Monday after our great Father’s Day weekend I was thinking that perhaps I should fast in order to break any lingering demonic issues that might hinder the open heaven that I had felt on Sunday. I did as is my wont and asked Abba about it. Generally when it’s my idea to fast for a spiritual purpose I make sure I’m in line with what He desires, there are other times I fast for discipline and then I might not check it out first. I went to the Scriptures for direction and voila, I got Proverbs 24:13-14. Eat honey, in other words don’t fast. I would remind you from my previous writing on Abba’s Day that He had given me the Scripture where Moshe strikes the rock and my heartrending, dramatic reaction that I had missed out on the Promised Land, the land that flows with milk and you got it, honey. Now here I was ready to sacrifice, to fast, to do whatever I could to make sure the open heaven stayed open and He tells me not necessary. Not only did I take verse 13 to heart but the getting wisdom in verse 14 has been a pursuit of mine, His wisdom and admittedly some of the earthbound stuff as well for I see Him in it all. It didn’t take a bulldozer to push aside my preconception of what He might be telling me nor did it take a dump load truck of grace, a gentle nudge did it. I knew what He was telling me and I believe others as well at this time, there are seasons to fast and press for the promise, for the deliverance, for the enemy to back off and other times…Okay plain and simple don’t strike the Rock, speak to Him, that about ties it up in a nutshell. I was, without realizing it, feeling as if I had to violently take, what He wanted me to simply ask Him for. I know my tendency is to overachieve, not to try to work for grace but to ‘do my part’ in whatever in order to expedite it. I admit I am someone who is, according to the relational book about languages, a quality time person, and according to another one of those types of know yourself books; I have a fear factor of wasting time. It probably didn’t take reading those books for anyone around me to know that. I want the bottom-line; I want face time with purpose….Hence I do try to move things along by hitting it hard instead of allowing things to unfold as He would. (I shudder to think what I would do if I were a guy with their tendencies to ‘getter done’.) The importance about this nutshell revelation is that He is after relationship and hitting the Rock might get results but not relationship. Speaking to Him and allowing Him to speak into our hearts and spirits is truly what He is after. It is there in the intimacy of the asking and the waiting for the reply that we find out His heart and perhaps that what we were asking is not for this time, or not good for us, or that we are asking way below the mark of what He intends. I do know that many do all they can to get His attention, they get frustrated and strike out against the circumstance as Moshe did. He was frustrated not with Abba but the constant nagging of the people. Perhaps he was frustrated with his own leadership thinking if he could just get the vision to them the way he had gotten it from Abba then they would understand and not be demanding so much stuff. I can say that many times it is my frustration in receiving what I know is from Abba and sharing it with others and they nod and agree and drop it to the ground, later perhaps they come running and need…I really want to smack something, Oy, Abba never let me strike out at what Yeshua the Rock of our salvation had accomplished in order to get the people off my back. Never let me think I can get the water for them or myself by any means other than asking You and trusting You with the provision.
Again, a bottom-line folks, there have been times I’ve wanted to ‘River Dance’ an S-O-S on the Rock instead of just asking Him nothing wavering not even casting around to see if there is something else I can do, just waiting in the shadow of the Rock instead of wearing myself out. There will be times of fasting to come, but for now, for today I feel as if He is saying, ‘Drop the stick, just ask of Me.’
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