"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"

David, with all of his faults, is perhaps the greatest old testament figure of faith and single eyed devotion and trust in God. In our day of relative ease, comfort and privilege, it's easy to forget the depths of faith it really takes to walk with God. It's evident when the most vehement struggles of the church are no longer persecution and actual death, but rather whether or not it's sinful to own a television; and we struggle to see how we can live in holiness when certain songs are played on a publicly heard radio, that we have completely lost the plot.

David penned his Psalms throughout tumult and uncertainty, in a range of circumstances from peaceful shepherding to being pursued by assassins and kings, in literal valleys of death. The worst many of us will ever face is someone doubting our relationship to God based on some man made and sanctimonious religious rule, like whether or not a woman wears pants, or the length of our hair.

For David, life was faith. Not part of his doctrine; not a chapter in his systematic theology; but the very fabric of his being. Right from the day Samuel rubbed oil on his forehead, David was a single eyed servant, and no matter what happened around him or to him, God was his ever present refuge. He ran for safety into the one to whom he prayed, the shepherd of his soul.

Our circumstances may seem daunting, but always remember that while we struggle in drudgery, repetitiveness, spiritual boredom, and an ever present temptation to make mountains out of mole hills, there were those who were forced into mountain caves, fleeing for their lives with only one hope to physically live, God Himself.

While we constantly plead promises and seek spiritual blessing, never forget those in Hebrews 11 that looked to the one who promised. The promises of God can never be exalted to the forgetfulness of the God of the promises. Throughout any and all circumstances of life, God is at work for you, if you will just take the time to acknowledge Him and His presence. Faith, even for us in this time, is in fact the conduit of life, and by it we must walk.

Faith is the only way we live in Christ, and by faith is the only way Christ lives in us. Nothing we have done or will do can please the Lord, unless it be done in faith.

"I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee"

Many believers are the under the distinct impression that right doctrine, right action, and right feelings equate salvation. I was one of these. For many years my life consisted of unwavering devotion to right doctrine, right action, and right feeling. Everything was fine as long as I fulfilled the duties and things I felt called to do. Whether it was living by faith for provision, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sin, writing of the deep things of God, or preaching to congregations of God's people, as long as I was engaged I could ignore the fact that inwardly it was a sham. Activity for God can have that dulling effect on the spiritual senses, leaving you to one day look back and wonder what happened.

God is not a God of explanation. He won't let the bottom drop out of your life, He will remove it. Those that think they are something are better off taking heed, because pride cometh before destruction. Many will argue God will never allow someone who seeks Him to face anything that could possibly lead them into sin or trials that seem unworthy of His purposes, but who knows the depths of God's purposes other than Himself?

Labor and legalism leads to licentiousness and lewdness, I know this to be true in fact. This is not an item for debate in anyone who has experienced the destruction God lays to the lives of those He calls.

Many make bold claims of being dead to the world and dead to sin, but death is deep destruction to even the religious and good things you think you have a claim to. God will, if necessary, destroy reputation and pride through any means necessary, just look to the prophets throughout scripture. His destruction is such that no man or explanation can repair, and He leaves His servant with nothing left but Himself. All worldly and fleshly confidence will be utterly destroyed, even the things we hold as good things, things that even other saints think are good.

Will God remove His protection and allow His servant to fly into a life of sin and self indulgence in order to accomplish some deeper purpose? Yes.

Will God remove His protection and allow His servant to destroy his own reputation and fall into all manner of Satans traps for some deeper purpose? Yes.

Will God destroy to the uttermost just as He saves to the uttermost? Yes.

But once God lays hold of a man, and utterly destroys everything he is, what than is left? Well the answer is simple, all that is left is God Himself, and this is the deeper purpose.

If you have heard with your ear, brace yourself if you seek to know Him and hold anything back from Him, because before you can see with your eyes, God will destroy you.

