Fasting and God’s Mercy: A Transformative Journey

God’s really been moving so far in the service, and I just want to confirm the word that Lisa gave about removing obstructions and removing obstacles that are in our way. That’s actually the first verse I’m going to read from the scripture I have today. So, the Lord is ministering. He’s bringing us out of a place maybe of dryness or of not hearing God like we heard from Thad and Stephanie.

When you’re in a place that you don’t hear God, that’s not the will of the Lord. The Lord wants to meet you in that place and connect with you and pull you out of the pit, get you back listening, get you back walking, get you healed so that you can heal others. We’ve been having a series called The Overcoming Church.

We’ve been praying into the fact that the world is coming at us. But Jesus said, “I’ve already overcome the world,” and in Christ, we will overcome the world. Now, that’s easier said than understood. It’s easier understood than done. So what we need to understand is that without God’s mercy, without His power in our life, without His healing, we will be powerless to overcome.

But He is willing to heal, and He’s willing to use us to heal the world around us. This week I was asked to speak on fasting since we are fasting. So it was not unexpected to be asked to preach about it. The scripture that the Lord gave me was Isaiah 58.

If you know the Bible, that won’t surprise you that that’s going to be our scripture today. But I actually want to start in chapter 57, in verse 14. I’m going to read a lot of scripture, so I hope that’s okay with you guys. It helps to get the breadth of what God is saying, and He’s going to say it better than any human being can say it.

So I would invite you to get out your Bible or your phone. We’re going to have the words on the screen if you don’t have that, but let God wash you with His Word. Let the Lord do something in you. If you come to God with preconceived notions or a preconceived understanding, it’s hard for His Word to hit you. It’s hard for His Word to transform you. I know I speak for myself in that, so I’m going to start in Isaiah 57, verse 14.

He’s speaking to people who have been caught in idolatry, spending all their time, energy, and money on the world, on things that make a promise they can’t deliver. This is the audience Isaiah is speaking to. And yet Isaiah speaks with the hope and the call of God to regather His people—those that are humble and contrite of heart.

So in verse 14, I’m going to start here:

“And it shall be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.’ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain, I was angry, I struck him, I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and the near,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.'”

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. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make 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, to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Yahweh?”

“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, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of 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 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; you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.”

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Father, your word is clear. Your word is true. We acknowledge our sin, our selfishness. We acknowledge our preoccupation with things that can never satisfy. In Jesus’ name, we repent before you. We ask for your mercy today. We ask for your healing.

We ask God for a lifestyle where we forget ourselves and live for you and live for others. This is the true religion. God, lead us in this everlasting way. Give us insight now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s good to read a section of scripture, especially in the prophets, because God is taking His people to task—not to condemn, not to humiliate, but to draw forth a response.

That’s what we do when we proclaim a fast. We say, “I know God’s calling, and I don’t know why I’m not answering.”

God can call, and it can make sense to us, and we can say Amen. But maybe nothing shifted in us. I don’t know if I’m the only one. God talks, and it just doesn’t matter to me that much. That’s a bad thing to admit, but what we want to do is come into the place where the Word of God is cutting us and going deep, creating in us the character of God Himself.

Did you notice in Isaiah 58, He talks about freeing the slave, treating your employees well, lifting the weight off the oppressed? I want you to be like Jesus. In Acts 10, it says Jesus was anointed by God, went about doing good, and healing all those oppressed by the devil. They were crushed; they were down on their luck.

God is the one who lifted the burden off them. God says, “I want you to do likewise,” just as He said following the parable of the Good Samaritan: “I want you to show mercy to the one that can’t help you, to the one that falls into your power, the one you can mistreat without any consequences.”

“I want you to take a step back and have mercy on them.” That would be true worship. That would be the true sacrifice: acting in the world as I have acted for you.

If you would present your bodies as a living sacrifice based on the mercies of God He’s given to you. So when we see the mercy God has given, when we hear all these promises in Isaiah 57, God says, “I will heal him; I will restore him; I will revive him.

