Fasting— killing the Strongman of Self, overcoming dark authority

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Why is fasting the human body and soul so very required as a disciple of the Lord, and for full recovery and freedom?  For the enemy cannot be overcome otherwise.  And the real enemy is the crown that stands against the Lord, that fights against the kingdom of God and his headship: the strongman of the self aligned with the dark kingdom.  It is why Jesus’ disciples could not move in authority and power over the devils to cast them out… for casting them out, truly, would come from stopping to eat with them, and from their table (fasting and prayer, reduction, abstinence + devotion and consecration to the Almighty within): to those who have ears to hear with the Spirit is saying.

If we are struggling with the headship (Bridegroom and King) within us in any area— we will be called by the Lord into fasting to overcome the enemy (being the self and estrangement— led of dark spirits, in a headship of itself), just as he led his disciples before us.  If we will not— this word (and/or video) describes well why we will not be successful in union with our headship, nor overcome the enemy, nor move forward in growth, nor come into any authority in his kingdom: for the King in his kingdom (within) has been usurped in authority, challenged in his leadership, and dishonored in disobedience to the Crown (his, not our own).

Revelation 4:10-11

“The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying— Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

There is only one Crown— the Royalty is of him; and when we are crowned with his Life, we are truly en-wreathed by his person and presence: the dignity is truly his (the glory); we are vessels to display his light from within.  We did not love him first, he loved us first.  We did not die and lay our lives down to him first— he first unto us: and he too where’s the Crown, and we shall give what he bestow unto us, and what he puts into us— back to him: we shall give him back all the glory— coming full circle from what we took and claimed as our own in the fall (as Lucifer who was to be the light bearer, who fell in love with himself, and took the glory for his own).  The reverent— shall give him back what he first gave us: full investment return.

It’s time we cast our plastic (artifice) ‘crowns’ (authority) at his feet; and let the one true King come forward: or otherwise— we are kings of our own castles and kingdoms (domains); and truly— the Bride marries the Lamb, not the King of kings: for truly— the King of kings and Lord of lords will overcome all plastic crowns (self leaders), and hence, we truly are the only strongmen he needs to bind up and remove— within his own house, before the house can be taken over (spoiled and conquered).

My sister in Christ said this to me today, and it’s very sobering:  “Hello everyone. I want to share more of what the Holy Spirit is revealing about the ‘self man.’ It is a negotiator. It will negotiate with your new man and the Holy Spirit. It will set boundaries around what the Holy Spirit is doing in your new man as they work together. In other words, it limits the Holy Spirit's work because it does not want you free. It can only do this because it remains hidden in darkness and the self-life is still in control, not the Holy Spirit.

I wanted to share that with you because I shared it with a little group that I was with last year. Just to clarify I was waking up one morning and I heard my ‘self man’ speaking, and it was negotiating with my spirit man and the Holy Spirit. It was giving boundaries to just how far I could be free. I think this is part of what's going on with me right now when the Holy Spirit showed me that the ‘self man’ is not just a con man but also a negotiator. Self is strong and I think that's part of what scares me, in not fully surrendering.”

It’s not by our strength— but by his Spirit.  It’s not by our leading— but by his invitation.  It’s not by our works— but by our yielding and obedience that we enjoin him, come under him, reverence him, and marry him in his internal workmanship to return us to the form he desired of us internally from the beginning; where the Spirit is in power and authority within a man; and this man is unified (bride married and consummately joined) and reverent to his/her head (Christ): when that comes forth, and the bride marries her husband within internal ways and reverence, joins the Holy Spirit in form, and serves the truth again; all the devils, and hell itself, trembles at Christ coming forth in his ‘loyal,’ spotless (lack of flesh) and ironed out (wrinkled not), mature church (bride).  Until then— the negotiator and conman lives, and disrespects, and actively wars against the One True God and Husband of us— from within.

Isaiah 54:5

“For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer— the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”

Every plastic crown shall be tossed to his feet (every headship relinquished), as we come to know him as the Most High headship there is; and the One True God: all the rest are only perverted and deceived creations who have bought into the lie; but when the veil is lifted, and the Day is to judge— we shall witness (along with the Spirit) the truth: and every knee and tongue at that time— shall confess the truth, and bow: best we learn to do this now if we haven’t already.

This was sent to me by a brother in Christ, and I share it with you all.  

Bond servant of the Covenant, in service to the King— Christ Jesus.

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“Fasting and Prayer: The Weapon You Have Never Drawn.

There is a weapon you carry that has never been drawn. It sits rusted inside you, buried beneath comfort, beneath habit, beneath every lie your body has told your spirit. And the enemy knows it is there. He has always known. That is why he fills your hands. That is why he fills your mouth. That is why every hour of your waking life, something is being placed between your teeth. Food, distraction, noise, pleasure, anything to keep you fed, anything to keep you full. Because a full man does not cry out to God. A full man does not fall to his knees. A full man has no need to reach for heaven because his belly has become his throne and his comfort has become his altar. 

