On one occasion, I was running out of fuel in my car, and I was driving and it
was clear that it wouldn't be long before I would run totally out of gas.
So naturally, I pulled over to the filling station, and I said, "Fill 'er up,"
and the tank became full again. The problem occurred as I was driving along.
My car started to sputter. It started to jerk back and forth. I pulled over to the
side to try to figure out what in the world is going on here. Everything looked
fine to me, and my gas tank was full of fuel, but it was obvious something was
still not working. So I pulled over to the mechanic at the local station to ask
them to please help me figure out why things were not working as they ought to
be working. He examined it, and he said, "Sir,
I think I found your problem. I've checked your fuel, and what you have in
your tank is not what the car requires. you've given it something; you've given
it a type of fuel that it is not designed to use, and that is causing all
of your problems." In Isaiah 58, God's people were concerned that their
Christian life was not working, that their spiritual relationship with God
was not producing anything. In fact, they say, "'Why have we fasted and you do not
see? Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice?' Behold, on the day of
your fast, you find your desire and drive hard all your workers." They wanted to know
why heaven wasn't coming down and intervening in
their circumstance, even though they were fasting. Now fasting is giving up a
craving of the physical to gain assistance from the spiritual. And they
were doing that. They were having this prayer fasting meeting, and nothing was
changing. Well, that's when God comes in and He throws a blockbuster curve, a curve we
all need to hear and learn if we're going to take seriously getting God into
our circumstance—personally as families, in our churches, and most certainly in
our nation. If you're going to have a successful, sacred time with God, whether
individually or a gathering, you need to learn this truth from Isaiah 58 as to
why all of our spiritual efforts, including fasting and prayer, many times
are not working out at all. Listen to what God says. He says, "It is a fast like
the fast which I choose." I don't want the one you're giving me. I want the one that
my engine requires. It must be acceptable to me, not just
likeable to you. He says, "This is the fast which I choose: a day for a man
to humble himself. It is the bowing of one's head like a
reed and for the spreading out of sackcloth and ashes as a bed. Will you
call this a fast, even the acceptable day of the Lord? Is this not the fast which I
choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke and to let
the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with
the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked
to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"
He tells them something was missing. They wanted a vertical experience with God
without a horizontal touch in the lives of others. They wanted God to do
something for them while they did nothing for others. They wanted heaven to
visit them while there was no touch on Earth to improve the lives of others.
This is a great truth that you and I need to know. Whenever you go up to bring
heaven down, heaven wants to see how you went out to deliver help to others.
Over and over and over again in the scriptures, God connects the vertical
with the horizontal. That's why Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that
you're My disciples." Not that you praise and you pray and go
to church, but that you love one another. There is an impact beyond yourself.
You and I get God's attention when we give to others what we ourselves are asking
from God. That's why Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it"—
that is the thing you give—"will be given back to you." God wants to see whether you
are a conduit for the very blessing you are requesting. Because if you want Him
to work to you, but it can't also flow through you, then He's much less
interested in working to you because you become a cul-de-sac. You don't become a
conduit. You don't become a means through which He can flow through. You just want
Him to flow to. If you want to get God's attention when you go to God, let me make
a recommendation. Tell Him what you're going to do for somebody else if He comes through for you.
Because now you've gotten His undivided attention cause that's the
fast He chooses, that's the gasoline that'll make Him
roll in your life and your spiritual experience. What will God do when He sees
that you've attached the vertical to the horizontal and the horizontal to the vertical,
where you've touched heaven while wanting to benefit Earth? Listen to what
He says in closing. He says, "Then your light will break out like the dawn
and your recovery speedily will spring forth. Your righteousness will go before
you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guide. Then you will call and
the Lord will answer. You will cry and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the
yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if
you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your
light will shine in the darkness and your gloom will become midday. And the
Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and give strength to your bones. And you will be like a watered garden and like a
spring of water whose water does not fail. Those from whom it will rebuild the
ancient ruins; you will raise up the old foundations. You will be called repairers
of the breach, the restorers of the streets in which you dwell." Did you get that?
If He sees you calling on Him while reaching out to bless somebody else, He
is going to join you in what you are requesting and needing from Him. We're living
in a day when everybody wants to be blessed, but those same people who say,
"I want to be blessed with this and I want to be blessed with that,"
are not equally saying at the very same time, "And I want to be a blessing for the
blessing that I'm requesting. I want you to flow through and not just flow to,
because I want to be a benefiter, not just a beneficiary. I want to be a
helper and not only one who's helped." When that kind of calling on God takes
place with fasting and prayer, that kind of sacred gathering occurs, now heaven is
now giving you its undivided attention. Over and over and over again, God says,
"When you reach out to others, I'll reach out to you. When I see that you are a
helper to others, I'm going to be a helper to you." Now why is God this way? Well, there's
a statement made about God that sums it all up. It says, "God is love." It doesn't
just say, "God loves." People love. Because, God is a Trinitarian being: Father, Son,
and Spirit. One God composed of three equal Persons who is distinct in personhood and
One in essence. It's like a pretzel with three holes. The first hole is not the
second hole, the second hole is not the third hole, but they're all tied together by
the same dough. Because They all bear the divine nature, so God has never known
what it's like to be alone. He's always dwelt in community, so He's always dwelt
in love. So, He is love. So, He is comfortable when He sees us being what
He is. And when He sees us being what He is, He can be who He is to us, as we are
being who He is, and that is operating in a context of love. So if you need
something supernatural from heaven in history, if you need God to break through
and bring light to your gloom, joy to your despair, peace to your
purposelessness, if you want to see that, give away what you're asking for and
then watch God—pressed down, shaken together, running over—give you the very
same thing that you have been requesting. He's waiting to hear from you.
He's waiting to see you give up the physical for the spiritual, and then He's waiting
to see how His answered prayer in your life is going to touch somebody else.
Isaiah 58 wants you to fast, wants you to pray, but not the one that you put in the
tank, but the one that He can roll on. Because it's fuel from heaven that benefits Earth.