Isaiah 58: 6-12
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
In this passage of scripture, God through Isaiah lets us see what some of the benefits of fasting are. If you have a habit that you just cannot break, fasting can help you to break it. Things that have held you in bondage for years can be defeated through fasting.
We have many examples in scripture of people fasting, lets start with Moses and Jesus.
Exodus 24:18
Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Matthew 4: 1-4
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
I Thessalonians 5: 23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says that we are made up of a Spirit, Soul, and a Body. This is a reflection of God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Physical exercise is good for the body and the mind, worship is good for the Spirit, but fasting is good for all three, Spirit, Soul, and Body.
Jesus endorsed fasting.
Matthew 6: 16
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Jesus didn’t say here in this passage, if you fast, but when you fast. in the verses that come before this Jesus says, when you give, and when you pray. All of these are spiritual disciplines that have been practiced since the earliest records. The sad fact is, we have focused on prayer, avoid the subject of giving, and we have ignored the spiritual discipline fasting.
We have many references to fasting in the bible. The early church fasted on Wednesday and Friday, from sundown to sunup. In the New Testament fasting occurred before people were chosen to lead in the local church.
The benefits of fasting are numerous. I hope you will give serious consideration to the Spiritual Discipline of Fasting. Over the next days and weeks in Holston Conference we are fasting and praying and asking God for 3000 souls by Pentecost Sunday 2010, join us.
Ronnie
