Reviewer: Peter Wuteh Vakunta, Ph.D.
The God of all Possibilities (2023) is a treatise on the rudiments of effective God-centered fasting. From the onset to the end, the author makes it abundantly clear that spiritual fasting is quite different from fasting for weight watching. As he points out, “When you simply deprive yourself of food, it is a condition called starving or hunger strike…” (p.1) Warah Tse underscores the distinction between spiritual and secular fasting. In the same breadth, the author cautions against hypocritical fasting which Jesus himself condemned. He defines Christian fasting as “… a purely spiritual exercise or discipline in which you abstain from food for a spiritual purpose. Fasting is aimed at bringing believers into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. Warah Tse notes that fasting is not restricted to abstention from food; it includes fasting on “things other than food.”(p.1) The quintessence of The God of all Possibilities (2023) is to urge bona fide Christians to take fasting seriously. We have to ponder the possibility of fasting on things such as a surfeit of television watching. To assist Christians in this endeavor, Warah Tse provides a catalogue of different fasting modalities, including dry fast (abstention from food and water). As far as the author of The God of all Possibilities (2023) is concerned, prayer is the corner stone of potent fasting. As he puts it, “What matters is the quality time you spend with God in prayer and Bible study.”(p.3) According to Warah Tse, if you go without food for a whole day and not able to pray once, then you are not fasting but starving. A lifestyle is that is punctuated by fasting is a God-centered life. As far as Warah Tse is concerned, “this is the lifestyle of a mature believer…” (p.4)
The God of all Possibilities (2023) is Pastor Warah Tse’s clarion to fellow believers to take fasting seriously because it is integral to Christian doctrine. He reminds Christians that “... in times of crises the men in the Bible fasted.”(p5) Esther, for example, declared a fast in order to resolve a crisis. In a similar vein, the people of Nineveh, fasted when they were up against a formidable crisis. The renowned apostle Paul also fasted to overcome many crises in his life. Christians are to take Jesus’ injunction on the subject matter of fasting quite seriously. Jesus was abundantly clear on this issue. In Matthew 6, Jesus said: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by others. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others…” Warah Tse sees fasting as being synonymous with saying no to the dictates of the flesh in order to draw nearer to God. In his own words, “Fasting is a spiritual exercise; our target is not weight loss, but self-loss, pride loss, ego loss, addition loss, sin loss, weakness loss for spiritual gain, reward and vitality. (p.12) To paraphrase this author, fasting is emptying ourselves before God; fasting is drawing us to God’s throne where all answers are found. Warah notes that one of the greatest secrets to gaining access to divine power is genuine fasting. In Matthew 4:1-2 readers are told that during His earthly ministry, Jesus fasted before embarking on difficult missions: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Jesus did this in a bid to access power from His Heavenly Father, the God Head. If Jesus who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, needs fasting, we should need it more. It is on this count that Warah Tse states: “Fasting enables you to turn into the spiritual realm where there is healing and all of your inheritance in Christ Jesus.”(p.14) He is upfront in his admonition to fellow Christians: “Quit playing, start praying.”(p.20)
As I see it, The God of all Possibilities (2023) is an adulation of divine immutability. In Malachi 3:6, it is written, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” It is also a book on the omnipotence of God. In Joel, it is written, “The Lord is thunder at the head of His army; His forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey His command.” Warah Tse inserted this scripture in his book with the intention of rekindling faith in the hearts of faint-hearted Christians. The spice of his book is the author’s recourse to scriptural aphorisms[1] that are semantically loaded as seen in the following citation: “Fasting is one of the best ways for us to produce amazing results as children of God. When you fast, you subdue your flesh and worries… giving them room to divine guidance and spiritual strength.”(p.41) In other words, fasting cleanses the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust and kindles the true light of chastity. In The God of all Possibilities (2023), the author makes it quite clear that humankind is in a race for salvation. Warah Tse resorts to the trope of athletics in order to underscore the tedium involved in the race for eternity as well as the necessity for Christians to stay the course. As he puts it, “We are trained like athletes to run our race of glory” (p.58). In the same vein, Warah Tse warns believers to steer clear of existential extremes: “But we must avoid extremes. What matters is the quality of time you spend with God in prayers and Bible study.”(p.58) Pastor Warah Tse also enjoins us to avoid having recourse to secular solutions to our spiritual problems, “The only way to win…the great combat is union with God. Christians will never succeed in overcoming the challenges of the world using political tools…” (p.62).He argues that worldly weapons of combat are ineffective. Warah Tse puts a premium on the potency of prayer as a weapon of warfare:” the believer is at once a husbandman, and a sailor… and a soldier, a wrestler and a traveler.”(p.77) This book provides an antidote to terrestrial worries. Its author enjoins us to take our worries to God. Last but not least, this book is Warah Tse clarion call to Christians the world over to stay alert and evade the malevolent schemes of Satan. In the Bible it is written, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”(1 Peter 5:8)
This book is also Pastor Solomon Warah Tse’s call to repentance. He quips: “You must clean up your lives, clean up your minds, clean up any doubt as you repent and come back to the Lord.”(p.78) Some of the wise sayings contained in this book are spiritual eye-openers as seen in the following: “There is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future.”(p.80) These existential aphorisms constitute the kernel of Warah’s book; a work that provides so much hope for hopeless Christians. The message contained in The God of all Possibilities (2023) inspires hope for the disenchanted Christian: “Nothing paralyses our lives than the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change everything.”(p.82)The writer follows up by adumbrating the following: “You may have gone far from the purpose of God, but there is an opportunity for you to genuinely run back to Him today. Wherever you find yourself today, you can make things right.”(p.88)
Last but not least, Pastor Solomon Warah Tse's book is an invitation extended by a devout man of God to seasoned and budding Christians to pick up their crosses and follow Jesus. As he puts it, “Jesus is everything, start with Him, stay with Him, and end with Him. Jesus is our life, strength, light…” (p.86) Warah Tse dwells on the fact that picking up one’s cross implies total surrender to our Lord and Savior. He notes that though taking up the cross many sound like an arduous take; it is actually connotes freedom from worldly cares. In a nutshell, Pastor Solomon Warah Tse has written a Bible-inspired book that is likely to stand the test of time on account of the potency of its themes and the fluidity of his diction. The author’s language is devoid of fluff and semantic stumbling-blocks. I would recommend The God of all Possibilities (2023) for use in Sunday school classes, Christian book clubs and personal reading at home with family and friends.
(Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta is founder and coordinator of Daily Manna, a virtual Global Christian Ministry. He lives in North Carolina in the United States of America)
[1] Wise saying
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