Isaiah 58

And let me say, healing will come quickly.

Isaiah 58 verse 8.

Healing is not going to wait.

Isaiah 58 and verse 8.

It is going to come quickly.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear.

You would take something that was good, and then you would use it as a loophole to get around having to do actual gospel ministry, actual obedience to the law.

We see this in Isaiah 58 where he talks about the unrighteous fast that the people are offering.

He says, all of the wealthy are coming in and they're fasting in the temple.

But all of the poor are out there in the streets, destitute and hungry.

There's a certain sense in which there's an anticipation there that it might be a part of the believer's walk.

So, you know, if you're reflecting on that, I'll get your thoughts here because, you know, there's a passage in Isaiah chapter 58.

True fasting is about breaking chains of injustice and freeing the oppressed.

caring for the poor.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the whole breakthrough theme of fasting is very well developed throughout the Bible and Isaiah is, you know, obviously Isaiah 58, I think it's somewhere around 6, verse 6 or something like that, that it talks about loosing chains and breaking, you know, these, you know, various different breakthroughs that you need and getting those kind of you know, almost in some way, it's like adding to your prayer.

It's like, you know, when you're willing to surrender that food, it's like, it's almost like an empowerment of, and I'm not saying this is a magic trick or anything like that.

I'm just saying that, you know, by us being willing to give up something, I think that allows us to get a better connection with God in many respects.

When I left New York City, we were feeding about 19,000 people on a daily basis.

And our, our desire was to unite at the cross and according to Isaiah 58, not hide from our own flesh and begin to reach out to the, the hardest hit areas in New York City.

Ar- areas where people, kids don't have lunch to go to school.

Do you understand? Areas where moms don't have food to give their, to give their families when they come home.

That is the prayer that God was talking about.

And I can actually prove it to you.

Isaiah 58, he said, "Is this not," verse 6, "Is this not the fast I've chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring your h- you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? And when you see the naked, you cover him, and not hide from your own flesh." In other words, if you will reach out from beyond yourself, beyond the, the growth of your own church and organization, beyond Gathering and wanting to be the biggest and best thing on the block.

Do you understand what I'm talking about? If you'll take your resources and give it to 100 churches.