Fasting God’s Way
Key Passage: Isaiah 58:11
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah chapter 58. And please do continue to pray for Brother Warren. I talked to him a couple days ago, and he was going to go to rehab, which is good. He’s been in the hospital many times when they try to go to rehab and never will, but he’s going this time. That’s a blessing. Praise Him for that. You pray; it would be so helpful. Get his strength back while he’s in rehab, if you would do so. I believe he’s there already.
Isaiah 58. Last Wednesday, we preached about fasting. One of God’s great tools He has given us is this tool of fasting. We will go again to that subject of fasting. I was talking to Michael Bowens today, and he said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Well, it’s one of those dirty words. We’re going to talk about fasting tonight at church,” you know.
And he said, “You know, it’s all over in the Bible,” and it is. And so we’re going to just one more night on fasting. And then next Wednesday night, Brother Greg, Brother Gregory, will be preaching for us. And that will kind of kick off our missions conference. He is one of our missionaries we’d like to take on for support. So he’ll be preaching for us next Wednesday. And then, of course, that whole weekend will be missions. But tonight, fasting—fasting God’s way.
This chapter, Isaiah 58, talks a fair good amount about fasting. Much of it was done wrong, and we’ll get to that a little bit. But I want to start at this verse here, a little bit later on in the chapter, verse number 11. It is a great promise, a great promise. And we want to kind of look at what you get if you do these things first.
By the way, if you need a Bible, the one in the chair in front of you—some of those usually have Bibles there—you’re welcome to use that. That’s what they’re there for. You’re welcome to do that. Isaiah 58. We’re going to start at verse number 11. Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together?
Isaiah 58 and verse number 11, a wonderful verse. And if you’re there tonight, would you say amen? Amen.
And let’s just pray God will give us something in this mighty time we have. Verse number 11, a wonderful verse: “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones.” Means you need to go on to die is what that is here. We’ll talk about them in here. Make fat thy bones. “And shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” Wonderful, wonderful promise. I think Brother Kevin showed it to me years ago. Just a great, great promise.
But let’s pray, and we’ll get at this saying of what kind of fast—fasting God’s way. Would you pray with me? Lord, I think many times we have neglected, Lord, I know I have, this great thing you’ve given us: fasting. Lord, would you give us a vision of what you would want us as individuals? And Lord, maybe even at times as a church family. But Lord, would you give us a vision of what you would want us to do in this area of fasting? Lord, maybe that’s the thing that some of us need to do to have a victory somewhere. So would you clearly lead us to that? And we’ll thank you and brag with you and praise you for what you do, Lord. Shine to honor your word tonight. I pray that we have rightly divided it for your glory and your honor, in Jesus, and we pray, amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. Would you look back at that verse, verse number 11, for just a moment? Let’s just kind of count up these promises, amazing promises.
The first one, here we go. It stops with “continually.” Would you read it out loud with me until that word “continually”? Here we go: “And the Lord shall guide thee continually.” Oh, that was weak. Let’s try this thing again. Come on now. We can do better now. Here we go: “And the Lord shall guide thee continually.” Wouldn’t you like that? Just continually, where every decision you make, you have His guidance on it. The Lord shall guide thee continually. Wow. Wonderful. We all have so many decisions. Life is basically made up just of a series of decisions. And the Lord will guide you continually. Continually. What a promise that is.
Now, that’s the first thing. Five things you’ll get out of this verse. Look at the second one. Here we go, right after “continually,” if you would, with me. Here we go, verse number 11: “And satisfy thy soul in drought.” That’s number two. Now, so here’s the thing: when you’re down, you’re weary, your soul is going through a drought, and everybody goes through a drought from time to time. That’s why He told that young preacher over there, Paul, God did through Paul, “Hey, be instant in season, out of season.” We all have them. Preachers have it. Everybody’s got it. But He says He’ll satisfy thy soul when you’re down and in drought. When you’re just dried up and you’re stale and you’re weary and you’re just at your lowest of times, He gives you what you need. What a promise. He’ll guide you continually. Satisfy thy soul in drought.
