The Meaning Of Wilderness and 40 Days & 40 Nights

Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil. And when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was afterwards hungry. 

Understand what the Bible means by wilderness and the number 40, and you will have a different point of view on this highly controversial topic in the body of Christ...

It Is Good For The Heart To Be Established With Grace

Do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped.

Revelation on Fasting in The Light Of New Covenant

It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.", for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped.

The revelation on fasting came to me about 3 years ago before we started our first teaching session in Celebration Bible School in Medan, Indonesia. This revelation took the Lord a flick of a second to reveal but it is by no mean conclusive and the revelation on this contractual topic in the body of Christ is still growing.

This is the link to the original post on the topic of FASTING written on 13th February 2009.

Established In Jesus' Righteousness

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes and the just shall live by faith. It is the glory of God to hide a thing; but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

God Incidence... Again!

The Secret Of Hearing That Brings Untold Blessings by Pastor Joseph Prince

Romans 10:17 ~ Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ!

This Video Clip which was posted on Facebook today and it shocked me a little... What a God incidence to find out that I was actually sharing the same context of this message in my Mandarin Service last Sunday.  But my sermon title was "Take Heed How You Hear!"

Believing Is Seeing

In the New Covenant, grace is spiritual, as we need the revelation from the Holy Spirit to understand the grace of God. In the New Covenant, truth is also spiritual, as the Holy Spirit only witness to the truth. By the grace of God, the righteousness that He imparted to us is also spiritual because we too, need the Holy Spirit to convict us of righteousness and reveal to us that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. By the grace of God, He did not just take away all our sins, all our curses, all our sicknesses, all our bondages, all our poverty; He made us born again in the Spirit, to be called a new creation. Praise God, when we are born again in the Spirit, we are born righteous.

By the grace of God, we are now a spirit being living in our bodies… This divine exchange was made possible because as Spiritual Being, the Creator of this universe, our Lord Jesus humbled Himself and came down from His high level onto our level and redeemed us… through His Finished Work at the cross, He set us free from the kingdom of darkness!

Therefore, as a born again believer, to believe is spiritual, our faith is spiritual, our praise to God is spiritual, our thanksgiving is also spiritual, our prayer is spiritual, our worship is spiritual, and to rest in Him is also spiritual... The promises that God promised us are also spiritual and even our shouting of “Amen” is spiritual! Those who are under grace are those whom the Father seeks to worship Him in Spirit and truth. This is the reason why we are now in the world but not of the world!

Hebrews 11:3 ~ Because of our faith, we know that the world was made at God's command. We also know that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen (CEV).

In the account of Abram and Lot in the Book of Genesis, when Lot had parted from Abram, (Lot represents the veil that is on the believer's face, and as the veil is taken away,) God asked Abram to lift up his eyes from where he was and look north and south, east and west. All the lands that he could see the Lord would give to him and his offspring. Abram, in his dispensation and his point of time, was a natural man.When he looked from north to south, from east to west, his sight created the sign of a cross… and the rest is history and we know that Abram, later called Abraham, was highly favoured and greatly blessed with materialistic blessings.

God preached the Gospel story to Abram and God credited him as righteous because he believed. In the account of John 8:56, Jesus Himself told the Jewish people of His time that their father Abraham rejoiced to see His Day, and Abraham saw it and was glad. Abraham believed the Gospel and looked forward to the Cross, and he saw the Finished Work of Christ. We have heard of the same Gospel too and are now established by His grace because we believed we are righteous by faith. As such, we who believed this Good News are now children of Abraham. The Bible says, only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "AND TO YOUR SEED," who is Christ. Therefore, the promise by faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe. If we insist to obey the Law to be righteous or we insist to perform to own our righteousness, then we are uable to receive the blessing that God promised Abraham because the Abrahamic blessing is only given to those who believe that they are righteous by faith!