And so the enemy does not attack you with famine. He attacks you with feast. Let that truth sink into your ribs like iron. You have been eating at the table of your own defeat and you have called it rest. You have walked through the wreckage of your discipline and called it peace. But heaven sees a man asleep in armor. Heaven sees a sword still sheathed while the war rages outside the walls. And now the voice of the Almighty cuts through the silence like the edge of a blade pulled from fire. 

Now therefore, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Joel chapter 2 verse 12. This is not an invitation. This is a command from the throne of eternity. God does not suggest fasting. He demands it because he knows what it unlocks. He knows what breaks, when a man lays down his bread and picks up his cross. And there is proof. There was one who obeyed. One who walked into the barren silence of the wilderness, not dragged, not punished, but led, led by the spirit himself into the furnace of deprivation.

40 days, 40 nights. No bread, no wine, no voice— but the wind and the whisper of God. And scripture records the moment the enemy appeared.  And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward he was hungry. Now when the tempter (negotiator/conman) came to him, he said, "If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread." Matthew 2:57… Listen closely. The first attack the enemy launched, the very first, was aimed at breaking the fast.  Not power, not pride, not dominion.  Bread. He went for the belly first because the devil knows what most men have forgotten. The stomach is the gate. If he can keep you feeding, he can keep you sleeping. If he can keep you full, he can keep you blind. But Christ did not reach for the stone. Christ did not negotiate with hunger. He answered not with flesh but with fire, with the word of the living God. And the wilderness did not destroy him. It crowned him.

This is where the path divides, the comfortable turn back here. Only those willing to deny their flesh may walk further into this fire. Because fasting is not a spectacle. It is not a fashion of the age. It is not a doctrine of the body dressed in the robes of the spirit. Fasting is war. And if you are not ready to starve your flesh so your spirit can breathe, then you are not ready for what comes next.

The War Beyond the Veil (Daniel's 21-Day Fast)

A man lies face down in the dust. His lips are cracked, his hands are open. He has not eaten in 21 days, and heaven has not answered. But he does not rise. He does not return to his table. This is not theology. This is a battlefield report. His name was Daniel. A man of prayer. A man who had already faced the lion's mouth and walked out with heaven's fingerprints on his shoulders. But even Daniel, even this warrior of the ancient faith, hit a wall he could not breach with prayer alone. He had been given a vision, a vision of a great war. And the weight of it drove him to his knees. For 21 days he ate no pleasant food, no meat crossed his lips. No wine touched his tongue. He mourned, he prayed. He waited. And heaven was silent. Day after day after day, nothing. But he stayed low. He stayed hungry. He kept his face pressed to the ground and his hands open to the sky. And on the 21st day, the veil was torn. An angel appeared, blazing with light, voice like the sound of a great army, and spoke words that should make every warrior tremble. 

Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. (fasting, humility, prayer to the headship of God: all important to note here)

Daniel 10:12. From the first day, heaven answered on day one. But the messenger was held, intercepted by the prince of the kingdom of Persia. A demonic power stationed in the heavens to block what God had sent. For 21 days, an invisible war raged above Daniel's bowed head. And it was his fasting, his relentless, body-breaking, flesh-dying fast that held the line open. His hunger became a signal fire. And the Archangel Michael answered it with a drawn sword.

You think fasting is about food. It is about the voice of your spirit. It is about tuning your soul so high that heaven can hear you through the noise of a gorged and deafened world.  It is about creating a vacuum in your body that the Holy Spirit fills like wind rushing into an empty cathedral. And there is more. 

There were men who walked with Christ. Men who had been given authority to cast out darkness. Yet they stood before a boy convulsing on the ground. A child tormented by a spirit that would not leave. And they could not move it. They had the title. They had the commission. They had walked with the son of God himself. And still the demon laughed in their faces.

When they came to Christ in shame, asking why they had failed. He gave them no complex doctrine, no theological essay. He gave them a blade forged in the furnace of holy denial. And heaven answers with a verse that should be branded into the chest of every warrior who calls upon the name of God. This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Mark chapter 9 verse 29.

Some chains do not break under prayer alone. Some demons do not flinch at your words. Some strongholds have been cemented for generations in your bloodline, in your mind, in the walls of your household. And they will not move until a man stops eating and starts warring on his knees. 

Fasting is not starvation.

Fasting is ammunition.

It is the difference between a soldier who shouts commands and a soldier who carries fire. The old knights of the cross knew this. They called it the discipline of the empty table. For a knight who had mastered his hunger had already conquered the first battlefield— himself.

The Throne and the Silence (Esther & Jehoshaphat)

You have tried the strength of your own hands. You have tried the discipline of your own will. You have tried every weapon forged by man. But there are doors that only open from the other side. And the key is an empty stomach and a full surrender.

Stop before you hear another word. Be still. Let the noise die. Let the restlessness fall from your hands like dust. What you are about to hear requires a man who is present, not one who is passing through?

