 Welcome back everyone, we look at Isaiah 58. So far we have seen that God wants our fasting to be a one that pleases Him. So in the same passage, Isaiah 58 verse 5, look at verse 5 there. It says, is it a fast that I have chosen? So think about that. We can do a fast. We can do all kinds of fasts. We've just looked at the list of categories. But doing the fast is one thing and when you are fasting for an audience and in this case it's God, God has to select it or in other words, choose it or bless it or be pleased by it. That is more important. So that's why I'm saying how many days we are fasting, what we are thinking most about those things at all. In fact, those are things to be very humble about because the ultimate judge of whether the fast is a good fast, effective fast or not is God. Only He knows. He knows the matters of the heart. And see this. It says, is it not the fast which I have chosen? So never forget that. God wants to choose or be pleased or see that our fast is acceptable. Acceptable is another word for that chosen. We must fast. It must be part of our spiritual discipline because it has a lot of benefits, but it must be an acceptable fast unto the Lord. And that is what we see in this passage. You know, God is saying many things. See, you have done this and that and you have all these standards. Then how can I be pleased with the fasting that you are offering? So we will look at a little bit more about the right motives or why? You know, always answering the question why is very important before we do something. Why am I doing this? It will help us, you know, get a grip of everything in perspective, manage our time, our resources, everything well and also make changes. Okay, if I'm not able to answer that question why with a good answer, maybe that's not what I should do. I should be doing something else. So the why is very important. What is my motivation for fasting? So you see, there are many things which I mentioned in this passage itself. My God says, cry aloud, spare not. I'm looking at it from the beginning, from verse one. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob, their sins. So God is giving a response to the fasting which people are offering. So verse two, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. So it simply says that here are these, you know, these Israelites. What they're doing is or, you know, God's people, what they're doing is that keeping all the rituals. Okay, and they are going by the book, so to speak, and they want God to respond. They want to respond and grant favor to them. So God is saying, look, these people are saying, have we not done this? Have we not done that? And, you know, they are asking for my response. So verse three, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen. Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? So look at the attitude or the motivation. What is the motivation? We want to, you know, we just need God's attention. Did you get it? So their goal is, we'll do all these things more like a show and say, look, God, we did it. We did this, we did that, we did so many things. We did all the rituals, we kept all the traditions. You are the one, you're not, you know, focusing on us. You're not giving us your attention. You're not giving us the answer. What is this God? So that kind of an attitude where our goal is just God's attention. And we have done all these things. Yeah, God, I am fasting. I'm a good believer. You know, pre-week I fast, but what is the motivation? You see, the people had a very irreverent kind of an approach towards God. Not to say that God, it's my worship to you. It's more like, you know, I'm doing it, I've done it. Now you better do what you need to do. So to get God's attention and that's not right. That's what God is pointing out and he's saying, look, I'm letting you know that this is not correct. Okay, then let's move on verse 4. Indeed, you fast, okay, we'll back up a little verse 3. In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your neighbors. So notice, God is pointing out many other things. He says that, you know, one is finding pleasure during the fast. So the way we understand this is, you know, the Jews who used to fast, they had this whole regimen that, okay, today I can't work. You know, you should do all the work. Today is my fasting day. Everyone will know that it's a fasting day. They will dress a certain way, they'll behave a certain way. So they will, who knows, maybe take a lot of rest on the fasting day because today I'm fasting, you know, they behave differently. So that's what God is pointing to and he's saying, the focus is not me. Even when you're fasting, the focus is not me. The focus is you because you find pleasure when you fast. That's what God is pointing to. And today for us, it may apply in many other ways. Yes, we may claim that we are fasting, but maybe there are things on that, you know, day of fasting that we do or the way we behave, but it's all about us. It's not really about God. Okay, like, no, I have to eat only this kind of food and it's such a big thing at home that, oh, you're fasting. Okay, you know, so others have to ensure that your fast is not broken. So we can do it in so many different ways, but we have to bear in mind, God is the audience. Pleasing him with an acceptable fast is more important. And God is pointing to the people and he's telling, look, look at your attitude. You want my attention. That's why you're doing it. And then he points to them and he says, even on the day of fast, you find pleasure. Then he says, and exploit all your labourers. So as I said, these people might have been rich and they had workers and on the day of the fast, they may have done something like, oh, today is my fast. So my share of the work I can't do, I'll distribute it to all of you. So if everybody was doing X, now they have to do two X. So it's like exploiting the workers. Okay, the people who serve us, that did not please God about these people. He knew their attitude and their heart and said, no, you are exploiting people and he called this a fast and then he goes on. It's pretty intense. Okay, the rebuke verse four. