- [Narrator] The matter of taking time for God.
In Isaiah 58, we see the blessings promised to those
who fast in accordance with God's will.
The first 12 verses of Isaiah 58 deal with fasting,
the last two verses deal with keeping God's Sabbath,
and I believe they are related.
These are the last two verses in Isaiah 58.
"Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Don't pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight
as the Lord's holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
and don't follow your own desires or talk idly,
then the Lord will be your delight.
I will give you great honor and satisfy you
with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor, Jacob.
I, the Lord, have spoken."
Isaiah 58:13 and 14.
The epistle to the Hebrews says,
"So there is a special rest
still waiting for the people of God," Hebrews 4:9.
The root idea of the Sabbath is resting
and ceasing from our activities.
I believe that is very profitable to unite together,
fasting with resting from our works.
The average person is either working,
at home busy with his or her family, has a spare job,
or is busy with some kind of recreation.
There is a tremendous spiritual blessing
from just relaxing and waiting upon God
and not being occupied with anything.
It is found that this is a principle of the Bible.
When God brought Israel into the promised land, he said,
"Every seventh year, your land is to have a Sabbath.
Don't sow in it for one year out of seven.
Don't do any work on the land, let it lie fallow,"
Leviticus 25:2-6.
All the time Israel was in the land,
they failed to observe that.
So God warned them,
"If you don't do it when you are in the land,
I will turn you out of the land,
and the land will have its Sabbath while you are out of it."
In Leviticus 26:33-35, we see a warning of judgment.
"I will scatter you among the nations
and bring out my sword against you.
Your land will become desolate
and your cities will lie in ruins.
Then, at last, the land will enjoy
its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate,
while you in exile in the land of your enemies.
Then the land will finally rest
and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.
As long as the land lies in ruins,
it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take
every seventh year while you lived in it."
In other words,
Israel refused to keep the Sabbath of the land.
So God said, "All right, I'll turn you out of the land,
and the land will have nothing but Sabbaths
all the time you are out of it
because you wouldn't observe the Sabbath
when you were in it."
I believe God deals with Christians in the same way.
We're so busy and active doing things for God
that when God says, "Take time off, rest, get alone,
get away from everything
because I have things I need to tell you,"
we are often too busy to listen.
There is a great deal of importance
in taking time to relax, rest, and wait upon God,
and often to combine that rest with fasting.
You are letting your spirit and stomach rest.
Your whole body gets a rest,
as well as your entire personality.
Let me point out that God ordained a combination of fasting
and resting for the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 16:29-31 records God's ordinances for that day.
"On the 10th day of the appointed month in early autumn,
you must deny yourselves,
neither native-born Israelites,
nor foreigners living among you may do any kind of work.
This is a permanent law for you.
On that day, offerings of purification will be made for you
and you will be purified in the Lord's presence
from all your sins.
"It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you,
and you must deny yourselves.
This is a permanent law for you."
The priest had his part to do.
He had to go into the Holy of Holies
with the blood of the sacrifice
and make propitiation for the sins of the people.
However, the people also had their part to do,
and their part was two fold,
one, to fast, and two, to abstain from all work.
There is a feeling that the Lord is emphasizing
that we need to unite these two things again.
If possible, when we fast,
we need to take time off from every other activity,
not necessarily a whole day, but half a day,
and set that time aside for God.
Let our busy minds stop turning over for a little while.
We're so busy, even when we pray,
that we never give God a chance to tell us what to do.
Praying is not just telling God,
it's also listening to God.
Sometimes, it takes a good many hours
to get ourselves into the position where we can hear him,
so I believe that rest should be linked with fasting.
Let us look at another scripture
where fasting is united with taking a Sabbath.
In the book of Joel,
the people of God were faced with a tremendous crisis.
They had no answer,
so God told them his answer through the prophet Joel.
"Announce a time of fasting.
Call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Bring the leaders and all the people of the land
into the temple of the Lord, your God,
and cry out to him there," Joel 1:14.
A solemn assembly means a day when nobody does anything
but seek God.
God tells us to sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
stop our activities and set aside time for him.
In Joel 2, 15 and 16, when God said,
"Blow the ram's horn in Jerusalem.
Announce a time of fasting.
Call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Gather all the people, the elders, the children,
and even the babies.
Call the bridegroom from his quarters
and the bride from her private room.
Everyone has to stop all their activities
and take time to seek God."
The body and its five senses
try to dictate to the spirits and soul.
Most of the time, it does a pretty good job
and we listen to our physical bodies.
When our body says,
"I'm tired and don't want to read the Bible.
I'm too tired to pray," the undisciplined believer
usually allows the body to do what it wants to do.
And when the body says, "I'm hungry, feed me,"
we typically do as the body demands.
All of this points to the fact that to most believers,
their body's needs transcend the needs
of their spirits and souls.
But the apostle Paul declared that,
"He determinedly brought his body into submission,"
I Corinthians 9:27,
"And urged all believers to follow his example,"
I Corinthians 11:1.
Fasting is one way to bring the body into subjection.
Thus, when we strengthen our spirit in the word,
our spirit begins to talk to our mind, emotions and will,
which make up the soul,
and the mind tells the body, "Body you are not in control."
So, fasting enables the believer
to gain control of his or her entire being
and bring him or herself into a strong,
positive, ever-deepening relationship with God.
Fasting, gaining control of your body,
proves to God that you love him
and put him first in all things.
That's why when you are fasting,
you can focus your entire being upon praying.
You deny the body the ability to rest your attention
from God's word and the purpose of your prayer.
With all bodily powers brought into line
with God and his word,
the earnest prayer of a righteous person
has great power and produces wonderful results, James 5:16.
A fasting believer is an effectively-praying believer.
A fasting church is a healthy, growing church.
Let's involve ourselves in the exciting business
of praying and fasting.
It's a dynamic key to spiritual power
through answered prayer.
We hope you were blessed by this message.
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