Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts (10 page)

Step 5: Choose the Best Solution

As long as we live in this life, nothing is perfect except the Son of God and the Word of God. No human is perfect, nor is anything perfect that is done by humans. Therefore, we will never have a “perfect” solution to a problem. We can only have a “best” solution.

And what is a best solution to a problem? One that is agreed on by everyone who has participated in the Ezra Fast. It is the best solution when it brings about the resolution of the problem and resolves tensions. It is the best solution when God is honored and Christians grow in grace.

Finally, yield your problem to God. In His sovereignty, God may have given you the problem to draw you closer to Himself. Usually people want to be free of problems. The problem you long to be free from, however, may actually be the circumstance that allows you to become what you long to be.

1
. Graham Kendrick and Steve Hawthorne,
Prayerwalking
(Altamonte Springs, Fla.: Creation House, 1993).

O
NE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PERIODS OF REVIVAL CHURCH HISTORY
grew out of a fast.

In the early eighteenth century, the great evangelist Jonathan Edwards fasted for 24 hours before preaching the sermon many claim sparked the revival in New England that grew into the First Great Awakening. The sermon was called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

A prayer revival swept throughout the nation in 1859, and some of it grew out of what might be called a type of fasting, because people did go without food. The revival began in the great metropolitan cities of the eastern United States. Christians left their work at noon, walked quickly to the nearest churches—not the churches of their memberships—and spent their lunch breaks in prayer.

Technically, they did not call their time with God and each other a fast; but because they gave up their lunchtimes to devote themselves to prayer, it can be called a type of fast.

Historians usually attribute the great revival of 1859 to three things. First, interdenominational unity, exemplifed by the fact that believers prayed at the nearest churches. People of different denominations were bonded together in intercession. Second, the revival came not through preaching,
writing or any other source, but through prayer. Third, the revival was inspired by the laity rather than the clergy.

A great revival also swept throughout ancient Israel, when they were governed by the great judge, Samuel. Because this revival, too, involved fasting, we can draw inspiration for revival in our day by the Samuel Fast.

Revival has been defined as “God pouring Himself out on His people.” There is corporate revival, sometimes called Atmospheric Revival, when people feel the presence of God. Then there is Individual Revival wherein believers are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Church has generally defined revival in the words of Scripture, as “times of refreshing...from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Notice three truths about revival:

1. Revival is not an automatic experience. It is something to be desired, and prayed for.

2. God is the source of revival. It comes from His presence.

3. Refreshing results are experienced when revival comes.

Scripture ties fasting and revival together. As believers fast and pray, God sends revival to His people. As we have seen, God proclaimed through the prophet Isaiah, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen...to let the oppressed go free?” (Isa. 58:6). The word “oppressed” can also be translated “broken.” Although we may not have oppression such as slavery to contend with in our society, we have masses who are broken in spirit and bound by sin. Furthermore, injustice throughout the world still results in oppressed people.

The Samuel Fast can be a tool for freeing those who are oppressed, and healing those who are broken by sin.

The book of Judges tells how God’s people kept rejecting Him and turning to idols. Each time, the Lord punished Israel by allowing the surrounding nations to attack and defeat them. And each time they were defeated, the Israelites turned back to the Lord and begged for His help. Finally, in answer to their prayers, God sent special leaders called judges, who restored the people to righteousness, enabling them to defeat their
enemies. Typically, Israel would follow the Lord as long as the ruling judge lived. But when he died, they would again reject the Lord, repeating the cycle again and again. Each judge led a few tribes at the most; however, none of the judges brought the entire nation together. Israel was a confederation of loosely bound family tribes. They did not have a king, and “everyone did what they thought was right” (Judg. 21:25,
CEV
).

God called Samuel as a young boy to lead the nation of Israel. Before he grew into manhood, Israel sinned by using the Ark of the Covenant as a “good luck charm” to lead the people into battle. For this affront, God allowed the Philistines to defeat Israel. The enemy slaughtered many Israelite soldiers, and took the Ark of the Covenant as a captured prize. The Philistines used their position to oppress God’s people, and each year they returned to extract heavy taxes from the defeated Israelites.

Samuel was a prophet, priest and the last judge to lead Israel before the nation chose a king and became a monarchy. Samuel united the nation by bringing revival to the people. He inspired Israel’s army to fight against her enemies, who were raiding the nation.

Samuel initiated a nationwide revival through fasting, among other spiritual disciplines. Therefore, the Samuel Fast is portrayed here as a fast for revival and evangelism. It is described in a threefold perspective: pre-fast preparation, the actual fast itself and the post-fast results.

Samuel did not introduce the fast for revival to Israel without requiring serious preparation. He required that the people put away the foreign gods they had accumulated and commit themselves wholly to God. In the same way, the Samuel Fast today requires specific preparation.

