The fast in Isaiah 58 is what God calls a "Chosen" fast unto Him. God has declared it the way He chose for His people to live. This is the very way Jesus Himself walked and taught the people to do.
Ephesians 4:11-13 (Amplified) tells us, "And His gifts were (varied) (He Himself appointed and gave men to us) some to be apostles (special messengers) some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock), and teachers. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people) (that they should do) the work of ministering toward building up Christ's Body (the Church) (That it might develop) until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the (full and accurate) knowledge of the Son of God, that (we might arrive) at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality, which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's Own perfection) the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him."
The work of the five-fold ministry is teaching the people how to do the work of ministering and building towards Christ's Body (the Church). For many this means we're to help others. Of course, that's true, but it means to bring other people into the Church, by their work of love.
This brings us back to the Isaiah 58 fast. When we teach the people to go forth in this fast, we are actually showing the Love to the world in the very power of the Spirit. We've been so intent on making certain denominations out of the world, that we forget that they are His sheep from other folds.
The five-fold ministry isn't really the ministering to, but the means of teaching other what the ministry truly is. I am a pastor and a teacher. I have a calling from the Father to teach His family how to live. The world system is trying to accomplish that which only God can do. We try to create a government that will take care of everyone, without God. We try, like satan has tried from the beginning, to take the place of God and become God.
Men look to the government to take care of us from the womb to the tomb. Without God, though, man can only govern with a system that has become a mask, covering the greed in the heart of man without God. We discover that charities governed by men have been stealing the money donated and selling the goods acquired, while leaving the poor in as bad a state as before (if not worse).
The Church has been so involved in the world system, instead of what was really our job to begin with, that we've all but lost our calling to do the ministry of building up the Church. It's true that we have done it in ignorance of the truth, but we've done it. In His grace and mercy, God has done all that He could do to bless what we've undertaken, even though it wasn't His way of doing it. Satan has even successfully taught the Church that we are to be the recipients of charity, instead of the answer.
God describes "charity" in 1Corinthians 13 as "a giving kind of Love." When we walk in love, God's love, it is a love that gives. It's not in pity, but in love. When love is manifest to the world, they will be capable of plainly seeing the difference. Satan is insane, but he's not stupid. He knows how God's principles work, so he has counterfeited and copied God's system of gathering the people.
God's Chosen fast is not some sort of world organization, but the purposeful function of the Body of Christ, to reveal the very heart of God to the world. It's giving without expecting anything in return. It's giving, even in our own need and trusting the Father to restore, replace and replenish from His covenant and His promise.
When we "live" this Chosen fast as a lifestyle, we are "living" in His will, His purpose and His anointing. When we live in His Presence through this fast, His Presence is in everything that we do. The world wouldn't need Unicef and other organizations, if the Body of Christ had really taken God's Word from Isaiah 58 as an obedient surrender to the Father's will.
I'm not implying that we stop helping our churches and other such organizations as The Red Cross or missions to the poor. I am saying that we should not stop giving to these things, but that we should add to our giving on an individual fast unto God, on our own. In every town, village, community and neighborhood, there is a place to take this personal fast.
They might not need food, but might need to have the bonds of wickedness broken from them. This is God moving, through us, to meet man's needs. You've heard me say before, that "We need to stop living for God and start living through Him." There is a vast difference in that kind of Christianity. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "It is not Me, but the Father in Me Who does the work." It was not living for God, but living through God.
The anointing of the Holy Spirit moves greatly through those who will adopt this fast as a lifestyle for themselves. You do these things out of love for God and God does these things through you, out of His love for mankind. Because we are giving out His love, He will manifest His grace more and more in your life.
God said that you will be called "The Repairer of the Breach," in Isaiah 58:12. This doesn't mean only the breach between Him and mankind, but also the breach between you and perhaps even someone in your own family. It might be that you have in your zeal, pushed instead of led one of your family members into your religion. Some have rebelled because we ministered carnally instead of being led by the Holy Spirit. God can and will repair even that breach, in His love.
God's love will "Raise up the ancient ruins of building that have laid waste for many generations," according to Isaiah 58:12. Psalm 127 (Amplified) tells us that, "Except the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain."
We've tried building the house of the Lord, based on the ways of the world. We have labored in vain, because this house of the Lord has become one without the supernatural Presence that separates God's house from the way the world operates. We make up committees do all these things in our individual stead and have removed the personal ministry from the very people who are to be blessed in their doing and to be a blessing to those whom God would send them.
There is no greater thing in this world than knowing you've done what God has called you to do. The peace and thrill of being used by God to bless others, is the greatest thing on this earth. Many have grown cold in today's Church, because we have left out teaching the adventure and excitement of being a vessel of honor used by the Father. Being where God says to be, at the exact time He said to be there and see the look of wonder in the eyes of the one He sent you to and knowing it is Him doing the work is what it's all about. Jesus is revealed in His love
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