“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, 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 am I.” (Isaiah 58:6-9)

It would seem that even in Israel fasting became a religious ritual that people did the wrong way.  Fasting was often a last resort in order to please God when all else was about to fail around them.

When your lifestyle is not pleasing to God, fasting is meaningless, according to this scripture in Isaiah.  Don’t just fast for fasting’s sake.

We must always be aware that God’s eyes are on us. We must weigh our motivations in the light of God’s countenance and gaze.

When we go about our days do we practice religious rituals to try to appease the God known as Jehovah? Or do we commune with him and out of this relationship seek to do as He asks?

Sometimes He asks us to fast.

Fasting when God tells us to fast is a very powerful way to accelerate breakthrough all around us.  I have seen such fasting promote people into higher realms of the spirit, but it is not the fasting that accomplished this, in and of itself, because if that was the case then you would be accomplishing it by works.  And yet, faith without works is dead.

There is a part of the fast that can break the bonds and the chains of oppression.  When we fast, things can be loosed off of our lives and the lives of those around us.

Jesus said that some kind of demons only let go through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).

When we fast we are in warfare in the spirit in a way we couldn’t be otherwise.

I told the Lord a long time ago that if He wanted me to fast then He was going to have to make it clear because I did not want to practice fasting out of ritual.  I didn’t want to have a form of religion that lacked power.

And so when I fast usually I have heard a word from God which confirms that I am to fast.  When I hear this word I get excited because I know that the fast is going to produce something powerful because God has ordained it.

This passage in Isaiah creates excitement in my heart.

I look to this and declare that these things that are promised through fasting will come to pass in my life and the lives of those I love as well.  When I fast, I believe that it is going to accomplish a breakthrough that could not be accomplished any other way.

Recently I was preaching in Montreal.  The people were very hungry for the things of Holy Spirit.  They invited me to preach on the last day of a 21 day fast.  The atmosphere was charged and the miracles, signs and wonders followed the preaching of the word.

When we fast expecting the results of our fast to produce what Isaiah 58 declares, then many powerful things do happen.

Yes, when we fast according to Isaiah 58, healing occurs, the glory comes down and breakthrough occurs in our lives.

I pray today that you will see the power of a God-ordained fast and that your spirit will come to life as you meditate on this passage.

I pray that you will stop fasting out of a dead form and that you will come in line with the living God and His Word and when He declares a fast you will hear His voice.

May you see all of these great things come to pass in your lives and families.