Power of a Fast Properly Done

You're listening to an ex church podcast. We hope this message will light up

your day. The title today is power of a fast properly done. That's

right, power of a fast property that we know there's power in fasting,

but we know there's power especially when you do it properly. Let me give

you a funny thing I encountered just last week. I was at a mamma's

shop and I looked at this man who was coming to the same mamma but

he had parked illegally at the lane. Okay. I looked at him,

was oh, you know, this guy's parking illegally. And I don't know

what made me look at him for a bit, because I guess it's he

coming up of the car and looking at his car once twice, going to

the front and making sure that it's well parked. And I look at him,

going like, but you're any park illegally, you know. And so

he went back into his car and parked it properly in an illegal parking spot.

And then way he came out, he was very happy. And I

was going to take a whole video of you know, because it sometimes speaks

of our lives. We know we are not doing right in God's eyes,

and yet we still want to park properly and make it more convenient for others,

I guess. But you know that when the guy comes to summon your

car, he's always saying, oh, well, good pucking, since you

put so much effort in pucking so well, I won't give you a summon.

Doesn't doesn't happen that way. So I want to just encourage you.

There is a right way to do things, and it's not a right way

in our eyes, that's the right way in God's eyes. Canna hear a

good amen? So let's read Isaiah fifty eight, verse six. This is

the word of the Lord. Is this not the fast that I have chosen?

So just from the first sentence, you know that there is a fast

that God choose, and there's a fast that we choose. And he says,

God says to lose the bonds of wickedness. Let me just speak that

over your life. If you have some bondage in your life, a bondage

to some you know, something that you're not proud of, something that you're

trying to get rid of, something you try to break free from. The

Bible says that when we fast, and fast properly. It is to lose

the bonds of wickness. So I pray bonds of weakness in this room be

broken in Jesus name, to undo heavy burdens. So you have heavy burdens

on your shoulders. In your heart, you're feeling heavy, the sadness,

their sorrow. Fasting in a proper way is to undo that. I remember

there was one brother here. He's no longer in this church, but one

day when he was in this church, he came up for prayer and he

had a heart problem. He already went to the doctors. They said he

has to go and do I think they call it and Geo Graham and and

I think he had to have a stent put in. And so we had

a prayer service on Tuesday, like we normally do every week, or well

twice a month, I should say, And he came up. He came

up, and we had one of our leaders pray over him, and he

said these were his words. He felt like there was a shoelace that was

tied in a knot. There was a knot in his heart. And when

the leader laid hands over him and prayed for him, he felt an undoing

he actually said, I felt like the shoelace was undone and the knot was

gone. And so then he said that about two weeks later he had to

go for that procedure, and so you know, everything was put up and

lined up, and he was seated there on the operating table and just call

it for now, and the doctor came in and there were like screens and

even the man and this brother could see uh, this particular what do you

call it, a scope going into his system and into his heart, and

they were pumping right, uh, the die right to kind of like show

where the blockage is. And then the doctor is looking at the screen and

he's already pumped once and he cannot see any blockage, and so he's like,

okay, never mind. He went out for a while and he did

something. He came back in again and this brother said, is there anything

wrong? He says, no, no, no, no, no,

you just relax, don't worry. I'm gonna pump them die again and we're

gonna see whether there is that, you know, because we saw it before

and uh, and he pumped in again and he couldn't see it. And

he's even asking the patient, this brother of us of hours in this church

and said, can you see anything, Casey anything. I think he was

about to do it a third time. I don't know, but he did

it a third time or not, but he says, I see you just

you can't go through any procedure today because there's no blockage. And he already

felt it when he came for prayer at the front. He felt an undoing

of that heavy burden. Somebody say, hey man, praise God and to

let the oppress go freeze. There anyone here feeling like you're under oppression.

It could be an oppression of health. It could be an oppression of wealth

or the lack of it, oppression of a boss that may not be so

kind. And I know that all the bosses here in this room are very

kind, but maybe you're working for a boss that doesn't understand you very well,

and you feel oppression. And the Bible says when you fast, you

shall be free. And I like the last line because the last line says

that you break every yoke. And he starts, I see some high fights

going on there. He starts by saying that God has chosen a fast,

and it ends by saying you will break the yoke. I like that because

that's how I live my life. Now. I wake up the morning knowing

that God has given me the power and the responsibility not to wait for him

to break yolks in my life, but I can break it myself, because

the Bible says you will break every yoke. And so that's the power and

the and the benefit of those who fast properly. Now is there improper for

us? Let's look at the next scripture, which is just the scripture before

the one we just read. Isaiah fifty eight, verse six was the one

we read. Isaiah fifty eight, verse five is the one we're gonna read.

Now. Is it a fast that I have chosen? So obviously not

when you read the rest of the words. A day for a man to

afflict his soul. So the fast thing that we go through is not to

suffer, is not to Oh I want to, you know, put some

kind of affliction on my life so that God will suddenly notice. You know,

some people do that, right, They want somebody to notice, you

know that they kind of get beaten up, or or they cut their risks

or you know, oh, I wouldn't hurt myself so that God can see

no our God is not that kind of a god. He's a good God.

