We must recognize there is someone who sits above medical science. There's someone who sits above the doctors, and that is God. Dr. Tony Evans reminds us of God's awesome healing power and our access to Him.
It is the Lord who healeth me. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. At one point or another, many of us have adjusted our diet in pursuit of goals like weight loss, cholesterol reduction, or some other physical need. But Dr. Evans points out that our eating habits have profound benefits for our spiritual health as well.
Let's join him as he explains. The area that I would like to talk about today is fasting for healing. First of all, fasting for healing is in God's will.
In the great chapter that we began with, Isaiah 58, in verse 6, verse 8, and verse 11, he again and again affirms that this is the fast which I choose to heal broken bones, he says. He says to minister to the physical well-being that in my fast, that is a legitimate thing to include. Second John, verse 2, says that God desires you to be in good health even as your soul prospers. Please notice that he says, I want your body to be healthy, but don't let it lose track of your soul. In other words, don't allow your passion for your physical well-being to override your passion for your spiritual well-being.
That's cosmetic surgery, by the way, when all you want is for your outside to work and you have little concern with whether your inside is keeping up. He says, I want you to be healthy, but even as your soul prospers. Therefore, since it is God's will for you to be healthy, that is God's, I'll call it this, normative desire, you ought not resign yourself to sickness.
You ought not to say what will be will be. You must not limit God's ability to change your situation. You must never let the doctor have the bottom line, although you must respect his diagnosis as a line. You should never resign yourself to that which is declared to be terminal unless God makes it terminal, because our God heals. He is the God that heals according to Exodus 15 verse 26. God heals in two ways. He is a preventative healer.
There's stuff wrong with you you don't know about yet. And that's why you even bless God when you're feeling good, because the only reason you're feeling good is that he's constructed the body in such a way that it can heal itself. It's his preventative healing. But God not only heals preventatively, he heals curatively. That is, he takes illnesses that come and he overrules them. And that's why many times that you were sick, it didn't do you in, because it was overruled.
It was overruled by medicine or doctors' skills or by maybe your own body's immune system after it already occurred, but it was overruled. Deuteronomy 32, 39, God says, it is I who heal you. Psalm 103 verse 3 says, bless God who heals all of our diseases. The Bible is clear that there is a correlation between fasting and healing. In fact, the Bible says, never divorce food and the lack thereof from your physical well-being.
Exodus 23, 25 says that food and God are to never be separated in order to have good health. He says, serve God and he will bless you and bless your bread and water and remove your sickness. Now, most of us say grace because it's the thing to do. But let me tell you a deeper reason why you ought to say grace.
Let me give you two. You ought to say grace, one, because you're thankful that God has supplied you something to eat and you're not starving. But you also ought to say grace so that the very food to keep you alive doesn't also help to put you under. You ought to say grace that God overrules, even in the dietary intake. For it is the Lord who sustains health.
And just as he is concerned first and foremost about the eternal inner man, he does desire well-being as his normative prescription for the external man, even the mental man. Now, fasting is not to replace medicine. Even Jesus said that the sick need a physician. There are many times in the Bible where medicine in God's will was brought to bear on a physical infirmity like Hezekiah in chapter 38 verse 21 of Isaiah. We must recognize medical science's limitations.
The woman with the issue of blood and she spent all of her money on doctors. I wonder if there's anybody here who spent all of your money on doctors and they're still trying to find out what's wrong. Therefore, in this matter of fasting, we must recognize that there is someone who sits above medical science. There's someone who sits above the doctors. There's someone who sits above the medication. There's someone who sits above all the technology.
And that is God. Yes, you should use the technology. Yes, you should take the medicine.
Yes, you should visit the doctor. But you should trust none of them. That is as an ultimate source of confidence. You are to trust the Lord. It is the Lord who healeth thee. And while He may use any number of mechanisms to do that, it is the Lord who is your Jehovah Rapha. The Lord who heals you.
Secondly, when you fast for healing, promote God's program. 1 Samuel 1. One of the most beautiful stories in the Bible. One of the most touching is about Hannah. Hannah was barren. She could not get pregnant. The Lord had closed her womb. Not only that, but she's being made a fun of because it was viewed as a curse in Israel not to be able to have a child. It was a curse. God had promised them in Deuteronomy 7 verse 13 and 14 that they would be able to have children as a blessing from God. So to be a Jewish woman and not be able to get pregnant, well, that was a curse. It was perceived as divine judgment.
And I know that there are some folks in here that have had something go wrong with you emotionally or physically and you want to know why is this happening to me. So she's greatly distressed verse 10. Verse 11 says she makes a vow to God and says, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of thy maidservant and remember me and for not forget thy maidservant but will give thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come on his head. She cuts a deal with God. But the deal she cuts is for God's greater glory. The deal she cuts will further God's program. She continued praying before the Lord and she did not eat verse 8 says.
