“Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me…get a clear picture of what I’m about…then guide me on the road to eternal life.”
Psalm 139:23 MSG
Welcome to the first week of our 40 Day Soul Fast journey together!
Have you started reading (or rereading) your 40 Day Soul Fast book and/or companion 40-day devotional?
Are you ready to experience the best forty days of your life?
We’re on a mission to heal souls—to awaken more soulful abundance—to lead people to a place in God where their souls can thrive; to reacquaint you with your truest, most authentic self!
When you learn to live authentically, from a healed, whole soul—free and clear from artificial, socially modified, cultural toxins—you will not only change your life, you will be poised to change the world.
Strengthening people at the level of their souls will create massive positive change in the world.
Restoring our communities begins with restoring our souls.
By embracing your soul as the essence of your true identity—a powerful, self-directed person of value, intellect, and greatness—you begin stepping into your destiny as the difference-maker the world so desperately needs.
As a people, we are nothing more than the sum of our parts.
We must break the false perception that as individuals what we do does not make a difference in the greater scheme of things.
As the giant world-changer, a small man by the name of Mohandas Gandhi, once said, “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”
We will only be as whole and healed as a country as we are as a people.
Today, I want to talk to you about why we have set aside a period of forty days to focus on the life or our souls.
Why forty days?
It is certainly interesting when you begin to look through the Bible for examples of how God used periods of forty to mark great times of transition.
- God cleansed the earth by causing it to rain for forty days and forty nights.
- Moses was exiled for forty years before God sent him to liberate Israel from Egyptian slavery.
- Moses was alone with God on Mt. Sinai for forty days three different times before he finally presented the Ten Commandments to Israel.
- Spies searched out the land of Canaan for forty days . . .
- and because the children of Israel believed their fearful report, they were forced to wander the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land.
The number forty represents transition and metamorphosis—a time of testing and transformation.
After forty days, a human embryo becomes recognizable as a living child in the mother’s womb. After forty weeks, the child is born into the world.
Forty represents a period of gestation, new birth, or renewal. A caterpillar that withdraws into a cocoon emerges after forty days as a butterfly.
Most significantly, forty represents a time of cleansing and regeneration. Again, look at the forty-day flood used to cleanse the earth. And did you know harvests generally take place in forty-day cycles?
In biblical terms, forty years represents a generational cycle. In astronomical terms, forty days can be used to almost perfectly measure the rate of each passing solar year.
In biblical numerology, forty relates to the period of probation before the fulfillment of a promise.
It is the product of five and eight, pointing to the action of grace (represented by the number five) leading to restoration and new beginnings (represented by the number eight).
When the number forty relates to capacity building and “enlarging dominion,” it does so by virtue of its factors four and ten, representing completeness and divine order, respectively.
Look at the sequence of events that took place in the New Testament when Jesus ushered in a new era of authority and dominion. After He was baptized and before He stepped out into the fullness of His ministry, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness where he was tempted for forty days and forty nights.
After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus remained on earth teaching His disciples for forty days before ascending into heaven—His earthly ministry and extended rule (through a body of believers filled with His Spirit) complete.
Throughout the Bible, the number forty is associated with deliverance and Kingdom expansion.
We all know the story of Goliath who terrorized the army of Israel for forty days before David slew him. For the next forty years, David seized unprecedented victories over Israel’s enemies even while a jealous King Saul attempted to kill him. When at last he became king, David, and then his son Solomon, each reigned for forty years of unprecedented peace and prosperity.
When Israel fell into sin, they were delivered into the hands of their enemy for forty years. Interceding on their behalf, Ezekiel the prophet bore their iniquity lying on his side for forty days.
In the time of Jonah, Nineveh was given forty days to repent—but long before that, the whole earth was prepared for the glory of the Lord by being thoroughly cleansed by forty days and nights of purifying rain.
In both the Old and New Testaments—from Noah to Jesus—forty marked significant periods of preparation and transformation.
Consecrate the next forty days to clearing your mind, liberating your soul, and freeing your spirit by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
For it is for freedom that Christ has set you free (see Galatians 5:1)—“freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace—your security, safety, prosperity, and happiness—depends!” (Luke 19:42 AMP).
By cleansing your life from the inside out, you will see all things become new in every area.
Please join me as we prepare our hearts for a fuller manifestation of God’s glory to be revealed in our lives, communities, and nations over the next forty days!
Never underestimate the power you have residing within you—”Christ in you, the hope of glory”—to change the world! (See Colossians 1:27.)