FASTING UNTO THE LORD!

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;
Isa 58:10 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 noonday:
Isa 58:11 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.
Isa 58:12 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.
Isa 58:13 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:
Isa 58:14 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.

1. I have heard how that when some people fast they see visions, angels etc. However, when I fast I have visions of fried chicken, buffets and if I sleep I dream about it. However, I can truly say that afterwards, I seem to feel the closeness of the Lord. I know He is there all the time, but I seem to become more award of Him. Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

II. Fasting is a call to all people, with a special call to ministers

Joel 1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,

A. Fasting prepares us for ordaining other ministers.

Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

III. What are we to do with fasting?
A. Prayer goes hand in hand with fasting?
B. If we fast without prayer then is good for only losing weight.

Jer 36:6 Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

IV. We need to call the people to a regular fasting day.

A. Even the Pharisee fasted twice a week.
Luke 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

V. Fasting does not give us power to heal the sick or cast out demons.
God’s Word does that. Fasting brings us in the place where we can believe
God’s Word. We are drawn closer to the Lord.
Matt 17:21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.