I pray that throughout this "Year of Adoration" your heart has become more tuned to the heart of our heavenly Father, and that with every stroke upon the cords of your life He is making you a more finely-tuned instrument upon which to play a new song which elevates His praise and glorifies His holy name.  In my own personal time of study and meditation I came across this quote from A.W. Tozer who spoke of the Holy Spirit helping us to "rise to the rarefied atmosphere of adoration of the One who became flesh so that we could know Him, become His and worship Him forever." These words paint a beautiful picture of the heights our Lord desires to take us if we would simply let go of the flesh and this world, and allow Him to make us soar on wings like eagles.  May these eloquent words resonate in your heart as we walk each step of this Crucified journey together these next 40 days; daily dying to self and taking up the cross of Christ, and rising to new heights in our worship of the Majesty of heaven - He alone is worthy of our praise!

There often seems to be an initial fear or concern that stirs within us when the Lord invites us to meet Him at His table to fast and pray.  How quickly our flesh rears its' ugly head when we hear the word "fast." That is exactly what this journey is meant to address - the flesh!  Fasting is not a natural response, it is a spiritual one.  Jesus made that clear when He was questioned about why His disciples did not fast: "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?  The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast" (Matthew 9:16).  Beloved believer, ours is a spiritual life.  Paul articulated that well for us when he spoke of the crucified life: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."

We may live in the flesh, but we do not live by the flesh.  The life of the believer is a transformed life, and we now live by the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11).  Jesus promised us a Helper, a Comforter, sent from the Father, to be with us forever: "...for He lives with you and will be in you" (John 14:17).  So often our focus rests on the need for the Holy Spirit's power to equip us for service, and we forget that He was sent to purify us and make us holy because He is holy.  It was the Holy Spirit who helped us recognize and acknowledge our sinful, separated state from holy God, and revealed to us our need for a Savior.  The Holy Spirit takes possession of our inner life and casts out sin and conquers self.  The third person of the Trinity leads us into all truth and sanctifies us and make us holy. He helps us live the spiritual life.  We do not need to concern ourselves with the flesh: "Therefore I tell you,  do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear, is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?....your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:25-34).  Our Father in heaven has provided for all our needs, both physical and spiritual, but He is primarily concerned with the internal condition of our lives.  His desire for us is for a higher life - a holy life.  The Crucified journey is meant to lead us up that mountain - to lay down our flesh and to take up the cross of Christ.

In the twenty-first chapter of Matthew, Jesus performs a spiritual house-cleaning: "Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves' " (vv. 12-13).  I often hear fasting as being something other than prayer, when it fact it is the key to unlocking the power of prayer.  What Jesus did here in the temple, He wants to do in our lives.  As believers, we are the temple of God - the place where His Holy Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19-20).  He wants to turn over the tables of worldliness and of flesh in our lives, so that we can be what He has purposed us to be - a house of prayer.  Our lives were meant to be the channel through which His blessings and grace are dispensed upon this needy world, but we are filled with so many other things that are clogging up the channel and blocking the flow that we do not pray as we should. How desperately we need the Lord Jesus to walk through the tabernacle of our lives and turn over these tables we have erected, and instead set before us His glorious banqueting table so we can sit before Him in unceasing prayer, gazing upon His beauty and feasting from the richest of fare - His Holy Word. Fasting annihilates the flesh and awakens the spiritual life within us.  "When we fast" we place ourselves in the proper posture for a divine emptying and purifying, allowing the floodgates to be opened wide so that God's mercy and grace can be poured through us, and the King of Glory can enter into the hearts of the lost and shine His light and take them to the heights He has taken us.  The flesh must die, so that the life of Christ can reign!  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

It is a divine privilege to be invited to the table of our great King and to be nourished with the choice portions He has so graciously and generously prepared for us to feast upon.   We need to be separated from the world and its pleasures, and instead be consecrated to God and His fellowship. When we, the Church of the One, true, living God, neglect coming to our Father's table, choosing instead to feed on the table scraps of the world, we not only make the Body of Christ weak, we deprive the world of the light and flavor it so desperately needs.  So much of the world is starving for truth, hungry for hope, and dying in their sin - and we hold the key to the storehouse that will satisfy all their need.  All we have to do is open the door and our beloved Lord will enter in and eat with us (Revelation 3:20).  "Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.  Incline your ear, and come to Me, hear, and your soul shall live..." (Isaiah 55:2-3).

At sundown this evening, as the shofar is blown on Rosh Hashanah, announcing the beginning of the Jewish New year and the start of the High Holy Days, I invite you to begin your journey in a spirit of celebration, by following the Jewish custom of having a dinner with your family and taking time for reflection and prayer, as we answer the call to repentance in these first ten days of our journey leading up to Yom Kippur.

My prayer is that you would remember throughout this season of fasting and prayer that our life as believers is a daily feast in the presence of the Lord, and our time with Him each day is to be as it is with our family, a time of joyful celebration and fellowship. May the meal you have today remind you to come to the table of the Lord each day and to "taste and see that the LORD is good" (Psalm 34:8).  May His Word be"sweeter than honey to your mouth" (Psalm 119:103) and "the joy and rejoicing of your heart" (Jeremiah 15:16).  May all that He fills you with be used to bless, strengthen, and nourish those around you. Please invite your friends and family to join us on this journey.  The Lord delights in the unity of His children, and there is power in united prayer.

As in all our journey's together, you will receive one email with 3 spiritual meals to dine upon each day.  These daily devotionals are meant to be a starting point to awaken the spiritual appetite and develop an earnestness in prayer.  Therefore, take the necessary time to meditate upon the word and to get into the presence of God each day.  These protracted periods of prayer and fasting are provided to help us to cultivate the silence in which God can be heard, to allow the Holy Spirit to take us deeper in to the heart of God, and teach us to pray with power (fasting is the key to enabling us to give ourselves wholly to prayer and obtain God's blessings).  May we willingly lay everything down at the foot of the cross and allow the Lord to clear the way so His reviving grace can flood this earth.  Blessings for the journey!