I pray that you may enjoy good health

3 John 1:2 ► New International Version
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

Yesterday (or by now, two days ago) was my birthday, and I had to take out a calculator to find my age. No jokes, I did have a temporary memory gap, but when I saw the current year I was quite able to calculate it on my own. Evidently I turned 52.

Now we have all heard that age is just a number. Yes, it's true. And we should not discriminate based on age. But all that aside, age still means certain influences and wear and tear to our body. And we should not equate our body with flesh which is a spiritual concept and neglect it. There have been preachers with great ministries who have made that regrettable mistake and left the earth too early. So, our body should matter to us.

Roberts Liardon has been preaching about the revival leaders who have left a lasting trace. Years ago, sometime in July-August 1993 Holy Spirit told me to do the same. To study the leaders of various revivals on earth and learn the lessons out of their lives. First book which found its way into my hands on a mission trip to Netherlands was written by Rick Joyner on the lessons of the Welsh Revival and its leader - Evan Roberts.

Now maybe you have heard about the great Welsh revival. Probably, if you are living in UK or anywhere in the western world, and hopefully, if you are from elsewhere. I do admit that it may not so easy to access all the information if living in Africa, so for you it may be first time to hear that.

Namely, in a nutshell. Evan Roberts was a young man whom God used to spark off and lead the Welsh Revival which lasted only a few years, but left a lasting imprint into the living memory of the land. It also sparked off the Azuza Revival and revival fires elsewhere. But he ended up only a few years later weary and mentally broken and never rose back to his former place of impact.
Also, talking about the mental and physical health challenges of ministers, in USA, Jack Coe Sr. had a wonderful miracle ministry, but it was cut short by his premature death, which happened due to his body weight.

So we can see here that there is more than just spiritual empowerment, and training. We need to have all three parts of us in line, our spirit, soul and body. We may be spiritual heavyweights, but if our soul or body weighs us down, we are in trouble and won't get very far.
Hence it is important to invest into all three, and not neglect any other part of ourselves at the expense of another. And that means besides spiritual strength building also taking care of our soul and body.

So, I have been doing an Almased system reset plan. I once could do it at the expense of the Woman and Home magazine, in winter 2014, but then life happened, and it meant I took a hit and allowed it to keep me down for a while, which in turn had consequences. So while previously the relatively expensive German laboratory tested and scientifically worked out formula seemed expensive, now my health was in a highlight, and no price was too much to pay for its reset and restoration. I knew from my previous experience that it worked and led also into a healthy lifestyle of eating home cooked meals which is an integral part of the Almased experience together with the physical activity.

I shared my experience while receiving the congratulatory messages on my birthday with a friend and former church mate in my homeland who had shared with me also the news that he was going to take it easier and cut back his work due to its challenges and pressure it caused in order to preserve his health, especially after he had witnessed a recent death of a colleague of his. It sobered him and made him think about his own health. Now this conversation led into my enthusiastic declaration that if I were living at his homeland, I would seriously consider marketing the mentioned weight loss and health promotion formula there. Evidently I did not choose the right crowd as he turned the talk to a water fast which to his mind was more effective.

Now we may want to draw a line here and have a look at the water fast. It is something I practiced B.C. or before my Christian walk. And I continued practicing it. (In fact I had just completed a ten-day water fast when the Woman and Home magazine needed me to start with their trial, so it was not the best timing for me, as water fast necessitates a longer recovery before our switch to proper meals.) I read on my way to discovering Christ various materials and one of them introduced me into the intricacies of fasting. Again, it was something done for health promotion, so it was not the same thing as Christian fasting, although the physical part was similar. But the main difference between this kind of a water fast and Christian fasting lies in a fact that we do not fast for a diet or for health reasons, but for drawing near to God. Now it is totally all right to fast for the previously mentioned reasons, but a Christian fast acquires its meaning when we do it for the reasons outlined in the Bible. What are they?

We already mentioned drawing near to God, which is our main reason. We take the time which we would have otherwise spent on eating, and give it to God. Or, more specifically, we invest it into our fellowship with Him. (I do trust we all know the importance of having a personal fellowship with the Third Person of the Godhead - Holy Spirit.)

But Bible tells us more, which kind of a fast is acceptable unto God. Now God does not need our fasting. But we do. It helps us become more sensitive to spiritual realities. But throughout the Bible we see (e.g. in the account of the city of Nineveh which took it to an extreme as they made also all their animals fast, but which also helped them escape the judgment pronounced upon them, as a result of it) how biblical fasting is not just a fleshly exercise (which can be used to characterise fasting for health and weight loss), but a time of solemn contemplation and examining our heart and actions and doing the right thing where we have been doing different. There is no condemnation, no judgment really over the ones in Christ after Christ took the judgment upon Himself, but not all things are good and beneficial. And some may downright block our flow of blessings. 1 Peter 3:7

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ► New International Version
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."



Isaiah 58
New King James Version (NKJV)

Fasting that Pleases God
1 “Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’
“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
5 Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,
14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”