Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do continue with worshipful hearts unto You. Lord, for the joy of Thy presence, we thank You for the depths of love that we have beheld at Thy table this morning. We thank You for the depths of love that we read of in Isaiah.
And Lord, we know that it is in Your depths of love that You continue to speak to us in this hour. Lord, we would present ourselves to You to have ears to hear and hearts to receive. Lord, defend us from distractions; defend us from ourselves, weariness, and tiredness.
O Lord, through the anointing and enabling of Your Holy Spirit, we really come to You this morning that You could achieve all that You desire, as we offer ourselves to You and commit this time into Your hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I would like for us to turn to Matthew 6.
This morning, we are going to be sharing together on another of the foundation-series topics. Now, how long has the foundation series been going on? Since August of 2007. Kenny shared with us on searching the Scriptures and being good Bereans.
That has really been the theme of each month as we have come along: as we look at these various topics, the brother sharing is not presenting the topic in an exhaustive way. Rather, it is used to stimulate us to search the Scriptures.
As we draw to the end of this series—this is the next-to-last one, and next month will be the final topic and summation—we want to consider together this month the matter of fasting. Over recent times, we have had sharings on prayer, and so I was drawn this month to the matter of fasting.
I really pray that the Lord would help us in this time as we see, as we have been speaking in this series, how it relates to us individually and corporately. We come to seek the Lord in a fresh way this morning, that He would meet us and speak to us.
So let us look at Matthew 6, beginning in verse 16. Our Lord, in what is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, says:
And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do;
for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father Who is in secret;
and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you.
This morning, as we consider this matter of fasting, we will look at it in three overall ways:
Now, as we come to this question of why we even need to share on fasting, it ends up that it is actually a pretty neglected thing these days. How many of us have heard a message on fasting recently? How many of us have heard a message on fasting in the last five years?
So often we find within our lives that, when we see something that is not handled rightly, that has turned into a ritual and almost a superstition, we react. We talk about fasting and say, “Oh, we want it to be real. We do not want it to be just an outward form.”
But we have a tendency: whenever we react to something, generally we go too far. This is what has happened out of a desire that fasting not be legalistic or so formalized. Even though we acknowledge the truth of fasting, we have quite often neglected its practice.
We see that fasting is a voluntary response as the Lord touches our hearts. We know that we are not under law, that we have to fast or anything like that. We know it is by the grace of God.
But then we have to ask: does it not seem strange that, yes, we do not have to fast twice a week, and there is no system, but this is still something that is part of the Christian life that the Lord speaks of? Yet have we fasted in the last year? Have we done it in the last five years? Have we done it in the last ten years?
Many of these questions came as I was speaking to my own heart. You know, we have a tendency to overreact to things, and we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as we say. There is a place in Scripture that the Lord has for us in this matter of fasting.
Calvin had a quote. As he was talking about this, he said that most believers do not really understand the value and preciousness of fasting. He said that many of us, for lack of knowledge, undervalue it, while others overvalue it and make it a ritual and a superstition.
So we have a way of either undervaluing it and neglecting it, or overvaluing it and making it an end in itself. Fasting is not an end in itself; it is a means. It is a way of entering into the work the Lord is doing in us.
The Lord’s Value of Fasting
As we read these Scriptures, we can see the Lord’s value of fasting. In Matthew 6:16, He says, “When you fast.” It is not, “If you fast.”
Really, if you look at this chapter, He equates fasting with two other matters. In Matthew 6:2, He says, “When you give.” In Matthew 6:5, He says, “When you pray.” So we see the Lord’s value here: fasting is a very natural and normal aspect of our Christian life.
Just as He was addressing them on giving, and just as He addresses them on praying, He says, “When you fast.” There is a reality here that the Lord wants us to end up with and really enter into. May the Lord touch our hearts on the preciousness of this today.
I think another reason it is so important that we share on fasting is because of the days and times in which we are living. If we really look at the Scriptures, we notice that fasting is accented far more in times of great peril, distress, crisis, sorrow, or affliction.
There is a place that the people of God, or individuals, come to when they do not know what to do. They find themselves cast upon the Lord. The people of God feel overwhelmed. Outwardly, everything looks helpless. Everything looks hopeless.