I will not be angry forever. I will not contend forever. Peace to the FA, peace to the near. I will heal him when we hear that from God. And we know that God took on flesh and suffered on a cross, and went to the depths of the grave to have that mercy on us that can sink in, that can convict us, that truth can bring us to our senses, it can free us from ourselves, and it can bring us into a fast—a time of religious observance, a time of seeking God.

That’s not just an outward ritual. That’s really the simple point of this passage: fasting isn’t an outward ritual. It’s an inner Godward shift. It’s not a ritual. Now, you can do rituals or practices that are like a microcosm of the overall fast. Okay, so when I say no to food or I’m really saying no to Netflix or to social media or some hobby or interest, when I say no to that to pursue God, it’s a microcosm of me saying I’m not going to walk the way the world does.

I’m not going to take first thought for my own preferences and my own necessities, even if they’re actually necessities. I’m not going to even put my own needs first. I’m going to put God first. I’m going to put the needy around me first. And did you notice? He says that’s when your healing will spring forth like the dawn.

Not when you are like, man, God, look at my wound. My wound is really bad. Watch. It’s healing right now, just as I look at it. That’s not where healing happens. Healing happens when you look at the wounds around you, you begin to pour yourself out, and his anointing is released within you. And his anointing breaks the yokes in your life.

The truly healed person isn’t the person that is well physically even, or that is free from all darkness. The truly healed person is one that has forgotten themselves. There’s a big difference between the fasting of religion and the fasting of the gospel. Fasting of the scriptures. The fasting of religion is self-denial. You can do self-denial all day long.

If you have good willpower, you could be like, I will not do this. I will not do that. I will not do that. I won’t smoke or drink or chew or go with girls that do. You know I will not. I will not do it. Okay. And that is self-denial. That was like my grandpa anyway, so I like to say that.

But anyway, that’s not bad. Okay? It’s not okay. But, anybody. I’m just going to say this: self-denial can be done by your flesh. Freedom from self cannot. The fast God wants to lead you into—lead us into, by the way. In the Old Testament, the fast is a public gathering. It’s an assembly. It’s a corporate movement towards the heart of God.

It’s not just someone sitting alone saying, no Taco Bell, no Taco Bell. You know, that’s not what it is. It’s a corporate thing. So the fact that God wants to bring us into is not self-denial itself. Forgetfulness is saying, I’m so in love with God and I’m so moved with compassion for the needs around me.

That’s where all my energy goes. My energy doesn’t go only to my own needs or how I’m being wronged, or how I’m being grieved, or how God isn’t answering me. God says, you know, I’m going to be answering you. If you’re out there with the poor and the needy, you’re going to be talking to me face to face.

Does anyone has anyone read Matthew 25? Jesus? Jesus’s whole parable of the Last Judgment is saying the people that were needy, that were thirsty, that were hungry, that were naked, that were homeless, that were in jail—when you had mercy on them, you had mercy on me. You ministered to me. And people said, when did that happen? Because they weren’t doing it to gain anything.

They were forgetful of themselves. They just said, I have compassion. I’m going to help. I’m going to do what’s needed in front of me. That is true religion, okay? Religion and fasting. It’s not a manipulation of God. It has way more to do with mercy than manipulation. You don’t manipulate God to get a better life. You don’t manipulate him to get your prayers answered.

You don’t manipulate him to get a nice feeling in your heart—that’s dead works. It’s dead. Religion cannot save you. It will leave you feeling burned out and bitter. It has left me feeling burned out and bitter when I walk that path. So I can only speak from personal experience. Because you can do, like I said, you can do self-denial all day long, and it just makes you resentful of all the people that get to do the things that you don’t do.

And if only I knew I was going to be saved regardless, I would live that way. That’s such a whacked mindset, such a perverse mindset. The only reason that we’re following God is because Jesus is the most beautiful and glorious one, and we want to know him. I think Paul said, for me to live is Christ. To die is gain.

For me to live is not to live in fear, to live—oh man, did I step too far? That’s not even a question. The question is, how can I run full on after Jesus and the people that Jesus loves? So true religion gets outside the self, and that’s the heart of the Father. In James one, it said true religion before God the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their distress and keep oneself unstained from the world.

