“There was also a prophetess, Anna…She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” Lk. 2:37 

“We are to fast from whatever fills our soul.”  -Lisa Bevere
                                     
Long after Jesus’ 40 day fast was over, He was still fasting.  He lived in a state of “heart fasting” in that He never consumed anything that filled His soul other than His Father.  We are to walk as Jesus did:  we are to fast from whatever fills our soul.  Scripture tells us that Anna “never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”  Anna literally lived her life in the temple—before God’s face—coram Deo!  God is longing for more Anna’s who have a fresh awareness that His temple is within us, and as such, we can stay in the temple worshiping night and day in state of heart fasting no matter what we are doing.  

Heart fasting is unhindered availability to God.  It is the Romans 12:1 kind of worship that says, “I’m Yours and You’re mine whenever, whatever, with no however’s.”   Some degree of fasting will be necessary for most people to fully comprehend coram Deo heart fasting.  In order to fully grasp the coram Deo life, we must grasp heart fasting, which is scorning all things that would interrupt the continual communion of our heart with His.  

One of fasting’s greatest merits lies in the way it trains our hearts and minds to call on God. When the Lord took me through my 40-day fast, it required my heart’s eyes to be trained on God nearly every moment in order to make it. During high times and low, during wakeful hours and in my sleep, I had to stay so close to God that at times it seemed that I breathed God.  He was my all in all.  With no bread to sustain and comfort me, He became my “Bread of life” like never before. Ending the fast was sweet sorrow, for my body cried out for food, but my spirit cried desperately to remain feasting at God’s banqueting table. My soul had never been so plump! Then I read that it was possible to have a heart wholly prepared and focused even after the fast was over. (Towns 1996)  If that was true, I wanted like nothing else to find out how to do it.  I had tasted and seen what that kind of life was like since the completion of the fast, and the sole cry of my heart was to learn how to live in this state of “heart fasting.” Shortly after that God revealed the way to live like that was found in one simple 2-word phrase…Coram Deo. 
 
Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
http://www.marisarickerson.com/coram-deo.html

“God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of giving them up.  He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having—life with Himself.”  -- Oswald Chambers

Continually redirecting the earthly focus of our hearts towards “the things above” requires that we adjust our understanding of the latter part of Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Most Christians have bought a twisted interpretation of this Scripture and believe that dying to self means we must be miserable, joyless, and lifeless. The first step in true spiritual freedom is attaining correct definitions. (Bob Hamp, Gateway Church Dallas).  The truth about the truth sets us free.  
So let’s take a moment to correctly define the life Christ died for us to have.  The Word says, “He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8) The good news of the gospel is that every ounce of hell we deserved fell on His body: “The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5)  The very reason Christ came was: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10 KJV)  The word abundantly means “superfluous, more than sufficient, what is above and over, denotes what is superior and advantageous.” (Vine 1984, 10, 25, 1106)
Now let’s stop.  If our spiritual life is not superfluous, more than sufficient, above and over, superior and advantageous then we are missing one of the key things Christ died to give us.  God wants us to smother everything that hinders abundant living by being completely immersed in the life and love of His Son.  This is what it means that “we’ve died and our lives are now hidden in Christ.”  He promises that when we lay down our life we will find it. (Mt. 16:25)  Unless we are clear-eyed about His lavish grace and good intentions toward us, the concept of dying to self, which is key to coram Deo living, will always leave us acting like abandoned martyrs in the desolate wilderness.  We cannot possibly endure in our coram Deo resolve if we do not become completely settled in the knowledge that God is for us.  The fact that we’ve died and our lives are now hidden in Christ really is the best thing that ever happened to us.

Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
http://www.marisarickerson.com/coram-deo.html

“Resist the devil and he will flee.”  (Jas. 4:7) 


One of the most common mistakes we make is thinking that we must yield to the temptation to doubt as if it would never go away.  Actually, another mistake often precedes that one:  failing to see that doubting is a temptation.  As we live coram Deo, we will more readily recognize doubts for what they really are: powerfully tempting lies.  The temptation to doubt is so hard pressing that it feels as though it will never go away.  Indeed, if the intensity of doubting attacks lasted forever, we would never be able to resist.  But they won’t last forever if we resist!  Giving into temptation as if we had no choice is like coming across a horrible book.  You decided that the only way to rid society of its message was to buy up all the copies.  However, all this did was empower the publisher to make more copies.  That’s how it is with temptation.  It’s hold gets stronger and stronger (i.e., stronghold) the more we give into it.  The instant we pick up a piece of doubt trash and consider keeping it, James 1:7-8 says we become “a double-minded man, unstable” in all we do, and we “should not think [we] will receive anything from the Lord.”  Therefore we must obediently cling to God’s promises.

First, submitting to God and resisting the devil with a raised shield of faith causes him to flee and all his fiery arrows to be extinguished.( Jas. 4:7-8, Eph 6:16)  Secondly, “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Co. 10:13)  Third, we can be alert and in prayer, “do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt. 6:13)  And fourth, a temptation such as doubt only becomes a sin that hinders us from living coram Deo once we conceive it as we read in James:

“…But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death… Jas 1:14-16, 18, 21

Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
/coram-deo.html

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” Jas. 1:5-8

God wants us to remain in an aggressive stance against our #1 coram Deo enemy: doubt. He wants us to never be satisfied again with the casual kind of faith that ebbs and flows “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Doubts are not to be entertained even for a second.  That’s a command straight from God’s Word, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Co. 10:5)

The biggest mistake we make is in trying to out-argue each doubt instead of simply demolishing it.  We do this because we are even double-minded about the fact that the lying doubts originate from the devil! (Jn. 8:44)  Because we fail to discern his tricks, we deflatedly think we are half-hearted hypocrites because we had such thoughts.   It’s a mad cycle.  There is nothing the devil who is craftier and much more powerful than us would like more than to engage us in mind games. 

Two of the times Christ encountered the devil, He did not engage him in clever mind games; after all, how can you persuade a being who has no truth in him?  Christ knew this well and said, “Away from me, Satan!” and “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me.” (Mt. 4:10 & Mt. 16:23)  Instead of reasoning with the father of lies, He simply resisted him.

Think of a person you know who is so far removed from speaking and reasoning truthfully that nearly everything about their conversation is tainted with deceit.  You simply learn to receive nothing as truth from that person until it is tested.  You learn to automatically shield your heart and mind from that person’s probable lies without much ado.  Do you see how we can apply this same principle in our internal battles with temptation?  While we may hear the evil one’s lies, we can choose not to ingest even a dribble of his potion.  God says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” (1 Jn. 4:1) Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret

Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
http://www.marisarickerson.com/coram-deo.html

“You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.” Eph. 2:2 MSG

If we had eyes to see, we would be shocked at how many Christians are sipping substance out of a brown paper bag throughout the day.  It’s true.  Many are addicted to the wine of doubt.  Sometimes we really chug on the jug of unbelief.  Other times we take tiny sips of the spiritual poison throughout the day.  So many live on the bottle of double-mindedness as if we had no choice. (Smith, 1998)  And it is killing us.  Double-minded unbelief cuts us off from the life of Christ in us like nothing else.  It keeps us from receiving ANYTHING from the Lord!  The only solution is complete abstinence. 

Today’s devotional may be the most important one, for double-mindedness is the most important hindrance to throw off.  Consider this bold statement: unbelief is the manufacturing warehouse of all our other hindrances. Show me a Christian who has an aggressive “0 tolerance” policy for double-minded unbelief, and I’ll show you a Christian who is living profusely in the power and love of Christ—coram Deo!

In hindsight, the single, most important factor that occurred in my heart when I first received the coram Deo revelation was an utter demolition of double-minded unbelief.  There was a complete coup d'état of the huge empire of doubt that had infiltrated every area of my Christian life.  Plunging into coram Deo resolve was like an atomic explosion that destroyed every brick of that stronghold with one resounding declaration:

I will doubt fully or believe completely.

Doubting truly has no room before God’s face, and that stands to reason.  If we don’t believe that God is really there or really allows us to approach His throne and get before His face at anytime, then living coram Deo is impossible.  The debilitating danger of doubt cannot be stressed enough.  Doubting completely incapacitates us from living coram Deo as we see in Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
/coram-deo.html