But through prayer and fasting, they enter into having the Lord’s will upon this earth, rather than their own way. It is interesting, as you look at the Old Testament, how fasting is found in each of the three books that speak of recovery: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
We see fasting lived out there in a very real and natural way, and we will speak more about that later. As we prepare—and we speak much of preparing for the Lord’s return—I think it is good for us to consider this matter of fasting, so that we can allow the Lord truly to prepare us.
May we search the Scriptures this month and gain the Lord’s heart and insight into this. As we fellowship and share about it on Friday nights, may the Lord bring much more light.
To help us in our study this month, there are a couple of handouts. We put them on the chest of drawers and also in the book room. One is called A Study Guide on Fasting, which was used elsewhere; the other was prepared for us by Glenn Miller on fasting.
These are not used as an end in themselves, but to stimulate us to search the Scriptures. Neither one is exhaustive, but they can be used as a guide to help us enter in fully and capture the very heart of what the Lord has for us in this matter.
As we come to this, we can ask the question: What is fasting? What is it?
If you look at the Greek word nēsteia, it simply means not to eat—a negative, “no,” joined with a word meaning “to eat.” But actually, as we look into Scripture, fasting includes far more than just food.
A definition we can consider is this: Fasting is a spiritual exercise in which the believer temporarily abstains from legitimate demands of the body.
It is a spiritual exercise in which the believer temporarily abstains from legitimate demands of the body. It is important that we realize, when we are speaking of fasting in regard to Scripture, that it is a spiritual exercise.
Fasts in Scripture always have a spiritual purpose. There is nothing in Scripture that speaks of the physical benefits of fasting. Now, physical fasting for the body is another realm; we are not looking at that aspect. We are looking at the spiritual aspect of fasting.
Because fasting in Scripture is a spiritual exercise with a spiritual purpose and an end in view, fasting in and of itself has no spiritual value unless there is a spiritual purpose in view. This is the foundation from which we are looking at this whole matter.
We also have to realize that all spiritual exercises are unto God and not unto man. The object of spiritual exercise is that we would be brought into closer communion, closer fellowship, and a closer knowing of our Lord’s heart and mind—of us decreasing and Him increasing.
We saw in Matthew 6 how the hypocrite was there, and all that he was doing was to be seen by men. He wanted people to notice his great fasting. He distorted his face and allowed his hair to be disheveled so that others would say, “Oh, he must be fasting.”
In Luke 18, we see the story of the Pharisee and the sinner. The Pharisee proclaimed, “I fast twice a week. I give alms.” But the Lord says, in effect, “You want to be seen by man? You have received your reward now.” There is no spiritual value in that.
The Lord says, “When you fast, wash your face. Anoint your head with oil.” What He is saying is, “Look natural and normal. Just go about your daily life. Do not draw attention to yourself. Do not make a public display.”
These Pharisees knew when many people would be out in the streets, so they would walk in the streets when everybody was out there, so people could see how ritualistic they were. They did not go down the streets disheveled in the middle of the night when no one was there. They were smart. If they wanted to be seen by men, they knew when to go.
I think there is a lesson there for us also. When do we fast? If we are all coming together for a love feast, do we draw attention to ourselves by saying, “I’m fasting today”? We may subtly draw attention to ourselves and make ourselves appear spiritual.
The Holy Spirit wants individual fasting to be a private matter. Later we will speak of corporate fasting, which is more public; but in general, individual fasting is private. It is not for drawing attention to ourselves.
Spiritual exercises, brothers and sisters, are always voluntary. There is no compulsion in fasting. There is no forcing of it, no compulsion, and no mere obligation to do it. By the grace of God, we enter into the spirit of what the Lord is asking.
We also see, when we look at fasting, that it is not mechanical. It comes out of life. It comes out of the life of the Lord within us, burdening us in a particular way.
The Pharisees fasted twice a week on set days—very mechanical and outward. But the fasting the Lord calls us to enter into, His chosen fast, is a fast into which we can really come. It is a spiritual exercise.
We said that fasting is a spiritual exercise in which you temporarily abstain from legitimate demands of the body. I added the word temporarily because fasting is not the same as the daily denial of self.
