In my last blog, I shared three of six keys to making this your best year yet! After all, who doesn’t want this year to be the best?! (And after last year, we all want this year to be great!)
Here are the remaining three keys…
Key #4 – Put to Death Your Flesh
The fourth key is put to death what the Bible refers to as the flesh. I’ve included this one because it’s really the whole reason for fasting in the first place (which is one of the keys I mentioned last time to having a great year). A lot of people believe that fasting is kind of like penance. It’s a way to prove to God how much you love Him. That’s an old tradition, but in fact, it’s not even in the Bible. Fasting never had anything to do with that. You may or may not realize this, but we’re triune beings. You have a body—everybody can see that. You have a soul. Everybody can experience that—your mind, will, and emotions. And you’re spiritual (which, by the way, is a part of you that’s going to live forever). So, we are not physical beings having these temporary spiritual experiences. We are spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience. Your spirit is made perfect in Christ when you’re saved, but the battle that rages on—that you feel every day—that’s your flesh still trying. It’s weak, but it’s there.
The goal of Christianity is to make sure that your spirit is the one in charge. This is huge because one of those—your flesh, soul, or spirit—is always in charge. For some of us, it’s our body; our flesh is calling the shots. When that’s the case, you have no regard for the soul and definitely no regard for the spirit within you. The flesh just craves things all the time, and for a lot of us, just letting the flesh run its course is how we live every day. We feed it; it’s in charge.
So you might be thinking that your soul should be in charge. Actually, that could be worse. We’ve all met people who let their emotions run the show. They make illogical, even detrimental, decisions for themselves and others on pure emotion. When the soul is in complete charge, people let their bodies waste away and let their spiritual life grow cold. It’s just as bad as allowing the flesh to ruin everything and to run everything.
It’s the spirit that must run the show for every true Christ-follower. In Romans 8:13, the Apostle Paul said, “if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Well, then, which one’s going to be the strongest? The one you feed the most, the one you exercise the most. If you want to live for Jesus, then periodically, and you’re going to need to put to death the strength of the flesh.
Key #5 – Choose a Different Lifestyle
This fifth point is so important because it helps you to put to death the strength of the flesh: choose a different lifestyle. Do this incredible first-part-of-your-year experiment. You’re going to have to choose a different lifestyle if you want different results. I’m sure you’ve heard that insanity means doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. At The Summit, we’re currently in the middle of a 21-day time of fasting and praying, and I would encourage you to embark on this lifestyle change for a period of 21 days as well. It takes time to change habits.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do something as intense as a 21-day journey and live a double life. You need to choose the lifestyle you know that God wants you to lead—even if you can only commit to it for 21 days. Now, some of you may be thinking, “That’s crazy, Pastor Rob. Why would you say that?” Well, because you’ve got to start somewhere. And if you can’t walk away from something for 21 days, how are you going to walk away from it for 21 months or 21 years?
The prophet Isaiah said basically the same thing in chapter 58, verse 3: “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please…” During these 21 days, I want to encourage you. If you’ve allowed certain secular things in your life, just get away from them. It’s just 21 days. These are the things Isaiah said we’re ruining the people who half-heartedly attempted to approach God on their terms rather than His.
Key #6 – Expect Results
The last key is to expect results. I’m talking about faith. Hebrews tells us without faith, it’s impossible to please God. I want you to expect God to move, to know that your God is great, strong, and powerful. I want you to dare to believe God for the impossible!
Look at what Isaiah believed would happen if the people approached God this way: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and he will say: Here am I.” (Isaiah 58:8-9)
Can I tell you one of the greatest secrets of all the Bible…this might even be the greatest…God loves you, and He wants you to love Him. In fact, He wants to be your first love. There’s that word again—first. Order is very important to God. Jesus said, in Matthew 22:37-38, “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first of the greatest commandment.” My prayer for you is that we would come back to true and first love worship. That’s what God’s looking for.
It’s made even clearer in John 4:23-24, when Jesus tells us that, “…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Let me close with this verse, Revelation 2:4-5. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
It’s all for naught if we’re not close to Jesus.
So, how can we make sure that we are as close as possible to the Son of God? Here are three quick things:
- Remember your first love.
- Remove the obstacles.
- Rejoin the path of obedience.
Pray about and focus on these things. If you focus on them in this season, they’ll prepare you for the best year!