That’s what the Father loves. You know, I was. I’ve been studying the Bible a lot recently. The mercy of God has been lining up everywhere. The mercy of God. Do you see what he’s calling Isaiah through Isaiah? He’s calling Israel to say, be the priesthood that I called you to be. Be the royal priesthood. Be my messengers on the earth, loose the bonds of wickedness, don’t enslave people, set them free, don’t you?

If someone’s in your power, don’t bully them and oppress them, and hit them with a wicked fist and point the finger and blame them. That’s not my heart. Some people go. I thought that was God’s heart. I thought he was looking for a reason to point something out and boom! Let the Bible change your mind. Let the Bible let Jesus change your mind.

The Father is merciful. Yes. And he says, if you are imitating me, God, you’ll be merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. He’s the Father of all mercies. Second Corinthians one. You don’t make this stuff up. This is who he is. And mercy is compassion. It’s something that comes in the Greek from the bowels, that comes from deep within. Now I hesitate to share this, but my dad died of cancer.

He had colon cancer. But the thing that really killed him was a bowel obstruction. So the things couldn’t get through. Okay, what we have in our dead religion or in our secularity that has no knowledge of God, we have an obstruction in our compassion. Our bowels can’t work, our guts can’t work. We can’t care about the person next to us more than ourselves.

What if God could set you free? What if God could pour so much mercy under you that it would flush out the channels? Okay, Jesus talks like this. Paul talks about it. We have the cure to having a merciless heart isn’t to be merciless towards your own merciless heart. Why are you not merciful? Oh, I hate you.

That’s not going to help anything. Right. What we need to do is realize that God, who had us in his hand guilty, convicted, totally helpless, defeated, could have cast us away forever in all righteousness and all justice. Yeah. He said, what if I took it on myself? What if I take the hit for you? What if I carry this cancer and this sickness and this despair and this depression and this guilt and the shame that you feel.

What if I carry it all the way down to the grave and leave it there, and you never have to hear from it again? You see, I think mercy is related to having the upper hand. So if somebody is just dominating you, I don’t think that’s technically like, well, I’m being merciful to that person. They’re just dominating me.

They’re bullying me. They’re kicking me around. That’s not really mercy. It could be forbearance. It could be love to continue. It could be endurance. It could be grace that you have. But it’s not mercy. Mercy has a specific meaning. If you want to illustrate this from the Bible, think about when King David was on the run before he was king, and he was a fugitive for 13 years.

King Saul—he was an insane king that was jealous of David. He’s pursuing him. He’s throwing spears at him. He is catching him in caves. He’s trying to hunt him down and just destroy him. Right. And so David’s been on the run for almost a decade, and Saul falls into his hand. Saul goes into the bathroom. It wasn’t a bathroom.

It was a cave. But it says he went to cover his feet. That’s a euphemism, right? He went to sit down in the cave, and David crept up behind him, and all of his men were going, this is the day, David. God told you this day was coming. Your enemy’s coming into your hand. Get your knife out and go kill him.

Now! Saul totally deserved that. He totally deserved it. And David crept up, and he took the robe and cut a square off the robe instead of cutting Saul’s throat. Later, he told Saul, look, this is the robe. I even feel bad that I cut your robe because you’re the Lord’s anointed. You were in my hand, and I had mercy on you.

I give you into the Lord’s hand. So mercy happens when you can crush someone, when someone has sinned against you, when they’re at a low point, or when they’re in need, when they’re wounded. The Good Samaritan didn’t pass by the man who was beaten half to death. The priest did. The Levite did. The religious. You see the radical nature of Jesus’s teaching.

So this man was in the power of the priest and the Levite, just like Saul was in the power of David, just like we were in the power of God the Father. All desert. We could pass by the person that’s in need, we could hurry past, we could think, I got my shopping list. Okay, I got my boundaries.I don’t have the bandwidth for this right now. Okay. When are you fast? Do you take a break from stuff? One of the things you take a break from is your own worship of boundaries. That says take the homeless, pour into your house. The Bible said that this is a crazy religion. I’m not here to make you feel comfortable.