In the Gospels, the Lord calls us daily to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. This is the daily training of life, the daily discipling into which the Lord calls us. He says, “I want you to put this aside. I want you to put that aside. This is My daily training.”
That is more of a permanent work that the Lord is doing. The daily training and disciplining of the Holy Spirit within us is a permanent work. But fasting is for a temporary period of time.
Yes, fasting involves denying ourselves, but it is related to some specific event or situation that occurs. Then we sense an overwhelming need to come before the Lord. Our praying shows our desire for Him, and our fasting speaks of our self-denial—of saying, “Not my will, but Your will be done.”
It is an expression of seeking the grace of God in a situation. We say no to some of the natural and legitimate things of life, that they would not distract us. We say no to ourselves and yes to the things of the Lord.
We say, “Lord, this situation is so overwhelming. We put aside eating, drinking, and other legitimate needs, that we can be in that place to know Your voice—to hear Your voice in this matter, for direction and counsel.”
We also need to say that fasting is abstaining from legitimate things. We have to say that because we do not fast from evil. We do not fast from sin. We flee evil and put away sin.
We do not fast from the lust of the flesh or the pride of life. We have been crucified to that in Christ, and that is a settled issue. Fasting relates to legitimate things.
This is not talking about forsaking evil. “I’m fasting from sin today. I’m fasting from a gossiping tongue.” No. That is not what the Lord is speaking of here. He is speaking of the legitimate needs of the body being put aside so that we can really hear His voice.
As we consider this matter of fasting, there are a few questions.
Does fasting improve our standing before God? If we fast, does it improve our standing before God? No. What is our standing before the Lord based on? The blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb.
Going through a fast does not improve our standing before God. Does fasting make us more holy, so that God will listen to us? No. Fasting is not going to make us more holy, and fasting is not going to earn a meritorious performance award from God so that He will listen to us.
Does fasting twist God’s arm to get what we want? Sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking, “Because I do this, God must do this.” There is great danger there, because then we are trying to manipulate and control God.
Fasting is not twisting God’s arm. Fasting is not a hunger strike. Many people undertake hunger strikes because they are demanding their own way.
But in fasting, we are not demanding our way. We are demanding God’s way in our lives. We are saying no to self and seeking His way. Fasting is not a hunger strike.
Fasting does not improve our relationship with God or our standing before Him. Sometimes we have this concept that it will make us more spiritual, that we will become better Christians. But no—fasting is actually us decreasing.
It is us decreasing and getting out of the way, so that God is free to speak into a situation. We have too many hindrances in our lives, too many distractions, and too many demands. Through fasting, we say no to those things and yes to Him, so that we are in a place to hear His voice and allow Him to come into the situation.
Tozer had a quote:
Fasting comes as a response to God’s heart in a situation. We are in a place where, constrained by the love of Christ, we have no choice. It is not a sacrifice. It is a response to a burden He has placed upon us. All we can do is fall on our face before Him and stand for His interest in the situation.
Let me read that again. Fasting comes as a response to God’s heart in a situation. We are in a place where, constrained by the love of Christ, we have no choice. It is not a sacrifice. It is a response to a burden He has placed upon us. All we can do is fall on our face before Him and stand for His interest in the situation.
Fasting relates to God’s interest prevailing, not ours.
Brothers and sisters, as we fellowship and look at this matter of fasting, we see that it is a working within us to decrease. It is that spiritual exercise of us decreasing and allowing the Lord to increase, so that He can speak into us or speak into His people.
This is especially true in particular overwhelming situations, particularly in these days. We look around, and these are helpless-looking days. We look at some of our lives and the lives of the brethren and ask, “Oh, what answer is there?” The only answer is from the Lord.
Praise God, when He calls us into fasting, it is not fasting in order to manipulate God. It is fasting to work within us and prepare us to stand for His interest—not our interest, but His will—and for us to decrease.
We see how the Lord gives a great challenge on this matter of fasting as He speaks through the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 58, the Lord addresses the contrast between two fasts.
This chapter is referred to as God’s chosen fast. We see the contrast between the fast chosen by man and the fast chosen by the Lord.