"of no reputation"

The world lauds men of reputation. After all, what is a man in all his natural glory if other men don't roundly applaud him for his intellect, actions and sound ethics. Often times the world will promote and applaud a man simply because of his reputation, with absolutely no knowledge of who he is, what he says, why he says it or whether or not his life is in line with the message. The reputation of a man is many times his most prized possession.

The mire of this truth is too often trod by the church. In fact, I would be so bold as to say the reputation of a man is more important to men, than the present reality of that same man. A mans reputation is based solidly on his past, and if men lean on what they have accomplished there, there it will stay, and all present reality of God will stay there to.

The horrid result of this is wolves parading around with brilliantly adorned reputations deceiving God's people with well spoken doctrine. I speak from a place of experience in this matter, because for a long time I was a ravenous wolf held up by nothing but reputation. Following is a quote from something I wrote almost 20 years ago, as an unregenerate, false prophet thinking he knew something of the 23rd Psalm.

"David, likely with his little flock of sheep bleating around him, nestled under a tree by the Jordan reflects on the Lord’s goodness to His people. What a wonderful, and intimate illustration to show us the way in which God almighty sees those whom He has purchased with His own blood. The Lord as a shepherd is something to which many bright theologians never aspire to theologize simply because it fails to be systematic. I am convinced heartily that when one comes to this union and knowledge of the Father systematic theology begins to be more of a burden than a blessing. The affection must be set on things above, to properly understand this union, and this dear and precious relationship that comes with an intimate understanding and knowledge of God."

What a sham. True in word no doubt, but death nonetheless. Anyone who knew me knew a fervent preacher of holiness and avid street preacher outside, but they didn't see the wolfish boy I was inside, always intruding on things I knew nothing about. Thank God in His glorious wisdom he saw fit to leave me to my own devices for a season, and show me what it is to truly know life from death.

Jesus made Himself of no reputation. This is significant because just as a man builds his own reputation, only he can take it away. In my case, the Lord had to destroy everything in my life that bore any resemblance of Christ, because I had built for myself and entire pantry of broken cisterns, and deceived even the elect of God, because they all saw the cracks and heard me preach brokenness, and didn't care that broken cisterns hold no water.

Reputation precedes men, meaning it has the ability to blind other men to the truth of what someone is based on the hearsay of who he is, before he even gets there. The only answer is a walk soundly in the Spirit, because only He can discern the hearts of men.

I can tell you plainly that deception is powerfully subtle and in every case takes the deceived unawares. I flew under the radar in churches that touted spiritual authority, discernment, holiness and the presence of God for years and threw around lettered death to everyone that heard me. This begs a very serious question, how much of God did they have in reality?

God is wise, and left me to my own devices so I could turn around and make myself of no reputation, even so far as to become a byward in every circle I once travelled. Like Job, he allowed Satan a good solid crack at me, but unlike Job, I failed the test.

God in His infinite mercy used those experiences to take me further along in my paltry journey through Psalm 23 and teach me the meaning of the rod and staff. I never commented that far into the Psalm all of those years ago, because God only chastises Sons, and I was none of His, no matter how whitewashed I was.

But all who practice the truth end up coming to the light, as Jesus said. Once the light truly shown, I now had the death and knowledge necessary to understand, I had heard with my ears, and like Job, I now saw with my eyes. I had nothing to commend me to man, nothing at all except the reputation of hypocrisy, sin, and presenting for years something that was completely meant to lead men astray, no matter what it looked like to others.

Anything offered to appear to be something that it is not is a lie. This is reputation, because no man of God has one, not even Jesus, the Son of Man. He made Himself of no reputation and every one of us must somehow, at some time in our lives follow that same path if we ever hope to be any son of His, for He MUST be all in all.

"The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”

Peter was the apostle to the Jews, a high calling. But what we know of Peter is a mixed bag. On one hand full of zeal and passion for his Master; on the other hand full of self effort and self preservation. A man after God's own heart, yet blatantly and openly a man after his own good intentions and self will. How than do we reconcile this obvious contradiction and juxtaposition?