Let’s look at the third thing right here. Help me out, if you would, please. Here we go: “And make fat thy bones.” You said, “Preacher, what in the world does that mean?” Fat bones. Typically, in our day and time, to be more like, “Man, that guy’s got a backbone in him.” You know this old world, just take the political correctness, how they’re trying to push us into that. And the—oh, I don’t know all the terms, I don’t even keep up with all the terms they use where they’re trying to ride away. They’re making football teams change names and everything else in the world, you know, all kind of crazy stuff. But as they’re pushing that stuff on you, you have—you’ve got a backbone. You can stand.
And as the world is trying to conform you into its image, and it will, it’s always pushing. It’s amazing, even commercials. How they put—it’s a sad thing. Watch the basketball game the other night. Praise the Lord, Tennessee beat Vanderbilt. Somebody say amen right there. Somebody might say the other way, “Oh me,” you know. But I better watch some of that basketball game last night, and even the commercials. It’s sad how many sodomites, homosexuals, they put, just trying to put it in front of it all the time. They’re always pushing their agenda. And if you’re not going to be conformed in any way to the image of the world, you need fat bones. You need a backbone. You can stand. Our young people that go to sometimes schools that are pushing their own philosophy—boy, you need a backbone to stand there. And that’s what it’s talking about. He’ll guide you continually. He’ll satisfy your soul in drought, and He’ll give you some fat bones. Amen.
And let’s look at the next thing. He says He’ll do for you five things. Would you read it out loud with me? It’ll end with “garden.” And here we go. It starts right after “bones.” Here we go: “And thou shalt be like a watered garden.” I remember years ago, Miss Tammy flew out to California years ago, and that was the first time out there. And we could look out the plane, and these huge—once we got out west—these huge sprinklers. And it was brown everywhere, but you could see exactly where that sprinkler went. It was green. You could look down; it’s like a circular green. You know, it’s odd when you spend about a week or two out there, and then you fly back into Tennessee, you feel like you’re flying back into a jungle, just so much green, you know. And I remember we had looked, and we’d walk down sidewalks, whatnot, and you could see exactly where someone’s sprinkler went because it was watered. It was green everywhere it was brown. And that’s what God’s saying: I’ll make you like a watered garden. You’ll be fruitful, and you’ll produce, and you’ll be green, and it’s a wonderful thing. You’ll have fruit in your Christian life.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I like these things: man, His guidance continual, satisfy your soul in drought, give you some a big old backbone, and you’ll be like a watered garden. Praise the Lord for that.
Look at this last thing. You can divide it into two if you like to, but I got it into one here, this last part of this verse. Would you just finish the verse out, would you please? Here we go: “And like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” You ever get to thinking, “Man, I’m getting old, and I’m getting used up, and I’m just going to—I’m not going to have anything left”? He said, “No, no. You’ll be like a spring of water whose waters never, never dry up.” “I’m going to lose energy. I’m not going to have any drive for the Lord.” No, the promise there is you’ll be like a spring of water whose waters fail not.
Some of you are so good. I miss Joyce. We give each other a hard time, at least about the temperature in the church every service, at least once, you know. Miss Joyce has been coming here for, I don’t know how long, for—I mean, at least 80 years, I’m not sure. And sometimes I think about people like that who have been around for a long time, and they hear me, you know, three times a week, sometimes four times a week later. And I said, “Lord, I ain’t got nothing for these people.” But I love that for me as such an encouragement. God said, “No, no, you’ll be like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” God’s always got something fresh. God’s always got something. We don’t necessarily need anything new when He was old, amen. But God says, “I’ve always got some fresh water.” You say, “My marriage is getting a little dull and stale, and I need something fresh.” God says, “Well, I’ll make you like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” You just—it’s always got water spring.
Anybody out there would like to claim verse number 11? Anybody? Would you like to claim that? That’s it. Nobody else. Let’s try it. Would you like to claim verse number 11? Boy, I would. I love those five promises. Wonderful.
Now here’s the sad part, friend, all right? That’s the good part. Here’s the bad part: This is a conditional promise. That’s the sad part. Especially when the verse there starts off with “and”—He’s connecting these prior things in the chapter. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I learned, seeing this verse in the shoulder, I was like, “Whew, man, I want to start this thing up because I like to claim that promise.” And it’s a wonderful, wonderful promise here. But the rest of the chapter has to do with it.
Now, there are two main things in chapter 58 of Isaiah. One is fasting. Verse number two through verse number six is about fasting. We’re going to cover that in just a minute here because that’s our subject for this Wednesday night. The vast majority of the rest of the chapter is about helping the poor. Okay?
