Inspirational Quotes by Arthur Wallis
“There is nothing essentially vile in the human body, for God created it, even with its desires and appetites. There is nothing evil in a hungry man’s desire for a square meal, or a healthy woman’s longing for a husband, children and a home of her own. It is not the way of the Spirit to repress these natural instincts, but to control them and keep them within the bounds prescribed by God. We do not need to extinguish the fire in the grate; only to prevent the coals from falling out and setting the place on fire. The physical is not to be ruthlessly suppressed but firmly disciplined and subordinated to the spiritual. When asceticism becomes a thing of form enforced by man-made rules, it is incapable of dealing effectively with the bodily lusts. Self-control on the other hand is the fruit of the Spirit, springing from divine life within, cultivated by the habit of a disciplined life.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“If you have been brought low through personal defeat; if there is a call in your soul to a deeper purifying, to a renewed consecration; if there is the challenge of some new task for which you feel ill-equipped—then it is time to inquire of God whether He would not have you separate yourself unto Him in fasting.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“What awe must have come to the hearts of that waiting band as they listened to that “sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind”—what a sense of the irresistible power of God! But there was also the appearance of “tongues parting asunder, like as of fire.” Fire typifies the activity of God’s holiness in relation to sin; fire consumes and fire purifies. When the Spirit came upon Christ, it was not as the fire but “as a dove,” for there was no sin in Him, as the Father then declared, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). But here the tongues “like as of fire” sat upon each of them, bringing not only a sense of the infinite holiness of God but of the activity of that holiness in dealing with all that was unholy in themselves.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
“When we fast, how long we fast, the nature of the fast and the spiritual objectives we have before us are all God’s choice, to which the obedient disciple gladly responds.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“The cross must work in us if the life is to be centered in God. Only so can our spiritual motivation be radically altered and become Christward instead of selfward. “He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him” (2 Cor. 5:15, RV).”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“God is not merely concerned with what we do but why we do it. A right act may be robbed of all its value in the sight of God if it is done with a wrong motive.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“God reminds His people that the acceptable fast is the one which He has chosen. Fasting, like prayer, must be God-initiated and God-ordained if it is to be effective.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“On our part there must be the recognition of the rightness and need of fasting, the willingness for the self-discipline involved, and the exercise of heart before God; but in the final analysis the initiative is His.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“Then there will be times when we shall forget the matter of our personal gain, when we shall be caught up in wonder, love and praise, as we fast unto God.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“John Wesley’s famous sermon on fasting: First, let it be done unto the Lord, with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven; to express our sorrow and shame for our manifold transgressions of His holy law; to wait for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to things above; to add seriousness and to obtain all the great and precious promises which He hath made to us in Jesus Christ. . . . Let us beware of fancying we merit anything of God by our fasting. We cannot be too often warned of this; inasmuch as a desire to “establish our own righteousness,” to procure salvation of debt and not of grace, is so deeply rooted in all our hearts. Fasting is only a way which God hath ordained, wherein we wait for His unmerited mercy; and wherein, without any desert of ours, He hath promised freely to give us His blessing.1”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“Behind many of our besetting sins and personal failures, behind the many ills that infect our church fellowships and clog the channels of Christian service—the clash of personalities and temperaments, the strife and division—lies that insidious pride of the human heart.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“Fasting, then, is a divine corrective to the pride of the human heart. It is a discipline of the body with a tendency to humble the soul. “I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God,” records Ezra (8:21; see also Isa. 58:3).”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“Mourning over personal sin and failure is an indispensable stage in the process of sanctification, and it is facilitated by fasting.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“There is always the hope that spiritual forces will be released which will work toward repentance and recovery.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“The eyes of the Lord are still searching the earth today for the Ezras who will confess the sins of a faithless remnant,”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“If restoration and renewal are to come from the presence of the Lord—and what hope is there without them?—then it is men and women like these whom God will use to turn the tide.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“Matthew Henry said, "When God intends great mercy for His people, He sets them apraying." Indeed, when God wants anything accomplished in His Kingdom, He moves men to pray. God is always the initiator. All effectual prayer was moving in the heart of God before ever it began to move in the heart of man. What Kepler said as he unlocked the secrets of the heavens, could well be said by the man who prays in the Spirit: "O God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee.”
“In the fasting for personal sanctity, we must also include the positive aspect of consecration to God.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
“... the intercessor is not so much like a lamp in the electric circuit as a radio which is both a receiver and transmitter. The receiving aspect is often quite overlooked in the ministry of intercession. Communion with God should surely be a two-way traffic. We speak of prayer as our ‘coming to the mercy seat’, but when God first spoke about this to Moses He said nothing about it as a place where Moses would speak with Him, but rather as a place where He would speak with Moses (Exod. 2 5 : 22). In other words, the mercy seat was to be first a place of revelation, and then a place of intercession. This revelation may indeed be given to the intercessor as he prays, but it will often be necessary to tune in and hear what eaven is saying that he may know how to pray. To learn how to talk to God we must first learn how to listen to God.”
“When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you” (Jer. 29:13–14). When a man is willing to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body to concentrate on the work of praying, he is demonstrating that he means business, that he is seeking with all his heart, and will not let God go unless He answers.”
― Arthur Wallis ,
from God's Chosen Fast
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Through the teaching and writing of Arthur Wallis, most notably his book The Radical Christian (1981), Wallis gained the reputation of ‘architect’ of that expression of UK evangelicalism initially dubbed ‘the house church movement’, more recently labeled British New Church Movement.
Born the son of ‘Captain’ Reginald and Mary Wallis. He attended Monkton Combe School, near Bath, before going on to Sandhurst and wartime service in the Royal Tank Regiment. He was wounded at the Anzio Bridgehead, an event that led him to question the compatibility of his army service with his sense of calling to Christian ministry.
Following in his fathers footsteps, Arthur then embarked on an itinerant preaching and teaching ministry, with a particular emphasis on revival, prayer, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the ‘restoration’ of the church. He had deeply impacted by accounts of the Revival that took place on the Isle of Lewis in 1949 which he visited. His book In the Day of Thy Power (Christian Literature Crusade: 1956) was the fruit of this visit and his subsequent studies. He wrote some eleven books on themes promoting the Christian life, and travelled widely (in particular to the USA, Australia and New Zealand).
For much of his life Arthur lived in Talaton in Devon, moving in the last decade of his life, first to Yorkshire to join Bryn Jones’ Covenant Ministries, and later in 1981 to Southampton to be part of the leadership of the Community Church.
Shortly before his death, twenty years ago this year, he asked for no other memorial than “fruit in people’s lives”. Those who had the privilege of knowing him testify to the lasting impact that Arthur made upon them. His vision for revival is as fresh and as relevant now as it ever was. His book, God’s Chosen Fast (Kingsway: 1968) is the acknowledged classic on the topic of fasting, whilst his book The Radical Christian (Kingsway: 1981) which was his most difficult to write continues to call the Christian to live the dynamic life of Jesus.