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. So it just shows an attitude of pride and that resulting in behaviors like quarrel and arguments and it also shows just dishonoring people and having a wicked heart and to strike with the fist of wickedness, God says. So basically it's showing how people treat their relationships. We can fast, but if we are not relating rightly with people, there's strife, there's a fist of wickedness. So many things that we are doing, the way we are misbehaving. With all that, if you want God to accept our fast, he's saying, I'm sorry. I'm seeing the whole picture here and it's not acceptable to me. Okay, let's go on. It says, you will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Verse five, is it a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? A afflict his soul is when one humbles themselves and one puts themselves through difficulty. When we don't eat food, it's like that, isn't it? It's not easy. It's never easy to fast. Anybody who says fasting is easy, I don't know which planet they are from. Okay, because it's never easy. It's like you're afflicting your soul, but you see that's not the only thing. Where God is saying here, what were the people doing? They were afflicting their souls to get God's attention and the people are saying God, we have done it and you're not taking notice. Okay, so these kind of attitudes where there's no proper, there's no right motivation towards God in the first place. Second, there's no right motivation towards the people. Relationships are bad because when there are workers, they are being exploited even on the day of the fast. When there are people in our lives that is strife, debate, fist of wickedness. So what God is saying is we need to set all these areas right. My relationship towards God. Second, my relationship towards people, my relationship towards those who work with me, for me. If I treat them badly, automatically my fast is not going to be acceptable to the Lord. You see, so many things are there in this passage. Let's go on. So verse 5, he asks, is it a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bull rush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast? So he's talking about all the expressions of the fast where people used to put on sackcloth in those days. They used to show that very sad mountainous. Even Jesus talked about it. He said, when you fast, don't do like this. Let it be between God and you. And notice Jesus said, when you fast, not if you fast. So that also shows us that every child of God, every believer, it's important for us to have this discipline of fasting in our life. In our spiritual work within us. So when you fast, you fast the right way. So right attitude towards God, right attitude towards our workers, right attitude towards the people who we relate with. And pretence, we should stay away from that. This is saying, pretence, show, you know, trying to be noticed by others. That's not the correct way of fasting. And then it says verse 6. Okay, so now God is saying, this is the way it should be. This is the way it should be. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? So now God is saying how your attitude or my attitude should be when we fast. Is it is not the fast that I have chosen now to lose the bonds of wickedness. So what is God saying? He's saying you need to live righteously and you need to rule righteously. Now let's say, you know, we are in charge. We are the boss, we are the master. In those days they had terms like master or not. But today we may be a team leader or maybe we don't have a name, but we're still leading people. How do we do it? Don't do it with wickedness. Do it right. Live righteously, rule righteously is what God is saying. That should be the life and attitude of a person. So lose the bonds of wickedness. And if we see anything wrong, you know, we deal with it to ensure that righteousness is established. Then he says to undo the heavy burdens. Remember we said these people, they were exploiting their workers, giving them extra work. But what does God say? Actually, you should undo their heavy burdens. If you're treating the workers badly, you make sure you treat them correct. Remove the burden. Don't exploit them on the day of your fast. So it shows compassion. Isn't it? If somebody who has the authority is undoing heavy burdens or they are not putting too much of work or sort of requirements on their workers, it just shows that that individual is compassionate towards the people who work for him. That's what God is saying. I'm looking for compassion. Even with the people who work for you, then to let the oppressed go free. So wherever we have the authority, we must release freedom for people. You understand? So oppression in our day and time, it may mean many