Now, that is very important. It can be very tricky in America helping the poor. I never forget a guy that came by—oh, I don’t know, six, seven years ago, maybe five, I don’t know, four or five years ago. A good man, I think I married him and his wife years ago. Good man. But he was part of a program. He was heading up this area where he was helping feed people. And he said, “I want to turn my position over to you.” And I thought, “I don’t think I want your position.” And he said, “I’ve been doing it for so many years.” And he said, “I’ll be honest with you: after so many years, I’ve learned it’s really tough in America to find somebody that’s hungry where some kind of addiction, where it be drugs or alcohol or just total laziness, is not involved.” He said, “Apart from those two years, it’s just really hard to find in America.” So I said, “I want to get rid of my position.” I said, “I don’t want your position. We have enough of that going to do with in our church as it is.”
And I just say that it can be very tricky in America, but still that promise is true. And there are those. Now you’ve got to look sometimes. You’ve got to be wise and pray. I think about someone that came to me a little before Christmas time—man, just a giving individual—that said, “Pastor, I’d like to give someone that is truly needy several hundred dollars.” And I said, “Well, me and Miss Tammy, I have a lot of needs right now.” No, I suggested a person in the church, a good, godly person, a hardworking and honest person, and going through a tough time. And I said, “Well, I would suggest that.” And it’s so good. They gave me cash in an envelope. And so me and Miss Tammy—no, we didn’t, but they did. They gave me cash in an envelope. They said, “Would you give this to them and don’t tell them where it came from?” That’s awesome. Praise the Lord for people that help with the poor. They’re just needy people. We’ve all been needing from time to time.
Now, part of Chapter 58 deals with that. We’re not going to cover that. Our subject is about fasting.
Now, let me just briefly review just to touch, if you don’t know much about fasting. Last Wednesday, we tried to cover a lot of the basics about fasting. And I’m not talking about fasting—there’s a lot of intermittent fasting today for health reasons. It’s very healthy, and I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about spiritual needs, fasting for spiritual needs. Let me give a quick definition I gave it last week: It’s a voluntary abstaining from something, usually food, in order to seek the Lord more intensely. You’re abstaining from something. It could be other things. We talked about last week. There are different types of fast. We talked about these things, and I’m not going to cover that. Go back and listen to last Wednesday night about the different types of fasting. We’ve covered that fairly detailed last week.
But Isaiah 58 starts talking the first several verses about fasting. Now, let me just say a word about Isaiah before we begin to go through these verses—a little bit of the Bible study tonight, Wednesday night. But Isaiah was one of these pre-exilic prophets. Much of the prophets deal with Israel being in captivity for 70 years because of their sin. Now, these pre-exiles were warned, “Hey, look, if you don’t get right, judgment’s coming.” And Isaiah was one of these men. It was over 100 years before they went into captivity, but God was warning them, specifically the southern part, Judah: “Hey, if you don’t get right, judgment’s coming.” Now, Isaiah 58 is part of that.
And I have to say that because of these first verses, verse 2 through 6, is very tricky. I’ll be honest with it. When I began to study it out a while back, I thought, “Wait a second, what’s the good and the bad here?” And I’ve tried to study it out and use other people and commentaries and all that. I want to be as accurate as I can be about this thing. All right. So let’s say in all that, let’s jump up to verse number two, verse number two of Isaiah.
And this one can be very tricky. It sounds like they’re doing good, but I don’t believe that’s what He’s saying. Verse number two, Isaiah 58, verse number two. Are you there tonight? Amen? Good deal. Here we go. He says, “Yet they seek me daily.” We’ll start in verse number one, excuse me. We’ll just get the whole gist of this thing. He says, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.” By the way, it’s a wonderful verse there when someone says, “Well, you ought not name sin when you’re preaching. Let the Holy Spirit do that.” No, He says right there, you name the sins. That’s biblical for him. By the way, He said, “Cry aloud, spare not.” That’s biblical for him. That’s what He’s telling them about the sins of Judah there.
Now, verse number two, He says, “Yet, yet they seek me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.” Now, sounds wonderful, but remember the overall thing: they’re a sinful nation; they don’t get right; judgment’s coming. And He says, “No, you want to be like these nations that are doing righteousness and so on.” You said, “But you’re seeking Me daily, but there’s a problem here.”