Recognize Your Bondage

Before revival comes we must recognize the source of our bondage to sin that hinders revival. Some people are in bondage to sinful habits and specific sins. Others are under demonic influences, while some are in bondage to their memories and their pasts. Whatever the need for revival, we must first recognize our bondages and the debilitating influences those bondages have on our lives.

I tell my students preparing for ministry, “You can’t get people saved until you get them lost.” Until a person knows (1) he or she is a sinner, (2) sin will cast him or her into hell, (3) there is no salvation other than in Christ (see Acts 4:12) and (4) being saved is his or her greatest need, that person can’t be motivated to be saved.

As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” But if you get the horse thirsty by putting salt on its tongue, when you lead it to water, it will drink.

The solution to any problem begins with the recognition of need. In 1978 I distributed food during a famine in Haiti, where I saw emaciated children who were too weak to eat. What perplexed me was that many children who were starving had no desire to eat. They were at the point of death. The very physical conditions that were killing them were also masking their needs. Until people know they need food, they will not eat to gain strength. In the same way, until people know they need revival, they will not seek the Lord of the harvest who will “pour Himself on His people.”

Fortunately, when Samuel called Israel to revival, the people recognized their bondages. They cried out, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us” (1 Sam. 7:8,
NIV
). The people had come to a point of such frustration that they cried out for deliverance.

Pray for God’s Presence Among His People

When we pray for revival, we have to invite God Himself to live among His people. Remember, the Church is more than a building and more than people. The Church is the presence of the Lord among His people. That is, the Church is the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of His people. The apostle Paul referred to “the church, which is His body” (Eph. 1:22,23).

To prepare for revival, the Church must:

1. Recognize its need for God’s presence among its people
. Notice what initiated the revival when Samuel was leading the people. “The men...fetched up the ark of the Lord” (1 Sam. 7:1,
KJV
). Because the Ark of the Covenant was the symbolic place where the Lord dwelt among His people, when the people sought the Ark of the Lord, they were seeking for God to dwell among them.

Years earlier, the Ark had departed, symbolizing God’s absence from the midst of His people. The Philistines had defeated the Israelites, and
carried off the Ark as their battle prize. When the wife of Phinehas (one of the priests who was responsible for the spiritual debacle) delivered her child, she named him Ichabod, saying, “‘The glory has departed from Israel!’ because the ark of God had been captured” (4:21,
KJV
).

As you enter the Samuel Fast seeking revival in your life, you must confess, “Ichabod.” You must confess, “I have lost the presence of God in my life.”

Losing the presence of God is not what some call losing one’s salvation. Even though you may be secure about your salvation, your day-by-day walk with the Lord may have dried up because you have not sought His daily presence. Therefore, just as Israel had to seek the Ark of the Covenant, the Samuel Fast is your opportunity to seek the reentry of the glory of God’s presence into your life.

2.
Assemble the people at God’s place
. Throughout history, God has had a place where He meets with His people. Although this place is not always riveted to one geographical spot, the place may be identified by assembling, fellowshiping and seeking His presence. Samuel wanted the people to experience revival, so he commanded, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah” (7:5).

Why were the people called to Mizpah? This was the city where God met Israel before the city of Jerusalem became the capital city. Mizpah had become the usual place for the people to go when they wanted to experience the presence of the Lord (see Judg. 10:17; 11:11; 20:3; 21:5).

Today we do not have to visit a geographical spot to find God. He dwells among His people, the Church. This is not a building, nor is it a denomination, nor a name such as Baptist, Presbyterian or Assembly of God. A church is an assembly of people where Jesus Christ dwells in their midst. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Therefore, when we seek revival—”God pouring Himself on His people”—we must assemble His seeking people.

Be Sure God’s Leaders Are in Place

Everyone is equal before God, and each person stands on level ground at the foot of the Cross; however, the leaders of the congregation—its shepherds—have a special role in the Samuel Fast. They must lead the flock as examples to feed and protect the sheep (see Acts 20:28-31).

The Bible emphasizes the need for leaders. Common people, gifted people and royalty have all been effective leaders among God’s people.
God does not overlook average people, because when God’s spirit is poured upon them, they become “above average”; they become leaders of other people. All Bible history flows through leaders—their births, their lives, their works, their calls, their successes, their failures, the things they did, the things they taught and finally, their deaths.

When God wanted to birth a nation, he chose one leader to begin it—Abraham. In the days of famine in Egypt, Joseph became the governor who saved the world from starvation. When God wanted a deliverer for His people from Egypt, Moses was His leader. Moses died and God raised up Joshua. Throughout the period of the judges, God raised up leaders such as Deborah, Gideon, Jehud and Samson. After the judges, God raised up a shepherd boy to be His king—David. God called a bold prophet Elijah to give His message to a backslidden nation. Every time the nation of Israel lapsed into sin and deep spiritual need, God raised up a leader.