things. In our own setups, if people are working for us and we make it easy for them. If they are indebted to us, we let go of them. We don't hold on and make things difficult for people. So if they are oppressed, you let them go free. And that again has to do with compassion. It has to do with justice. This has to do more with justice. Having a heart for justice. Then what else does God say? He says that you break every yoke. Simply it means that we are working for justice. We are working for freedom of people. We don't bring people under bondage or slavery. Today we may see many such situations around us. But does it move our hearts? Maybe we are not able to go and do something about it. But do we even pray about those matters? Do those matters disturb us? If they don't disturb us, something is wrong. So having a heart of compassion, God is looking for that. Demonstrating justice, God is looking for that in our own personal lives. And extending it to circumstances and situations outside our own circle. Then let's move on. So these are the right attitudes for a chosen fast. Verse 7, is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out. See again, God is saying, isn't there a contrast? Earlier they were exploiting people. But God is saying, I am expecting kindness. I am expecting mercy. So we don't have all that. And we are saying, God, we fasted. We kept it. We did the tradition ritual. You didn't notice. God is saying, I'm sorry. It's not about your act of fasting. It's more than that. It's the motivation of the heart. And so he's saying, I'm expecting righteousness, compassion, justice. In this case, what? Mercy, right? Mercy is expecting and basically a giving heart. Share your bread with the hungry. You could say compassion, kindness also over here. Somebody who doesn't have, we can give to them. And it says, you bring to your house the poor who are cast out. Or having a heart of compassion to an extent where those who others have given up on, we are willing to take them, bless them. So kindness, even to that extent, you carry in your heart. So when we have that attitude, then our motivation is right too fast. Okay. What are the requirements? The same. Yeah. And it says, when you see the naked that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh. So again, when you see the naked compassion, kindness, justice, and you don't hide yourself from your own flesh is more of duty and responsibility. So just because, oh, I'm fasting, forget it. I'm not going to take care of my responsibilities. I've devoted my life to the Lord. You deal with your own problems. No. What does it say? It says, no, there are responsibilities. We have maybe our family members, our parents, our siblings. What is my duty? I have to do it. God is noticing everything. Right. So, and I'm not saying this is more applicable. You know, like our immediate family, obviously, there'll be so many people. We can't be answerable for all. But the people God has put in our lives and who we are responsible for when they are in need. We need to show our love and respect by doing the needful. And that's also important. So when we have all this in place, the right motivation, that is when we saw the wrong motivation, getting God's attention, exploiting people, not having the right relationship with others, fighting, quarrelling, everything is going on, but still we are fasting with bad attitudes. God is saying, I'm sorry. You know, and showing off that I've afflicted my soul. God, you've not taken notice. That's all wrong. What is it right? Righteousness, justice, compassion, mercy, kindness, responsibility. All this is so crucial when we fast and pray. Now, verse 13, just jump to verse 13. Okay. Then we come back to the blessings which are in between over here. So we continue to look at the chosen fast and the requirements that God has up before us. Okay. Yes. So it says verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. So basically, you know, this is not telling us that again, you know, we don't want to get into an argument about Sunday or Saturday. It's not that kind of a rigid legalistic way of speaking. Basically what God is saying is, see, there's a day devoted to the Lord, Sabbath, the Sabbath, but we honour God. You know, when we believe in the Sabbath, it simply says that one is we choose to worship God. Second is, God is all able. So when I am resting, I am trusting that God, even though I have dedicated to you, you are going to bless my life. My blessing is coming from you, not only my hard work. Of course, hard work is there. I mean, don't work hard, but Sabbath is a concept where we are saying what is due to God, you know, worship. And we all set a day of the week aside to worship the Lord, to remember the Lord, to honour the Lord, okay, dedicated to the Lord. In that, our heart is seen which shows complete trust. Lord, I worship you and I trust you. I know, though I have given you my time, you are going to bless. You will multiply. Whatever I'm working with, you will multiply it, Lord. You will cause it to prosper. So it's faith when you practice the Sabbath, you honour the Sabbath. So you're taking time for worship. You're taking time to honour and magnify the Lord. One more thing that is said over here is, we are more mindful of what pleases God. You know, sometimes it says you do your own pleasure, even on the Sabbath. See, we can have our own agenda, even for godly things or godly disciplines. But it's a heart which is truly seeking God, which says, God, what do you want? What is going to make you happy? You know, which is the song which makes you happy? Sometimes we sing songs which we like. But is that the song that is going to bless the heart of God? Now, I'm just giving a simple example. So we think like that. We think like that. Okay, God, it's about you. It's your ways. So that attitude is what is required when you want to offer God a chosen fast. Okay, so honour the Lord. And shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. So you're seeking the pleasure of God. Verse 14. Okay, that is a blessing. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob and your Father the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So we have seen how we should not be, how we should be and we can do this kind of fast for ourselves or we can do it for others, right? Or we can do it like as a community also. Let's say a city, we talked about it. City transformation, prayer for the city. All groups of people can also fast. So either we can do it for ourselves or we can do it for others. And there are many examples in the Bible of fasting. I'll try and share some of them with us. Okay, so we see that fasting is about humbling, waiting, seeking the Lord, seeking God's help, His deliverance, protection or even sometimes we want to hear from God, right? We need a word. God, speak to me. Tell me what should I do with my life? In that time, it's good to actually fast and seek the Lord. We could pray for mercy and say, Lord, something that's going on. We need your mercy. We petition God. God, let not the consequence for the wrongdoing come upon these people but we pray that you will deliver them, forgive them. Then we can fast when we also permission people. So if you recall in Acts, in the Book of Acts, these elders of the church in Acts 13, they were fasting, they were ministering to the Lord. At that time, God told them, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the ministry for which I have called them. So even when we choose leaders, we call it commissioning. We choose them and we send them out to do the ministry work. It is a practice which we see in the Bible where people fasted before they did that. So we can do things like that. Or as part of ministry, Paul, he says, many fastings. So how did Paul live? It was part of his lifestyle. He did a lot of ministry, that much we know. But in his ministry, we are sure he would have done a lot of fasting also. So when we are going to minister, it's a good thing sometimes to take time out and just fast to develop that faith to see a flow of the anointing and all that. So fasting actually helps. So for all these reasons, we can fast. We have seen people in scripture fast for various things. Ezra, he fasted for direction from God. Ezra and the people, they fasted for repentance. Esther and her people, they fasted when they faced a challenging situation. So that's what they did and they got deliverance. Daniel fasted to seek God for the deliverance of his people but also for the fulfillment of a prophetic word. If you have a prophetic word and you're saying, God, you spoke over my life. I want to see this fulfillment. We can fast and pray. That will also be something. Because we see in the Bible, people did things like this. Daniel, he fasted for understanding and revelation. He couldn't understand. He saw visions. He couldn't understand anything. So he used to fast. When he would fast, the revelation will come. The understanding will come. So we can follow their footsteps. Jesus fasted before he began his public ministry. Remember, 40 days he fasted, then he started going and ministering to the people. So even we can do that. We can fast before we go and do our ministry. We can fast to commission leaders. I already said that. We can fast. So those are all the reasons. Now, when we fast for all these reasons and in the right motives, what are the blessings that we can expect? So we are going to look at that. There are 18 statements of promise in Isaiah 58 itself when we fast the right way. So if we are looking for blessings, fasting the right way can release at least 18 blessings on our lives. So I already told us that fasting is quite hard. It's a discipline, right? But what makes it delightful? What makes fasting delightful? What makes fasting a good practice? How do you convince yourself that, no, I have to fast? It's hard. It's very hard. But how do you convince yourself? Okay, if you know that it's God ordained, then yes. So if we know that it's God ordained and if we know the outcome, then we will fast. That makes sense. How do the others do it? There's a comment here. We are in the presence of the Lord. So when you know that when I'm fasting, I'm in God's presence, you're happy about that. No problem. I can bear it because I'm in God's presence. What else gives you the motivation to fast? So can we say you're a hunger or desire for more of God? So that is also motivation. So if I do this, I'll go closer to God as God's word says, draw near to me. I will draw near to you. Okay, great. So I'm going to get more of God. So that's nice. What else is a motivation? We need a lot of motivation. Come on. Fasting, huh? Yeah, please is God. The chosen fast please is God. Correct, correct, correct. Give us spiritual strength. So that's a good reason why we would want to fast. What else? How do you convince yourself? What are your words in your head? Phrasing God prioritizing God. Okay, okay, that's