So she did a fast refusing to eat and she then sorrowed for her physical emotional pain. And it came about in due time after Hannah had conceived that she gave birth to a son and she named him Samuel because I have asked him of the Lord. We call this a miracle baby.
This is a baby that's not supposed to happen because medically it cannot happen. She cannot conceive unless the Lord opens the womb. And maybe you have some things in your life that cannot be fixed unless the Lord opens it up and he's waiting for you to get serious enough for him to be your deliverer. One of the reasons that you are feeling bad could be your sin. For example, 1 Corinthians 11 says, if you eat and drink of the cup unworthily, some are weak, some are sick, and some are dead. That is to take communion with unconfessed sinned and no heart to want God to address the sin in your life makes you a candidate for illness as God's discipline in your life. All through the Bible you will find one of the ways God addresses the rebellion of his children is through sickness. So God sends or allows the devil to bring sickness in order to discipline his people. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 28 verses 20 to 22, he said to them, when you disobey me these illnesses will come upon you. James 5 brings up the fact that if you have committed a sin to confess the sin that you might be healed. So you could be ill because sin is there. There is a direct correlation between forgiveness for sin and health. We'll look at Samuel in a moment, but in Matthew 9 verses 2 and verse 6, Jesus tells a sick man, your sins have been forgiven you, now you can take up your bed and walk. He correlates the forgiveness for sin to his willingness to heal. Dr. Evans will return with another reason to fast for healing in just a moment. First though, today's lesson comes from Tony's enlightening series called Fasting the Key to Spiritual Victory.
Biblical fasting involves a spiritual focus, and Dr. Evans has been examining how that focus draws us closer to God. As we seek His forgiveness, guidance, and protection. You can receive this series for yourself on CD or digital download.
The entire collection includes 14 full length messages with extra material we won't have time to present on the broadcast. We'll send them all to you as our thank you gift when you make a financial contribution to support this ministry. And as an added way of saying thanks, we'll also include the Cultivating a Year of Kindness Perpetual Flip Calendar. With daily prompts, prayers, scriptures, and words from Dr. Evans. To take advantage of this limited time offer, visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 for help from our resource team. I'll share our contact information again after part two of today's lesson and this. How do you share the gospel with confidence? What's God's plan for our communities?
Why does the Old Testament matter to your faith today? Those are just a few of the questions you'll get answered when you enroll in the Tony Evans Training Center. An interactive online study experience with Dr. Tony Evans. Where you can grow in your knowledge of God's word and learn to advance His kingdom agenda in your life. Visit tonyevanstraining.org to get started today.
That's tonyevanstraining.org. Fourthly, fast for healing in honor of God's word. Look at Daniel 1. They had captured the Hebrew boys and when they captured the Hebrew boys, they were preparing them to work in Nebuchadnezzar's court. Part of the deal was to change their diet. They were offering them the king's food. Verse 8, But Daniel made up in his mind he would not defile himself with the king's choice food and with the wine which he drank, so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the command of the officials. What does this offer? He says in verse 10, instead of me giving you your food, the appointed food, what I want you to do is give me vegetables to eat.
Put us to the test. Verse 12, let us be given some vegetables to eat and to drink water. Now why would he not eat meat? Why would he fast off of their meat?
Well, it was based on the word of God. It was prepared by pagan hands, the Gentiles. It was pagan food, foods they were not allowed to eat and they were sacrificed to idols. Those three reasons put the food off limits. Okay, the food was what he calls defile. So why didn't he eat the food? For spiritual reasons.
Alright? But notice where the physical fits in. He doesn't eat the food for spiritual reasons, but then he makes a statement of faith. And it took faith and faith must always be married to fasting. Verse 13, then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths that are eating the king's choice food and deal with your servants according to what you see.
Now that's a risk. He is risking that God is going to do good by him by fasting for God's word operating in his life to show up in their physical appearance. He says we're going to go with vegetables, we're going to honor God's word and not eat meat, and we're going to believe that restricting ourselves to this limited, partial, non-meat fast, God will so honor it that in ten days we will look better than the folks who you're giving this lavish diet to.
Wouldn't it be powerful if we turned down all the secular ways for dealing with how we don't like how we look, and went before the Lord to change our appearance, to put us together again. Verse 15, at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food. The king was trying to beef them up, these skinny boys.
How you going to gain weight not getting some bulk on you? How you going to just eat this rabid food and look the way the king wants you to look? And we figure, king, to eat less and to obey God is going to produce better physiology than to eat more and disobey God.
So we're going to fast for our appearance, and we're going to do this in the name of God. And not only that, God gave them a bonus. Verse 17, and as for the four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom, and Daniel understood all kinds of visions and dreams.
While he was improving their bodies, he was also improving their minds. He gave them a bonus for their obedience. And so it was in honor of God's word that they may not defile themselves that led to this fourth physical fast.
