New Year, New You
2023 has begun, and we are all excited, hopeful and a little anxious about what the year will bring. Many of us have made plans, resolutions and, we hit the ground running as soon as the year started, but I want you to hit pause for a second.
The start of every year usually sees millions of believers embarking on a journey of fasting, and though I am not going to get into detail about fasting or even the spiritual or scientific benefits that fasting has on the body, what I want to speak about is why this should always be the starting point at the beginning of a new year, or the start of anything really. There are a lot of unknown variables no matter how much you can plan things out, there are a lot of unknowns at every start and fasting allows you to position yourself to let God be God. Honestly, what would a new you be like, if you did not crucify the old.
Psalm 24:3-4 in the TPT reads, “who, then, ascends into the presence of the Lord? And who has the privilege of entering into God's Holy place? Those who are clean – whose works and ways are pure, whose hearts are true and sealed by the truth, those who never deceive, whose words are sure”.
That is how we seek first the kingdom of God by humbling ourselves literally before the Lord, by allowing the Sovereign God to sanctify our hearts and clean our hands so that we have clarity on the plans we have and what His are. Fasting allows us to enter into the presence of God without anything cluttering our hearts and minds. You are able to look at the plans and resolutions you have for 2023, you are able to bring the vision board to the Lord and give Him space to tell you what to remove and what to add without our fleshly desires hindering us. Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that fasting is the only way God will hear you or help you, I am not saying you have to fast, but many times the only way to truly and completely silence your own voice and to allow God to speak to you, and into you is when you make the decision to die to self.
There is a passage of Scripture in the Bible where there was a demon possessed child, and his father took the child to Jesus Christ’s disciples for healing, but when the disciples could not heal the boy, the father took him to Jesus, and He said these words to the disciples regarding their unbelief: “this kind comes out only through fasting and prayer,” Matthew 17:16-21.
Now the moral of this is that, God has big plans for you, you have big plans for you, things that you desire, but it is only God who can prosper our plans and that is why we seek Him, not just for direction for the journey like Ezra in Ezra chapter 8, but we seek Him for sanctification, that He can cleanse our hearts and hands and search out our motives. The Bible tells us that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of, so before you start making decree’s, declarations, and speaking those things that be not, allow the God of Heaven to cleanse your heart so that we can speak what is from Him. Now as you move into spaces and places this year, forsake not the importance of placing God first, physically and spiritually and fasting goes a long way to unclogging pipes that are full or blocked. You can be the best you, you want to be this year, but remember to seek first the kingdom of God.