There are many methods, reasons and times designated for fasting (as well as subduing the flesh), found in the Bible. Each fast has its own use and purpose. The fast that we've been looking into, is a lifestyle of fasting. It is a way of fasting in order to please our Heavenly Father and do it His way.
God said in Isaiah 58:6 that this is a fast that "He has chosen." Jesus teaches His disciples (and us) the same principles of Cod's "chosen" fast in Matthew 6:1-34 (Amplified). We begin with Verse 33 which says, ""But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His (God's) Kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right) and then all these things taken together will be given you besides." Jesus goes on, in Verse34, "So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own (sufficient for each day is its own trouble)."
When doing God's way of being right and His way of doing, then according to the above verse, you will "have no need to worry about tomorrow and its trouble, because God will take care of each and every day as it comes."
I call this the Jesus Fast, because He walked this fast continually. Being true to His Word, God in turn, blessed Jesus from the promise of Isaiah 58 at every turn. It won't only work for Jesus, but it will work for anyone who will walk it. Jesus taught all the same things that He told others He spoke to. This fast would work in the old covenant, as well as in the new covenant. It is God's way of blessing people and blessing those who would set themselves to bless others.
The Lord showed me how Jesus taught us to pray, in what we call The Lord's Prayer," is based on God's chosen fast. In Matthew 6:11 (Amplified) Jesus prayed for our "daily bread." This duplicates Isaiah 58:8 (Amplified) where God says, "Then shall your light like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of 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."
As we pray "daily" for our bread, we will always have bread to divide with the hungry. Isaiah 58:7 (Amplified) says, " God will take care of our prosperity and peace" and that our "restoration and the power of a new life" will be given. This is not worrying about tomorrow, but walking in every day. Jesus included all God taught us about His chosen fast in The Lord's Prayer. Jesus says in Matthew 6:12 (Amplified), "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors." This correlates with Isaiah 58:9 (Amplified), where God says, "Then 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)."
Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:13 (Amplified), "And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever, Amen." Isaiah 58:10-11 (Amplified) says, "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. 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."
God tells us in the above verse, that He will "guide you continually." Jesus said in Matthew 6:13 (Amplified), "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
Jesus explains the principles of the Isaiah 58 fast further, when He talks about how to forgive, how to conduct ourselves when we fast, where to lay up our treasures and where our hearts should be. Jesus continues His teaching the Isaiah 58 fast in Matthew 6:25 where he teaches His followers about "Not being anxious, uneasy, and worried about life, clothing, food, shelter or what we shall drink." Jesus could teach about God's chosen fast, because He continually walked it.
God says in Isaiah 58:14 (Amplified), "Then (when you walk this fast that I have chosen) 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."
No comments:
Post a Comment