In Isaiah 58:1, the Lord says:
Cry loudly, do not hold back;
raise your voice like a trumpet,
and declare to My people their transgression
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
The word of the Lord is coming in to expose the hypocrisy of the people of Israel. How powerful the word of God is, and how it gets used.
In Isaiah 58:2, the New International Version captures the essence with one little phrase:
For day after day they seek Me out;
they seem eager to know My ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask Me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
The key phrase there is “as if.” He addresses the nation of Israel and says, “As if they were a nation that does what is right.” There is a pretension there. They are acting as if they are a nation that does what is right.
They are acting in an outward manner. They are putting on a great façade of religiosity. But in essence, in heart, and in spirit, they are far from Him.
Outwardly they are saying, “We want to draw near to God.” Outwardly they are saying, “We are doing all these rituals.” They are acting as if they were a nation doing all the right things.
How this challenges us in the days in which we are living. Are we living as if we are doing all the right things, while we are far from Him?
The Lord wants us to live in the spirit of life. This is why we use the phrase spiritual exercise: to capture the very life of the Lord, rather than merely putting on an outward show.
They were doing all the religious things, and they even asked the Lord, “What is wrong with all our actions? Why are You not hearing us? Why are You not delivering us?”
The Lord answers them. In Isaiah 58:3, He says, “Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and drive hard all your workers.” They are fasting, but seeking their own desires and treating their workers horribly.
In verse 4, their fasting is accompanied by contention and strife. They are going through all this fasting as though they have heard His voice, but the Lord asks in verse 5, “Is this the fast which I choose?” This is not My fast; it is the one you have chosen.
They are going through religious motions, but in their lives they are treating people horribly, stealing from people, and seeking their own desires. There is a contrast between their religious life and their actual life.
Then in verse 6, the Lord says, “This is My chosen fast.” His chosen fast is not self-centered. It is there to loose the bonds.
Isaiah 58 comes just a few chapters after Isaiah 53, which we meditated on this morning. In verse 6, His fast calls His people to stand for God’s heart and God’s purpose, so that bonds would be loosened, the bands of yokes broken, and the oppressed set free.
The hungry would be provided for, the homeless would have shelter, and the naked would be clothed. Out of that spirit of fasting for His interest and for others, verse 8 says that light will break forth.
As we stand for God’s heart and God’s purpose, standing for His great salvation to come in among those who do not know Him and among those who know Him but are forsaking Him, then He can work to set free those in bondage and break the yokes so that His light can come in.
He will continually be with them. He will continually guide them. He will bring about a great restoration. We do not have time this morning to go over all these verses, but as you look at them this month, look at all the great work of the Lord in Isaiah 58:1-12.
We see a similar cry to the people of God in Zechariah 7. Again, the Lord challenges the people: “You are fasting for yourselves. You are doing it for your own way and your own interests. That is not where My heart is.”
In Zechariah 7, He challenges them to return to Him in a way that His interests would truly prevail.
As we consider fasting, we thank the Lord that throughout the Scriptures we can see many examples of dear ones who allowed the Lord to touch them. We want to look at some of these so that we can learn.
Sometimes we learn more from examples as we see these things lived out in the lives of others. We see people not living for themselves, but for the Lord’s heart and the Lord’s interest.
Whenever we want to use an example, the first example we always have to go to is our Lord Jesus. Whatever situation we are considering, He is the example because He is the way.
Let us look at Matthew 4.
Here our Lord is led into temptation. In the previous chapter, He had been baptized by John. He had undergone that baptism, and now He was coming into this place of temptation.
Following this comes the manifestation of His public ministry. In John 1, John again testifies, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Before our Lord Jesus entered into His public ministry, He went through this period of temptation.
Matthew 4:1-2 says:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
Then He entered into temptation. Our Lord Jesus had this tremendous burden—the tremendous burden of all the spiritual conflict that was before Him. He spent this time in prayer and fasting in preparation for His ministry and all that He was going to go through.
There was a burden upon Him. During those forty days, He was in prayer and fasting. Then it says that afterward He became hungry. I love that because it shows us our Lord’s humanity.
