Do you know that there is nothing more powerful you can do spiritually? Then join. Fasting with prayer and obedience. Hey friends, this is Michael Brown. We continue our series on the words of Jesus right here on the line of fire.
As I was praying some weeks back, about a new teaching series to lean into and which direction should I go and what would most help the body, help you. Get stronger. Get healthier. Get more committed. If you're passionately following the Lord, what would add fuel to your fire?
If you're struggling, if you're down, wherever you are, what would help you as a believer, as a follower of Jesus? And I really felt. The words of Jesus, the words of Yeshua, feast on them, be challenged by them, be strengthened by them, be encouraged by them. And when I was talking to Nancy about it, she said, People just need to get the words of Jesus. I said, That's where I am going.
So we are in the Sermon on the Mount. But when we finish that, God willing, we're going to look at other extended teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.
So this is a journey. I can't wait to continue on this journey with you because every week as I'm speaking to you, every broadcast, as I'm sharing this with you, I'm speaking to myself and the Lord is speaking to me as well. As we continue, as Jesus is teaching in Matthew 6 about how to do our acts of righteousness and service, whether it's giving, whether it's prayer, whether it's fasting, in each case, he doesn't say, if you give, If you pray, If you fast, but when you do. It was customary for Pharisees to fast two days a week. The early church, a custom was developed to pass two days a week, but on different days than Pharisees.
John Wesley and his followers continued that tradition.
Some would just fast nothing until dinner time and then eat in the evening. Others would do a full 24-hour fast. Whatever it is, it was taken for granted. that fasting was a regular part of the life of the believer.
So Jesus says, 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've received their reward in full.
So this is a A theme, a regular theme now in Matthew 6, that the religious hypocrites, and again, this could be in any expression. They can be in a local church, they can be in a house group, they can be in a synagogue, they can be in a mosque. They can be in some Hindu shrine. Human beings will do religious things to be seen by others.
Now it's one thing to say, I'm going to obey God, regardless of what people think, and I feel I'm to do this publicly, and whatever they think, I'm going to obey God. It's another thing to say, I'm going to do this publicly, so people could think, I'm spiritual. I'm going to do this publicly so I will get the praise of people. And Jesus said, Great. That's your reward.
You've got it all. That is the reward you're going to get. Not the reward of praying, not the reward of giving, not the reward of fasting. No, not the reward of obedience. Your reward is not going to come from God, but from people.
And that's it. And that's it. You've received your reward in full. What a waste. What a waste of a fast, what a waste of prayer, what a waste of giving.
I'm fasting, so I want everyone to know I'm fasting. And you gotta have that look on your face and make sure you you don't really fix your hair that day. If you're a woman, you don't put on makeup that day. If you're a guy, you you dress in like really drabby clothes and walk around with your face down. Everybody knows I'm fasting.
So great, okay, great, good for you. You got your reward. Wow, he's fasting. She's fasting. That's it!
That's it. No one in their right mind with the fear and love of God and a desire to see the effect of fasting, nobody would do that. But Jesus is challenging us and says, don't be like the hypocrites, because that's exactly what they do. But when you fast Put oil on your head? Wash your face.
So that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. and even do it openly. What's the purpose of fasting? Why do we fasting? Are we earning something from God?
Are we going to starve ourselves to death to earn something from God? Are we going to earn His blessing and favor by suffering? No. It's not how things work. in our relationship with God.
Fasting is the ultimate form of self-denial. Fasting is the ultimate form of separation. And in a certain way, Fasting is the ultimate expression of prayer. I'll explain what I mean. It's the ultimate form of self-denial.
Because there's nothing more basic than food and drink. And the most radical fast you can do is no food, no water. And a fast like that Really? A three-day fast like that, so-called Esther fast, because that's what was done in the book of Esther. is about all that the human body is going to handle in three days without water.
And I've never done that.
Some of my friends who've done it said it was very, very challenging. I've often done day plus or into a second day without water. But that would be the most radical expression. Moses on Mount Sinai goes 40 days without food or water, supernaturally sustained by God. But the very thing that we need every day to live.
food and drink is the thing we are saying no to.
So we are making a very conscious decision to say no to certain things that take our Our time, have our attention, our energy, our desire, and to say no, and it is the ultimate form of separation to say, I am committing myself to God because I have to see a breakthrough. Because I must see a breakthrough. Because I cannot live without the breakthrough. Because it's a life and death situation in my family. Because this situation has not yielded to prayer and intercession and gathering with others and praying.
I've got to up it to the next level. And what's the next level? You join it with fasting. And you are saying to God, I am so serious about this. that I'm saying no to everything else.
to focus on you, you're not earning it. It is helping you to separate yourself. It is helping you to, in a focused way, go after him. And when I said it's in a sense the ultimate form of prayer. What I mean is that When you're hungry, if you go beyond a few days, whatever the time is, when I did a 21-day water fast in the days when I was eating unhealthily, it took me a whole seven days before the intense hunger left.
you're not hungry after a certain point.
Some people, it can be as quickly as three days or something that the intense hunger leaves. And if you eat unhealthily as I did, you may get more of the headaches, you know, caffeine withdrawal for me was chocolate withdrawal and other things like that. The healthier you eat, the easier fasting can be. But here's the thing. At a certain point, You're not hungry anymore.
You're you're just Not eating. and abstaining by making a choice. In the days and times when you're hungering, It's you're conscious all the time. I'm not eating. I'm not eating.
I'm not eating. And it's like a constant prayer going up to God. God, I have set myself apart. God, I need to see my child saved. God, you've got to intervene in the situation.