fine. Okay, more sensitive. I'll become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's true. Yeah. Okay, nice. So yeah, okay. He's worth our time and our effort and all that. Sure. Sorry for the interruption. Just give me a moment. I think I have to plug in the laptop batteries. Thank you, everyone. So all these reasons we have to actually pursue the fast because though it is difficult it is worth it. It's like think about a mountain here who wants to climb Mount Everest. If you ask him, is it difficult? Obviously it's difficult. We can give him a thousand reasons why you will face this. You will face that. You will struggle. You will have pain. You will not meet your family for so many days. It's going to be cold. It's like I know everything and I'm going to reach the summit. If I reach the summit that's worth everything that I have done. So fasting is somewhat like that for the body. You know, it's almost like your flesh is crying out. Don't do this to me. But you're like no, I have a better reason why I have to do this to you. Okay. And self-control, right? Self-control. Remember Paul says that crucify the flesh. See, you can't tame the flesh with counseling. Okay, today you'll be good. Don't do this. Don't do this. You want to train yourself up. You got to crucify it. And fasting is a wonderful way for crucifying the desires of the flesh. Obviously the flesh feels like I'm dying. Right? But that's the point. We want you to die. And when I say flesh, I don't mean the body. Got it? So we don't want to harm the body. Notice this for a period of time wisely we will not eat food and all but the intention is to crucify the flesh. Okay. Which is the sinful desires of the soul of the body. Okay, good. So we understood that though fasting is so challenging, we have very good reasons. There are benefits. There's another comment which Nina is sharing here. She says, the benefits that we are looking at to lose chains of injustice to break every yoke, whether it is regarding the unsaved or sometimes sickness or regarding your nation. This is also partnering with God to bring about his purposes. Very true Nina. So in this way, God is giving us an opportunity to experience blessings, fulfill his purposes, co-work with God, fulfill his purposes. Right? So it's when you see the value of acceptable fast, it's way greater than the discomfort that we may face. Okay, so we step in and we pursue the fast. And not just that. I said, yes Anand. Okay, so what Anand is saying is, when one is willfully sinning repeatedly. Okay, so should they fast to seek forgiveness? I would say, will it please God? See, in fact, God has made it like he has provided for us to receive forgiveness by confession itself. Okay, like 1 John chapter 1 verses 7 through 9. If you just confess your sin, if you're sincerely repentant, you can receive forgiveness. But sometimes what happens is maybe there is an addiction or where my flesh is weak. I want to do the right thing, but I'm not able to. You got it? Where my will is weak in such a situation fasting is very helpful because one of the outcomes of fasting is I've been telling our self control are the will of the spirit becomes stronger when we fast and we can tell the flesh no. You can overcome your addictions if you fast. So in that situation, what you're saying is correct. We can fast. We can show express our repentance, but at the same time receive the strength to overcome that habit or whatever it is. Yeah, sure. So all these good things about fasting and the fasting we are talking about is spiritual fasting. Okay. And I also mentioned to us if you see in the world but today there are so many researches about only fasting not spiritual fasting like, you know, you call it dieting or starving or whatever, but there are many benefits in general then people fast and no wonder God knows that. Right. He knows it. He knows how we built our body. So he knows that this is something you all can do. Okay. It's not going to really destroy or affect you in a negative way if you calculate and do it in a wise manner. So there are many benefits natural benefits as well as spiritual benefits. So what are the blessings as per Isaiah 58? We will look at them. So we saw from verse 8 to verse 14 at least 18 blessings have been recorded for us. So we will look at each one is verse 8 your light shall break forth like the morning light break forth like the morning. So we can look at it in a way that in our life if we are experiencing darkness and you know this is symbolism light and darkness. Light is God's work God's deliverance God's power. Right. His intervention in our lives we can experience God's intervention in our lives when we fast and it's a light will break forth like the morning bright after the darkness comes the night so the darkness in our lives will be dispelled this is a mighty blessing that you think wow God will intervene in my life situation when I fast so we can actually take this hold on to this whenever we we can say Lord you said in your word light will break forth so I am cleaning it light will break forth in my darkness you fast on the basis of that then we can look at we could also say look at this as darkness will flee when you put the light what happens let's imagine it's dark and we put the light what will happen will the light ask for permission excuse me can I come darkness can you please go no right it's pitch dark you just put the light on the light it's like unapologetic I've come