When God called Abraham, he was not born again in the Spirit but we are. We just need to look back at the cross (north and south, east and west), we just need to look at Jesus’ Finished Work, for Jesus had restored the promise that He made with Abraham. We do not need to look far like Abraham, we just need to see in the Spirit... Whatever we can see will ne given to us. For we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God… we need to realize that this is spiritual, and we need to believe the truth and see in the Spirit to received our blessing…

No one can teach us how to see in the Spirit but the anointing that God had given us i.e. the Holy Spirit … but we (our spirit man) can grow to see by only feeding on the truth i.e. Jesus’ Finished Work. Abraham looked forward to Jesus’ Finished Work and he was glad, and as we look back at Jesus’ Finished Work, we should be more grateful because by His grace, "It's Finished!" and we are already blessed!

"Seeing is believing" is of the Old Covenant spirit but "believing is seeing" is of the New Covenant Spirit. "Seeing is believing" is of the world, but "believing is seeing" is spiritual! Believe and See in the Spirit to receive your Abrahamic blessing!

How to see? You may ask again...

Revelation 3:18 ~ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

This eye salve is the Holy Spirit. Saul the Pharisee was healed by this eye salve when Ananias laid his hand on him... Well, feed yourself on the truth concerning Jesus' Finished Work and BELIEVE; the Holy Spirit will make sure that you see. In due time, you can't help but SEE...and seeing effortlessly!

Which Table Are You Partaking From?

In my previous post entitled "Confusion", King Nebuchadnezzar has been exposed of his conspiracy to confuse the redeemed. From his table, he lavishes his royal food and wine! Be discerning enough not to feast from his table. His table is called the table of confusion. The royal foods and wine is the teaching with the  mixture of law and grace which in one hand disarms the purposes of the law was given for and on the other hand neutralized the resurrection power of God’s grace.

Before us in the presence of our enemies, our Redeemer prepared the Table before our enemies.  We are partaking His Body and His Blood from His Table. This table is victorious, full of undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor of God. We come to our Lord's Table to enjoy and celebrate His victory and all that He had done for us! 

Before we continue, may I ask whether which table is your "Jerusalem" partaking from?  What is the difference between these two tables? Well, This king Nebu prepares his table before of our own weakness. When we come to king Nebu’s table, we need to legalistically confess all our sins and this is an insult to our Redeemer's finished work! This king Nebu is trying to copy the way our Redeemer prepared the Table but he leads us to eat and drink in an unworthy manner and as a result, many are weak and sick, and many sleep.   But when we come to our Lord’s Table, we partake with thanksgiving and acknowledgement of our Lord’s finished work in remembrance of Him. Because of  His grace, His body had open up a new and living way. The more we come, the more we live! Our Lord’s Table is full of solid truth which is His broken Body and His Blood!

Daniel the Prophet is the picture of the redeemed. He had the wisdom to resolve not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. He asked the official to give them vegetable and water instead and test them for 10 days.

Have you resolve not to eat from king Nebu’s table?

The root word for vegetable here is seed. Jesus mentioned about the Word of God as seed in Matthew 13. He also said in one of the parables that He is seed and unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now with this compilation of the New Covenant truth on seed, we can see that Daniel by then had already been feeding himself with the New Covenant truth, for the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is not ordinary Word but the resurrected Jesus Himself. As for water, we can easily connect water with the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, He only comes to glorify Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, Who is the Only Truth. That is why Apostle Paul preached in the Book of Romans that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. The Christ here is the resurrected Jesus. Apostle Paul himself received revelation from the resurrected Christ and  with his revelation, he was able to write two third of the New Covenant. 

By the way, as I was writing this post, I was fascinated by the statement that my wife wrote on her Facebook wall. She wrote: No man understands the Scriptures, unless he is acquainted with the cross! What about that?

Well, after ten days of testing, Daniel and his gang looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. This is the consequence of the right nutrition for the spirit man… After sitting under a ministry that preaches only the grace of God for eight years, I noticed that those who are in the Grace ministry are healthier in their physical and spiritual life. They are better nourished as the Bible says they are eating meat, not drinking milk because they understand the teaching on righteousness. The newly converted in our midst know more fundamental truth than those “old” Christians who sit under a ministry that preach the mixture of law and grace. 

