960 hours, 40 days, 5,7 weeks of seeking His face

Psalm 27v8 King James Version
When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭40:31‬ ‭NMV‬‬ But they that wait upon the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 58:6-7 (KJV) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?

As the custom is, January is a period of waiting on the Lord. So I had purposed to  do a 7 days dry fast from the 8th of January to the 14th of January instead of the 21 days normal fast. However, on the second day of the fast, while reading the book Life on Fire (a must read for those who would like to be used by God in this end time) by James Aladiran in one of the chapters he mentioned that the Lord asked him to do a 40 day liquid fast to seek His face. Immediately the Spirit of the Lord impressed on my spirit that I had to do the same. In case you are thinking how I knew that it was the Lord who impressed it on my spirit, well, I know the way He talks and especially the way He talks to me. I thought of converting the initial 7 days dry fast to the liquid fast, but He told me to still complete the 7 days dry fast, after which I should do the 33 remaining days as liquid fast. I honestly pleaded that I do Daniel's fast instead, but in a quick vision, the image of Jonah was brought up to my spirit, and He also showed me that He was waiting for me on the 40th day. I literally saw Him standing waiting for me on the 40th day. So all i said was may your will be done and I asked the Spirit of the Lord to enable me with the grace to run this assigned race to the end. On day 5 of the dry fast, He asked me to hold a praise night with some friends at our home with the theme 'I am willing'. We held the praise night and it was raw manifestation of His presence. But at this time my body was tired and the thought of still having 35 more days without food kinda baffled me, the more baffled I was the more I prayed for grace to run to the end.

Everyday had its orders, almost everyday I had to get up and intercede in the language of the Spirit most times for more than 1 hour. But every time I had the prayer in obedience I received the strength for the next day.

Diet

From day 8 onwards, I was allowed to have water and some specific liquids. So, I opted for water with gas. If you truly know me, you'll know that I couldn't understand the concept of water with gas, but during the fast all my tongue could handle was what I never liked. In addition to the intake of water, I was also taking freshly squeezed juice such as a blend of beetroots, cucumber, carrots, celery, loads of apples, oranges, Kurkuma, ginger, and sometimes grapes. For dinner, I had homemade vegetable broth, which I never knew could be that filling.

A testimony happened here that I feel should be mentioned. Before starting the liquid fast on day 8, I knew I had to get a juicer, but honestly I was very rich (Joel 3v10). However, I was determined to purchase one on credit. But God confirmed that He truly asked me to do this fast by commanding an organization who initially handled one of my cases wrongly to compensate me with an amount of €300, which was more than enough to purchase the juicer needed. It was indeed a big miracle for me and I was extremely thankful to YHWH Jireh.

One thing I must share was, I was strictly warned not to tell anyone apart from my wife that I was engaged in such a fast (Matt 6v16 - 18). This itself was not too difficult to do, but there were temptations along the way. Some had to do with offering me a pack of mango on day 7. I refused but the person was a bit persistent, then the lady of the house jumped into action and simply told the person that he doesn't want it. Another challenge is my love of peanuts, the smell which I found irresistible whenever my wife and kid consumes them mercilessly on my behalf. Oh! The smell of an oven grilled chicken garnished with educated spices from Harvard made me check the calendar. But that yielded nothing because it was only day 22 or so.

(Disclaimer :- some might find this part revulsive) All along I didn't use the rest room for over 3 weeks since I had nothing but liquid in my system. Then on day 29 I had to use the rest room which resulted in painful haemorrhoids for 3 days, I was unable to sit nor sleep properly for those days, but the word of the King of the king of kings was so direct that I had to disregard the pain and keep going on.

Another testimony was, when my wife and daughter came under the weather due to flu, I was really worried that I might catch it which might force me to use some medicine hence consume some solids. However, the flu knew it's boundary and didn't even bother to come near me despite sleeping on the same bed with them. I was of a second opinion that it might have been because of my incessant intake of ginger and Kurkuma, but from the level of strength I had, I could only ascribe this as God's protection of my now so lean but energetic body. I was so energetic I never stopped working out (except during the week I had haemorrhoids) though lightly but my energy level never diminished. Another challenge was the exposure to cold. I noticed that my tolerance for cold went to a new record, most times I had to put on winter jacket in the house, especially from day 28 upwards I had to really wrap myself up in two layers of blankets or wear 2 different winter jackets to keep warm.