Our Lord was human. Yes, He is the Son of God, but He is also the Son of Man. So often, when we look at examples in the Lord’s life, we have trouble relating to them because we rationalize, “Well, He was God. He is the Son of God.” But He is also the Son of Man.
Fasting was a very integral part of His life. At the end of this period, He became hungry, and it was actually at that point of weakness that He entered into temptation.
“You are hungry. Turn these stones into bread.” But the Lord said no.
The first Adam, the first man, did not deny himself when tempted with food. But praise God, the last Adam, the second Man, when He was tempted with food, denied Himself. Because of that, we live.
Brothers and sisters, it is interesting: if you look back in Genesis, what was the first blessing, the first benefit, that God gave us? He gave us food to eat. It is kind of our first natural right. He said, “Here, I have provided food for you.”
Fasting in many ways comes back to this issue of denying that first essential right. Food is a legitimate thing; it is what God has given us for nourishment. But our Lord Jesus put it aside.
It is tragic how, instead of treating food simply as nourishment, we have elevated food to such a level. We are all guilty. There is gluttony.
Depending on your church background or affiliation, you may have heard many sermons on smoking, drinking, and cussing, but you may never have heard one on gluttony. We have elevated food so much that now we have a whole channel devoted to food.
The belly has become so important because it speaks of self and self-indulgence. Yet this was the first blessing and provision the Lord made: “Here is food I have provided for you.”
Praise God, when our Lord was tempted to turn stones into bread, He said no. Adam did not, and we have suffered since then. But praise God, our Lord said no, and we have entered into the joy and benefit of it.
Fasting was an integral part of His life. May it really be an integral part of our lives.
I want to pick just a few individuals from Scripture to look at, because there are so many examples. One thing I began to notice was that fasting often came at a time when God wanted to reveal something to the people of God.
It came when God had something further for people to see and behold. In Deuteronomy, it speaks of Moses fasting for forty days and forty nights while he was on the mount.
What revelation was given to Moses? Yes, he received the Ten Commandments, but the pattern on the mount was also revealed to him: God’s desire to dwell among His people and the pattern for the house.
That came in response to Moses putting aside his natural desires and needs and saying, “God, we want Your heart.”
It is interesting, too, in Acts 10. We have Cornelius, a Gentile. He was described as a God-fearing man, and he was there praying and fasting, seeking the Lord.
Praise God, in His mercy, the Lord arranged and divinely brought Peter and Cornelius together. Through that, a great revelation was seen upon the earth: it was not a church of the Jews and not a church of the Gentiles. It was one body in Christ, Jew and Gentile together.
That great mystery was unlocked. Oh, what hope and encouragement that provided. Praise God, there was one there who was fasting.
I am sure Cornelius was not praying, “Lord, let me see this,” or, “Let me do that.” He was simply praying for God’s interest, and God intervened.
Even as our Lord came the first time, we know that there were faithful ones preparing the way of the Lord. We see many of them in Luke 1 and 2, such as Elizabeth and Zacharias.
There was one in Luke 2 named Anna. Let us look at Anna for a moment. She was one totally, totally given to the Lord.
Luke 2:36-38 says:
And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage,
and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God,
and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
This dear one served for years and years and years in the house of God in fastings and prayers. She was not only fasting from food, but surely from many natural desires as well.
When did she begin this service? We can say, “Oh, well, she was an old lady. She could do that.” But she began as a young sister after her husband died. We do not know whether he was killed or died otherwise, but she became a widow.
From that time onward, she said, “Lord, I want to be available. I want to be seeking Your heart. Lord, I am captured.” Somehow the Lord spoke into her heart and placed God’s burden for the redemption of Jerusalem within her.
God’s purpose entered Anna’s heart and captured her life. She was no longer living for herself, but for the One for Whom she was looking.
Think about the time in which Anna lived. She was faithful to God and to what He had placed in her heart, despite all the outward hypocrisy. If you looked at the temple at that time, it was a horrible display of hypocrisy and mockery.
There was a great outward show, but no spiritual reality. Yet she persisted. She received no outward encouragement, but God alone was sufficient for her.
