Fasting at the beginning of the year is not routine. It is not an exercise to check off the list, along with resolutions and goal setting. No, it’s much more. It’s a commitment to start fresh with God, to seek Him more, to put Him first, and to commit everything that will come this year into His hands. Fasting at the beginning of the year is a symbol of throwing everything at His feet and trusting Him as the potter with the clay to mold it into something beautiful.
This year, as you fast, I believe God is going to open your eyes, your spiritual eyes. There are four specific times I see that God opened spiritual eyes in the Bible for people to see the divine intervention around them, and He will do the same for you this year.
We first see these words in Genesis 21. Hagar was in a desperate situation. She and her son, Ishmael, had been sent out to the desert to survive on their own and they were hungry, thirsty, and without a safe place to turn. Watching her child thirst to death was more than she could bear, so she tucked him under a bush and left him, wandering just far enough away that she could no longer hear his cries. But God heard the cry! Verse 19 says, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” Hagar wasn’t blind; God opened her spiritual eyes to see the provision around her.
Maybe, like Hagar, you’re so overwhelmed with worry and fear, questioning how you’ll ever make it out of your desperate situation, scared your children will be swallowed up by death, that you’re missing the well right in front of you. God will provide. He will make a way out. Fast and pray and ask God to open your eyes – open your eyes to His divine provision.
The second time we read about God opening spiritual eyes is in Numbers 22 when Balaam’s donkey speaks. Balaam was on the wrong path; he was going in the wrong direction, against the will of God. In verse 31 it says, “Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes …” How many people do you know who are blindly headed in the wrong direction? Friends, family, children, maybe even you … but God can open your eyes—even if He first has to open the mouth of a donkey—to see what’s in front of you. When God opened Balaam’s eyes, he saw an angel of the Lord standing in front of him. It was his spiritual eyes that were opened to see that God was there to guide him.
We don’t have to lean on our own understanding and reason, God’s plan is greater, and if we look for Him, we will see Him. As you fast and pray, God will open your eyes to the right direction and put you on the right course for your future. Not only that, but He can intervene in the life of your loved ones and set them on the right path!
Have you ever felt surrounded by the enemy? Felt like you were barely keeping your head above water, or that every time you lifted your head someone in your family was under attack? The enemy wants to kill, steal, and destroy—kill your relationships; steal your peace, your finances, and your success; destroy your future, your children, and your heritage. But God wants to open your eyes to the protection He has set in place around you and your loved ones. God says we are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and when He opens your eyes to the protection He’s established, you will walk in confidence and peace. You will walk in strength and assurance.
In 2 Kings 6, we see God open spiritual eyes for the third time. Elisha the prophet was with his servant, and an army of their enemies surrounded them. It looked like certain defeat. The servant was panicked and overcome with fear. Then Elisha prayed: “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (v 17).
God opened the servant’s spiritual eyes to see beyond his natural circumstances and into the plan of God. God can give you supernatural protection and raise you above the attacks of the enemy. There’s a powerful army of the Lord fighting for you! “ “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:8).
If you will commit to fasting at the beginning of the year, I believe God is going to show up in your life like never before and open your eyes to His divine provision, direction, and protection for your life and those of your loved ones. God wants you to see your future in hope, faith, and love. There is nothing to fear, for the Lord Himself is going before you. Fast and see! See that God is going to open your eyes to see what other people won’t see, hear what other people won’t hear, and feel what other people will not feel because God is going to open your eyes of understanding – your spiritual eyes.
Finally, when you lean into the spirit of the Lord through fasting and prayer, God will open your eyes to see a fresh visitation from the Holy Spirit. In Luke 24, as Jesus’ disciples were traveling along and talking about the resurrection, trying to understand what had happened, it says in verses 15-16, “So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him.” We too, find ourselves traveling along through life with our eyes restrained. Whether it’s the stress of life, the loss, and defeat we’ve encountered, or the mere disbelief that God would intervene in our desperate moments, if we’re not careful, we’ll miss Him standing right in front of us.
Through your fasting this year, God is going to open your eyes to a fresh visitation from the Holy Spirit. He’s going to open your eyes to His presence in your life. In verses 30 and 31, it goes on to say, “Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight.” Open your eyes, and see that it is Him! God is going into 202 with you! You are not alone.
As you’re fasting and praying, may God open your eyes to His provision, spiritual provision and natural provision, material provision, financial provision. God is going to open your eyes, and you’re going to see things you didn’t see before. That’s what fasting does; it opens your spiritual eyes. The natural things are temporal, but the spiritual things are eternal. May God open your eyes to all He has for you.