I am now convinced that Daniel who was in his dispensation already had the wisdom to prophesize on the coming of the Messiah and the end time events because of his  resolution to partake only vegetable and water. What about us, the redeemed who had resolved not to defile ourselves with the royal food and wine from the table of king Nebu, the king of confusion?  We have the vegetable (seed, the Word of Christ) and the water is in us (the Holy Spirit in us)… Wow!

Which table are you partaking from? Is it king Nebu’s table or our Lord’s Table?

The Aftermath

I was asked by my Elder to share on the subject of fasting (a revelation which I received from the Lord in the month of February this year) in the main service last Sunday. Indeed, I was blessed by the experience and this is the aftermath of the sharing… (I use the word aftermath because in farming, it means “new grass glowing after mowing or harvest”). Praise God…!

I quoted Romans 14:17 i.e. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” to start off my sharing. Then I quoted Matthew 4:4 i.e. the famous scripture on Jesus went fasting for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness and immediately tempted by the devil. I then went on to Jesus’ answer on fasting in Mark chapter 2 when He was asked by the Pharisee. To end my sharing, I quoted Daniel’s example on his decision not to partake King Nebuchadnezzar’s royal table and wine, which is the typology of Babylonian teaching (teaching that mixes grace with law).

The moral of this sharing is to encourage you to fast from partaking any teaching that is not pointing us to the Finished Work or any teaching that is not Christ centered.

While I was driving to my office this morning (I used to have my quiet time with the Lord during my half an hour journey to my office every morning), the Lord linked these verses together to show me yet another precious revelation that expounds His Finished Work. So, lets fasten your seat-belt... !

Romans 14:17 ~ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit

Matthew 4:4 ~ Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Daniel 1:12 ~ "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

For the kingdom of God is not about our doing or anything that concern with our effort or our flesh. The used of the term “eating and drinking” is to show us our daily activity which is necessary in our living. But the kingdom of God is all about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are the “by products” of His Finished Work! These “by products” are given by grace and are New Covenant stuff!

The NIV version of this verse (For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit) misled me, for this version does not have an “and” in between righteousness and peace. So it gave me the impression that righteousness, peace and joy are three different issues in the Holy Spirit. From the NIV version, my religious mind also tells me that I must have righteousness first then I can have peace and then the joy in the Holy Spirit. The Lord prompted me to look at NKJV, and I then realized that all these three issues are one in the Holy Spirit for the NKJV has an "and" in between righteousness and peace. (For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit). The Lord has to clear this religious blockage so that His revelation can flow through me. Hmmm... I'm still religious, ok?

In Matthew 4:4, the Lord answered the devil: “It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The verse in Romans 14:17 and this verse started to connect when the revelation flows… Is “Man does not live by bread alone” having the same meaning of “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking”? And on the phrase of, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God…, what do you think the kind of word will come out of the mouth of God? At this point is before the Cross, but after the Cross, is our Daddy not proud of what His Darling Son had done at the Cross? Is He not going to boast of the Finished Work of His Darling Son? Now, is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit the every word that comes from the mouth of God?

In Daniel 1:12, Daniel said to the guard: “Give me nothing…” Nothing of what??? Nothing on the matter of eating and drinking, nothing of the royal food and wine i.e. the Babylonian teaching that edified self effort and provoke his flesh…! What did Daniel resolved to partake then? Of course, he asked for vegetable and water… In the KJV, the word “vegetable” is “pulse”, and the meaning of the word “pulse” is the word “seed”. From the Book of John on the parable of the sewer, Jesus used seed as word of God. Seed by itself is already a finished product. A seed by itself is completed. We have the whole tree and its fruits in a seed! Is Daniel not mentioning about the Finished Work again? We all know that water speaks of the Holy Spirit! Is it not that vegetable and water speaks of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”? No wonder Prophet Daniel could prophesy on the coming of Messiah and the end time events…

Now, the Lord prompted me to line up all these three verses in the sequence of the times the Books were written…

Daniel 1:12 "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

Oh Hallelujah..., see for yourself what the Lord is telling us... Give us nothing, but vegetable and water, for it is written: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God!" and the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

No wonder Jesus is hungry after fasting for forty days and forty nights… :) Praise Your mighty Name, Lord… Thank you for this precious revelation… Man…, I find myself more and more hungry. Give me more….!

