Simply mention the word “fasting” and most people will conjure up images of giving up food, depriving oneself of something vital, or otherwise sacrificing something. The word “fasting” in secular usage has only the meaning of abstaining from food and/or drink, and that is what most Christians understand it to mean as well.
Furthermore, I have encountered many people that fast as a religious observance, because they are trying to “get God’s attention” – although not everyone will readily admit that. In our discussions, when I have asked them why they were fasting, it has always boiled down to the core of either wanting an answer to prayer or wanting to be closer to God – and while these may seem like holy and righteous reasons, I have had to tell them the honest truth, that nothing they could ever do, will ever make them closer to God than what Jesus did over 2,000 years ago on the cross. No sacrifice that we can make today, can ever make us closer to God than the one offered by His Son all those years ago. And most of these people were offended at that statement.
What I want to share with you today, is the portrait of true fasting. Not what man thinks fasting is, but instead what God says fasting is, and the type of fasting that He actually wants. And I believe that by the end of our study today, many chains will be broken, and many burdens lifted, because it is the truth of Jesus Christ that will make us free, and that includes His truth regarding fasting as well.
A popular phrase, is that “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.” It’s a bit simplistic. My mother managed to simplify it even further to “Don’t be a downer!”. And there is no place that this advice is needed more, than in the realm of the spirit. I remember one time when I was in a small group and we were having a time of prayer, specifically for healing; we were praying for a specific person who was sick and not able to attend that meeting, and it seemed as though a were achieving breakthroughs, but then as our prayer time came to an end, one lady spoke up and said “you know, my friend had those same exact symptoms and she died.”
As soon as those words were uttered, the atmosphere completely changed. The hearts of everyone became somber, and their spirits were all moved from “Yes God is a great Healer!” to “Well, maybe He doesn’t heal.” – all of the belief was sucked out of the room.
My friend, this is not always just blind ignorance. There is a deliberate strategy of the enemy at work here to sabotage the faith and belief of God’s children. Jesus spoke about this exact thing, He taught on it, and the disciples and apostles also warned against it. And today I want to share with you, what Jesus said about the wheat and the tares, and how to not let them spoil you from receiving everything that God has given to you.
One of the most famous miracles performed by Jesus, is in-fact His first one recorded in the Bible; the turning of water into wine in John chapter 2. There have been countless sermons preached on this over the years, and debates have even been argued on whether the wine was actual wine or merely grape-juice – which as an aside, it must have been actual wine, because the master of the feast clearly called it the “best wine” and inquired about why it was not served first, which would not have made any sense if it was only grape-juice.
However this first miracle of Jesus, is also often misunderstood. There is some very interesting dialog had by Jesus during this scene, and it has some amazing truth which is also very informative for us today as well. This is what I want to share with you today… how to let Jesus turn your water into wine.
Gather ten people into a room and have them listen to the same thing, and they will likely come away with ten separate conclusions and perspectives on it. And this can be seen most apparently if what they are listening to is scripture. Countless differing messages have been preached on the same verses of scripture for years upon years, and the listeners also have come away from the message with differing interpretations of it as well.
Most people don’t seem to have an issue with any of this. Jesus however had a very specific warning when it comes to both the messages that we listen to (what we hear) and also the interpretation that we get from them as well (how we hear). Jesus gave us this warning for a very good reason… because He knew that as time when on, the genuine message of the Gospel would be distorted, and many people would be robbed from hearing the genuine truth that makes people free. So this is what I want to share with you today.
When I was a young child, I used to be afraid of the dark. I would look at the walls, or outside my window and see shadows which I presumed to be monsters. I didn’t recognize the shapes, and the sizes of the things seemed to be very large. It was a troubling sight to my young mind.
Later in life, as I became more mature, I understood that those things were just shadows without substance, and they could not actually hurt me in any way. The perception of danger was a false perception, and that the fear of them was doing me more harm than anything else.
This simple realization carries with it a spiritual truth as well – more than one in-fact, as many believers today are held captive by the fear of things which also are just shadows. Spiritual shadows that cannot actually hurt them; yet just as when I was held in bondage to fear of the shadows as a young boy, these precious believers are likewise held in bondage by fear of things which are just as false and empty as the shadows on the wall.
Rights. We all have them, although they are not always respected in certain places or in certain times, unfortunately. However there is one place in-particular that they are always respected. And that is spiritually. In Christ, we all have certain spiritual rights that are absolutely undeniable, and the Bible tells us specifically what they are because God wants us to know what our rights are, and He wants us to make full use of them.
Even so, many believers are not making use of their rights in Christ. They have been sold a false narrative that they have no rights at all. They have bought into the lie that they are weak, powerless, and without any real recourse in this world… that they must wait until the sweet by-and-by up in Heaven for any resolution. And that is simply not the truth. What I want to share with you today, is what the Bible has to say regarding your rights and what you can (and should) expect in Christ Jesus – not later when you get to Heaven, but right now, today, in this life.
God is generous. I know by making this one statement, I’ve probably managed to offend someone. The idea of a truly generous God is not very popular today. Many people will say that they believe in a giving and generous God, but when you dig a little deeper, you will find that those same people only have a superficial belief in the generosity of God – which is to say that they don’t really believe that He is generous at all. I have encountered quite a number of people who feel that they must beg God to give them things and barely scrape by in life, and even some who think that the more needy and poor they are, the more it gives God glory and keeps them holy and humble.
On the other side, I have encountered people who say that God could not possibly be generous, because He wants to “test and try us” or “teach us lessons”, and then there are those think that God would just be some kind of magical genie, and so they oppose His generosity on those grounds. So what I want to share with you today, what the scriptures say about God’s generosity, and what He says about Himself.
Over and over again, I hear people say “If God loves me, then why did this happen?” – and you can fill in the blank with almost anything. If God loves me, then why did I get sick? If God loves me then why did this person die? If God loves me… then He would’ve prevented it. This is a real stumbling-block for a lot of people. And it’s okay to admit that. It’s okay to ask the question, and it’s okay to admit feeling that way. And I want to prepare you for what I am going to share with you today, because I am not going to give you the standard canned-response that most religious leaders would… I’m not going to tell you that the bad things that happened were actually good. I’m not going to tell you that you just need to grin and swallow it because God works in mysterious ways and we can never understand it so just suck-it-up and take it. Absolutely not!
Now here’s the shocker… The Bible also does not tell us to behave that way! Those are all things that religious leaders have come up with. Distorting the truth of scripture, usually not on purpose, but because they themselves didn’t have the answer and they were trying to protect people’s feelings and emotions, but ended-up doing more harm. So what I want to share with you today, is what the Bible actually says about the love of God – specifically in hard times – and how His love can be clearly seen in it.
Do you have confidence? I’m not talking about self-confidence, but confidence in God. Many people today just aren’t sure. They aren’t sure of God, they aren’t sure of His motives, they aren’t sure of His intentions, nor His character. Many people are afraid that God will strike them down. And they are afraid to ask God for help or provision or just plain fun because they are afraid that He will think they are being greedy or unholy. And then when they do manage to find the courage to ask God for something, they are on shaky ground, because they mostly expect Him to deny their request for a variety of reasons – from God trying to teach them a lesson, to having sin in their life – basically any reason mankind can come up with as an excuse for God not granting their request.
This kind of thinking about God has caused a lot of pain over the years. It is easier for our natural mind to assume the worst about God, than to see a God that actually wants to grant our requests. Our default mindset is “We can ask God, but don’t get your hopes up!”
However today I want to share with you the truth about God straight from the scripture regarding this issue. Not what man has said about God, but what He says about Himself. And the truth may surprise you.