Every year at this time (22nd January) we have a consecration in our entire Ministry.  As an organization with small pockets of activity in many areas and even countries it is one of the few things we get to do as a group.  It also helps us evaluate how committed we are to the group and each other.  Many times when you are fasting with other people you are constrained by not letting your fellow soldiers down.  Some people are not bothered by what others are doing or what the agreement is.  The reason we do it within the entire organization is because of the principle and power of agreement.   Yet there are always people who are going to decide to do more than they are asked to do, making the net results negative. There are others on the other hand, who will always find reason and ways to do less.  What people don’t realize is, both of these things are based in rebellion and disharmony. For example those who decide to fast beyond the bounds of agreement will often feel that it is not necessary to attend corporate prayer, limit themselves in worship or some other expression of rebellion or disobedience.  It is true for example that King Saul exceeded his authority by offering sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel the Prophet Priest.  Now who can argue with offering sacrifices, but his instructions were to wait.  

The pinnacle of fasting is not the diet restrictions but prayer, mediation and waiting and self-control. So if for example you are not eating four twenty-four hours a day without praying you have missed the mark.  Even when we substitute worship for prayer when prayer is commanded it is disobedience.  We are defeated by our willfulness which never goes away from year to year.  This is why God had to inquire in the Old Testament, “is this the fast that I have chosen…?”   Doing what God has commanded in our own way, and based on our convenience, is still not doing the will of God.

Still- there are difficulties for those of us who endeavor to do the right thing, the right way, all the time.  I started this month needing God to intervene in my life and ministry in a major way.  I am on the other side of waiting but every time I see a little light someone else’s need jumps ahead of mine.  I find that there is no manifested activity in areas whose season for harvest is upon me.  Some of you are there too, are trying to hold on to the hope that lies within you.  You may even be fighting off fears on the edge of tomorrow.  Like me your declaration to have the God kind of faith is being challenged by dark skies.  Well! By now you have figured out you are not alone.  Today I got shaken by a rumor; it rocked me, took my speech and  brought me to the brink of tears.  We have gone beyond the middle of the month and I have not done a single transaction in my business for the year.  Yet still I rise, I sing and somehow I keep walking.  A big part of it comes from counting chickens before they hatch; you learn and hopefully you will change.  It helps me understand why like King Saul we can get weary and contrive our own course of action.

Against this background God has spoken to me in this month through the lips of His servants in our Church, but it’s a word from last year toward which my heart has reached and grabbed a hold of.  My daughter the chemistry major shared a word with us during one of her exhortations about water. According to her, when water is still it does not mean nothing is happening.  There are a whole lot of chemical actions and reactions within a body of calm water even if it is not discerned by the naked eye. It’s just like God, just because He is still does not mean he’s not working.

"It's Just A Thought"

EF

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