It doesn’t make me feel comfortable. This is the same guy Jesus that said, sell everything you have and be a monk and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. That’s a radical religion. That’s not something you can do in your own power. Oh, what you’re saying I have to just take a break from that.

Okay? Fasting, taking a break from stuff, taking a break from debating my theology and being right. Just take a break and have mercy on someone. We’re making Isaiah 58 even simpler. Okay, let’s take a break from your grudges. The pointing of the finger. Take a break from your vengeance. The speaking of wickedness. Okay? All these things that we read about to take a break from your indifference to people around you that are suffering.

Take a break from that, okay? Take a break from your boundaries. Nobody can come in my house because it’s not clean. And it’s not. I haven’t prepared myself and I haven’t meditated for ten minutes, and I haven’t listened to my sounds that soothe me. And I’m not ready, like, okay, I’m sorry. Okay. I’m just here to to get fired today.

But anyway, no. So it’s, because, I mean, it’s better than what they used to do to people reading this type of stuff. But anyway, so we’re taking a break from our selfish interests. Take a break from wanting to be great. Take a break from obsessions and hobbies that keep you from the house of the Lord, that keep you from the fast.

They keep you from that he said, honor the holy day. Honor the fast, honor the assembly. But in Hebrew it’s covered. It’s put weight on it. Take a break from controlling your own schedule. Okay, take a break, David. Right. Make time for God. Make time for what’s actually important. Take a break from the way the world does things, from the way people on social media say you should be doing things, not TikTok.

Take a break from TikTok. All you TikTokers. It’s a involuntary break. Sorry. Yeah. Take a break from it. Remember when Covid happened? That was a strange thing. People had to take a break. Nobody knew. Nobody knew what to do. Everybody went insane. All right, wait, I have to, like. I have to not work or have to sit at home.

There are other bad sides of that. But, what God said at the end of chapter 57 was that the wicked are like this churning sea that’s restless. They can’t pause. They can’t take a Sabbath. The wicked do you think like, that’s not very wicked. Somebody that just can’t rest. When I think of wicked, I think of some Hitler Stalin type person.

He’s like, this is a guy, this wicked person has no rest. They live in constant turmoil. So all they think about is, how can I get God to do what I say? How can I fast? Can I do something? And then I’ll have peace, I’ll have comfort and it never happens. Maybe enough people can see my grievances and my misery that I’ll start getting what my rights are.

I’ll get my needs met. Okay. And this is said thousands of years ago, human nature hasn’t changed very much. My nature, you know, we have a redeemed nature, but in our flesh, this is how we think. You know, we think we have to manipulate to our success. We have to manipulate to God. We have to manipulate to peace.

Where God says that the key is receive my mercy and show mercy to your neighbor. That’s difficult because we have schedules, we have time budgets, we have energy reserves. We have obligations. We have sports. We have hobbies. We have things that are great. How do I know though? What is my first priority? By fasting, by doing a spiritual discipline, a fasting.

Now this is something Jesus said you will do. He said, not if you fast, but when you fast. This is what you should do in Matthew chapter six. Fasting is a very important discipline in Christianity. Just like prayer, just like sharing the gospel, giving. These are all disciplines that we do. You could call them rhythms. You could call them holy habits.

They’re the way of Jesus. That’s the way that he showed us to walk. They don’t earn anything from God, but they help you walk in everything God has given you. Where they align your heart, they shift you. They shift you. God. Word. When you open the Word of God, when you pray, when you fast, you shift your your whole center towards God.

And we have to choose to do this. God has chosen this type of fast, but we have to choose it as well. Now I will say, if you want to recalibrate your spiritual life, fasting is probably the best way to do it. I’m speaking from personal experience. If you’re going through a dry time where you haven’t heard from God, fast from the things that are distracting you from God, and then replace that time doing the things God has asked you to do.