The answer lies in Jesus telling Peter to "follow me". Peter first followed Jesus out self effort and zeal. His actions were the actions that most people in Christendom today would applaud as a selfless display of love for Jesus. His undying zeal and desire to follow and protect Jesus was unmatched among the disciples, to the point where Peter was the only man other than God incarnate to ever defy the laws of gravity and tread upon the water.

Peter didn't need a lick of divine assistance to follow Jesus. The pure fact of what Jesus did, what he said, and the surrounding atmosphere, both socially and politically, was enough to enamor this fleshly man to follow him out of his own self effort. Many in Sunday services are exactly the same. The atmosphere, the music, the emotion, the pure intrigue of the doctrines, the social acceptance they find, the sense of purpose they gain, the social standing they can attain by pure zealous working... the flesh they can walk in and the soul satisfaction they can attain to, the self indulgence and self effort, the emotional release from tears shed to erotic religious singing, the spirit of the world influencing masses of people into thinking that thick emotional and social atmosphere is the presence of a God.

Today we have buildings full of Peters that have yet to deny their Lord. All it will take is a brutal trial and a deep questioning and the crowing of a rooster will become the greatest gospel presentation they will ever hear.

To receive the Spirit of God, a deep destruction of self must first take place. In Peters case it was a complete and total forsaking of everything he said he believed, everything he taught, and everything he feigned love for. He was all self effort and zeal, and absolutely nothing in Him was actually following Jesus, it was all following his own curiosity and flesh.

But once the damage is done and everything you built is torn down, Jesus comes to you again and issues another "follow Me". Once your own foundations have been demolished and the building burned and cleared, a new cornerstone can be lain and a new foundation built, upon which the temple of God can be built and inhabited by Jesus Himself.

Just know that no matter what a man tells you, and no matter how vehemently anyone preaches to you that you can simply consecrate yourself, or yield, or surrender, or do anything to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it's in fact a lie. The crying need is for men to simply obey Jesus despite what happens and regardless of the outcome, watch their lives burn, and than trust Jesus to come out of the wreckage and issue the follow me. Because if you're house still stands, Gods house cannot be built.

Self and faith are vehement enemies, and one will always destroy the other, and the survivor will take the man.

"Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died"

Are you like Lazarus, or perhaps Thomas? Everyone loves to quote this story as a profound insight into the ways of Jesus following His Father, and so they are. But all to often, and not by accident I know now, we skip right over the next obscure mention, "So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Well put Thomas! This man could stand at just about any deeper life conference, "remnant" church pulpit, or in any modern publisher that is seeking for something of "higher" spiritual value and be the next great expositor of the spiritual life.

It's fascinating that a man can truly think self dies just that easily, with a simple act of the will. Everything in the self wills it's own existence, and any self effort towards dying to self will be signposted with every subtle detour to ensure that self lives on, completely unnoticed.

Thomas had such good intentions. He saw that the death of Lazarus was to be a conduit of faith for others, so what a gesture to also die, maybe even more would believe if more died than merely Lazarus. Thomas wanted to go be a zealous and good Christian, and didn't realize that Jesus wasn't kidding. Lazarus is dead.

In some ways Jesus killed Lazarus, when you look at it without a religious agenda. The centurion man knew that Jesus can perform any miracle without even being present, this faith exceeded even the sisters faith who piously told the Savior, "if you would have been here he wouldn't have died". But Jesus stayed put until Lazarus was not only dead, but dead 4 days. This 4 day death in Jewish culture meant life no longer even had a chance or returning, Lazarus wasn't just dead, "he stinketh", 4 days dead.

Jesus let this man, whom He loved, die and begin to rot in the tomb. Of course He had an agenda, but no one knew that even when they were told. Jesus not only let him die, but also let him lay dead so as to break Jewish traditions completely apart and in raising Lazarus, he proved His Godhood and lay waste to the religious ideas surrounding His actions. God will be God, unequivocally and unchallenged.

