From Diet to Deposit
Happy New Year! If you're like me, by now you are anywhere from 5 to15 pounds overweight. This is typical at the end of the Christmas holidays.And like most others we will embark on a new diet and exercise regimen.
A few years ago I wrote a book, no it's not about health and fitness.The title of the book is "The Mystery of the Empty Stomach.- My goal was to unravel the amazing benefits of yet another four letter word that is so akin to a diet and is to fast.
Here is Chapter 6: From Diet to Deposit. If you want the rest of the book you can get the free ebook by clicking here or on the download link at the end of this blog.
From Diet to Deposit
Whether it's watching our salt intake due to high blood pressure, regulating fat brought about by elevated cholesterol levels, curbing sugar consumption because of the threat of diabetes, or simply reducing what we eat, dieting seems to be the way to go.
More commonly, people's diets are motivated by a desire to stay slim and look good, borne of a need for identity and acceptance.From South Beach to Okinawan, fish to vegetables, Jenny Craig to Robert Atkins, Slim Fast to Lean Cuisine, diet plans abound.
By now, you must have it figured out. We have gone full circle. Unknowingly, we are still fasting today. We just use another word for it—dieting.
Like fasting, dieting is the voluntarily abstinence from food to change desperate situations. We diet because we drastically want to control factors that affect our health, identity, and even our acceptance by others.
Receive the Power
In the previous chapter, we saw how Jesus chose two elements commonly found in weddings of His day, wedding garments and new wine.
"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. Luke 5:37,38
In Acts 1 and 2, the early disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, which people mistakenly thought was caused by drinking too much wine.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.- Acts 1:8 ‚Ä®
Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.- Acts 2:13
The new wine Jesus was speaking of was the Holy Spirit, who was poured out on all those who believed. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be the bride we are destined to be.
The Deposit is Our Guarantee
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:21,22
God has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit to guarantee His ownership over us and that we will, in time, be wed with Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:4,5 says it another way:
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
We can be secure in wearing our bridal gown even while on earth because we have the Holy Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing our ultimate destiny and position.
A New Power
A final point about the new power from the new wine is seen in an account from Jesus' own life.
Jesus' full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4:1,2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led to the desert, where He fasted. After the fast, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside (Luke 4:14).
From simply being full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit after He fasted. Fasting is not about meals and diets—it is about the power our God wants to deposit in us.
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