Look at verse number three, if you would, please. Verse number three: “Wherefore have we fasted,” say they, “and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of our fast, do ye find pleasure in all your labor?”
Now, let’s just go through this first just a second here. He says, “Now look, you want to be like these, like a nation doing everything right. You’re coming to Me, but you fast, and I don’t answer.” Like you won’t—you’re not right. And boy, you really come at Me after that. He says, “Wherefore have we fasted,” say they, “and Thou seest not, God? You didn’t see me when I fast. What’s wrong with you, Lord? Don’t you have eyes? Can’t you see I’m fasting? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?” Boy, what are you doing out there? We’re coming to You daily. We want to be like one of these nations that are doing everything right. Why don’t You see us? We’re fasting, and God, You’re not seeing us.
That last part of the verse—behold, God speaking back—“Behold, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure.” Often Israel would have more like national days of fasting, and sometimes or often their days of fasting would kind of turn into a day of feasting, you know? And boy, it’s kind of like a holiday, you know. How many—how many of you have ever labored really hard on Labor Day? How many like that? How many have cracked a joke to your spouse and said, “Man, we’re laboring on Labor Day”? How many did that before? Yeah, everybody’s done that before, you know. And it’s supposed to be a day where, you know, you’re taking a break from all the labor, but you’re kind of getting caught up on everything at the house and whatnot, you know. Well, that’s the same thing. They’re fasting; they’d find pleasure, and they’d turn their fasting days into feasting days.
Look at the rest of that verse there. And He says, verse number three, bottom of it: “And exact all your labors.” That could be them making their servants work on that day. That could mean, well, they’re trying to get caught up on all the work at home and trying to get their labors done, but the fast day wasn’t a fast day like the Lord wanted.
Let’s keep going, verse number four: “Behold, you fast for strife and debate.” You’re fasting so you—“Well, I fast twice a week.” You remember the guy that went to pray to the Lord? And he said, “Lord, I fast twice in the week. I’m not like that old sinner over there. Look at me.” And kind of the same thought: you’re fasting for debate and strife, maybe with the Lord, maybe with others. “Well, look what I do. Look how I am. Look what I’ve been doing.” He says, “You fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness.”
So many things could be said there, and I’m going to do my best to be exact about it, but it kind of reminds you of over in Matthew 23:14 when He says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayer; therefore ye shall receive greater damnation.” He said, “Look, you’re over there just devouring the widows, and yet, boy, you pray these long prayers. You gather this religious ceremony. It looks so good.” And God said, “I’m so displeased with you. You have great damnation to you.” And that’s what’s going on over here.
Let’s keep going on this verse number four, if you would please. Verse number four. And then He finishes that verse up: “And make your voice to be heard on high.” Now, I really had to look at that, and I want to be as honest as I can. I do not think He’s talking about to be heard on high before God. You remember crybaby Ahab? Remember that? Ahab and Jezebel. And remember Ahab? “Oh, I want that vineyard.” Do you remember that? And remember, he went to Naboth and said, “Hey, I want your vineyard. Man, that’s a good-looking garden over there by the palace. I like that.” And Naboth said, “I can’t sell that. That’s my mom and my dad and my grandparents, and I’m not going to sell that inheritance.” And Ahab and old Jezebel said, “What’s the wrong, little sugar plum? I’ll take care of you, big boy,” you know. You remember that? You might remember. You don’t know what.
And remember, Jezebel, she did take care of it. Let me read for you the exact words. It’s in 1 Kings 21:9: “Proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people.” Did you notice: fast and set on high? It was a position often they had. Now, you remember what Jezebel did. She got some people to lie about Naboth, and they ended up killing him so he could—you know, Ahab could get the garden and all that. But I just want to—“Proclaim a fast and set him on high.” And that was a little bit of their old mentality sometimes.
Now, I don’t think over here in Isaiah 58, verse 4, is talking about His voice to be heard before the Lord. His voice to be heard among the people. Look at—Brother Josh, I heard he’s fasted every week for 30 years. Brother Josh, is that true? And whoever, whatever—and so that person, they’re kind of lifted up, and their voice is to be heard on high to that type of thought, not to be seen of Him. So go back over here if you would please, or you’re already there in Isaiah 58, verse number four there, and we kind of finish it off. He says, “You fast for strife and debate and just smite the wicked with the fist and make your voice to be heard on high,” so everybody hears your voice and all that.
