TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 14TH JANUARY 2026)
“Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way. Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.”
Proverbs 23:19-21 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 14TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
The LORD our God is mighty!! His marvelous helps have been our spiritual asset. It has kept us these 14 days and will keep us for the rest of the year in Jesus precious name, amen.
Indeed, blessed are the people who the LORD is their God. He will be a rock of fortress for them and deliver them in time of trouble.
He has given us 14 peaceful days, and we believe the rest of the days will also be peaceful. He is the prince of peace and will unconditionally make the rest of the days of the year peaceful, He will make them peaceful days as well, especially as we continue to serve Him.
Talking about serving the LORD, it is important to note that one way to serve the LORD is by seeking Him always and learning to walk in His word, His will and His ways daily. However, all that may not be possible without seasonal fasting, I mean lengthy Biblical fasting seasons. That is the reason some of us decided to start the year by serving Him with Fasting.
You cannot serve God effectively without engaging in lengthy fasting and prayers. If you look at the holy scriptures, you will realize that people who served God effectively did that by serving Him with fasting. If you do not serve God with fasting, lengthy Biblical fasting, your Christian life will be weak.
You will not be able to break from things like demonic patterns that creates a life of sin in the faith of the believer, old sinful habits that seek to creep back into our lives after salvation, spiritual oppression, spiritual confusion, circumstances that creates loss of desire for God, spiritual dryness created by carnality, and a lot of other things that impedes on our faith.
Yes, without learning to serve God with fasting, you will be too weak to exercise your spiritual authority as a Christian or live that life that has been predetermine for you by the LORD.
FASTING HAS BEEN A CATALYST OF FAITH IN GOD’S KINGDOM.
Though it is not a monopoly of God’s kingdom because even agents of devils fast, it has been a catalyst of blessings, miracles, anointing, lasting change, salvation for lost souls, the release of the Spirit, the termination of spiritual oppression and a lot of others beautiful things in God’s kingdom. Your life will be weak spiritually without serving God with lengthy biblical fasting.
There are people who the devil has plagued with gluttony. Gluttony in the Bible is the sin of excessive overindulgence in food, drink or other earthly pleasures. It is usually driven by a selfish desire that prioritizes physical appetite over spiritual priorities. It is one sin that makes the belly a god and does not allow believers to engage in Biblical fasting, especially lengthy one that brings blessing.
Most times we talk about the sin of fornication and adultery but do not talk about this sin, which is the foundation of a weak Christian life that leads to other sins. The sin of gluttony makes fasting your greatest fear. It is the reason for spiritual poverty. When you are spiritually poor, you will lack power from God and the faith that move mountains.
Talking about gluttony, our devotional text says:
“Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way. Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.”
Proverbs 23:19-21 NKJV
This scripture tells us that gluttony creates spiritual poverty, which can lead to economic poverty as well. As earlier stated, when you are spiritually poor, you will begin to lead a weak Christian life, a life without power from God or the faith to move mountain. I will teach more about this one of these days.
A child of lack of self-control, gluttony is a form of greed and often seen as idolatry in the Bible. It has not helped anyone in their faith. God will not want any of us to make our belly our god. When the belly becomes your god, you can break your GOD appointed fast because you are hungry not because you have completed the fast.
PEOPLE WHO TERMINATE THEIR FAST BECAUSE THEY ARE HUNGRY ARE SERVING THEIR BELLY.
Friend, eating always is not always a blessing. Except if you are sick or have just recovered from illness and need to build back broken physiological systems in your body, you must learn to avoid overeating. Eating is only good if we do it for strength and not for pleasure.
A Christian who serves God with fasting will be more victorious in life than the one who do not.
If you are fasting this season, especially in the Bible way, just know that one of these things will happen to you. God will leave a blessing on your life, leading to an outbreak of something good, a breakthrough, a miracle, or the termination of a spiritual oppression.
Fasting has been my help in life and ministry for over 30 years. It has helped me overcome life challenges, survive terrible assaults of hell that came in form of slander, blackmail, evil speaking, attack on my character, persecutions, trials, and temptations.
It gave me the spiritual wealth I needed during those trying times to be what God has called me to be even in terrible times. I learned that there can be no victorious Christian living without a life of Biblical fasting. It is lengthy biblical fasting that terminates spiritual poverty and gives us the spiritual wealth we need to overcome evil, stop the enemy and be all God wants us to be.
Men and women who serve God with fasting are usually men and women of great spiritual wealth. That is why they move mountains, exercise great power from God, stop the mouths of lions and save themselves and those who depend on them in times of adversity.
MEN LIKE PAUL THE APOSTLE FASTED OFTEN THAT WAS WHY THE HAD THE SPIRITUAL WEALTH TO OVERCOME THE DANGERS THEY FACED.
There was this day that his life would have been cut short when they had a terrible accident in the high sea. A season of long fasting during the fatal incident gave him the spiritual wealth he needed at that time to be saved from death and destruction. The Bible says:
When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete.
But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon. So when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive. And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty.
When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven. And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands.
Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.
But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.
And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island.”
Acts 27:13-26
THIS SCRIPTURE CONTAINS WHAT I CALL THE EXPLOITS OF BIBLICAL FASTING AND PRAYERS.
If you look at the scripture, you will realized that if Paul had not engaged in a lengthy fasting, if he had not declared a long abstinence from food to seek the LORD during the dangerous moment, he and the rest would have died.
The will of God for his life was not for him to die in that shipwreck, but if he had not fasted for divine intervention, he would still have died despite the will of God that forbids the death. That tells us that there are bad things that are not God’s will for our lives that still happen because we do not know how to use biblical fasting to arrest them.
Fasting the Bible way in the midst of an attack or life taking incident will always attract divine intervention. It will take care of any spiritual poverty that may have brought an adversity and unleash on us the spiritual wealth we need to deal with the situation and come out with a blessing.
Our generation has really lost the blessings our Bible fathers enjoyed in their days. The wealth they unlocked through Biblical fasting that shut down the mouths of lions, turned the armies of aliens to flight, quenched the violence of fires and did amazing things is missing in our days!!
We have become a gluttonous generation that does not want to spend quality time with God in fasting and prayers. We spend lengthy time with the earthly but cannot spend same time with the eternal God, fellowshipping with His eternal word and Spirit, in a lengthy abstinence from food.
It is my prayer that this devotional serve as a wake-up call in Jesus precious name. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION.
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Hebrews 11:32-35 NKJV
