Fast Enough

Isaiah 58 (Amplified Bible)

1 CRY ALOUD, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins!      

2 Yet they seek, inquire for, and require Me daily and delight [externally] to know My ways, as [if they were in reality] a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God [in visible ways].

3 Why have we fasted, they say, and You do not see it? Why have we afflicted ourselves, and You take no knowledge [of it]? Behold [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins], you find profit in your business, and [instead of stopping all work, as the law implies you and your workmen should do] you extort from your hired servants a full amount of labor.

4 [The facts are that] you fast only for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Fasting as you do today will not cause your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul? [Is true fasting merely mechanical?] Is it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him [to indicate a condition of heart that he does not have]? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 [Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?

7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house–when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood? 

  8 Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

  9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,

  10 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.

  11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

  12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

  13 If you turn away your foot from [traveling unduly on] the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a [spiritual] delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor Him and it, not going your own way or seeking or finding your own pleasure or speaking with your own [idle] words,

  14 Then will you delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage [promised for you] of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

 

Oh Lord, let our hearts be right before you in this. Prepare us to truly fast not just outwardly, but inwardly, in a manner pleasing unto you. Expose any unconfessed sin within us Lord that we may be pure before you.

Edit: I just went back through and re-read that chapter fully. Wow. There is such promise there, such reward for doing well with a right heart, but such rebuke for doing it outwardly only. Verses 10-14 just rocked me though.

Dustin found a really great guide to fasting written by Bill Bright. He has a lot of great suggestions there on what to expect, what to do, what not to do. I think in preparation, my biggest ‘physical’ thing is going to be to work on eliminating caffeine completely over the next week so that I’m not having caffeine withdrawals in addition to the normal fasting pangs. 

I’m also trying to decide whether to continue doing my elliptical workouts in the mornings. I don’t want to get out of that routine, but then again continuing to get up at 4am during this journey might become interesting.

I have been wondering something lately. Is it wrong to pull something positive out of something negative? Let me explain. Someone told me a dream about a year ago and I knew that the dream was not directly from God. I took that dream and gave them an interpretation to turn it around and make it something Godly. So I ask again, is it right to pull something positive out of something negative?

I believe the answer is not only an absolute YES, but it is a necessity. I believe that part of the problem with this world is that we are so directed by what problems we face rather than finding the positive in the negative. I believe that it’s actually what God expects from us. If we are to change this world it must come from focusing on the things of God and not the obvious physical things that are so apparent.

For example. One of my friends has a major frustration with a family member because of their pride, and judgmental attitude. You can’t say anything around this person without them needing to tell you how you are wrong, why you are wrong, and what problems you are having. Let me say that the desire to be right is an absolute ruling passion. And I don’t mean that in a positive way. I told my friend that instead of responding to the negative attitude she could speak truth into her life without her even knowing. If my friend can love inspite of her frustration then she will win her family member to truth in God. So my idea for her was to write her everyday or every couple of days something positive about her. I encouraged her to speak something loving and encouraging about this family member. It may not change anything in them, even though I think it will, but it will change something in my friends heart.

That being said I feel an overwhelming yes to the original question. I believe God expects us to find the poison in the world and learn how to develop a cure for all the people affected by it. For every action there is an equal or opposite reaction…How much more true is that in our life? For every action against us we need to respond in an opposite reaction so that they are won over by our love. Let’s heap some coals on their heads…

Romans 12:20 in a couple of versions

But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him. For if he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will pile burning coals on his head.” (ISV)

But, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will make him feel guilty and ashamed.” (Good News)

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisble.
Hebrews 11:27 ESV

Man that verse just rocked me. I’ve been dwelling a lot on faith lately, spending a ton of time in Romans 8 and Hebrews 10 & 11. I had a picture the other night of what faith is: If there is a chair in the same room as you, but in another dimension, you could walk right through it and not even realize its there. Faith is the thing that crosses the dimensional boundary and allows you to not only perceive the existence of the chair, but with enough of it, possibly even sit in the chair. Its weird, I know, but it helped me a lot when trying to understand faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [...] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what was seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:1,3 ESV 

I haven’t figured out yet why I’m connecting those 2 verses, or why the writer interjected a verse about creation into an essay about the faith of the forefathers, but I find it really interesting. Anyways, to the reason that verse rocked me: I have come into the belief, and have been attempting to practice doing so, that it is possible to perceive Christ with the eyes of your heart on a regular basis. That you can learn in the spirit to go before His throne literally and just wait upon Him, but also see Him while doing so.

A couple weeks ago I had a dream about being broke. Like, our financial issues were so troubling me that they were seeping into my dreams, sheesh. So I woke up thinking about it, and as I did, I felt the Lord prompting me to just wait upon Him. So I just went and sat on the couch and waited, meditating on Jesus. As I did so, I began to have this picture in my Spirit of me just sitting on the floor in front of His throne cross-legged, just waiting. And there was a line of people stretching out before Him standing, waiting on Him to call them up to His throne and bless them, and give them a great big hug. I kept wanting to get up from my spot and get in line so He’d give me a big hug and bless me too, but I just felt the Holy Spirit telling me it wasn’t time yet, and that I just needed to sit there and look at Him. However subtle the vision was, it was a pretty neat experience. Since then, I’ve tried to practice going there to just sit before His throne, and a couple of times I’ve been able to. I wonder if thats what the writer was referring to about Moses?

Dustin and I are going to begin a 40 day fast on 8/8/08 and I’ve been running through a list of things in my head that I want to go after:

• Continuing freedom and a strong foundation in the Lord for Vicky.
• Complete freedom and deliverance for my sister Becca.
• Breakthrough – I want to walk under an open heaven. 
• Revival in Richmond.
• That God would cause our wives to be filled with an intense hunger & desire for Him and the things of the Spirit.
• Songs – I have felt for a while that the Lord wants me to write a worship album, but I haven’t done so because I haven’t had the inspiration within for the songs.
• An increase in the fruit of the Spirit in my life, specifically love and self-control. 
• An increase in discipline.
• Intimacy with God – I think this is probably my primary desire for the fast. I just have this longing inside for more of Him continually. To speak to Him face to face like Moses. To be a friend of God.