Verse number five: “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul?” Let me say this: My goal, or your goal, our goal in fasting ought not to be to afflict our soul. If that’s the end product, you won’t—well, what’s the profit and gain? By the way, you’re not going to twist God’s arm through fasting; you’re not going to do that. My goal is not necessarily to afflict my soul. My goal is to draw out of God and get some answers from God. So if that’s my end product, that’s a little bit of the end goal, just to afflict my soul.
Let’s keep going. “Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?” Now, I don’t believe yet He’s gotten to the kind of fasting God wants. We said the title tonight is “Fasting the God”—the type of fasting God wants.
Now, verse number six, I believe everything changes. And by the people that I’ve read, everyone seems to agree that studied it out: everything changes in verse number six. You’ll notice the different wording. Verse number five: “Is it not?” Verse number six: different wording. “Is this the fast that I have chosen?” Now it gives us four things. He says, “This is what you’re after.” If you’re going to fast—by the way, if it’s all about me afflicting my soul, it becomes all about me. Look at all I’ve done, how bad I hurt. No, no, no. These are what you’re after, verse number six.
Verse number six, Isaiah 58, verse number six. “Is this not the fast that I have chosen?” Here it is: Number one, “To loose the bands of wickedness.” Oh, it’s amazing. It’s amazing how we all have bands of wickedness in our life. Jesus said it. Jesus—let’s look over there, if you would please. Look over in John chapter number eight. Keep your finger there; we’ll go back to it. But John chapter 8, and would you look at verse number 34? John 8 and verse number 34 of God’s Word. John 8, verse number 34. Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
How many out there have committed sin? We all have. I guarantee we all did today. We all have bands of wickedness, all of us do. Okay, maybe it’s not heroin, but it may be a critical spirit. It may be just a pity party. We all have bands of wickedness; all of us do. And it may be a critical tongue. It may be sins of the heart: pride, jealousy, envy, judgmental spirit. It may be sins in our mind: lust, critical—you know, we’re just critical. But look, fasting can be such a great thing to help you to loose. You still have a choice to make, but those bands of wickedness are loosed.
So many people, I believe, could have more victories over—you have a sin you just can’t—it’s a great tool to loose the bands of wickedness. Much more than that we preached about last Wednesday night. But friend, I just got something. We all have our besetting sins. We mentioned that recently. That which doth so easily beset us. Just easily we fall for that one. We all have those. It changes as you grow. We all got them. And I like to win over this thing, whatever the thing may be in your life. “Well, I like to have some victory in this area.” Fasting is a great tool for that, to loose the bands of wickedness. You say, “When I get in such-and-such arena, I always start—I just can’t—I start gossiping.” Maybe you say, “When I get around so-and-so, I start gossiping.” And we can all justify or see it. I say, I like to win over these things, whatever may be in your life. Fasting is a great tool to loose the bands of wickedness. Oh, what a great tool it is, to win in there, to loose the bands of wickedness.
What is fasting? The fast—He said, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” To loose the bands of wickedness. Look at the second thing, verse number six. Isaiah 58, verse number six: “To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens.” Isn’t it amazing just how life puts burdens on you? I mean, just living in this sin-cursed world, you get burdens. I mean, it may be burdens from past baggage in your life. It may be burdens, financial burdens. It may be burdens from being abused in the past, whatever, but we all have these heavy burdens from time to time. It’s amazing, even young people nowadays, the burdens they have. That’s part of life. “I need a break. I need some breathers from this heavy burden.” A great way to undo the heavy burdens is fasting. It’s amazing how God can—He can undo a heavy burden that nobody else can, and He can change you where you don’t feel like you’re carrying that thousand-pound weight around. And the Lord can undo that heavy burden. Fasting is a great tool to get there.