so you have to go so immediately darkness is gone it has to retreat same way in our lives maybe there are things which are of you know like demonic strongholds afflictions so many things that the one is doing we can compare that to darkness what happens when we fast God's light will shine only thing the darkness has to do is run away so we can expect it fast lot thank you the light will shine thank you that the darkness will flee so it gives us so much of confidence to actually fast with faith the light represents many other things light represents understanding illumination revelation clarity that also we can expect God light will bring forth means I'll have better understanding you know about godly things in my life so that is a blessing God has given first aid itself it says your healing shall spring forth speedily so when we are looking for healing from God it can be physical healing it can be emotional healing it comes quickly I'm not saying it God said so we can say Lord come fasting and I believe that healing is going to come quickly you said in your word that you would bless with quickness you know of healing when we fast so you know we can pray that so wounds shall speedily be healed over and the scar of thy wounds shall be speedily removed according to you know Adam Clarke's commentary on the bible let's also look at verse 8 saying your righteousness shall go before you the righteousness shall go before you so this means that you know righteousness when we walk in righteousness what will it do it'll make a way for us you remember Joseph Joseph in Egypt he could have done whatever he liked but he was a righteous man he did the right thing when nobody was looking what happened to him he was exalted okay so that's what this means your righteousness will make a way for you if you're living rightly sooner or later you will see blessings in your life okay so that'll happen you can confidently walk in righteousness and righteousness is also a protection for us in the armor Ephesians 6 the armor we talk about that spiritual armor it says breastplate of righteousness breastplate of righteousness it covers the chest when we have a breastplate and if the enemy shoots an arrow what'll happen will it pierce me will it pierce my heart no because I have a breastplate so in other words when we do the right thing or righteousness walking rightly before God protects us you don't have to be afraid if you're doing the right thing why should we be afraid breastplate of righteousness so God is saying your righteousness will make a way for you righteousness will protect you I will make sure these things happen to you so that is another blessing we saw we may go slightly over time is that okay maybe 5-6 minutes but I'll try to finish okay so next thing is verse 9 then you shall call and the Lord will answer you shall cry and he will say here I am so God is saying do you want an answer do you want a quick answer fast because I will respond to you answers to prayer come when we fast okay so see so many promises are there so when we fast no we should think of all these promises it'll help us fast better verse 10 then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day this is very similar to what we already see light and darkness so our light shall shine another way in which you can look at light is that we will also be a witness a representative of God you can look at it that way as well now verse 11 what a beautiful promise it says the Lord will guide you continually now so when we present a chosen fast God God is saying at all times I will be guiding you that's the best counsel that we can get from God God tells us in our life where should I go what ministry should I do where should I invest what decision should I make God will guide he will tell us you do this do this so our life will be guided by God when we fast then verse 11 it also says and satisfy your soul in drought so you know the emptiness of life sometimes the empty places in life that we experience difficult times situations where we may feel like something is missing I need more God I need more from you God is saying if you fast satisfy your soul in drought they feel so dry you will experience God's satisfaction okay so what a promise it's like you're in a desert but God still provides like the Israelites water was there whatever they needed in the wilderness God will provide if we fast verse 11 and strengthen your bones strengthen your bones like the structure that hold us so you can say that like the understanding is wholeness healing from within quite literally it will also strengthen our bones so when we fast we can reap the benefits verse 11 you shall be like a watered garden so a dry a garden which has not received water what happens yeah it looks so dry once I had been to on a mission strip we had been to a particular place it was so hot and we had to pass through the fields and you know how it says in the Bible the fields are white it was like that so just white dry I don't even know what to call it hay like thing and so hot it's all dried up but God is saying if we fast you will be like a well watered garden how does a well watered garden look prosperous so we will be thriving prosperous satisfied ok so these are all the blessings that we can see we see that there is a promise of restoration and God is saying those from among you shall build the old waste places in verse 12 so what is God saying he is saying you go fast I will give you the grace to rebuild