Fifthly and finally, fasting for healing develops God's people. Acts 9, verse 1, now Saul was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord and he went to the high priest. Now you recall Saul was the persecutor of the church. He was throwing Christians in prisons.
He was overseeing their demise. Then one day on the road to Damascus, verse 3, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Verse 5 says, he says, I am Jesus who you are persecuting. Rise and enter the city, and it shall be told to you what to do. Saul, verse 8, got up from the ground, though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Now watch this. He is blinded on the road to Damascus.
Why? Because this boy needed to be humbled. He was persecuting Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus' people. And he needed to be put in his place. He also needed to be saved, by the way. That's why when people are sick, always give them the gospel.
They're more open in the listening. He's blind all of a sudden. He's not Mr. Big Stuff anymore. God tells him, arise, verse 11, go to the street called Straight, inquire at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus' name Saul. He tells Ananias, for behold, he is praying. But not only is he praying, he's fasting, verse 9. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Why is he fasting? He's fasting because in verse 6, God told him to go to a city, and I'm going to show you what to do.
He's now dependent. Ananias comes into his house, calls him brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And scales fell from his eyes. He regained his sight. He then took food and was strengthened. And immediately, verse 20, he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue.
And you know the story from there. He becomes the leader of the church. He becomes the leader Christian in the whole Christian faith in winning the Gentiles to Christ. God blinded him to humble him so that he might look to him. If God has given you a big problem, look for God, because he's up to something. And if you are down physically, look up spiritually.
If you're going through a crisis emotionally, look up. He fasted and prayed for three days that God would bring him deliverance. James 5. If you're talking to God and you can't get through on your own, here's what James says, verse 14.
Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, refreshment, physical support. And the prayer offered in faith, in confidence in God's will, restore or rebuild up the one who is sick.
And the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Why the church? What is special in terms of getting God in on this act about the church?
Simple. The church has the keys to the kingdom. The church has been given access to the throne. Like no other institution, including your local doctor, the church has been given access to open up heaven, because he says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
So he says, go to the church. Call on spiritual people, not only the leaders, he goes on to say, and pray for one another. When you see somebody who's struggling with cancer and you don't even know who they are, but you know God healed you, you better pick up your telephone. Because you can be an encouragement and a restorer. You find out somebody else has had a miscarriage, but God has blessed you with a healthy child.
You better pick up your phone so you can be an encourager to someone else. He says, pray for one another. It is the life of the church that gets the attention of God.
It was when Peter was in jail, it said the church prayed, Acts 16, and the angels loosed him. Does the name Steve Austin ring a bell, anybody in here? I used to watch that show every week. Do you know how he got to be the six million dollar man? See, he was an astronaut and he was in a terrible, terrible crash. And his body was ripped from limb to limb and end to end. He was employed by the government. They paid his salary, provided his benefits, and in government service, he ran into a physical disability that was terrible and life threatening. The government brought all of its technology, all of its ability, and gave him bionic arms, bionic legs, a bionic eye. They rebuilt the man when the government healed him. They said, Steve, we need you. We need you.
Because there are criminals who are subverting the government of the United States. And we need somebody who has been a beneficiary of grace to take care of the enemies that would seek to bring us down. Some of you while working for the kingdom are going to find yourself sick. But the same one who brought you into the kingdom of light and out of the kingdom of darkness is going to make you better. When he does, he needs you to take that new strength and that new energy and be his six million dollar kingdom man, six million dollar kingdom woman who uses that expensive grace not just to go out and party some more, not just to have a good time some more, but to say, how can I use this new energy for the kingdom of God? How can I use this new sight for the kingdom of God? How can I use the fact that you raised me up from my sick bed? The doctor said I was terminal.
You said terminally not and you brought me back. How can I serve you more? If you've been put down by God and raised up by God, you ought to be able to be used by God because God is the one. He is Jehovah Rapha. He is the one who healeth thee. He is your healer.
He is your sustainer. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us to put our complete trust in the power of God. As I mentioned earlier, today's lesson is taken from a powerful sermon series from Dr. Evans called Fasting the Key to Spiritual Victory.
And for a limited time, we're offering the full length version of all 14 lessons in this series on CD or digital download along with our Cultivating a Year of Kindness Perpetual Flip Calendar that will help challenge and inspire you to practice a life of contagious kindness. They're both yours as our thank you gift when you make a donation to help us continue this outreach. Call us today to make the arrangements 1-800-800-3222. One of our friendly team members is there to help with your resource request. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or visit tonyevans.org to take advantage of this special package.
You'll find the details right on the homepage. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Navigating life can sometimes feel like driving a car without windows, uncertain where you are and fearful of what lies ahead. That sense of desperation will lead people to seek direction from just about anywhere. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans reminds us there's only one truly reliable source of guidance. Be sure to join us for that.
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