To loose the bands of wickedness. These are the things you’re after when you’re fasting, to undo the heavy burdens. Now let’s look at this next thing. This third thing here, I think here He is speaking of others—us fasting for other people in this third thing. Verse number six right there, Isaiah 58, verse number six. Look at this saying here. Help me out. What’s the first saying? Help me out. Number one, we said, to loose. Good. Number two is to undo the heavy burdens. Good. And three, what did you say? “And to let the oppressed go free.” I mentioned already, I think you’re speaking, to let the oppressed. Maybe yourself, but I think many of this third thing He’s talking about, you’re praying for something.
By the way, this word “oppressed”—it’s interesting if you look at the Hebrew, and it has to do with something that’s just broken, broken in pieces. You know, there’s a lot of broken people in our day and time. It’s broken—broken by past, broken by sin, broken by people that hurt them. And He said, “To let the oppressed go free.” What’s a great tool that you use in that? Fasting. I’ve not fasted for other people like all—I’ll be honest with you—and it’s convicted me, to let the oppressed go free. Fasting is a great tool to use.
I think of how many people are addicted to things in our day and time, and addiction just will—and it’s got them overwhelmed their lives, and it’s got them just chained down. And God, one of His great tools—by the way, the world has all kind of their fleshly tools. I mean, you can find a video about everything in the world. I think of a gentleman I know, a very good friend of mine. He’s a biblical counselor. I love him. And he’s got a Ph.D. degree from the world in counseling. And he’s told me, he said, “They’re good at kind of sometimes putting, classifying things, and they’ve studied things, and they’re helpful for that, maybe figure out the problem, but they’ve got no answers. It’s God that changes life.” And a great tool—it’s amazing how many Christians go down to Egypt for help for all these things nowadays. And a great tool to let the oppressed go free is fasting. It’s a great tool.
God’s saying, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” This is what God’s about in fasting. We got number one: to loose the bands of wickedness; number two: to undo the heavy burdens; to let the oppressed go free.
And let’s look at this last thing in verse number six. It’s amazing, amazing thing. The last part. Would you read it out loud with me? Last part of verse number six, Isaiah 58:6. Here we go: “And that ye break every yoke.” Wow. Every. Every. Every yoke. You’ve seen pictures at least of the yoke, and they’ve got two workhorses in there or an ox, two oxen, and whatnot, you know, in there. And this yoke around the neck, and it makes those two animals go together, go down the same way. And the old world’s always trying to put their yoke to get you go down their way. You know, music can be a great yoke. And man, the world is always promoting their music. And Satan makes their music sound so good. By the way, Satan’s great at music. I think he was a song leader in heaven before he fell. He’s very good at it. And the world, they’ll get their yoke on you, and it kind of steers you their direction.
I remember years ago, one of our younger men in there—years ago—and you could tell for a couple months, man, just something happened. He stepped up spiritually. And I thought, “Wow.” I honestly thought, “Man, this guy started reading his Bible. He started to have a prayer time or something.” And I thought, “Something’s happened to this guy.” And he’s really stepped up. So I went to him. I said, “Hey, I’m just being nosy, but the last couple months, I could tell you really growing in the Lord. What’s changed?” Now, I thought I was going to say, “Man, I started reading my Bible, Pastor.” You know what he said? He said, “I gave up my country music.” And it made such a change in his life that I could see it. Yeah, music, it’ll be a yoke around you.
There are all kind of yokes out there. It could be the yoke: “Well, I’ve got to look a certain way to measure up. I’ve got to have that look, that Hollywood look,” you know. It can be the yoke: “I’ve got to have a certain social standing in my house, and my house has got to be so big or this, that, or the other,” you know. And I’m not against you having those things if God’s giving them to you; praise the Lord for it. But I’m just saying, if you just got that yoke, “I’ve got to have this, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to measure up”—all kind of yokes out there. Satan’s always trying to put his yoke on you. Our flesh, man, my flesh is one big yoke. You understand what I’m saying? And He says, “Look, fasting is a great tool to break every yoke.”
God’s saying, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” To loose the bands of wickedness. Just get it loose. Sometimes that sin is so ingrained in your heart, and you’ve been doing it for 30, 40 years, you feel like it’s a part of you. You’ll never overcome that, and often people just give up. But God says, “This will loosen the bands of wickedness.” He said, “Look, He said, that burden you just feel like, man, I can’t—it’s too heavy. I just—” and God says, “To undo the heavy burdens,” and so many oppressed, “and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.”