So many people are like Thomas, reveling in the death of other men and piously telling each other that they will go die too. But to be Lazarus is to be loved by Jesus, even though He just killed you. To be Lazarus is to be a stinking corpse that can walk out of a tomb and sit down at dinner with your family full of life and radiance, used of God for His deeper purposes.

Imagine sitting across from Lazarus at dinner. There is absolutely nothing anyone could tell you at that point that would make you doubt the savior. But even than, Thomas couldn't believe until he stuck his finger in Jesus wound and we all know Peters plight.

It's one thing to look upon one like Lazarus, it's quite another to wake up from death hearing your name called by the savior, and wonder why your in a grave wrapped in grave clothes. The only thing Lazarus did was succumb to nature and die, and than woke up hearing Jesus telling him to come outside. Life out of death, and the only purpose being the glory of God.

Thomas wanted to die, Lazarus was killed by Jesus. Piety recoils at this because piety is pretty and proper and is to timid and faithless to realize what even a roman centurion knew to be true. Jesus will kill those he loves, and let them rot to destroy any religious traditions, and than raise Him up for one purpose and one purpose only, the glory of His Father.

We all are faced with this because ultimately in Jesus divine purpose, discipleship is destruction.

"A still more excellent way"

The faith of Jesus Christ is a rubber on the road, not a head in the clouds faith. Jesus never once intimated that his disciples should seek after hyper spiritual experiences and gifts. Demons being cast out and the sick being healed can accompany the ministry of a disciple, but this is about the extent of what Jesus told them to expect.

Is this to say that men don't experience profound spiritual experiences? Absolutely not as the book of the Revelation is the product of one of these. This is to say however that there is a great danger in seeking the experience instead of the one from whence it comes.

The sad reality is that every experience except one can be faked, and that one that cannot is the new birth. The new birth cannot be faked because the new birth recreates the very life and person who experiences it. This isn't an experience that is some ethereal "angels descending and ascending", but rather a radical internal change that causes fisherman to burn their boats, tax collectors to leave their money behind, and holiness street preachers to forsake their religion and follow Jesus.

This destructive and creative experience in a man radically redefines his entire life and outlook, in every way. He sees God, Himself and other men differently. The world is a different world, his circumstances are completely different circumstances, and his friends are completely different friends, even though nothing but the man may have changed. The man begins to influence his world rather than the world influencing the man, because the man has become a vessel for the indwelling and living saviour of all men, Jesus Christ.

The more excellent way of a true disciple of Jesus is not a monastic and cloistered life of seeking visions and some ethereal higher calling, but a deeply devoted love for Jesus in the midst of his God ordained circumstances as Jesus His savior loves the world through Him, seeking to reconcile that world to Himself. Jesus sends a man into His world, and that world is no longer able to press him into its mold. It's love for Jesus and His creation right smack in the middle of enemy territory, where nothing is friendly and no matter what you do, you will never belong.

If you find yourself comfortable and behind your closet door seeking what God never intended the Christian life to be, look unto Jesus who walked in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as a friend of sinners, publicans and thieves, being called a drunkard and glutton by religious men who couldn't understand why Jesus would sup with them, while all the time remaining in perfect fellowship and communion with His Father.

That my friends is true Christianity, and nothing less.

"that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you"

We have seen an upsurge of fasting in the professing church, which many would proclaim as a great victory and something to be applauded and praised. Interestingly this is exactly the point.

The point is we have seen it. The point is that while fasting is good, like always, the good is the enemy of the perfect. Jesus taught fasting and of course His teachings should be obeyed, but partial obedience is disobedience. While many are fasting, God is still silent, because the announcement of the fasting reaps it's reward from men, and not from the Father.

