The Role of Fasting and the Holy Spirit in Our Lives

I'm going to read several pieces of Scripture today. If you want to find them, I'll have to just announce them as I get to them. In the beginning of the world, God made Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were made like all the other animals in the world with all the same kind of functions that they have, the same kind of body, the same kind of blood, all that sort of thing. So human beings are animals in some sense, and yet God did something different with people than he did with all the other creatures of the world. He said, I'm going to make man to have something that no other animal has. I'm going to make man to be able to communicate with me. I'm going to make him in my image. So there is something about you that is like what is in God, so that you have the capacity that a dog or a cat or any other animal doesn't have, that is the ability to address God, that is to speak to God directly and personally. God's purpose in the beginning was to be able to have this kind of regular communication with human beings. He wanted to look at them. He wanted them to look at him. He wanted to talk to them. He wanted them to talk to him. We know that because in the first days, in the Garden of Eden, God came every day and he walked around with the human beings there and he interacted with them. This was God's ideal. It's what he really plans to have happen to us after this life is over and we go to be with God. He wants to be able to look at us, us to look at him, to talk to him, to listen to him like all human beings do here on this earth. But when Adam and Eve rejected the authority of God, no longer could there be the kind of relationship he had before and it was broken. And then he began to communicate with human beings in a different way. He would talk to someone who was very close to him and he would tell them what he wanted them to say and they would come and announce to the people the words of God. No longer would the followers of God be able to communicate with him as directly as Adam and Eve did. There was a barrier there. The barrier created by rebellion against God and sin against God. All through the Old Testament, God communicated his instructions to someone. They would announce them to the people of Israel and they would do them. God asked them to be able to live in a way that showed his authority over their lives. The people of Israel went to make sacrifices regularly. They were required to take something that was valuable to them, place it on an altar and burn it up. When they did that, their communication with God was to lay their hand on the head of the animal. They were saying to God by this symbolism, this animal represents my own body and life. Burned up and as the smoke goes up into heaven, so my own life is given to you. The animal burned on the altar was a symbol of their surrender and submission to God. A sacrifice it was called. They took something that was the most valuable animal they had. They took it to the altar and allowed it to be burned as a symbol of their sacrifice to God. I give myself and my life to you. They couldn't talk to him in the same way Adam and Eve did and they couldn't talk to him in the same way even that we can. There was a barrier there that existed because of what was taking place. This barrier of being human in this world and not able to talk to God. The people of Israel were to have different times in which they would come before God and focus their attention on him. They had feasts that they were to attend and when they attended the feast, not only did they make a sacrifice of the animal, but they were during those feasts supposed to fast. The fast was a way by which they said, I won't eat anything for the whole day that I'm here as a way of saying to you God, I am sacrificing myself. I am stopping eating and drinking and even though my body craves those things, I turn away from them because I'm doing this sacrifice to you and for you. People of Israel had many events in which they were supposed to do these fasts as a way of showing their devotion to God and showing their submission to him and showing their surrender of their will to his. But what happened over the period of time was that the people of Israel sometimes used these fast times not necessarily as ways by which they surrendered themselves to God, but ways by which they tried to manipulate God. If I come to the feast and I fast and then I pray and ask God for things he wants me to do, if I fast, he'll give them to me. So they came not in submission and surrender to God, but trying to control God. Isaiah in chapter 58, he's writing to the people of Israel concerning their spiritual lives and he's addressing this very issue. You come to this time of feast and you say to God, I'm sacrificing my life to you. But in reality, you're not sacrificing yourself. You think that by your fast, you can cause God to do for you what you want him to do. You've used your sacrifice as a manipulation to control God. Shout it aloud. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day, they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions. They seem eager for God to come near them. Why have we fasted, they say, and you've not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you not noticed? At the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I've chosen? Only a day for a man to humble himself? Just one day? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed, for lying on sackcloth or ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fast I've chosen, to loosen the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set free the oppressed and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry, to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked, to close him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood, then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. The Lord projected, or told Isaiah to write this instruction about the fast that they were going through. They were doing exactly what God had told them in the commandments to do, to go to the festival, take the best animal that they had, put it on the altar, and burn it. During that fast they were to say, God, I am depriving myself of the very thing necessary for life, to say to you, I give myself to you as I've given this animal to you. I can't kill myself for you, but I can take away from me one single day the very necessary things of life, so that you will know I am giving myself completely to you. But when the day is over, you look around and say, Well, now I've sacrificed myself to God, and he's supposed to help me