Revival

Do you know that the revival that many Charismatic Christians are seeking for has actually already happened?

The Finished Work of Christ is that REVIVAL! The Finished Works of our Lord had changed everything. The Finished Work even changed the principle of repentance. Under the Old Covenant, man repented from their sins because God was against sin; while under the New Covenant, man repents towards righteousness because the sins issue had been satisfied at the Cross and Jesus’ righteousness had been freely and fully lavished upon those who believed in Him. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! Jesus’ Finished Work at the Cross looks more like the revival many charismatic Christians are seeking through their regular fasting and fervent prayers.

Hey, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the Old Covenant Saints, they were looking forward prophetically to the cross for direction while as for us the New Covenant Saints, we look back to Jesus’ Finished Work for revelation. It is all about the revelation of the righteousness of Christ that we already have; the peace He had brought forth through the punishment He sustained at the Cross and the joy of never losing our salvation because of that mighty REVIVAL! The revival had already happened two thousand years ago; and what we need now is not fasting and praying for revival but fasting and praying for the revelation of what had happened in that revival! It is all about Jesus and His Finished Works. This is the everlasting revival!

I pity those good-hearted, on fire Christians who commit themselves in the Old Covenant fasting and praying for revival. They still believe that revival will not come unless there are sufficient fasting, ample prayers and “real” repentance… Before long, these good-hearted, on Fire Christians are burnt out instead burning up.

How can we receive revelation from that mighty revival which happened two thousand years ago? The answer is praying and fasting! WHAT...??? Yes, praying and fasting..., the New Covenant way!

So, stay tune…

Ministry of Health

The World Health Organization is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established in the year 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Luke 16:8 ~ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

It was just half a year ago that in many parts of the world, milk products are found contaminated with Melamine. Melamine by itself is non toxic in low doses, but when combined with Cyanuric Acid it can cause fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble Melamine Cyanurate. In view of this, the Health Ministry of the affected countries had to intensify their checks on imported products and their locally manufactured products which used milk as part of the ingredients.

The people in the world are very concerned with the food they are consuming and they do not tolerate any mixture of toxic substance in their dietary. The Health Ministries concerned are protecting their people by bringing in high tech instruments and their best researchers to putting up a high standard in scrutinizing all milk related products.

The Health Ministries in this world are doing a far better job than the “Health Ministries” in the body of Christ in term of dietary scrutiny. Today, Christians under the dispensation of grace are still being fed with the deadly mixture of law and grace as their main course for spiritual dietary. The world has their food products labeled with expiry date and look at the body of Christ, many still do not know what is expired at the Cross.

The preaching in many parts of the Christian bodies are not Christ centered but self centered. The preaching is not righteousness consciousness but sin consciousness. The preaching is not emphasizing on resting in the Lord because of His Finished Work on the Cross, but emphasizing on working for the Lord as if Jesus had not died on the Cross. The preaching is not emphasizing on what God had done for them at the Cross but what they can do for God. The preaching is not pointing the believers to Jesus, who is all able, all powerful, and full of grace and mercy, but pointing the believers to themselves who are unable, powerless, and full of hatred and unforgiveness. The preaching is neither hot nor cold i.e. mixing grace with Law or lukewarm. The preaching is not from the Tree of Life but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When these preachings are diverted from the Cross, the teachings are religious and unintentionally advocating the principles of religion.

All religions are self centered. They emphasize on sin consciousness and what they can do for God. They do not have the Cross and somehow, they are still looking and waiting for somebody to save them. That is why they teach you how to be good and how not to be bad. They teach you how to do good and how not to do evil. Religions do all these because they do not have life. Whereas we are different; we have life because Jesus comes to give us life and life more abundantly. We have a Savior who is not only willing to help us but had died for us on the Cross. Before we are born into this world, He had already finished doing everything and brought forth all the heavenly blessings for us when He cried out, “It’s Finished!” two thousand years ago. What He had finished on the Cross are not only the bad things that our peanut size brains can think of, but that God can think of. Is this not grace?

Do Christians still practice religion as if the Lord they worship had not died on the Cross? Yes… Do you think Apostle Paul was preaching legalism to get approval from men and please them in the Book of Galatians? No… He was preaching GRACE and obviously the religious people were not happy with him!