The other challenge was at night when I was about to sleep, my energy level was just good enough to get me and keep me tightly wrapped in bed, but whenever it's time to have my midnight prayers, the Holy Spirit would simply wake me up and supplies me with the right dosage of energy and insight to praise and pray just like meal was brought to Elijah (see I Kings 19v5-8). During this experience I received an insights to do a crowdfunding campaign to raise 5000 EUR to cover scholarship for pupils in the rural areas of Nigeria. Which I embarked on with immediate effect. So many people gave generously.

One might think the whole 40 days went without its share of challenges. Well, Jesus's experience during His 40 days (Matt 4 and Luke 4) intense fast wasn't without its challenges. So why would I expect mine to be any different. One of the challenges came on the 4th day of the fast, a job I interviewed for some months earlier was offered to another candidate. To be honest, I never lost my joy during this moment. But a critical challenge came on the 29th day of the fast, where it was discovered that my worker at my farm in Nigeria had been nothing but a con artist and thief who had lied and cheated me of hundreds of thousands of Naira. To be truthful, this was very hard for me to take, but I still wasn't allowed to curse or sweat at him, but I was unable to comport myself with my family during this experience. However, on thinking about the experience, I noticed that it was nothing but God's intervention that exposed this wolf in sheep skin. But the disappointment lingered like the smell of garlic on my mouth for a day or two. I really felt cheated because I had already placed his children on scholarship for some time, and I just paid quite an amount for them in January 2024. The lesson from this is what Jesus said in Matthew 7v21 that not all who call me Lord Lord would enter into my Father's kingdom. I said this because this wolf in sheep skin was supposed to be a devoted man of God, which he backed up with his hardworking nature. So yes, I thank God for exposing him, and I released him without any ill-feelings into the hands of God.

Like Jesus's experience as depicted in Matthew 4v1-11 and Luke 4v1-14, Jesus though full of the Holy Spirit was tempted during our shortly after His fast by the devil. What effrontery! I mean He was already filled with the Holy Spirit and He is the Son of God, but God permitted it to be so as to validate Jesus's assignment of emancipating a new regime of total freedom and salvation through His death and resurrection. The lesson learnt here is that we need the grace of God to overcome challenges. Even when you fall into temptations, the Lord will not leave you on your own, but you must run to Him immediately you err, ask for forgiveness and carry on with your assignment.

The last 7 days of the fast was more laborious than the previous days, especially on the last Saturday of the fast, my mind was a bit challenged. I even had to cancel a critical board meeting with the board members of my farm project. This might be partly due to the disappointment from the farm manager, or my financial state or my now very low physical energy. Then I prayed intensely to YHWH Mauzi for strength. One key lesson learnt from this experience is that it takes full discipline to do the will of the Lord. However, natural discipline without the involvement of the Holy Spirit might be a fertile soil for Satan to sow the seed of pride for future escapades. So don't be mechanical while doing the will of God, but be always spiritual.

This summarizes my 7 days dry and 33 (40) days liquid fast experience which ended on the 16th of February 2024. Who would have imagined it possible. At the end of the 40th day I had successfully lost over 15kg. My initial body weight was between 89 and 87, but on day 40, I weighed 73kg. Despite this, I know I gained some spiritual weight in place of the physical weight lost. I know this because Isaiah 61v7 says for your shame I will give you double. I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to seek His face through this new fast experience. May His name alone be praised now and forevermore. This truly shows that all things are truly possible to them that believes (Mark 9v23). But we need to know that even our part of the deal still requires God's help in getting it done. That is if your intention is to please God. Lastly, a vital lesson from this assignment is that anything that has a time-line or deadline, no matter how complex it may be will always come to an end. So if you are going through a tough time or situation, know that everything under heaven has an expiry date. So don't despair, but hold on to the promises of God Jehovah Adonai.

Shalom aleichem brothers and sisters

Babasile Daniel I