out. I don't see his help coming to me. What's wrong with you, God? Why isn't this working like I planned it to work? You reveal by that, Isaiah is saying, that you're really not sacrificing to God. You're trying to get him to do what you want him to do. You're trying to manipulate him. You're trying to get your will to be imposed on God instead of surrendering and submitting yourself to him. The act of fasting is intended to say, my body is given to you. I deprive myself of the very things that are essential to life in order to say to you, I give my life to you. When Jesus came and gathered his disciples around him, the Pharisees noticed something different about Jesus' disciples. The fast days that came, Jesus' disciples never participated in them. There were three separate festivals in which fasting was required. One of them was for the time of atonement, when they came to offer a sacrifice for their sins. During the week that this atonement was to be, this festival was to be done, the people were to sacrifice not only their animals, but they were also to fast. They would deprive themselves of food and water. It's a way of saying, this animal not only do I offer for forgiveness of my sins, but if I could give my own life, I would. Forgive me for what I've been. The other one that they had, another one of the fasts that they had was to remember the tragedies that had happened to them in the past and how God had redeemed them. So they would come to the festival, offer an animal of sacrifice, and then fast as saying, God, in the past you've delivered me from the things that were trouble in my life. You overcame all of those, and now to show my appreciation, I not only offer you an animal, but I give you this day the very things in my life that keep me living. I give those up for you to show you that my life is in your hands. Then they had another festival where they gathered the food in after the harvest, and they fasted. It was a way of showing gratitude, kind of a saying that they used to have, that you never miss the water till the well runs dry. Sort of what they did was that time of the festival, they offered some of the offering of the first fruits, and then that week they fasted as a way of saying, here is the very first fruit that we're getting, fresh grain for the first time in several months. And instead of us eating it, we're giving a sacrifice to you and depriving ourself of this great pleasure of eating the fresh grain from the harvest. And then when the fast was over, they enjoyed the grain even more because they've deprived themselves of this one blessing. Those festivals with fasting was a time in which the people of Israel would say to themselves, I am not going to respond to the needs my body demands of me. Instead, I am going to spiritually respond to God. And every time I feel hunger, I'm going to remember the spiritual blessings that God has given me, the concerns that have brought me to the festival. They were a way by which the spiritual nature of a person takes control of the human body, and the pain and anguish that it brings reminds them of who God really is, and that he is in control of their lives. When Jesus' disciples did not participate in these festivals and feasts, and they didn't participate in the fasting, the Pharisees came to Jesus. They thought in their own mind, if this man was really a follower of God, and he read in the Old Testament about the festivals and the fasting that's required, he would be fasting and his followers would be fasting. Jesus said to him, the bridegroom, when he invites people to his festivals, he does not treat it as if it's over. They don't ever fast. Instead, they feast. And then when the wedding ceremony is over, and all of that is done, people can go about their ordinary activities. He was saying to them that in the time that I'm here, I'm not asking them to fast. For they have given themselves to me, and I'm teaching them and training them. You'll notice in the Bible, if you'd look it up, that there are not any mentions of fasting after the close of the Gospels. Paul doesn't ever discuss it. None of the other writers of the epistles discuss it. It's sort of an issue that's passed. Is the story closed about fasting? Not really at all. But a different picture has been raised. Now since the Holy Spirit of God comes to live in the lives of individuals and people, the Spirit of God resides in each individual, almost like it was in the story of Adam and Eve. Whenever you say to God, I give my life to you, His Spirit enters your body, and He now lives within you. And there is no barrier between you and God. And now you can communicate with Him just as Adam and Eve did in the garden, and just as you will when you go to heaven. For He is now residing in you. Everything changes. One thing that doesn't change is God's requirement that we allow the spiritual nature of our body to control our physical body. That's what fasting really is. You say, the spiritual things of my life are more important than the physical things. I give my life to you, and I'm willing to sacrifice whatever you ask of me. I'll give an animal and even deprive myself of the things that make life work in honor of your authority over my life. Paul, when he was talking to the Roman church, writing to them, he was instructing them about how to be able to participate in what in the Old Testament fasting provided, the assurance of God's control over their lives. Fasting was a way of saying, my life is not controlled by my human nature. It's a way of saying, the Spirit of God controls my life. Spiritual things are more important than physical things. Paul was talking in Romans chapter 8. He was discussing with the Roman church this role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and what the Spirit is to do and how the Spirit is to control them. I want to begin reading at verse 1 of chapter 8. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul uses the phrase, in Christ Jesus, to describe the relationship that a follower of Christ has. You give me your life and I will surround you like I put a ball around you and protect you and you will be in me. Everything around you will be controlled by me. So he calls this walk with Christ being in Christ. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Now the translation that I'm reading, and I guess all of them do this, use the word sin here. But in the Greek language, it's a little bit more revealing. It's really the word flesh. The word flesh in the Bible refers to the human, sinful nature of people. When we talk about following our flesh, we mean we're talking about following the impulses of our human nature. All those things that lead us to do things contrary to God. So he says, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit, he says law of the Spirit, he means the law that controls. So the Spirit's law is controlling me, sets me free from the law of flesh, the control of human flesh. In other words, when I turn my life over to Christ, no longer does my human body control my behavior. Instead, the Spirit of God controls my choices. For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by my sinful or fleshly nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of a fleshly human being to be a sin offering. That was Jesus. He came in human flesh. Now when you talk about the flesh of Jesus, we're not talking about the sinfulness of his life, but that he had inside of him all of the temptations that every one of us have. He had a sinful nature inside of him, a nature that was inclined and tempted by sin. The Bible says you never will face any sin that Jesus didn't face. He knew what lust was. It tempted him. He knew what anger was. It tempted him. He knew all the same temptations that we have in our human body. So he came, it was this weakened by sinful nature that Jesus came to. God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. So he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to our sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. What Paul is describing is what happens when you give your life to Christ. I'm controlled by my sinful nature, making all the choices, doing what I want, what I think is right, what I feel is good, and it controls my behavior. Every day I get up and do what I think I ought to do or want to do. Now I say to God, here is my life. The Holy Spirit comes into my life, and then when I get up in the morning and I start planning my day, the first thing I say is, God, what do you want me to do today? And that comes first. When I sit down with My money, and I count the money that I have, I begin by saying, God, what do you want me to do for your kingdom out of this money? So my time, my life, and everything is controlled by the Spirit of God, not by my human impulses. So that my life is controlled by God. My fasting, denying myself, is when I sit down with the assets that I have, my time, and I say, God, what do you want me to do today with my time? And he says, here are two people that I want you to call, talk to, here's a job that I have for you. And so I think, okay, I've got a lot of other things already planned. If I do the things that you're telling me I should do, I'm going to have to neglect the things that I wanted to do, and I thought I needed to do. So I have a choice to follow my sinful human nature, or to follow what the Spirit of God tells me God wants from me. In that moment, in that day, I fast. I say no to what my human nature wants to do, or plans to do, and yes to what God does. The Spirit of God controls my human nature, my behavior, my thoughts, and my action. Jesus described the Christian life in this way, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. This denial and the cross bearing are the regular everyday sacrifices of ourselves. We are denying ourselves what we would like to do, and want to do, and enjoy doing, to be obedient to what God asks us to do. So in place of these fasts in the Old Testament, where we would have weeks in which we would take one day, that's three days out of the year, what Paul is telling us is that every day, the Spirit of God is inside of us, guiding us with all the things that He wants us to do. He doesn't keep us from doing the things that are essential, but He asks us to give to Him the things that are difficult to give. It's not just time and money. There are so many things that God wants for us. Those who live according to their sinful natures have their minds set on what nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. It is the difference between desiring what God wants and desiring what our human nature really would like to do. The mind of sinful man is death, that is, it leads to destruction. But the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Because the sinful mind is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Why? Because it is busy submitting itself to the desires of flesh. It is Christ and His presence in us that gives us this great difference. Paul, talking in the book of Galatians chapter 5, he was talking about the relationship that the believer has with Christ as a result of the Spirit living inside of him. What are the sacrifices that come with the Spirit's control? So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, and you begin to live in obedience to Him, no longer do these sinful things in your human nature, that is, what your human nature would like to do, are controlling you. No longer do they do that. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. Your physical nature will lead you to do things that are contrary to what God wants, if you do whatever you feel like doing. That's just the truth of it. And the Spirit is what is... For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. So when you start following Christ, you hear Him asking you to do things, and you have to say, I have to stop this, I'm living this way. I have to stop saying these things. I have to stop doing these things, because the Spirit of God is telling me, this is not the way I want to live. They're in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under or controlled by the external law. You're controlled by the Spirit. Now, He's going to explain to us what these are. This is the list. Listen to it. You'll see that all of these are powerful forces in the lives of people. Some of them will be more powerful to you than others. But all of us find at one time or another in our lives that these parts of our human nature come to surface and begin to control us. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery is giving your life just to drunkenness and living whatever you want. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, getting mad excessively, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you let your human nature control your behavior in your life, it's a symbol or a sign that God's Spirit is not controlling your behavior. So if you let these qualities run in your life, you are saying to God, I'm going to do whatever I feel like doing, not I'm going to do what the Holy Spirit tells me I should do. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against these, there is no law. Now, there's no external force trying to make you to do these things. You can live your whole life and not be patient. You can live your whole life and not be kind, and there is no law on any human books that would challenge you about that behavior. But once the Spirit of God is inside of you and you are unkind to people, God begins to say to you, this is not the way I want you to live. So when the Spirit of God comes into us, we say to Him, take my life. I want you to control the person I am and the way I'm living. When that takes place, the Spirit of God now resides inside of you. He begins to guide you every moment of the day in every circumstance in which you find yourself. And when you find someone who's not doing exactly what you want, and you get upset, and you get mad, and you get angry, and you say things that you shouldn't have said, if Christ is in you, all of a sudden you feel guilty and you feel shame because you know that that is not the way God wants you to act. The Spirit of God is saying to you, hold your tongue. Treat this person with kindness and respect. That's the law inside of us. For us, fasting is an every single day experience. For the Holy Spirit inside of you is saying, live by the Spirit of God and not by human flesh. Say no to the desires of your life and say yes to the Spirit of God. It is this sacrifice, daily sacrifice of ourselves that says to God, you control my life, not myself. It doesn't matter what age you are. Every one of us have those temptations. You have brothers and sisters and they tease you and they say things to you that make you mad and you want to hit them. You want to get even with them. That's your human nature. When you say to God, I give my life to you, you're saying to God, I'm going to treat my brothers and sisters the way you tell me instead of the way I feel. And whenever you give your life to Christ, your parents may say, here are the rules, here's what I want you to do. And your human nature says, I don't want to do that, I'd rather play or I'd rather talk to my friends. And you do. That's your human nature. When you say to Christ, I give my life to you, He says, okay, from now on, you obey what your parents tell you, you obey what your teachers tell you. And it's going to be hard, but I want you to let your body be controlled by what I tell you is the right behavior. From the earliest days of our lives to the last days of our lives, we fight this battle of our human nature and it's fleshly control of our behavior and the spirit of God and His control of us. Our witness to the world is the daily surrender of our will to the will of God. This is the way you want me to live. I choose to do what is difficult and hard because I've given my life to you. It's not possible for us to please God when we set a couple of days a year, like Easter and Christmas, and we celebrate God. I'm afraid a lot of people think that that's really what you need to do. You can look at almost any church and on Easter and Christmas, there are more people that come than any other time. And I think some people think, well, you know, I'm giving up on these two days the things I would really enjoy doing. God has to be pleased with me. That's not true. God is only pleased with us when our lives every day of the year are surrendered to the authority that He has over us. What He wants from us is a life of self-denial. That's fasting. A life of sacrifice. That's fasting. And it begins when you realize that if I allow my human nature to control me, my life is going to be destroyed. Only God can change my heart, my life, and my mind. If you're aware that inside of you there are powerful forces urging you to do things that you shouldn't do, and you're yielding to them, I want to say to you, God wants to deliver you from the power of those urges inside of you by giving you the power of His Spirit to be able to say no to the things that destroy you, and yes to the things that bring you life. God wants to rescue you, to save you from your own sinful human nature. But He will never do that apart from your desire and will for it. What He wants you to do is to say, God, I get in a lot of trouble with things that are going on in my life. I want to say to you today I give you my life. I want you to place inside of me the Spirit that you have to show me what's right and what's wrong. I want you to help me make the choices that will give me life instead of constant trouble and difficulty. I trust you. And when you give Him your life, He places inside of you the same Spirit that guided Jesus' life. And He places inside of you the very power of God to resist the temptations that come. And to change your life from a life that is controlled by your human body and its desires to one that is controlled by the Spirit of God. God offers that freely. Do you need it? Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? I want to ask you to think about your own life, the difficulties that come to you. Are they the result of things that you've said, things that you've done? If those difficulties come for those reasons, God wants to change the way you think and He wants to change the things you do. But you've probably found yourself helpless in the face of doing that. This is where God comes in. If you will give Me your life, I will give you the ability to make the right choices and to live the right life. What He wants from you is to say, I now give you my life. I will do. In this moment of quietness, I want you to say that to God. Lord, I give you my life. I pledge from now on to live in obedience to you as best I can. Father, we trust you to bring to our minds the truth about ourselves, whether or not our lives are controlled by our physical desires and urges, or whether our lives are controlled by your Spirit. So each one of us know what you've told us, because in our mind we've had the thoughts that you've given us. I ask if there are people here who know that the time is right for their lives to be changed, and they want to see a life that is new and different, that your Spirit would make this real to each person. For every person who said to you, I give you my life, take it, use it however you will, I ask in this moment that your Holy Spirit would give them a sense of peace, the assurance that because of that promise they've made to you, you are going to transform their future. In the name of Christ, I ask this. I'm going to ask our pianist to play an invitation hymn, and what I'm inviting you to do is to say if you've made a promise to God, come and share that with me, someone else will be here with me, and we'll pray for you that the Spirit of God will guide your life to fulfill the promises He's made to you. Whatever you felt that God wants to change in your life, this is the time He wants to change it.