Now, He does for the next several verses—He talks about being good to the poor. We’ll talk about that from time to time, but we’re not there tonight. We’re talking about fasting. But seven down through verse number 10, He’s talking about being good to the poor. And then in verse number 11, “He’ll guide you continually, satisfy your soul in drought, make fat their bones,” shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters fail not.
He didn’t claim that. God says He’ll give that to you. I’m not trying to tell you what type or how much to fast, all that, but this is what I’m asking, same thing I asked last Wednesday night: Would you consider fasting? Would you realize it’s a great—a great arrow that God has given you in the quiver? Okay, maybe your health and your situation, your age. I was talking with someone today, and they said, “Well, I can’t fast much. I get real jittery if I don’t eat.” And they said, “I think it’s my blood sugar.” That’s fine. I didn’t say anything else to them. But maybe that’s you, and those things are legit. Okay, maybe you do a different type fast. Maybe a fast—I’m just going to drink water for this. Maybe it’s a Daniel-type fast where you’re just eating certain types of food. But whatever, however, would you at least consider? “Lord, would You have me fast? What kind of fast would You like for me to do, Lord?” Would you at least just go to the Lord?
We’re going to have invitation in just a moment. And that’s my question: Would you just spend some time? “Lord, is this a tool that I’m supposed to use where I can loosen the bands of wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free?” God has given us a great, great tool.
There was a young couple. They were trying—they wanted to have a child so bad. They were getting up in years, could not have a child, and they had been to so many doctors. True story. And pretty much every doctor said, “I’m sorry, you’re just washed up.” And finally, kind of their last resort doctor, he said, “We could try what they call IVF, but he said, really, there’s no hope for you with that either.” And he said, “Would you consider—they have what they’re called embryo adoption.” He said, “Would you consider embryo adoption?”
And the lady said, “Our church—the church that we’re going to—was coming up to what they called a 21-day Daniel fast.” Now, 21 days, it’s not necessarily—but you don’t eat it all. It’s a Daniel fast; you don’t eat certain things. I have the Lord lead you. But 21 days of fasting, and their church was coming up to it. And they knew about it, the husband and wife. And so she thought in her mind, she said, “Well, doctor, would you give us a little time?” And they left that doctor’s office before going to the point of embryo adoption. And they left the office, and they said, “You know, we’re going to do this 21-day Daniel fast. And we’re going to fast, and we’re just—we’re committed.” They committed that day when they left the doctor: “We’re going to fast about this thing.”
And she said, “We did the Daniel fast. We did our best. Read our Bible every day and prayed about it a lot.” And after the 21-day Daniel fast, she went back to the doctor. They ran their tests again, and they said, “You have so many eggs now,” was the word that I could use, “more eggs than humanly possible at your age and what you’ve been through. There’s just no way. It’s a miracle.” And it wasn’t too much longer after that; they have two baby twin girls, cutest little things. But they said, “Before we go there, let’s try fasting.”
Now, friend, would you just consider, Lord, would You have me fast? What type? When? What, God? You just seek the Lord on all these things. Would you do so?
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? We’re going to have a word of prayer, and our instruments will play in just a moment. Would you please stand? Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. Would you just—whether come to an old-fashioned altar, to be wonderful, or where you are—would you go to the Lord? “Lord, I want to consider it. I realize it’s a tool. Is this a tool You want me to use? How would You have me to use it?” You seek the Lord on all these things. Would you do so?
Father, thank You, Lord, for Isaiah 58. It’s been maybe tough to fully grasp it all. Lord, I do ask that You’d help our people to grasp verse 6, verse 11. Lord, You give clear leading on how You’d have us fast and be involved and use this tool. Well, we’ll thank You for what You do. Lord, I pray victories would happen because of these people fasting about their things as You lead, in Jesus, and we pray, amen.
You have our battles, all of us, every one of us. I don’t know what it is for you. Maybe bitterness, but a great, great tool that God’s given us in our battle for the Lord is fasting. And it may be totally different how you fast, and I’m not trying to get you to fast like me at all that, but you consider it. It’s a great tool, and ask the Lord how He’d have you fast, or what would you have me do? And it’s just good to know that arrow’s in the quiver when you need it. And let’s be aware of it. It’s so easy to write it off: “I can’t do that.” But in some way, we all can as the Lord leads.
Original File: Fasting Gods Way - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 11922