Galatians 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 5:7~12 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

If Apostle Paul was preaching GRACE, and obviously that is true, because he was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles who preached the Gospel… Hey, he was not trying to win the approval of men but GOD!!! If Apostle Paul's teaching had God’s approval, I think grace is the right spiritual dietary for the body of Christ and moreover, Paul himself confirmed that there is no other Gospel!

Galatians 1:6~9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Spiritual dietary for the believers in this dispensation has not been wisely scrutinized. The "Health Minister" concerned do not pay close attention to the expiry date of their dietary. These lukewarm or expired dietary have brought much harm to the new covenant believers in term of the growth of their faith and leaving them in the state of spiritual malnutrition. It is high time for the “Health Ministers” in the Body of Christ to refer to the instructions written by Apostle Paul (who wrote two third of the New Testament) and bring in the CROSS and Jesus' Finished Work, to scrutinize what has been accomplished by the Lord, which covenant has been expired on the Cross and perform their duty of “rightly dividing the Word” diligently, in the context of the light of New Covenant.

Grace and truth is on the side of Jesus. Grace is the lingo of the New Covenant. When we appreciate His grace, we will have the revelation knowledge of the truth. If we continue to FAST and keep feeding on grace based, Christ centered teaching, we will have the revelation knowledge on what is good for eating and what is not...

Watch out for what you are eating... watch out for the sign "Do Not Consume After The Expire Date". Your dietary can affect your spiritual health...

Fasting

I was quickened by the Spirit to realize that I have been fasting for the past five years ever since the Lord has enlightened me with His teaching on grace. This revelation shocked me a bit but I was immediately comforted by a fresh insight on fasting.

Please bear with me for awhile and if you feel this is misleading, you are welcome to throw stone at me at the end of this sharing. So be cool…

With this fresh insight for a rather controversial topic in the body of Christ, I went around asking for answers from the average believers with charismatic background, the purpose for fasting. The answers I gathered are as followed:-

1) To restrain and weaken our flesh so that our spirit can grow stronger.
2) Spiritual discipline.
3) To be closer to God and hear His voice.
4) To obtain spiritual power.

Hmm… what is your answer?

I don't think fasting is what we used to think as restraining ourselves from eating our meals for certain period of time and achieve the purpose of weakening our flesh to gain spiritual power or to make God obligated to move in the area of our needs. If this is so, any other religion that practices fasting would also achieve the same purposes. In fact, they claimed to have the same result too!

The only thing that sets Christianity apart from the rest of the religions is God's grace. Grace is not natural but supernatural. We need the Holy Spirit to understand grace and most of all, Christianity was born by the grace of the Father through the death of the His beloved Darling Son. If only we can have the revelation knowledge of this truth, we will be led by the Spirit to understand more including the meaning of fasting.

Those of us, who are so much into grace, are very familiar that our flesh is edified by legalistic and performance oriented doctrine which is self centered and based on law abiding. It is this self righteousness doctrine that give strength to our flesh! The preaching of law is the food to our flesh!!! The moment we embark ourselves on Christ centered, grace based doctrine, that is the moment we start our FASTING!!! Because we have restrained ourselves from exposing to legalistic and performance oriented teaching, we have stopped supplying “FOOD” to our flesh. I think this is a more biblical way to define fasting in the light of the New Covenant.

Can you find evidence in the bible to support your claim? (You may ask…)

Let’s go on…

Matthew 4:1~4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.' "

So, after being baptized at the River Jordan and before Jesus started His earthly ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry…!

Jesus was born under the law and was brought up in a legalistic, law abiding Jewish society. This was the darkest era in the history of Jewish culture. After the baptism, He was immediately led to the wilderness to stay away from the law abiding, legalistic environment. He restrained for forty days and forty nights. John the Baptist was growing up in the wilderness and was isolated from Jewish legalistic society. Paul, the Apostle of Grace to the Gentiles, was led to Arabia to be away from Jerusalem which was their religious center and Judaism's stronghold.

