Why Fast? part 4

John 12:24 “I tell you the truth, 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.” The grain of wheat looks like the soul and spirit of man. The soul of man represents his fleshly nature. It is the hard outer shell that houses the spirit. 

There is life within the grain of wheat, but it is encased and captured by this very difficult outer shell. Therefore, the only way for the life within the shell to come forth is by the death of the outer shell. If it dies it produces many seeds. In referring to a grain of wheat, death means the cracking open of the hard outer shell. Once the shell is split open, the wheat begins to grow. The question is not whether there is life within, but whether the outside shell is cracked open. 

John 12:25 “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” The word “life” in this verse, is the Greek word, psuche (psoo-khay’) from which we get the word soul. The person who loves their fleshly life to the point that they will never deny it (defend it) – will ultimately lose it. But the person who hates their psuche in this life will keep it. In other words the person who will allow their hard outer shell to be broken – the person who will die to their fleshly desires – will ultimately gain eternal life. 

In order for us to allow the spirit life to come forth – to be able to do those things that seem good to the Holy Spirit – it is imperative that the hard, outer, shell be dealt with. If the outward remains unbroken, the inner life will never be able to come forth. 

Many of us live a carnal existence. We have the life of God available to us and yet we settle for a life without the power of God being made manifest in us. If you are a Christian, you have the life of God within you. If you are a carnal Christian, you keep that life bottled up by not giving yourself to spiritual pursuits. You want the life of God to flow through you but you don’t want to have to pay a price to get it. 

So, what does this have to do with fasting? Simply this: Fasting helps break that outer shell through applying external pressure. When a grain of wheat falls to the earth outside forces begin to work on it. The temperature of the soil, and the moisture of the soil all work on the hard outer shell in an effort to break it open so that the life inside can come forth.   

Outside forces are what cause our hard carnal nature to finally break, so in our case, we are going to have three different focuses or you might say forces. These are three pressure points: sin, health, and our need for revival. These are three circumstances of life that God might use to get us to seek him. Folks, in all honestly, we need revival. Our church needs revival, our Community, State and Nation need revival and probably each of us, as individuals, need revival. Unfortunately for us, it usually takes outside forces to get us to pray.

Wouldn’t it be nice if God forced us to be spiritual? But here is the dilemma: God does not use the inner man to break the outer man. He does not use the Spirit to break the flesh. The inner seed does not force itself through the hard outer shell. It waits until the outer shell is broken – then it comes forth. In the same way the Spirit of God within us does not force His way through our will. That would be like becoming spiritual against our wills. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine waking up one day as a spiritual giant – against your own will? You wake up one morning saying, “Verily, verily, how didst this happen? I didn’t want to be spiritual, but behold – I’m now a spiritual giant.” It doesn’t work that way. The sinful nature has to willfully die.

Continued tomorrow