God, you've got to change me. And it's all day long as your stomach is growling and you want to eat. It's like a, no matter what you're doing, it's a prayer going up. God, I'm serious. God, I need a breakthrough.
God, I'm crying out to you. And you're saying, no, to everything else.
Now, we all know. that when we feed our flesh extensively, It does not feed our spirit. What I mean is... Try this. Have have your favorite dinner.
and your favorite dessert one after another until you're so stuffed, I can't. eat another thing, I'm gonna burst. And now now go pray. Um pray, you can it and we overindulge, it does not help our spirit. It does not I learned that decades ago.
before I would preach, if I had a big meal, I just, boy, how can I function well now? As one colleague put it years ago, we were too fat to fly. And that can happen to us spiritually.
So especially in my days of unhealthy eating.
Now, if I have a salad an hour or two before a service and it's a healthy salad, I I I'm j I'm fine, I don't feel anything. But in the old days, I'm gonna have my two big slices of New York pizza with extra cheese and and and some other stuff or some chicken parm meal and and garlic bread and If I was going to eat like that, I'd have to eat at least four or five hours before I spoke just to get clear and to not feel so stuffed. We often just kind of snack all day and eat unhealthy stuff and indulge the flesh, and it's not healthy for the spirit. And when you cut that stuff out, you get sharper. You get more focused.
There's that constant prayer going up to God. It's a place for ultimate breakthrough. But let me go a little further. When When I did a twenty one day water fast, I did not connect with God in beautiful ways during the fast. I I felt bored.
I felt tired. When I was in a service and I was ministering, it was wonderful. The rest of the time days just felt long. And especially once I got past the hunger, I wasn't thinking about... the hunger, but I just wanted to eat for lust for food.
And I just had to lay that down. And some of you in 40-day fasts, so you've done them a lot longer than me. But I found almost all of my fasting, the breakthrough came after.
Now, there are others who say, when I fast, I am so sharp spiritually. When I fast, it's like I'm bionic. My prayer, my intimacy with God, reading the word just comes alive. That hasn't been my experience.
So if when you fast, you... You don't seem to connect that well with God. You're sowing seeds, you're sowing seeds, and I've often had the greatest breakthroughs after the fast. The greatest visitation of God on my life after the fast. The greatest divine pruning in my life after the fast.
The greatest answers after the fast. Whatever it is. Ask the Lord. Lord, what can I do to bring fasting into my life as a regular basis? With my healthy diet, no dairy, no flour, no sugar, it's a daily self-denial, which is now a delight and a joy.
There are aspects like that where you can just be disciplined and say no to certain things in your life and live a fasted life in those regards.
Sometimes just the hunger drives you.
Okay, I have to break through. I have to break. What am I going to do? I'm going to say no to everything else. And yes to God in fasting and prayer.
So I want to encourage you. Ask the Lord, how can I deepen my walk with you through fasting? How can that be added to other dimensions of my life? And perhaps just the hunger and thirst within you will drive you. It could just be a discipline.
There were years where I would just say, okay, one day a week, this is a fasting day. or once a month I'm going to do at least a three-day fast or whatever it was. and just try to press in deeper. The churches that I know that are having the greatest outpourings. Almost all of them start the year with a month calling the congregation to pray and fast.
So they'll have prayer meetings almost every night, and they'll just encourage folks, if you fast a day, if you fast a month, if you fast in different ways. But as we step into this. Whole books have been written generations ago on the atomic power of prayer and fasting. There's really no getting away from it is the key. For extraordinary breakthroughs.
I want to read one more passage of scripture to you. I'll do it after this word from our co-sponsor, Trivita. Yeah today. Uh Did my normal Trivita, nitric oxide, and myo health. that did my normal taking those together.
And then just in one drink, drink them together, and then did a one-mile jog just to kind of get my blood flowing a little bit, just to start off the day after my time in the Word and prayer. It's great to have these supplements there. Helpful. And our Trivita partners are super generous. with them.
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So call now. one eight hundred seven seven one five five eight four. one eight hundred seven seven one five five eight four. one eight hundred seven seven one fifty five eighty four. or online at T R I V I T A Trvida.com All right, I want to read one passage of scripture to you.
It is from the book of Isaiah. The 58th chapter. about fasting. Cry aloud Do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their transgression. to the house of Jacob their sins, yet they seek me daily. and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments they delight to draw near to God. Why have we fasted?
And you see it not. Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, In the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure. and oppress all your workers because you got a bad attitude because you're fasting. Look, you fast only to quarrel, and to fight, and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day will not. Make your voice to be heard on high.
So to interject my own words here. What's the opposite of that? Fasting the right way will cause your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose? A day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? I'm just going to be miserable. Is not this the fast that I choose? to loose the bonds of wickedness.
to undo the straps of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free. To break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? then shall your light break forth like the dawn.
Your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
Think of that. Normally in the Bible. We say hinani, here I am. Whom shall I send? Isaiah six hine.
Send me, send me, here I am, God says when we cry to him, when we fast, you know, when it's according to his will, and join it with good works and caring for the poor and the needy. That he'll say to us, Hineni, here I am. If you take away the oak from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then shall your light rise in the darkness, and shall your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually.
and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. and your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. I mean this is extraordinary stuff. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repair of the breach.
the restorative streets to dwell in. and then a closing word about the Sabbath. Isn't that extraordinary? What power? There is.
when we join our prayers, our faith, and obedience to fasting. May God empower you. May he empower me. to be people. Set aside to the Lord in prayer and fasting and obedience, we will be through His grace world changers.
Yeah.