restore rebuild what maybe rebuild communities rebuild lives of people so maybe we are doing you know some ministry we want to see people being built up when we fast what happens God gives us that grace restore their lives broken lives restore marriages you know restore people help restore their finances families businesses whatever is lying in ruin like God who is our restorer we can also see restoration verse 12 also says you shall raise up the foundations of many generations see when a foundation is strong and the building can last for many many years it's somewhat like that so whatever we do God is going to give it lasting strength when we do something for example I am just giving an example ok I am not exactly relating to that but Abraham you think about Abraham's faith even today we talk about it wow how strengthening similarly you could think whatever I do in my life is going to be a blessing in the kingdom God will make sure if we are blessing for generations to come it will be fast so many great promises we have from the Lord we will restore we will raise strong foundations verse 12 also says repairer of the breach meaning if there is a breakdown between communities between family relationships whatever it is I will give the grace for those things to be restored so we can fast verse 12 says restoreer of streets to dwell in again very similarly similar to what we are saying restoring communities giving them strong foundations then verse 14 you shall delight yourself from the Lord ok so basically God is saying when we fast he will also give us a capacity to enjoy God sometimes it feels like a task I have to do this no God is saying I will make you delight means you will desire you will love it to actually follow me and that can happen if we fast so he will give us the grace to desire him verse 14 also says I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth simply it means honour you want honour are you looking for honour victory in your life if you fast God is saying I will put honour on your life you will be honoured then verse 14 also says feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father so that simply means all the promises that have been given to Jacob in the bible or the children of God you can take it that way God will give it to us we will enjoy the heritage of the blessings that have been given to his people so over here just 18 are listed but from other passages we understand things like our faith is strengthened so much when we fast so I am just going to wrap up now thank you for your time just give me a little bit more time since you don't have the next class I want to encourage us to take time in fasting so maybe some of us are here saying I never fast I don't know how to fast you can start small maybe you can start with skipping a meal one meal and then you come back in the evening you come back home if you are working read the bible pray in a journal in which you write down your prayer request what God spoke to you so that way you start the habit of fasting so you can go from one meal a day to maybe two meals a day and you can even set aside a day where you do three meals a day then another thing that helps is I am sharing my own life this is how I learned to practice if you are not very strong at this you can do it with somebody else who fasts I had some sisters they used to say okay come wheel fast so they will also fast and at the end of the day we will read the bible pray and worship and close off so we used to do it that way so then I slowly started getting some strength in fasting and then slowly I learned that in certain places and ministries they set aside a day or two days of fasting like if you read about the Methodist movement John Wesley and his team he used to insist that people fasted two days Wednesday and Friday from morning to one part of the day that was mandatory for them so you know when I heard of things like that I recognized that it is possible to do it every week more regular otherwise what happens sometimes we just say whenever there is an issue I will fast and there is a problem I will fast but what is helpful is since we are also talking about discipline and walking in all these blessings every week you can set aside one day and you decide if you want to skip one meal or two meals is up to you and different seasons of your life it might look different maybe in some season you might skip two meals but some season you might be skipping one meal that's okay so don't be too hard and fast the main thing is to maintain the regularity in addition to that like when I get some holidays and all when I don't have to do work, travel you can take two days fasting three days fasting because you are at home you can manage your time and energy so things like that and it's been such a blessing I would say in my own personal life actually fast and then you can do special times 40 days 7 days 14 days, 21 days it's up to you but it's a great blessing to fast God has given that to us so it's a good thing to develop slowly so if you have any questions we can just answer them and we will close off the session anything practical sure so if you have later also you can ask me I'll be around and online students can post it on the stream page so that's a little bit about fasting and the last chapter in our notes which we have not touched is chapter 22 basically it has this incident where you know you had people praying on a mountain Exodus 17 verses 9 through 11 when there was