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Welcome to the Special Fasting Edition of the Prayer Motivator Devotional Broadcast #40
This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International. It is good to be with you today.
We praise the Lord for all of you who fasted for 24 hours on this past Wednesday, June 20, 2012, and for those who are currently fasting for 40 days and nights with pastors and Christian leaders across America. Please keep in mind the 24-hour fast on this upcoming Wednesday, June 27th. Also, for those of you who are fasting with us on the first 10 days of June, July, August, and October, please be reminded of the 10-day fast that begins on Sunday, July 1st. As you fast, please continue to pray for the following among other things:
1. For God to heal Christian families
2. For God to revive the church
3. For God to heal the nation
4. For 3 million or more people to come to Christ
5. And if the Lord is going to tarry His coming, for God to give us the godly leadership that this nation needs going forward.
Our Scripture reading for today is Isaiah 58:1-14 from the King James Version which reads:
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:
11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Allow me to share with you some important points regarding this passage from Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
In this passage, we observe here, that every thing must be done that puts an honour on the day and is expressive of our high thoughts of it. We must call it a delight, not a task and a burden; we must delight ourselves in it, in the restraints it lays upon us and the services it obliges us to. We must be in our element when we are worshipping God, and in communion with him. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! We must not only count it a delight, but call it so, must openly profess the complacency we take in the day and the duties of it. We must call it so to God, in thanksgiving for it and earnest desire of his grace to enable us to do the work of the day in its day, because we delight in it. We must call it so to others, to invite them to come and share in the pleasure of it; and we must call it so to ourselves, that we may not entertain the least thought of wishing the sabbath gone that we may sell corn. We must call it the Lord’s holy day, and honourable. We must call it holy, separated from common use and devoted to God and to his service, must call it the holy of the Lord, the day which he has sanctified to himself. Even in Old-Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord’s day, and therefore it is fitly called so still, and for a further reason, because it is the Lord Christ’s day. It is holy because it is the Lord’s day, and upon both accounts it is honourable. It is a beauty of holiness that is upon it; it is ancient, and its antiquity is its honour; and we must make it appear that we look upon it as honourable by honouring God on that day. We put honour upon the day when we give honour to him that instituted it, and to whose honour it is dedicated.
We will continue discussing this passage in our next broadcast.
Our fasting quote of encouragement today is from Arthur Wallis. He said: “In giving us the privilege of fasting as well as praying, God has added a powerful weapon to our spiritual armory. In her folly and ignorance the Church has largely looked upon it as obsolete. She has thrown it down in some dark corner to rust, and there it has lain forgotten for centuries. An hour of impending crisis for the Church and the world demands its recovery.”
Our fasting devotional today is part 1 of a new series titled “FASTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT” from Elmer L. Towns in his book “Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough”.
Christians who accept the invitation to fast have the unique priviledge of identifying with some of the great heroes of faith throughout the ages. Fasting has a varied and interesting past.
The word “fast” is derived from the Hebrew term “tsom”, which refers to the practice of self-denial. The New Testament using the Greek word :nesteia” for the fast, also refers to self-denial.
Most scholars believe that th practice of fasting began with the loss of appetite during times of great distress and duress. Hannah, who would later become the mother of Samuel, was so distressed about her barrenness that according to 1 Samuel 1:7, “she wept and did not eat.” Also, when King Ahab failed in his attempt to purchase Naboths vineyard, according to 1 Kings 21:4, he “would eat no food.”
The Old Testament is full of people who saw spiritual breakthroughs by fasting.
Now, let’s take this moment to break up the fallow ground in our lives. Hosea 10:12 states, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”
The great evangelist Charles G. Finney preached a message titled “Breaking Up the Fallow Ground – It Is Time to Seek the Lord”. In this sermon, he listed 27 sins that we as Christians should confess and repent of. We have gone through each of those sins in previous broadcasts. We have added sins to that list ourselves and to date, we have covered 37 sins. Today we are going to deal with the 38th sin of Pride.
Pride is defined as “a desire to be more important than other people.” It is also defined as “an excessive love of ourselves, pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself.” Pride is the sin of Satan. Pride (a desire to compete with God or to be more important than God) is what got Satan kicked out of Heaven. The Bible tells us of the awful consequences of pride. Proverbs 16:18-19 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Pride is a dangerous sin because it keeps us from advancing in life, it keeps God back from bestowing His blessings upon us, it keeps many people back from accepting Christ, and it keeps many people back from asking for helping and from being fair and giving credit to others who do good. What do you have that God did not give to you? Do you have pride in your life that is holding you back? Is your pride keeping you back from receiving God’s blessings because you refuse to surrender your will to His? God does not want us to be proud because everything we have and everything we are comes from God and He alone should be praised.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer right now and confess our sins before God.
GENERAL PRAYER
Dear friend, if you are listening to this broadcast and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how. Please understand that you are a sinner and that you have broken God’s laws. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Please understand that because of your sins, you deserve punishment in hell. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death…” This is both physical death and spiritual death in hell.
But here is the good news. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Bible also says in Romans 10:9 and 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Dear friend, if you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today and forever. Amen.
Congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! We’re here to help you, feel free to contact us at GospelLightSociety.com
Until next time, continue to fast and pray. God Bless You!