Jesus taught fasting, but He also taught doing it in secret. The disregard of one side of the commandment is to disregard both sides. While the church a is openly fasting they are also, in the fast, reaping it's rewards. They are gaining the applause of men and the rewards of looking spiritual to everyone around them, and this is their reward.

The proof of this lies in the corruption of our nation. With the hundred of thousands of people fasting for revival, where then is the revival?

Fasting is an act of humility before God to place us in a weakened physical state so the power of resurrection can show forth. We sow in weakness and reap in the glorification of God. But when the second clause of the teaching on fasting is not also obeyed, we sow in weakness and reap in corruption and the praise of men.

When you fast, do it in secret so men have absolutely no idea you are fasting, and God will reward you. Openly fasting before men is something religious and pious, but secretly fasting before God is something spiritual and faithful. When no one knows a thing but God Himself, He alone receives glory from it when the promise is fulfilled.

Be vigilant saints, many false teachers have gone out into the world preaching another Jesus, one that seeks the approval of men. We are fortunate to still have our Bibles, because there is a day approaching when we won't.

Hi dear brother,

Thank you for this post.

I too have pondered Jesus's teaching on fasting, and have come away with a similar perspective as you have shared here.

However, where I'm still perplexed is with respect to the passages where it is clear (to me) that multiple people fasted together.

For example, in Acts 13:1-3 we read about the church in Antioch, with several specific names of saints listed as worshiping the Lord and fasting. As best I can discern, this fasting was not being done in secret because at least Luke (the author of Acts?) knew about it?

Then again in Acts 14, elders were appointed with prayer and fasting, and again, the fasting sounds corporate and known to others.

Here are the passages:

_________________
Caleb

Brother Caleb,

Keep in mind that the early church lived in close and intimate fellowship together. They had all things in common, many lived together or hosted each other. So if one was fasting, eventually it would be evident to someone at some point once they don't see them eat for a few days.

I believe that what we see to be corporate fasting is in fact the Holy Spirit leading His body in that place to all individually fast, and also one being led to fast along side when it is noticed others are fasting. The church and it's actions in the book of acts must always be filtered through the teachings of Jesus, so we must take it for granted they completely obeyed His teachings in these matters, and if they didn't, the clear teachings of Jesus are to be given more authority and the actions of the believer to be taken as incorrect and therefore written for that purpose.

Luke would have likely taken for granted the fasting in these instances, but even so, he was inspired to write as he did.

I think you're right on track brother, as your questions all kind of answer themselves when you get to the brass tacks of it. Praise God for unity in the Spirit.

Notice what we never see is a call to fast (something very different from the old testament fast, which sadly is the justification for the modern pharisaism), or believers standing in the middle of town (the modern equivalent would be using social media/internet) announcing their fasts and telling others to do it too.

And regarding what I said about revival, I am sure God is moving somewhere, He always is. The revival I mean is the one these types who fast in this way are looking for, and specifically in the United States, which is really just a soulish, religious version of mass hysteria when its really examined.

The US has no indication of true, wide spread revival anywhere. Possibly a mercy drop here and there, but nothing like what the true church of Jesus is seeking. I don't even like the term revival anymore, it seems anyone gets the term "revivalist" these days, as long as they say the right things and have a big enough church. I think what America needs is salvation, because you can't revive something that was never alive, and we are so far removed from the last move of God I don't see any life left in this country, and even what is being called life is just more selfish and soulish religion, just the charismatic version.

"And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

We live in strange times. When we really sit down and analyze the state of your world, especially in the United States, it looks as we have it much easier than even the first century church. We are free to express our religious views and opinions with very little blow back in this country. We can post anything at anytime online and it can reach millions in the blink of an eye, all with very little accountability in the social spectrum.

I submit to you that this is in fact the crux of the issue in our nation, and the church is quickly falling right in line with the rampant narcissism our online culture has bred.

