By Sidharth Mohandas
In the initial phase of Jesus’ ministry, you find Him bringing His audience to a place of faith by intensifying the law. Anger was equated to murder (Matthew 5:21-22), lust to sexual immorality (Matthew 5:27-28), the standards for marriage were raised (Matthew 5:31-32), the severity of the judgment of sin was brought to light (Matthew 5:29-30) and so forth. His purpose in doing so was not to motivate them to start working towards such an unattainable lifestyle, but to cause them to come to a place where they would realize the futility of self-righteousness and humbly turn to the God who can fill them with true righteousness (Matthew 5:6, Galatians 3:24; see also Romans 8:3-4).
When you and I come to this place of faith, where we cry out and say, Salvation belongs to the Lord and Him alone!, we are ready for the Kingdom life. We who believe in this Greater Reality have been awakened to a world that we thought never existed, save possibly imagine. This leads us back to our topic, Kingdom principles. When I was young, I was struck by how much the effects of gravity were reduced outside the atmosphere of our earth. It seemed too good to believe I could float around in empty space!
In the same manner, God has transferred us to a whole new system that operates by a different set of laws or principles from that of the world. In the world system, one needs to accumulate to have more, but in the Kingdom one gains more by giving more (Luke 6:38, II Corinthians 9:6-8). In the natural, one is commanded not to covet (Exodus 20:17), while in the spiritual world, we are instructed to covet earnestly (1 Corinthians 12:31). Again in the natural, an angry and raging person is considered strong, while in the spiritual world, a man who can bridle his temper is considered stronger. The list goes on.
In this article and the ones to come, we desire to deal with one such principle that conflicts with the natural system: the principle of prayer and fasting. When the world around you reacts to conflicts in anxiety, fear and doubt, those in the Kingdom are instructed to react by turning to the Source in prayer and fasting. These are vehicles that put into effect Kingdom authority on earth. The disciples tried casting demons out of an epileptic boy, and failed. Why? This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29 AMP). The disciples, like many of us, were eager to do God’s work, but unfortunately they were not equipped and empowered through prayer and fasting.
As you may have noticed, these were two areas Jesus attacked first while presenting Kingdom principles (Matthew 6:5, 16). In fact, He starts off by destroying the religious, self-centred, and meaningless system of prayer and fasting, and draws their attention to the heart of true prayer and fasting.
Stay tuned, as we continue to deal with these life-changing principles.
Powerful as always! Love it!
AWESOME…
The Lord has been speaking to me about beginning a fast, so this topic comes right on time. This is an area that I need to study and live for myself, since it has been some time since I have been on a fast.
This has just come in a time, when we were discussing a similar topic. So many of us still find it so difficult to admit that it is not by our righteousness, but by His righteousness that we are called to walk in. Salvation to the Lord and Him alone. Amen!
Sid, I pray that more and more believers realize this and live it. This is what will begin the unity of His body, first with us as individuals and then coming together as a whole. Thank you …and sorry its been a while since I have been on here, i have a LOT of catching up to do!!!
To God be the Glory for this post, the Holy Spirit is woprking in your life daily and it shows in your posts.
I love some of the points you made here “In the world system, one needs to accumulate to have more, but in the Kingdom one gains more by giving more” many do not get that but, like you rightly said, it is the way of the World vs the way of the Kingdom.
Godbless
So far, an excellent read.