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With the New Year underway and resolutions coming and going, many people are still left wondering what they have to do to get their breakthrough in life.
Doubt can flood the mind with questions of “What have I done wrong?”, “Did I miss the Lord?”, or “How much longer will this season last?”
Pastor Tammy Hotsenpiller sat down with Charisma News to discuss the power fasting has to achieve that breakthrough that many are looking to God for in their lives.
“[It’s] a topic that I believe is one that the church has not activated. It’s a topic of power. It’s a topic of promise,” Tammy explains.
“It seems like every fast I do, I go deeper with God, that He truly gives me more insight and wisdom and revelation about the topic of fasting.”
What could be better for Christians going through a period of spiritual wilderness than gaining wisdom, revelation and going deeper in their relationship with the Lord?
And it’s not just learning more about fasting, as is the case with Tammy, that occurs during one’s fast. It opens up the floodgates for spiritual warfare to take place in a person’s life.
When encountering spiritual strongholds in her life in response to a dream the Lord gave to her at the height of the pandemic, Tammy was given a charge from God that would overcome the fear and confusion enveloping the world.
“I felt in my spirit, Him saying to me, ‘Fast with God, fast with God.’ And I’d use fasting [in my] life when I needed a breakthrough,” Tammy recounts. “When I was carrying a heavy burden, or I just needed God to do something. There are some things in my life, that I have to pray and fast [for].”
By definition, Christians are followers of Christ, and Jesus fasted. A lot.
When Jesus needed the filling of the Holy Spirit because His flesh was weary, He first turned and rested in the Father. This included using times of fasting to empower Himself to resist the temptations of the devil, who even confronted Him during a fast, to knowing the spiritual power that is derived from it.
Tammy highlights and reminds fellow Christians that there are examples of figures throughout the Bible who fasted when they needed a breakthrough from God.
“Whether it be David or Nehemiah or Esther. It doesn’t matter,” Tammy says. “The disciples, the apostles, Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, all of these fasts in the Bible, why were they fasting? Because they needed an answer. They needed a breakthrough.”
No one is saying this is an easy feat for believers, with the abundance of food available in many parts of the world, constant advertising for food on every platform and the sad reality that not as many churches preach on the spiritual benefits and necessities that come with fasting. Exhorting Christians to believe that God is still the God of miracles, Tammy explains that it takes an act of faith and trust to see those miracles manifest in their lives today. {eoa}
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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