Praise God, she continued in fastings and prayers. Notice that it says fastings. She did not fast for eighty years. It was many fastings; it is plural.
She continued with that heart: “Not my will, Lord, but for Your interest, for Your great redemption of Jerusalem, and for Your purpose to be accomplished.” At the fullness of time, One came forth, and she beheld a little Babe who had just been dedicated.
Praise God, He came. So often we see this connection between those used of the Lord in fasting and God’s eternal purpose in His heart—through Moses, Cornelius, and Anna.
As we go back to the Old Testament, we see the ones used to bring about God’s great recovery work. The people of God were taken into captivity because of their sin and idolatry. Praise God, the Lord released them from Babylon and allowed them to return to Jerusalem to build the house of God.
We see in these lives people who had lives of fasting. First, let us look at Daniel, in Daniel 9.
In Daniel’s life, we see a partial fast. There are different types of fasts. We know at the beginning of Daniel that he would not eat the king’s food; he would eat vegetables.
But in Daniel 9, we see him faithfully before the Lord. Daniel 9:1-3 says:
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years
which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet
for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel was in the word of God. As he was before the Lord in the word of God, he observed the years that had been revealed by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah.
What was his response? He gave his attention to the Lord God, seeking Him with prayer, supplication, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
We do not have time to go through this prayer, but it is a great prayer of crying out to the Lord for His interest. Daniel saw in Jeremiah that the captivity was for a set period of seventy years.
As he was looking to see when that period would end, he was overwhelmed by the burden of God. This was not something Daniel created. His prayer and fasting were a response to the revelation God gave him of God’s heart and purpose.
When he saw God’s heart and purpose, he could do nothing else but fall down before the Lord in prayer, fasting, supplication, and humility—for God’s purpose and God’s timetable to prevail.
To capture a little of Daniel’s heart, look at Daniel 9:18-19:
O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolations,
and the city which is called by Thy name;
for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own,
but on account of Thy great compassion.
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action!
For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay,
because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
Our fasting is not based on our merits. It is not because of any merits of our own, but on account of His great compassion.
Brothers and sisters, as we see the Lord’s return drawing near—and we do not know the exact time, but we know it is drawing near—what is our response? Have we become so callous that we merely say, “It will happen”?
You cannot say that this happened only because of Daniel’s prayer, but Daniel’s prayer was part of what God worked in. He was a faithful one to whom God could reveal His heart.
How many people had read the prophet Jeremiah? Yet one day, as Daniel was reading it—probably not even for the first time; that is speculation on my part—there came a point when his eyes were opened.
How often does that happen to us as we are in the word of God? We read things again and again, and then the Holy Spirit opens something to us. It is like, “When did He put that in there?”
All of a sudden, it captures us. Brothers and sisters, God’s eternal purpose is life-changing. It captures hearts to stand for His interest and to give ourselves to Him.
It is one thing to sing “Maranatha” wonderfully. It is another thing to live in the spirit of that desire. Would the Lord raise up a people in this hour who could really cry out and stand for His interest?
This is one reason we have been praying on Wednesday evenings concerning preparation for the Lord’s coming: that God would have a people in this hour standing for His interest and for His will. May we learn this.
Praise God, we know that the prophecy Daniel prayed back to the Lord was fulfilled. The Lord turned King Cyrus’s heart, and there were three returns from Babylon back to Jerusalem.
The first two are recorded in Ezra: the first under Zerubbabel and the second under Ezra. As Ezra was getting ready to return, let us look at Ezra 8.
Ezra was preparing to return to Jerusalem with a little handful of people. He cried out to the Lord. Ezra 8:21-23 says:
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava,
that we might humble ourselves before our God
to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.
For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen
to protect us from the enemy on the way,
because we had said to the king,
“The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him,
but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.”
So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.
This was an overwhelming journey for a little priest and a few Jews heading back. This was actually the smallest of the three returns. The enemy was great, and it was a long journey.
Ezra had testified that God was sufficient and would provide His protection. Even the king offered protection, but Ezra said, “No, our God will provide.”
He stood on the word of God and in His provision in a marvelous way. Praise God, God did provide, and they arrived safely.
