Last week, we reminded ourselves that fasting makes our prayers more effective. This week we are going to see how advantageous fasting is to those who are praying to be more yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I will use the example of a young man I first met recently on 30th June 2019.

Until that day, this young man had been an ardent attendee of Elvis Mbonye’s Zoe Fellowship since 2016. On 3rd June, he started a 14-day fast to seek God’s intervention in his life. At the end of that fast, he went home and burnt to ashes all Mbonye’s posters and stickers which he had kept in his house and in his Bible. He did not know why he burnt the posters and stickers but deep down in his heart he knew it was the right thing to do. It was not that he was no longer a die-hard follower of Mbonye, because even after he had burnt every picture of his, he continued to attend the fellowship. When our paths miraculously crossed on 30th June, he got the answer to Who had caused him to torch materials of someone he apparently loved, and why he did so. The ‘Who’ was the Holy Spirit; and the ‘why’ was that Elvis had long ago departed from God and was intentionally working to eternally destroy all his followers.

You see, that 14-day fast had awakened the young man’s spiritual sensitivities, thus making him more yielded to the Holy Spirit. Although his mental faculties were still ignorant, his spirit picked up the communication of the Holy Ghost that something major was wrong with Mbonye. His spirit, which now knew the truth, caused him to burn any paper which had Mbonye’s picture. On the other hand, his then ignorant mind thereafter led him to attend the fellowship that became a cult in 2017. When he met me, I educated his mind – and that was the end of his relationship with Mbonye. He now laughs at the ridiculous cultic practices that he was part of only a few days ago. Most importantly, he is grateful to God for having delivered him from the power of darkness.

Fasting (with prayer) will cause us to be more in tune with the spiritual world and will make us more yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Fasting, to a great degree, crucifies the flesh. When that happens, the born again spirit within us rises to preeminence above the fallen soul. That way, and with ease, we begin to intuitively know the perfect will of God for many things.

If you want to walk in the perfect will of God for your life, make fasting a spiritual habit. If you want to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit, fasting must become one of your routine spiritual exercises. Fasting will enable you to discern better the deceptions of the devil because you will have made it easier for the Spirit of God to lead you into all truth.

God bless you.