gloriously answering that aim both corporately and for many of us, very personally. Many of us, through our deliberate denial, have encountered new levels of what our union in Christ can be. Pastor Adina shared about the pruning process and touched on a point applicable to today’s encouragement when she wrote, “Why would we desire anything less than full surrender to that pruning?” 

You have spent time beholding the Lord, and the “gentle nudge” of the Spirit that Pastor Adina presented has resulted in you moving from one degree of glory to another. Let’s not try to graft old branches back onto freshly pruned ones. 

Invite the Holy Spirit today, on your last day, to show you what practices and what pruning should remain after your fast. It’s not that you must continue fasting, but that there is an invitation for new realms of life in the context of union in Christ as we continue to walk with Him as those who are transformed by beholding His glory. Your deliberate denial in some areas hasn’t left you empty, but instead, you’ve been filled by a better source. 

Let the transformation that God has birthed in your life over the last twelve days become the new reality you live from!

All my love,

PL