“Pastor, I know I’ve made many mistakes in my life, but do I have to fast to correct them? Can’t I just pray?”

Oh wow! Didn’t you pray before you made those mistakes?🙄… I’m guessing you did.

One of the greatest secrets you’d learn about God is that He deals with us from our spirit, not our flesh. It’s from the inside-out, not outside-in. And the reason why many Christians continue to make costly mistakes is because their choices are based on a fleshly desire. What they don’t know is, the more they make choices in the flesh, the more they silence their spirit man.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in having fleshly desires, but we must filter and edit those desires by our spirit. Let’s see how scriptures put it:

Romans 8:
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

Did you notice verse 13? It says “if you live after the flesh”. The “You” that scripture refers to is the spirit of man – which is the real man. So it tells us that there’s a possibility of killing your spirit-man if you make choices after the flesh. This also means that just because a person is physically alive doesn’t mean he’s really alive in himself. From experience, a demon spirit may have taken over his body. It’s why you should be careful who you share your secrets with. A body without a spirit will always be dead. If you see a physical man walking, a spirit must be at work in him, and it’s either his spirit or another spirit.

Many people who suffer abuse in marriage most likely made a choice of a life partner in the flesh. As Christians, we’re not expected to take destiny decisions in the flesh. Perhaps you saw that the lady was fair to behold and you decided to grab her before she becomes a competition. That’s the flesh at work! Many people are suffering in business today because they entered the business in the flesh. Perhaps you were told that the business is lucrative, and without some level of scrutiny you invested your life’s savings in it. Now you’re in serious debts, and because you silenced your spirit by that decision, it’s not looking like you’d come out of that debt.

As a lady, perhaps you became homeless, and then you thought in your head that you didn’t have a choice but to move in with a man you’re not married to. That’s the flesh at work! The flesh likes to be the final authority, and so it gives you all the possible options even before you think about it. But as Christians, we don’t live after the flesh, you should have accessed your spirit to hear what God is saying.

So that’s why you should fast, to journey into your spirit so that you can receive spiritual solutions from God through His Spirit. Verse 14 and 16 of that scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God, and that one of the characteristics of the sons of God is that they are led by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will not lead you to cohabit with a man, the Holy Spirit will not lead you into a business that will ruin your life, the Holy Spirit will not lead you into a marriage that will destroy your walk with God.

Believe me, your spiritual antenna will generate low signals without a fasted life, and that’s because the more your flesh enjoys pleasures, the more your spiritual antenna loses signal.

One of the scriptures that has continued to scare me is Romans 8:7. It says, “Because the mind of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be”. So your flesh has its own mind, and that mind is not subject to God’s law by default. What a battle! Galatians 5:17 furthers says “For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want”. Clearly, this isn’t an easy battle? Our flesh has a mind that is an enemy to both God and His Spirit, yet we’re supposed to live by our spirit.

Again, the solution is fasting. Fasting suffers your flesh and puts it under subjection to your spirit – which receives direction from the Spirit of God. Without fasting, your flesh will never subject itself to your spirit. This is already very emotional for me, because I receive countless number of counseling requests daily, and a lack of understanding of this battle is the cause of most of their problems. And it’s even more emotional that there are alot of things I’m not permitted to say in a published work like this. Believers need to wake up to this battle!

As I conclude, I once told you that hunger is the border between the flesh and the spirit. If you can successfully endure the pain of hunger, then you’d cross over to your spirit and take dominion over your flesh. Let me also add this, beware of pleasure! Pleasure is an enemy of the spirit of man.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

#EmekaAnslem