You’re like, okay, I didn’t eat a sandwich for lunch. I have ten extra dollars for 1399, whatever inflation. Okay. I have I have 1399 that I didn’t use. What if I buy a homeless person that sandwich? So I’m not just saying notice something. I’m replacing it with God’s mercy. I’m replacing it with knowledge of God. This is this would be the best way to go about fasting.

This makes sense to everybody. Okay. And so I would say there’s been times in my life where I have just felt completely in the darkness, the dark night of the soul. I wasn’t hearing from God. I could still minister, I could still teach the word. But I didn’t feel anything. My soul, my my emotions were completely disconnected from my body or my spirit.

I just didn’t feel anything. I just felt total resentment, total frustration about life. I’ve gone through years like that now. I went through a time like this and I talked to my friend Nick Zavala, who’s a paramedic in our area, great, great Christian guy. And I was just telling him, Nick, I’m just going through this. I’m not hearing from God.

And he was like, well, what would you tell yourself to do? Because you’re supposed to be supposed to be a pastor. You know, he didn’t say that, but that was me. That was what I heard. You know, I heard the sarcasm. I’m just kidding. But, No, I’m just kidding. But, I was like, well, Nick, I guess I would say, you know, I’m going to not eat until I feel the presence of God, and I’m going to go to the word, and I’m going to I’m not going to eat until he reveals himself and he restores my passion for the calling that I have.

But I’m not going to do that. That was I was stubborn, you know, I’m so that’s what I would say. But I’m not going to do it because I didn’t want to do it. I was stubborn, I was a backslider, okay? And you’re like, I’m a backslider. God’s God’s against me. Remember what he said in Isaiah 57? I’ve seen his back backsliding ways.

I’ve seen his ways, and I will heal him. You think you think he would say, I’ve seen his ways and my patience is done, I lost it, that’s it. I’m cutting him off. That’s what I would say sometimes toward certain individuals. Okay. Or groups. Okay. All right. But, God doesn’t say that. He goes, I’ve seen his ways, and I will heal him.

Now, if you’ve been backsliding, if you’ve been just stuck in, like, maybe I can heal through having so many boundaries, no one will ever hurt me again. Maybe I can heal through so much religious observance that God will see how great I am. And he’s going to have to. He’s going to have to fix my kid. You know, he’s going to have to do it because he sees how much I’m reading the Bible.

It sounds absurd when you say it, but I’ve operated on those principles, okay? Because it’s like the only thing we think we can do. But the way of healing is just so simple. It’s to fast. It’s to put aside the things that are choking you. You’re like, how do I breathe? It’s like, well, actually you’re in a rear naked choke.

That’s why you can’t breathe. Well, I’m going to keep struggling until I get out of this, okay? You probably won’t get out that way. You got to figure out a way to get out. I’m going to pray until. Till it goes away. No, you need to get out. If you’re being choked to death, you need to get out.

If there’s something in your life that the Bible says, it’s the thorns. They choke the word. So it produces no fruit. You don’t have a connection with God. I don’t know what that is for you. I’m not speaking about sin because you can’t fast from a sin. You just repent from a sin. It’s not like, oh, I’m fasting from sexual immorality.

It’s like, well, I’m coming back to it in a month and I hopefully you don’t. Hopefully you don’t do it. You know, I’m so holy, you know, it’s like obviously like you don’t make a compromise with sin, okay? You can only fast from something that’s good. So how do you set aside a hobby, an interest, a YouTube, a Netflix I don’t know, I don’t know, whatever it is.

Okay? A person, a relationship that is just totally not helping. How do you set that aside so that you can breathe again? If you will do that, if you are? Actually, I actually did listen to Nick after like a couple days and I was like, all right, I’ll fast. And it was a while, but I was able to come to God.

I hesitate to say it because it makes it sound like just fast and it’s a quick fix. It’s not. There’s a lot to it. There’s a lot that you have to deal with. There’s a lot that’s going to come up when you fast. You’re going to see where your character really is. It’s a good diagnostic and you stop, you know, you’ve got some hurts going on when you stop covering them with Snickers and entertainment and whatever else.You’re like, hey, this hurts. Oh, you’ll see how much of your righteousness is goodwill that comes from sensation. If I just had a nice, good meal, I have plenty of leisure time. I’ve got thousands of dollars of disposable income. I got a nice Disneyland vacation ahead of me. I’m going to be really nice. I’m going to be so kind.