He's a good good father. Somebody say amen, And you don't have

to do anything bad to yourself or God to do something good. He's going

to be good all the time. Is it to bow down his head like

a bull rush and to spread outside cloth and ashes? You know how they

used to do that right in olden times? You know when they are said,

oh you know, they throw up ashes and they go like, oh,

you know, I'm so sad, my life is so bad now.

So the question is, would you call this a fus an acceptable day to

the Lord? I like the last sentence because it tells us that a fast

can be a day, doesn't have to be twenty one days. If you

do it for twenty one days, then it's twenty one one day. But

now we have six days left. You can just take one day aside and

make sure that day is a fast acceptable to the Lord. So he has

got to be sceptible day a day pleasing to the Lord. Amen. So

it's not our rules. We don't call the shots of what a fast is.

It's heaven rules. We want to live by the way Heaven sees a

fast, not pack our castle properly at an illegal spot, and then we

come up going like, oh, I feel good about packing my car well

so that I don't block any other cars in this lane. No, and

then when a higher authority comes to the car, they will decide whether you're

wrong or right. Yeah, And we have a higher authority called Jesus,

and Jesus rules all right, not man. Okay. Generally, there are

three reasons why we fast. Three h hunger, humility and health. If

you're really hungry and desperate for something to happen in your life, a miracle,

maybe it's an unsaved loved one. You want your husband save, your

wife saved. You know, I don't embarrass my stepmom here and my sister

and and the son, but for twenty years, uh, they were not

following the Lord. Earlier. I will tell you something about you know,

my my my mom was actually very very active in the children ministry back in

our churching FGA in the early days. And I tell you she, you

know, was just amazing. And then my sister at at eight age four

said to us when we asked you what she wanted to do when she was

growing up or when she had grown up, she said I wanted to be

a missionary. She did even said properly, miss missus, all right,

okay. And then and then something happened in my family. Uh you know,

Um, there was a break up, there was a meltdown, there

was all these things. The devil used it to his advantage, you know,

pushed us to the corner and really messed us up. And uh my

mom went ahead to you know, kind of start her own life and all

that and um and and and and went on for about twenty years. But

I want to tell you that for twenty years, I've been praying, and

people who love them have been praying because we believe that they belong to God

and that there is no other joy that you can ever experience except in Jesus.

And today my greatest joy is to see my family worship, being together

with me in the same church and serving the Lord. And of course my

sister is working for Malaysian Care, which means she's going even further with serving

God. And so I was desperate. I was hungry to see my family

come to know Jesus at this fast this particularly you turn. I'm praying for

the rest of my cousins and the rest of my family members that they all

will come to know the Lord. I'm hearing now my auntie telling me,

oh, your uncle has at least gone back to church. It's a Catholic

church, but at least gone back to church. And those who used to

never think about God and never think about eternal life are now Maybe they're getting

older thinking about the life after. But it's beautiful to be able to pray

for your family and to see God answer. Are you desperate, are you

hungry? Or a miracle in your life? Hunger, humility and health?

Okay, even in the physical fasting is good. Now. It takes toxin

out of your body. That's why some of you are when you're fasting get

headaches because the toxic or go up to your head as is being cleared from

your body. And they are probably about eight to twelve medical benefits that you

can get from fasting, even physically, but spiritually, also a healing happens.

So let's now turn to the Word of God in Second Chronicle seven thirteen

to fourteen. We'll read it and you'll find a three hitch there hunger,

humility, and health. Here we go. When I shut up heaven and

there is no rain or this is desperate times. Or command the locust to

devour the land. God can do that because maybe the land has sin against

him. Or send pestilence. Some of you know that pandemic was a pestilence.

And now I was just talking about it. About Dani Denghi has increased

just last week. They said fourteen point eight percent almost fifteen percent of increasing

danky cases. Two thousand over people with dany just last week. And so

now the DG of our Health Department is calling out for emergency, is calling

out for a whole group to come together to look into overcoming this situation.

Also telling us please go back to your house and overturn those plates and those

pots, stuff at pails that has got stagnan water and as fast as responsible

in this nation and with a responsible citizens. I also want to tell of

you, okay, please make sure that your house is not breeding ground for

dane. Can you do that? Go home and to make sure let's all

do our part. Okay, we're all Malaysians, were all citizens, we

are all people who love Malaysia. So let's bring that down. But it

can happen. A country can go through all kinds of things. That cause

you to be alarmed, cause you to be attacked, cause you to be

a desperate all right. So in that desperation, the word of God gives

us an answer. If my people who are called by my name will humble

themselves, so there's a hunger to pray. There's a hunger too fast,

but there's also humility involved. Pray and seek my face and turn from their

wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin. And

what Oh, there you go, health, healing, healthy. God will

heal our land. God will heal our hearts. God will heal our families.

God will heal our marriages. God will heal our finances. God will

heal our businesses. Amend. We hope you've been blessed by this message.

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week ahead for you. God bless