- [Narrator] Fasting, Our Response To God's Purposes.
You must understand that God wants to answer our prayers.
As we ask within His will,
fulfilling various conditions,
our prayers will be answered.
We must also recognize that the enemy
is trying to oppose us.
We have the responsibility to pray
through until the answer comes.
For example, let us say that God has declared
that it is his will to heal you.
If he has given you the promise of healing,
this is not the time to sit back and say, I leave it to God.
If it is His will, He will do it anyway.
That is as far from staying in line with the mind of God
as a person could possibly be.
The right response is God, you promised it, thank you.
I will seek you with all my heart,
for the fulfillment of what you have promised.
This is the prayer that God wants us to pray,
when He moves to fulfill the pledges of his grace.
On behalf of His people, He wants us to seek Him,
even if He has told us what He intends to do.
This applies not only to individual desires,
but also the promises about nations and the world.
Now let us consider a promise of God,
which particularly concerns the faithful.
What will God do for His people in this last days?
And what is our response to be?
The scriptures answer both questions, a proper response.
Let us begin with a prophetic scripture about Israel,
which helps us to better understand our correct response
to God's declared intentions.
This prophecy in Ezekiel
refers to the nationwide restoration of Israel,
and it also applies to God's purposes for the church.
Indeed, many phenomena in the natural restoration of Israel,
the fig tree, our patterns and examples of the spiritual
restoration of the church, the vine.
The second part of Ezekiel 36
is a promise from God to return
His own land and inheritance to the people of Israel.
Probably the greatest single objective proof that the Bible
is an up-to-date and reliable book is the fact that God is
restoring Israel to her own land.
If there were never any restoration of Israel,
we would have to take our vitals and throw them away
as worthless books, because the entire Bible
is committed to that fact.
Beginning with verse 24 and continuing with verse 30,
we find that God says more than a dozen times
in these seven verses, that He will do certain things
for the sake of His Holy name.
For the house of Israel as seen in verse 22.
This means God's intervention is not due to Israel's merits.
It is God's faithfulness to his promises and concern
for the glory of His own name that compels
Him to intercede in this way.
Have a look at just the first two verses of this passage.
For I will take you out of the nations.
I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back
into your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.
I will cleanse you from all your impurities
and from all of your idols, Ezekiel 36:24 and 25 KJV.
God is saying certain things here that He will do.
Four times He says I will.
And yet, look at his words
at the close of this great prophecy.
This is what the sovereign Lord says.
Once again, I will yield to Israel's plead
and do this for them.
I will make their people as numerous as sheep, verse 37.
The Hebrew for the word inquire
means to seek God with great earnestness.
Although God has declared what He will do.
He still wishes that His people would seek Him seriously.
I see in this verse a basis
in God's relationship and dealings with His praying people.
God's predestined purpose provokes man's free response
according to God's foreknowledge.
He says, when you see me intervening on your behalf,
when you see my promises fulfilled,
I expect a response from you of your own free will.
I expect you to turn to me humbly,
and to seek me earnestly in prayer,
so that when I have promised and what you have
already begun may actually come to pass.
In other words, when God begins to move
in sovereign grace for His people
and to fulfill the prophecies and revelations of His word.
And when God's people see that these promises
are being fulfilled, we do not sit back and say,
isn't this wonderful, look what God is doing.
This is not an appropriate response.
The response should be God moves in our name.
Let us see Him with all our hearts,
so that He may fulfill the good word
that he has promised us.
There will come a time to dance when the battle is over.
It is the time to gather the spoils.
But until then, knowing God's will,
should challenge us to a new level of spiritual earnestness.
Let's now look at the issue of fasting
in connection with restoration.
Two kinds of fast.
Fasting has a special relationship
to the work of restoration.
The great Old Testament chapter on fasting,
Isaiah 58, sets forth two kinds of fast.
One that does not move God's arm, and one that does.
Wherefore have we fasted say they and vowel see us not.
Wherefore have we afflicted our soul
and thou take us to no knowledge.
Behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure,
and exact all your labors.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate.
And to smite with the fist of wickedness.
Ye hold not fast as you do this day
to make your voice to be heard on hi.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen
a day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Wilt thou call this a fast
and an acceptable day to the Lord?
Isaiah 58:3-5.
Isaiah 58:3-5, describe fasting
that is not acceptable to God.
This is because the attitudes and relationships
of the people involved are wrong.
They are resentful, they are grasping.
They are greedy, they are legalistic.
They are censorious.
They are critical of others.
God tells us that when we fast
with this attitude and spirit,
we cannot expect Him to hear us or answer our prayers.
Isaiah 58, verses six to 12.
Describe the kind of fasting that God desires.
If we look at each verse briefly,
we notice the number of promises associated
with the kind of fasting acceptable to God.
I do not know any passage of the Bible
that contains the more condensed list
of tremendous promises than Isaiah 58:6.
Is not this the fast that I have chosen
to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free.
And that you break every yoke.
Please note that the motive for fasting must be right
regarding letting the oppressed go free.
I will let you know that in this ministry of deliverance,
there are individuals who will never
be delivered until God's people, chiefly God's ministers
are ready to pay the price for prayer and fasting.
Then Isaiah 58, verse seven,
is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to the house?
When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him,
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Fasting must be accompanied by an attitude of authentic
practical charity towards those in need.
Some evangelicals are so evangelical
that they have forgotten that the gospel includes
love for one's neighbor,
as well as for ourselves.
This is very practical form of love that God needs.
God says that if our motives are right,
if our attitudes and relationships are right,
then it is love that God needs.
Then He will tell us about the fast he has chosen
and what it will do for us.
Isaiah 58 verse eight tells us,
then shall vine light break forth as the morning
and thine health shall spring forth speedily,
and by righteousness shall go before thee.
The glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
The promises in this verse are close to the promise
of Malachi 4:2.
But onto you that fear my name
shall the son of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings.
And ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
This relates to the same period of time.
These last days.
For us who fear the name of God,
the sun of righteousness is now rising
with the healing in His wings.
The substance of the promise of Isaiah 58:8
is light righteousness and healing Jesus.
The son of righteousness came to bring righteousness
to the soul and healing to the body.
God promises that if we begin to fast
and seek Him in the right way and with the right motives,
then light, justice and healing will come.
Continuing with verse nine, then shalt thou call,
and the Lord shall answer.
Thou shall cry, and He shall say, here I am.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yolk,
the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity.
Then in the second half of verse nine, God warns us again,
that wrong attitudes can spoil this.
We can sum those up in three phrases.
I pray that everyone watching this video
will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ
as his or her personal savior.
If we abandoned legalism, criticism of others,
and insincerity, God says that He is ready to listen.
Verse 10 says,
and if we draw out thy soul to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then shall thy light rise and obscurity,
and thy darkness be as the noon day.
If we recognize the need for practical charity,
light will take the place of darkness.
Verse 11 says the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your soul and drought and strengthen your bones.
You shall be like a watered garden
and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
The way there is stated in verse six.
It is not this, the fast that I have chosen.
When we fast like this, we can expect guidance,
direction and positive clear assurance
of God's presence and guidance in every situation.
No matter how dry it may be around you,
you will have a fountain in your soul
and drought stricken areas.
It's easy to identify those watering their gardens
and those who don't.
The difference is tremendous.
In the same way, the people who meet God's conditions,
even when all the others around them are dry
and withered and parched,
they will be like an irrigated garden.