I’m going to be so forgiving. None of that’s bad. But take all that away from me. Is that still what’s going to come out? Is that the character that’s in me? Well, you’re going to see what your true character is if you’re willing, if we’re willing, to engage in a fast. And again, fasting is not cookie cutter. It’s not like you have to fast from cookies with cookie cutters.

Okay? It’s not that. It’s not like, well, you need to do this. It’s whatever is choking the life out of you that is an otherwise good thing. The thing that you think, “I hope David is not talking about that.”

And by the way, if you’re anything like me, you’re not going to die if you don’t eat for a couple of days. Your doctor would probably tell you that if he was being honest with you, you know, you probably won’t die. If you have a medical condition, don’t be reckless. There are certain medical conditions.

Yeah, okay. Just don’t. We know that. Fast from something else. Have wisdom. Good. But do what it takes to rip yourself away from the way that leads to destruction, the way that leads to apathy, the way that leads to deconstruction, the way that leads to “God doesn’t answer me,” the way that leads to “this is all fake.”

The way that leads to, “Well, I’m not going to share the gospel because my life’s a mess anyway.” The way that leads to, “I don’t have time. I’m just so stressed. I’ve got all this going on.” That way is death. But there’s a way out. You don’t want to do it. It’s a hard word. We’re doing it together.

We’re doing it together as a church. You have a friend, you can call them up and say, “Look, I just really need to recalibrate. Will you skip lunch with me on Wednesday? And we’ll pray over the phone together for 15 minutes.” We’ll replace God.

Fasting is a great way. When you see yourself drifting, you go, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If I keep feeding this thing, I’m going to numb it up, and I’m not going to be able to even realize which way is down and which way is up.” Have you ever eaten a real big Thanksgiving dinner? You’re like, sluggish. Oh, wow.

That’s what can happen when we’re so full of the world, when our eyes are full, when our flesh is full, when our ego is full. The pride of life. We’re dead to God. Even if He’s made us alive, we’re experientially dead to Him. We’re sluggish. The writer of the Hebrews says, “Don’t be sluggish, but inherit the promise. Pursue it.”

So here’s the encouragement: just understand that it’s all by the mercy of God. Why is this life even available to you? Because of God’s mercy. Because God says you don’t have to go that way. You don’t have to be one that’s controlled.

What are we saying is controlled by anxiety, controlled by depression, controlled by the fear of people, controlled by the fear of bad news, controlled by indifference, controlled by apathy. “Let me meet all my own needs and let me protect myself from everybody else. Close out everything, and hopefully in here, it’s going to be okay.” That’s death. It’s death.

The Lord says, “I’ll take you out of that. I’ll make you ride on the heights of the earth. You’ll take delight in Yahweh. The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. You’ll be the repairer of the breach. I’ll rebuild your ancient ruins, the ruins of many generations.”

Did everybody hear that? God’s mercy. If you will entrust yourself and your family into His hands, He’ll rebuild the ruins of many generations. He’s not saying, “Let me see the fast, and then I’ll do it.” Don’t mishear me. Someone’s mishearing me.

Do the fast, and then you’ll get the mercy. That’s not what I said. That’s not what I said. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so you by His poverty might become rich.

This is what I said: that God is merciful, that God justifies the ungodly, that while we were enemies, Christ died for us. This is God. This is His mercy. By the mercies of God, present your body as a living sacrifice. That’s your reasonable service. It only makes sense.

That is what I’m saying. When we meditate on Jesus and we say, “For whatever reason, it’s not working. For whatever reason, when I’m meditating on Jesus, I’m reading the Bible, I’m going to church, for whatever reason, it’s not working. I’m still acting like a jerk. I’m still pointing the finger at my wife. I’m still blaming people for things that are my fault because I can’t just say, ‘Oh, I messed that one up.’ Why am I doing it? Whatever I’m doing is not working.”