In our day and age you would think Jesus said "love yourself and than you will be able to love others". The leading philosophy of our day is still humanism, just as it was at the turn of the century, and was so eloquently exposed by Paris Reidhead. People considered to be something are telling millions of Christians that being kind to yourself is the key to overcoming insecurity. We are being told that in order to be mentally whole we have to accept ourselves as we are, because of course, God loves you just as you are.

The danger, and the reason this deception is so satanic is because it is so incredibly subtle. It is true God loved us while we were yet sinners. But praise Him He doesn't leave us sinners by His grace. He renews the mind, He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, He forms His Son in us by the Holy Spirit so we can walk even as He walked. He makes us new creatures in Christ so by His glorious grace, ALL things become new.

The fuel for this soulish and overwhelmingly satanic fire has become social media. Social media is not intrinsically sinful. Like many other things in the world, much depends on our usage of it. The issue becomes whether we are using it for God's purposes, or it is using us for Satans purposes.

Prayer and fasting is being completely gutted by the refusal to obey Jesus teachings of secrecy and walking before God corporately alone. We are called by Jesus to walk single eyed before the Father, in intimate and lonely communion with Him, right in the midst the world and in fellowship with other believers who are also doing the same thing. This corporate aloneness with God defined the early church, and is what fueled their single eyed passion for, and following of Jesus. Jesus is both personal and corporate; He indwells each believer and therefore becomes the head of a body of believers that are meant to display the wisdom of God to the spiritual powers that control this worlds systems. ALL that is in the world is at enmity with our Father, no exceptions.

The system of spiritual influence is what is often ignored by the professing church in our day. We all acknowledge that love of the world is hatred of God, but we falter when pressed on the matter. Does that mean blatant self interested pursuits, no matter where they are found and why, no matter the label, no matter the banner, and no matter what is said to be the motive, are hatred towards God. In a word, yes it does.

The chief end of social media for the majority of the upcoming generation, professing Christian or not, is self promotion. The influencer culture the world has created has permeated deep into the ministries that seek to reach those that are labeled "Gen Z", but it's not limited to that age group. Promoting fasting as a social endeavor, heralding good works and charity before men, and many other diabolical deceptions have denied the very one who purchased us with His blood.

Jesus call to self denial is as all consuming as the world systems call to self indulgence and self esteem. Jesus spoke the deepest call ever uttered to mankind to the masses, it was evangelistic in nature. The call to self denial is not a call merely to those who follow Him, because those that follow the crucified God are themselves on the cross. The world, which means in our present sense, much of the professing church, needs to hear this clarion call to the depths of the purposes of God for His church.

There is no excuse for us to ignore and disobey Jesus in any area of life. The absence of accountability to man that our culture has bred via social media and online culture has already permeated deeply into the methodology of the mainstream religion that calls itself Christian, and it has transcended accountability to each other and eradicated any sense of accountability to a holy God. Every man is doing what seems right in his own eyes.

The call still stands saints, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. What the world calls fanaticism Jesus calls love. If you love me, obey my commands. He Himself will grant the nature and will to do it, the power to perform it, the love for the cross that eradicates every iota of self love, and sheds the all consuming love of a God in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Looking into Jesus we will gain salvation, and when salvation truly comes to our nation God will receive glory. This is a spiritual call that obliterates any reliance on soulish emotion, motivation, shallow erotic and sensual love and appeal, and calls us to the deeps.

We must, now more than ever, take up our crosses and follow the Savior deep into the purposes of God. The world and the powers look on and mock anything that is less than Jesus Himself walking in this world via His church. We are His body, His people, and His purchased possessions, never let anyone for any reason lead you to look to or follow anyone else, for any other reason than the absolute and perfect glory of God.

The call to deny yourself and take up your cross is a call to leave off any motivation other than Gods glory. You can never deny yourself if there is any hidden sins of self seeking within you. The cross will obliterate the self and bring life from death, and reveal every hidden motive and intent of the heart.

Jesus in His love and grace calls us out from the world to Himself, bids us die on a cross, so that He may reveal Himself in resurrection glory.