Brothers and sisters, in the days in which we are living, to whom are we looking for our security and protection? Can we, like Ezra, declare, “Our God will provide”?
Or do we add little qualifications? “He will provide, except in this case, when I have to work a little more and get my 401(k) back up because it has gone down.” We can add all kinds of caveats.
But Ezra was there. He knew the word of God, and he knew God would provide. He humbled himself before the Lord and came to Him in prayer and fasting because he knew it was God’s heart and purpose for His people to be in Jerusalem, building the house of God.
Brothers and sisters, if we know God’s heart and purpose, we have every provision made for us in life and godliness in Christ Jesus. We hear much about His desire for His house to be built. He has made every provision for that to occur.
Our Lord has gone before us and made the way. We are simply humbling ourselves so that we can enter into the flow of His life and allow Him to come in and defend us and protect us.
So often we are so busy protecting and defending ourselves that God cannot come in.
I was a lifeguard instructor when I was much younger. One of the things you learn is that it is hard to save anybody until they give up. If they are fighting for their lives, they will pull you down and you will drown also.
You almost have to let that person drown—not really, but you let them go under and stop struggling. They kind of give up, and then you can come in and save them.
In many ways, we have to be brought to that place. It is actually God’s love and mercy that brings us there, so that we tire of our own efforts and finally say, “Okay, God, I finally get the message. I cannot do this.”
Praise God, Ezra saw it. Ezra said, “Lord, we cannot do this. There is no way we can defend ourselves from this enemy. We are just a small group, but we know that You have said for us to be there, and You will provide. You are the way.”
My brothers and sisters, it is the same way today. He provides for us. Praise God for that.
As we said, the third return came under Nehemiah. We are introduced to Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1.
Nehemiah was still in Babylon, and he inquired of some of the brethren: “What is the condition of the people of God in Jerusalem? What is the condition of the people of God in this hour?”
Those who returned from Jerusalem told him in Nehemiah 1:3:
The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach,
and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.
The people of God who had returned were in a weakened condition. If we look among Christianity today, we have to say that, overall, we are in a weakened condition.
But when Nehemiah saw the condition of the people of God, what was his response? Did he throw up his hands and say, “What can I do? This is helpless. This is beyond me”?
Nehemiah was captured by God’s heart. In Nehemiah 1:4, he says:
Now it came about when I heard these words,
I sat down and wept and mourned for days;
and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Then he prayed:
I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven,
the great and awesome God,
Who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness
for those who love Him and keep His commandments.
He continued in prayer for the people of God, beseeching the Lord for His interest among His people. He heard of the distress and reproach, and it brought him to his knees, humbling himself in prayer and fasting.
Brothers and sisters, when we see the condition of the Lord’s people today, what is our response? What is our response to the condition?
If we truly desire the Lord’s return and care about the condition of His people, will we, like Nehemiah, freely respond to the call of God in supplications, prayers, and fastings for all that He has? Nothing is forced.
We respond out of a heart for God’s interest in this hour. All spiritual exercise comes as a response to seeing the Lord and seeing His heart.
Then we offer ourselves to Him in a way that His life can increase within us. Those things we once counted of great value can be put aside. We put aside even some daily necessities of life for a time, saying, “Lord, we really want to be given to You, so that You can speak into this situation.”
It is not on our merits. It is His great compassion that awakens us, captures us, and allows us to see His heart in this hour.
There was another one during this period whom the Lord used. She found herself in an impossible situation. We are speaking of Esther.
Chronologically, Esther falls between Ezra 6 and Ezra 7, between the first return under Zerubbabel and the second return under Ezra. There is about a fifty-eight-year period there, and that is when Esther lived.
By the providence of God, Esther had been made queen. Through the manipulations and treachery of Haman, the king had signed a decree that all the Jews were to be destroyed.
Mordecai called to Esther and said, “Esther, you need to do something.” Esther said, “What can I do? I cannot do anything.” Mordecai said, “That is not a good enough response.”
In Esther 4:13-17, Mordecai’s message and Esther’s response are recorded:
Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther,
“Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place,
and you and your father’s house will perish.
And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
“Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me;
do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.