When was the last time you gave your hunger to God instead of to the idols of your own comfort? When was the last time you woke and chose emptiness? Not because you had nothing, but because you wanted everything heaven has been holding back.

Because there is a throne room you have not yet entered. And the door does not open with strength. It opens with sacrifice. A young queen knew this. Her name was Esther. And the blood of her entire people ran toward the drain of extinction. A decree had been signed. A gallows had been built. A man named Hamon, a serpent in silk robes, had engineered the slaughter of every Jew in the empire. And Esther, a woman behind palace walls, was the only thread between her people and the grave. She could have begged. She could have schemed. She could have leaned on her beauty or her title. But she did none of these. She called a fast. 3 days, no food, no water, not for herself alone, but for every soul in the city of Souza.

And when the fast was complete, she did not walk into the throne room with a plan. She walked in with a power that made the scepter extend before she spoke a single word. Hamon fell. Not by sword, not by army, by the silence of a people on their knees, by the emptiness that invited the hand of God to move the king's heart like a river. 

And if you think that was an exception, hear the testimony of a king named Jehoshaphat. A man who woke to the worst news of his life. Three armies were marching toward Judah. An alliance of Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir. An unbeatable force. A death sentence on legs. And Jehoshaphat was afraid. Scripture does not hide this. The king was terrified, but fear did not become surrender. It became a fast. He proclaimed a fast across all of Judah, every man, every woman, every child, no food, only prayer, only the raw trembling confession. 

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And from the thunder of heaven, a word descended like a war drum into the assembly. God spoke through his prophet, a truth that echoes still. Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's. 2 Chronicles 20:15.

And then God gave them the strangest battle plan ever recorded. Send the singers first. No swords in the front line. No shields. No cavalry. Voices… worship. praise into the face of death. And as they sang, God himself moved through the enemy camp like a hurricane of confusion. The three armies turned their blades on one another. By the time Judah arrived at the battlefield, there was no one left to fight. The spoils took three days to collect. This is what fasting does. It removes your hands from the outcome. It shifts the war from your shoulders to the shoulders of the Almighty.

It is not weakness. It is the most violent act of faith a man can commit because it declares to heaven and to hell. I will not feed myself. I will not save myself. I will not fight in my own strength. My God will go before me and my hunger is the proof of my allegiance.

The Furnace and the Crown (Jesus Returns in Power)

Now hear the end of the matter because this is where cowards leave and warriors remain. You have heard the weapon named.  You have heard the testimonies carved in the walls of scripture. Of prophets who went hungry so heaven could speak. Of queens who chose emptiness so nations could live. Of kings who fasted until God himself descended onto the battlefield.  But there is one testimony above all, and it is the one we began with. 

A man walked into the desert with nothing. No followers, no title in the eyes of the world, no army, just the spirit of God, and a body made of dust. 40 days of silence, 40 nights of war no human eye could see. And when the devil had exhausted every lie, every bribe, every seduction, he left. And what happened next should be written on the walls of every man who dares to call himself a soldier of the Most High. The ancient word records this moment like a trumpet blast over a silent field.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region. Luke chapter 4 verse 14. 

He went in hungry. He came out holy. He went in as the carpenter's son. He came out as the flame that would set the world ablaze. The fast did not weaken him. The fast forged him. And this is the pattern heaven has never revoked. 

From Moses on the mountain, fire in his face and stone in his hands, to Elijah in the cave, running on 40 days of angel's bread, to the early church in Antioch, fasting before they sent Paul into the nations. Every great move of God was preceded by a man or a people who chose to stop eating and start surrendering.

So I will ask you one final time, not as a speaker, not as a distant voice beyond the wall, but as a brother who has knelt in the same dust.

What are you still feeding that should have been starved long ago?

What comfort are you clutching that heaven is asking you to release?

What battle have you been losing? Not because God is absent, but because your hands are too full to receive what he is holding out. 

The Knights, those men of The Final Call rise as Fire, iron, cross, and holy vow.  They understood something this fallen age has buried.

They did not fast to tame the flesh for vanity. They did not fast to prove discipline. They fasted because they knew that a knight who kneels before his king in hunger is more dangerous than an army that marches on full bellies. Their order was built on denial. Their strength was forged in absence. And the enemy feared them not for their swords, but for their silence at the table. 

That same —calls to you now. Not an order of history, an order of the spirit, a brotherhood forged in fasting, sharpened in prayer, and sealed in the blood of the lamb. 

If this fire burns in you, if these words have not bounced off your chest, but buried themselves beneath your ribs, then do not walk away unchanged… join the ranks, to set your name among those who have chosen the narrow road; the road where the belly is empty, the sword is drawn, and the spirit of the living God walks ahead like a pillar of flame. Rise now, not tomorrow. Now. Close your mouth. Open your spirit. Step into the wilderness and let God meet you in the place where your flesh has no voice. The weapon has been named. The ancient testimony has been spoken. 

The enemy trembles not because you are strong, but because you have finally stopped feeding the thing that kept you weak. Fast, pray, kneel…. and when you rise… rise as fire. Amen.”