The number 40 here is the representative number for one generation. It was not what we literally think as our forty days and forty nights. The Israelite were wandering in the wilderness for forty years while Moses was up in Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights.

The devil was quick to draw Jesus’ attention back to the “stone” again right after Jesus' fasting by saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus said, “It is written: ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

Do you think this kind of dialogues are dialogues of our human nature? I don’t think so… A spiritual being was talking to a SPIRITUAL BEING; I think these dialogues are spiritual!

The devil was quick to point Jesus in turning the Ten Commandments (Two tablets of stone) into His food. The devil was asking Jesus to feed on Law... How did Jesus reply him? Jesus said man does not live on bread only (the bodily man), but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (the spirit-man). As far as the devil is concerned, if our flesh is strong, our spirit will be weak. As such, Jesus expounded the existence of spirit-man in man that the spirit-man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. He was in the wilderness, being far away from the legalistic environment, He was there to receive words direct from the Father.

What kind of word did the Father minister to Jesus? At Mt. Sinai, God was showing Moses the beautiful story of the Tabernacle which is a typology of Jesus. The Father was ministering grace to Jesus in the wilderness just like Jesus Himself ministered grace to Apostle Paul in Arabia.

However, as I continue with this passage, the phrase “He was hungry” caused a bit of doubt in my mind… What about you? Hey, the Bible says He was hungry you know...? Well, I was "asked" to put this phrase aside and continue with the reading... So, let’s go on.

Let us look at what Jesus talked about fasting in replying to the Scribes and Pharisee...

Luke 5: 33~38 Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?" And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days." Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.' "

In this passage, Jesus interchanged in referring the man with flesh and spirit-man. Jesus was saying as He (the Bridegroom) was with them in flesh, it was time for celebration. How could the Bridegroom make them fast in the time of celebration? When the time had come for Him to be glorified at the Cross, they (their flesh) would have to fast because grace dispensation only came into effect when the Holy Spirit was poured out at the Feast of Pentecost. Under the grace dispensation, His disciples were already made righteous by His blood and were justified by His resurrection. They were to live by faith not by law. So by then, they were to fast from partook the Law and to live by the Spirit.

It is funny that Jesus did not continue to expound on fasting but changed the subject from fasting to the famous parables of new and old garment, new wine and old wineskin. Eh..., very interesting!

We all know that the parables of old and new garment together with new wine and old wineskin are talking about the doctrine on grace and law dispensation and is telling us that grace cannot be mixed with law. Jesus is not interested in how we abstain ourselves from eating our meals as a way of fasting. He is interested in the feeding and the health of our spirit-man. Babylonian teaching (confuse by mixing grace with law) mixes up our flesh and spirit-man which causes confusion in our Christian walk. While legalistic and law abiding doctrine edify and strengthen our flesh.

Christ centered, grace based doctrine is LIVING and ACTIVE (because of the witness of the Holy Spirit). The message of grace is sharper than any double-edged sword, can penetrate even to dividing our souls and spirits, joints and marrow and judge our thoughts and the attitude of our hearts. Grace divides our souls and spirits so that we can be sharp when Holy Spirit prompts our spirit. Grace divides the joints and marrow so that the life supply to our flesh is cut off. Grace judges our ungodly thoughts and the religious attitude of our hearts!

If the purpose of fasting is to stop feeding our flesh and build up our spirit-man, I think it is wise for us to sit under a Christ centered Ministry. In order to stop feeding our flesh, we are to restrain ourselves from sitting under a Ministry that emphasizes legalism with law abiding preaching and Babylonian teaching that causes confusion in our midst. As born again believers, we are Spirit filled and we need the Gospel of Grace expounded in the light of the New Covenant Spirit, as food for our spirit-man... Amen!

Oh ya... now back to my doubtful phrase: "He was hungry"…

The Lord told me, “You have been sitting under a Christ centered Ministry for so long, do you still feel hungry…?” Ha...ha...ha... If you know what He means…

So, how long have you been fasting? As for me and my household, we are not going to fool around but to steadfast with our FASTING for the rest of the "generation" and continue to sit under an anointed Ministry that preaches Christ centered message and glorifies the Finished Work of Christ.

Who say those who are under grace are not fasting?