You know when you hear someone say something really profound, and it’s like you always knew what they said but you never actually thought about it before? It’s not that you’ve suddenly learned something new, but that you suddenly heard something in a new way. Or maybe you heard it out-loud for the first time, or maybe you saw it in a new light. Regardless, you’ve got a spark of insight.

This is what happened to me during the onething conference. (And FYI: I would have posted up here more during the conference but there was zero internet backstage.) It was during Jason Upton’s Saturday morning set. Those of you who’ve seen Jason lead know that he likes to take his microphone and walk around on stage and do more than just sing songs. He likes to share stories and teach small tidbits and nuggets of truth.

So during one of his walk-around-on-stage-with-the-wireless-microphone-times he started talking about freedom (as an intro to his song, Freedom, no doubt), and he kinda just started ‘rambling’. But in a good way. And he says (roughly quoted), “…some of you think you’re so free you’re actually not free. You think you’re free to be doing things and they are actually distracting you, and when God comes around you’re too busy doing something else you thought you were free to do and you miss what God had for you and so you’re not actually free.”

And there you have it: The fasted lifestyle Upton-ized.

That little 15 second statement has been stuck with me ever since. I’m just a young guy and I am still discovering the distinctions of liberty, and the joy of the lord and spiritual disciplines. Discovering the line between constant communion and the value of the secret place. I certainly don’t know exactly what I’m doing, but I do know that I want my heart to be as big as it can be.

I want to be truly free. Spirit of Truth kind of free.

I also think that being free isn’t about what I’m doing but about what my heart looks like. Just look at Daniel. He was a slave to a demonized king in a wicked nation. He was not free by any means, but through a fasted lifestyle his heart was soaring and he lived under an open heaven. He was free! Freedom exists on the inside, and living a fasted lifestyle keeps our hearts open and our spirits tender.

But here I go again with some of my lack of understanding. Because I can’t imagine that it doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you are loving Jesus. There is diving marching orders from Heaven for each of us on how to spend our time and energy. Where to go to work and where to serve and who to build relationships with.

At the end of the day, it boils down to vision. I love how Dave said it: “Vision is the heart’s best governor.”

There is no better governor for the heart than vision. Vision constrains us, directs us, disciplines us, and motivates us like few other catalysts can or do. For once vision is caught, faith follows, and then self-discipline will grow in time, as the vision begins to connect heart and mind. No external government or accountability can match the internal fire that moves the heart of one who has a vision.

For so long my vision has been the external rather than the internal. The ‘doing’ of the fasted lifestyle rather than the experience of what the fasted lifestyle gives way to from God. I want the spirit of Truth to fascinate my eyes in a new way, like never before and I want to taste of a deeper freedom in my inner man that I have yet to touch. I want to know the depths of God’s love and be filled with the fullness. I want Christ to dwell in my heart.

I want to live the fasted lifestyle unto making a dwelling place for God.

- Shawn