That’s when you say, “Time to starve out whatever it is that’s blocking this.” You’ll get a diagnostic after you get a little bit hungry or after you get a little bit of dopamine withdrawal. “Where’s my Facebook? Where’s the other like?” After a few minutes, you’ll be like, “What am I doing right now?” And you’ll know what you need to address that has been hidden. It’s been masked.

Fasting could be seen as an extreme measure, and you should use it as that. If you really feel like, “Man, I can’t contact God,” use that. Use that means of grace that God holds out to you. And don’t do it alone, okay? If you feel though that you’re walking well, incorporate fasting into your life. Maybe once a week, maybe once a month. Have a friend that does it with you, and maintain that walk.

Maintain those checkups where you’re like, “How am I doing spiritually? Where’s the disconnect in my life, my soul, and my spirit, and my body? What’s happening here?”

The best thing about fasting, I’ll say this, is that you just say, “Lord, there’s nothing more important than You. There’s nothing more important than You. I’m going to put aside my fork and knife. I’m going to put aside my phone. I’m going to put aside my mystery novel. I’m going to put aside my hobby. I’m going to put aside my anxieties and my guilt, my ruminations that play over and over again. I’m going to put that stuff aside.”

And I go, “Wow, Lord, You were merciful to me, a sinner, a sinner without any hope. You were merciful to me. I know You’re going to be merciful to me again. You’re worth more to me than my unnecessary food. You’re worth more to me than anything I can gain in this world, than any security, than any sensation, than any status I could gain. You’re worth more to me than that. Father. Father, show me Your true goodness.”

And you know what’s going to happen when you walk in that type of fasting? You know, Jesus says His authority will be on your life. There are some demons that don’t come out except through prayer and fasting.

And that’s not just saying, “Oh man, I’m coming up against a big demon. I better not eat or drink that milkshake, or that demon is not going to come out.” You know, it’s saying like, “This is a lifestyle that I’m walking in.” The lifestyle that’s totally set apart, that says, “The Father is everything to me. Thank You, Jesus, for bringing me to the Father. Wow, He’s so merciful. He’s with me. He’s for me. He’ll never leave me or forsake me. His angels are all around me. His glory is my rear guard. His heaven is in front of me. The future of the kingdom is going to be established. I have a calling. I have a destiny. I have an identity.”

“All right, now I can help somebody. I can help somebody.”

Now you’re like, “I wish I was at that point.” Start by faith. Start by faith. Loosen the bonds of wickedness. Break every yoke. Take the homeless and pour them into your house. When you see the hungry, feed them. When you see the naked, clothe them.That’s Jesus. You may not see Him, but when you interact with those people that really need mercy, you’re going to hear God speaking back to you. You’re going to say, “Wow, I’m where I need to be. And it’s the place I didn’t want to go. It’s the place I thought was beneath me. That’s where I always needed to be. That’s where Jesus is.”All right, Father, thank You so much for Your Word. I pray that You would heal us, have mercy upon us today, and inspire us to be so in love with You that we would be in love with the people around us. That, Lord, we would be so forgetful of ourselves that we could pour ourselves out for everyone around us.
Those that are your kids, that are made in your image, give us your very compassion and your very love for them. Clear every obstruction in the name of Jesus. Reveal it, and clear it out so that we can walk in the purposes you’ve created us for. We want to stop wasting time. God. We want our healing to arise speedily, to come like the dawn, so that we can walk with you and ride on the heights of the earth.
Lord, that you could feed us with the heritage of Israel, the heritage of Christ. Father, would you come and bless us today? Fill us with such mercy and such joy that we would be your image in the earth. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Right?
Thank you brother. All right, you guys, thank you for being here today. We do fellowship across the way. So if you’re interested in hanging out, we got food over there for you. Connect with myself, up here, and I’ll lead the way. All right. Love you guys. Wednesday night prayer. For those who haven’t been able to make it, you should make it.