Fast of Fatness
Last Call Ministries
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Too loose
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal (share) thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house. When thou
see the naked, that thou cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own
flesh?" (Not withhold sustenance from your body) (Isaiah 58: 6-7)
"But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash
your face; that you appear not unto men to fast but unto your Father, which sees
in secret: and thy Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly".
(Matthew 6:17-18)
"It is the spirit that quickeneth ( gives life);
the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life". (John 6: 63)
If you want to draw close to Jesus, stop being
religious. Many today are focused on ceremony and tradition. God resists the
proud and gives grace to the humble. You afflict your soul trying to get God's
attention. You jump through religious hoops and live in the "Do not
Theology". Along with all those "do nots", you have no joy and no
peace, something is missing.
Jesus called his church and commissioned them with the ministry of setting the
captives free, not binding them up in " letter of the word " doctrines
that "Zap" the life out of people. He called his people to undo the
heavy burdens. Let me tell you, religion can be a burden, a heavy yoke that robs
from you the blessings of God. Didn't Jesus say to the Pharisees, "For they
bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and they lay them on men's
shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their
fingers". (Matthew 23: 4) Religion in the sense of the Pharisees is man
trying to get to God in his own strength and ability. Salvation is a gift, not
of works or deeds a person performs to obtain right standing in God's eye.
"For by grace are you saved; and that not of yourselves (not of your own
merit) it is a gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast".
(Ephesians 2: 8-9)
For if righteousness comes by the law then Christ is dead in vain. Religion is
coming to Jesus by the works of the law of Moses and by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified. (Romans 3:20) Some start out in the Spirit and wind
up in the flesh. This happened to the Galatian Church. Listen as Paul reasons
with them in Galatians 3:1-2, "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you,
that you should not obey the truth, before whose eye's Jesus Christ has been
evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you,
Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are
you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect (complete)
by the flesh? The Galatian church was operating in power of the Spirit of God
and then the devil came along and tried to quench the miracle by binding them up
with religion. Many today are bound in the same fashion. You can only enter
Heaven through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.( John 10:1)
You cannot go out into the world looking down your nose
at every bodies short comings, as if you were their judge. Instead of being a
faultfinder you need to "Cover the Naked" God says he takes our sins
and casts them as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more.
He "covered our nakedness" we were the "Poor that were cast
out", and Jesus took us in to his home. The love of God looks past the
faults and flaws of a persons character. He sees what you are, but he knows what
your going to be.
After a person is saved and filled with Holy Spirit,
they are so filled with joy and peace that it is practically uncontainable. You
want to share this truth and this experience with all. You know that what you
have to offer is absolutely real and absolutely necessary for all the people
around you. You begin to share your personal experience with those around you.
To your surprise it seems that everyone thinks your strange and perhaps you
become frustrated with the rejection and forgetting that no man can come to
Jesus except the Father draw them, you begin to look at their faults. Perhaps
you're thinking that if you can show them that they are sinners, that they will
listen to you. As that "logical" approach fails, you progress to
condemnation. That is just the opposite of what Jesus wants you to do. Remember,
until God removed the spiritual blindness from your eye's, you could not see the
path of salvation. Jesus sees what you endure and he himself endured rejection
and humiliation. "For your shame you shall have double" (Isaiah 61:7).
I know what I'm speaking of, I found myself doing the same things until one day
a woman prophesied under the direction of the Holy Spirit saying, "I am a
God of Love" That word of knowledge spoken by that faithful servant of
Jesus, in a moment, unshackled my understanding and corrected the error of my
way. Listen to Jesus as he corrects two of his disciples. "And they did not
receive him, because his face (plan ) was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord wilt thou
that we (will you allow us to) command fire down from heaven and consume them,
even as Elijah did? (2nd Kings 1:10-12) But he turned, and said, "You know
not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy
men's lives, but save them. ( Luke 9:53-56).
You cannot slam people with the Gospel as if you are wielding a sledgehammer.
Rather, serve it as delicious meal. Don't worry Jesus has a way of making people
hungry.
Stop your "Works Trip". Some think they must
be witnessing everyday and if not, then they feel that they are
"Backsliding". What you are really doing is trying to please God with
your good works. The people around you know that you are a Christian, let them
see the peace and joy that Jesus put in your heart. Let them see that the
circumstances and troubles of life that would ordinarily upset a person, just
merely roll off your back. (For you know that God prepares a table for you in the
midst of your enemies) This will get a persons attention. People will see that
what you have is more than some set of rules. In order for this to happen , you
must first rest knowing that you are eternally forgiven and that if you have not
witnessed today, "so what", perhaps the peace in your heart spoke
louder than any word could have. If you want to deal your bread to the hungry,
let them see something to hunger for. Remember, It's not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts!
Jesus lived among the sinners everyday and he never
condemned them. When the religious leaders faulted Jesus for associating himself
with sinners, (Remember they called him a winebibber and a friend of publicans
and sinners) he answered, 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. But go you and learn what this means, I will have mercy and not
sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to
repentance. (Matthew 9:12-13) Jesus was "covering the naked and dealing
bread to the hungry". You can't have repentance without being filled with
love first, and the first thing the love of Jesus causes you to do is look past
the faults of others. Lose your "Critical Spirit" and you'll be
fashioned by the hand of our Savior Jesus Christ and thereby become the fisher
of men God intended you to be.
Oh! Lord Jesus! Heal your people today, Amen
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