Neville Goddard Regarding Fasting . . . or not.
A question from Mr. Qu:
Today when I read Matthew 6:16, I wondered what fasting means here and how to interpret in Neville Goddard's way. In my opinion, it's a period of intensively concentrating on your idea and feeling it fulfilled. How do you think about it?
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Great question, Qu. I am an advocate of fasting and wish I could do a lot more of it. Wife physically cannot fast and doesn't like to cook for one. My tummy is ready for two or three weeks, no problem.
I have only known Neville to mention fasting in “The Birth of the Babe,” and that unfavorably as earning some sort of merit. I agree with you: it's a period of intensively concentrating on your idea and feeling it fulfilled. But let me enlarge. If I am called to fast, I don't even get hungry. And I would like to point out that very little is said about fasting in the New Testament outside of the Gospels. It does not speak about fasting, but fasting and prayer. Because, I think, fasting is not a tool that accomplishes anything outside of ourselves. God is not impressed with it. It isn't a sacrifice. There are no brownie-points or merit to it. Fasting is coupled with prayer because it helps us do exactly as you said: to intensely concentrate on our idea and feel it fulfilled.
You caught the two different things there, right? It is a period of intense concentration and a period of not eating. The two are one. When we are fasting food wise, spiritual things become clearer, and our channel to God, our hearing, seems to open up. We become more perceptive, more sensitive, more empathetic with the poor: "loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free" (see Isaiah 58:6 and 7). Fasting promotes focus on beneficence, on being more like God. Perhaps fasting is not much spoken of in the Epistles because that is what they were already doing both physically and spiritually. We do not have to fast to get spiritual--the Holy Spirit is given--but fasting helps us focus and get into it.
Praise God we are in a position to voluntarily fast if we need to. Fasting takes our mind off what we want for supper. We are not to be controlled by our appetites. Our god should not be our stomach. Here is the thing: physically fasting deepens our spirit. It does not buy anything with God, but it does change us. We focus better on the inner man, God-who-is-in-us. "Live in the End," said Neville. Live in what End? In your destined end, where and when you are actually like the risen Christ, because you ARE the risen Christ, if indeed you have entered that potentiality. I know fasting will do nothing to buy it. Matthew 6 warns that if you want honor for doing it, that is all you get. But fasting helps get you to really praying and getting what you are praying for. In my humble opinion, that is.
Dan Steele
Today when I read Matthew 6:16, I wondered what fasting means here and how to interpret in Neville Goddard's way. In my opinion, it's a period of intensively concentrating on your idea and feeling it fulfilled. How do you think about it?
_____________________________________
Great question, Qu. I am an advocate of fasting and wish I could do a lot more of it. Wife physically cannot fast and doesn't like to cook for one. My tummy is ready for two or three weeks, no problem.
I have only known Neville to mention fasting in “The Birth of the Babe,” and that unfavorably as earning some sort of merit. I agree with you: it's a period of intensively concentrating on your idea and feeling it fulfilled. But let me enlarge. If I am called to fast, I don't even get hungry. And I would like to point out that very little is said about fasting in the New Testament outside of the Gospels. It does not speak about fasting, but fasting and prayer. Because, I think, fasting is not a tool that accomplishes anything outside of ourselves. God is not impressed with it. It isn't a sacrifice. There are no brownie-points or merit to it. Fasting is coupled with prayer because it helps us do exactly as you said: to intensely concentrate on our idea and feel it fulfilled.
You caught the two different things there, right? It is a period of intense concentration and a period of not eating. The two are one. When we are fasting food wise, spiritual things become clearer, and our channel to God, our hearing, seems to open up. We become more perceptive, more sensitive, more empathetic with the poor: "loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free" (see Isaiah 58:6 and 7). Fasting promotes focus on beneficence, on being more like God. Perhaps fasting is not much spoken of in the Epistles because that is what they were already doing both physically and spiritually. We do not have to fast to get spiritual--the Holy Spirit is given--but fasting helps us focus and get into it.
Praise God we are in a position to voluntarily fast if we need to. Fasting takes our mind off what we want for supper. We are not to be controlled by our appetites. Our god should not be our stomach. Here is the thing: physically fasting deepens our spirit. It does not buy anything with God, but it does change us. We focus better on the inner man, God-who-is-in-us. "Live in the End," said Neville. Live in what End? In your destined end, where and when you are actually like the risen Christ, because you ARE the risen Christ, if indeed you have entered that potentiality. I know fasting will do nothing to buy it. Matthew 6 warns that if you want honor for doing it, that is all you get. But fasting helps get you to really praying and getting what you are praying for. In my humble opinion, that is.
Dan Steele
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
11:44 PM
1 Comments:
Love this exposé on True Spiritual Fasting! Very much so needed and enlightening!
Thank you much for all of your content shared!
Most Prosperous Blessings to you and your family!
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C-R. Alyxander, at 2:16 PM
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