I and my maidens also will fast in the same way;
and thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law;
and if I perish, I perish.”
Praise God, she called the fast. Later in the book, we see how God intervened and the Jews were delivered.
Esther found herself in a place where, suddenly, because she was a Jew, she was hated and despised. Mordecai challenged her in three ways. First, he said, “Do not imagine you are safe in the king’s palace.”
Perhaps today we could say, “Do not imagine you are safe because you are in the United States.” We can see the enemy’s hatred becoming more blatant and obvious against the people of God, against Christians in this country as well.
We see it in many places throughout the world, but there are increasingly bold attacks to shut down the word of God, hinder it from going forth, and impose limitations. Who knows where it will lead?
We need, like Esther, to wake up. Mordecai told Esther, “If you remain silent, the Lord will raise up someone else. You and your family will perish.”
Now, if we are believers, we are not going to perish in that sense, but we will miss a great reward if we merely sit back in silence. The Lord desires many to respond and stand up.
As Mordecai told Esther, “You have attained royalty for such a time as this.” We are not here by chance. We are not here by happenstance. We are here as the people of God, and we have attained royalty.
We have been made kings and priests unto Him for such a time as this. We, as the people of God, have been placed in our present situation by the divine providence of God to stand for His interest, His heart, and His purpose in this hour.
We are not here standing for a country. We are here standing for God’s heart and for His interest.
Just as Esther was able to stimulate the people of God at that hour to rise up, would the Lord capture us?
In Esther, and also in Ezra, we see more than a private fast. There was corporate fasting. We see it at other times in the history of Israel, when the nation came together and the people of God came together.
Those fasts are more public. Usually individual fasts are more private. But whether public or private, corporate or individual, it is always free will. We are never forced.
One can simply call out, “Whosoever has this desire to fast.” Those whose hearts have been captured by the Lord will have that inner response.
The Lord is looking for freewill offerings of our lives to Him, allowing Him to move in particular situations.
I appreciate so much how, as we look through God’s revelation of His heart and purpose throughout Scripture, we see prayer and fasting so closely connected with it.
In many ways, this convicts us within our individual lives. It also convicts us as we gather on Wednesday nights for prayer, that the Lord would give us a supplicating heart and spirit to stand for His will in the hour in which we find ourselves.
Would the Lord really move? As we see the Lord’s return drawing near, the condition of God’s people, our dear brethren, and the condition of the lost, are our hearts burdened? Are our hearts moved with compassion for the lost?
Are our hearts moved with the compassion that none should perish? My brother shared last week on the gospel: none are without excuse. The Lord, in His great grace and mercy, has revealed the glorious gospel in so many ways.
Do we have a heart to enter into that prayer and supplication that none would perish?
With the Lord’s return drawing near, and considering our own condition, are we entering into that heart, prayer, supplication, and fasting that individually we would be chaste virgins?
Would we individually refuse to allow all the impurities of life to come in, but be chaste virgins set apart? Would we corporately, as His house, be built? Would the bride make herself ready?
Are these merely nice phrases and conference themes to us, or would there really be a burden? A burden of the Lord touching our hearts and capturing us, that His return would be hastened.
We are here today, brothers and sisters, because of the mercy and faithfulness of our Lord, and because of the mercy and faithfulness of brethren who have gone before us.
Fasting is simply another aspect of our spiritual exercise, both individually and corporately. Fasting is not the end. It is one of the means that the Lord uses in our Christian lives for His will to be done upon this earth as it is in heaven.
May the Lord teach us on this matter of fasting. May the Lord restore within our hearts His burden concerning fasting. May He teach us His manner, His pure motives, and His ways in this area of fasting.
Let us pray.
Lord, as we touch upon the subject of fasting, we have to confess that there is probably more about it that we do not know than what we do know.
But as we offer ourselves to You during these times of searching the Scriptures, Lord, would You teach us? Lord, teach us Your ways.
Lord, Your disciples said, “Teach us to pray.” Lord, teach us Your way in this.
Lord, we see dimly the connection between this and those whom You have used in bringing in Your purpose. Lord, as we desire to be a people about Your purpose, teach us on this matter of fasting.
In Jesus’ name, amen.