a war going on there were people on the mountain who were praying you remember I think Moses right he lifted up his hands and then he couldn't keep it up so there were these two men who were holding his hands so whenever his hands were raised they were winning the war when they came down they were losing the war so it's simply a picture for us to recognize that the real action is in prayer okay yes hard work and good strategy and implementation all those things work in the natural but they have to be accompanied by prayer so when prayer goes up and when prayer is strong many mighty things will take place should never get that so it puts it beautifully prayer is where the action is prayer is where the action is we've learned so much about prayer we can release our authority we can fulfill God's purposes but the main thing now is put it into practice put it into practice I know one brother he works with us now he's part of our outreach team but every time I talk to him he says sister he studied in our Bible college many years ago now he's a pastor so he says whatever I learned those days whatever notes Pastor Ashish gave all these pastors notes by the way so I'm just sharing it with us till today I have it sister I've marked in the notes sometimes I preach from it many times I revisit the notes I never lost even one paper I didn't lose it it's with me I still refer it I refresh my understanding and it is helping me as a pastor I am able to maintain a strong foundation in God's word so the point I'm making is what we have learned today will never become old never think I finished prayer and intercession yeah I finished it no 2022 I finished it in APC Bible college Bangalore yeah we understand it but you see this knowledge you should never say yeah I finished it don't ever say that because the most important thing we have to apply it use it right so pray and ask God Lord thank you for what we have learned but help us to use it isn't it that's when it makes sense whatever we've learned so let's just close off this session and the course with the word of prayer I'll just pray for all of us Heavenly Father we thank you Lord Father we are so grateful that we could spend time in your word Father we thank you for Lord your word which is living and active and powerful Lord sharper than any two-edged sword Father thank you that it is shaping in a man Father God we thank you for giving us this privilege of prayer Lord we thank you that you've given us so God the Holy Spirit who aids us in prayer so Lord I pray that as your people as your children Lord you will take us on this journey where Lord we will experience so much in prayer oh God and not just experience but Lord release your power and your glory Father God through our praying Lord release your authority through our praying Father God and Lord we thank you in advance Lord we thank you in advance for going before us we thank you in advance Lord for strengthening us continually Father God in this area of prayer and Lord we pray that many mighty things Lord will be accomplished in each of us personally as a body and Father God for the glory of your name in your kingdom in this nation Lord and the nations of the world we thank you once again Father God we surrender everything and Lord we thank you so much Lord for helping us go through this entire course in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen so yeah thank you everybody you shall receive your marks both online and on campus students tomorrow your first graded assignment for the online students you will learn it's already posted the assignment questions but the Google classroom it will be different so I will be posting it you can access it tomorrow and please complete your assignments in time and for you I think they will give the timetable when your exam will be so the portions is remaining remaining chapters I am not including the first set which we did yes of course okay all right so let's close off thank you my pleasure thank you everyone God bless okay thank you okay there is a question here I will answer this Adjacent at times during fasting I find my flesh reacting more rather than on usual days of prayer I get angry quickly so I have not fasted for quite some time now today I learnt very clearly about the right attitude for fasting and why I do it matters to God rather than the length of duration of the fast I thank God for bringing me to this clarity of thought and mind about fasting and prayer sure Adjacent thank you for sharing that but one more thing I want to tell you is see sometimes no like getting angry and all it's very natural because the body when you've not seen of the body so we that's what I've been saying wise wise so maybe on the days when we fast we can pick the days when we don't have too much interaction with people or the days when we don't have too much workload these are all practical things so that way what happens though you're fasting you're not you know putting undue pressure on your body and your natural self so yeah it happens to all of us when we fast we get a little irritable but yeah we learn how to manage it as we practice fasting in our daily lives okay so thank you Jishan thank you so much and thank you everyone I really appreciate each of you especially from home connecting like this may the Lord reward you for making this effort and I hope you've been blessed by these classes and enriched for God's glory thank you once again God bless you abundantly bye bye for now