God the Father is not interested in religious ritual and man-made creeds. Jesus did not come and give His life for religious ceremony and fleshly exercises. God is interested in a personal relationship with people -- not all the emotional showings and the organized movements in church buildings. People today, like the Jews of old, put more emphasis on ritual, creeds, and custom than on the God of heaven; people today, like the Jews of old, boast about fasting many days. Today, as then, people force themselves to go without food, but they do so with selfish motives, rather than for the purpose of God. Isaiah 58 tells us about the true fast of God. God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to let us know what He desires when His people fast.

Isaiah 58:1-2 “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight like to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in a approaching to God.”

Now notice what He said, “show my people their transgression.” It is really sad that many think they are doing what God wants, but are far from the truth. God says, “They seek me daily”. They are real religious. They are full of do’s and don’t do’s, but are far from God and His way. They want to be really recognized by God but, in their own efforts, miss what God wants. Yes, they “seek” God, but not according to knowledge or from hearts of sincerity. Well, what does that have to do with transgression? If you go back to the scripture in St. Matthew 15:8, you will see what Jesus said. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” That is the answer. The heart is not in what they are doing and saying. There is no sincere worship or honor of God in their religious practices, and there is not true understanding of the spirit of the word of God. They have the written word on the pages of the Bible, but do not have the true spirit or heart of the message of the word of God.

Just as the experts in the Torah [Law] and Pharisees of the days of Jesus knew the words of the scriptures and focused on the rituals and traditions, people today seek to be holy and practice religious rituals and ceremonies without the Spirit of God. They show the emotional outward religious ritualism, but nothing is happening in their hearts. Again, God is not looking at all that. God is looking for relationships.

Isaiah 58:3 “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.”

They were bragging. They wanted to say to God, “Lord, God, we have fasted.” If anyone thinks that fasting or going without eating a couple of days will impress God, that person is mistaken. Bragging about not eating or drinking to get power is really misplaced religious exercise that carries no weight with God. Israel told God in ancient times just like some say today, “We have fasted GOD and you are not paying us any attention. You are not making things happen for us.” Some say that they are doing everything God tells them to do. Are they really? In their own eyes, many think they are following the instructions of God and that God ought to be pleased with them. They really think that God ought to be paying attention to their works. They think that their “good works” should be gaining points with God. Nothing could be farther from the truth! These people have religion” but they do have God in their hearts.”in the day of your fast, ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors”. Do what? What is God saying? They fasted for their own comfort. They fasted the way that they wanted to do it. They did not change their life style. Here again, they had the ritual without their hearts being involved. They didn’t come out of their comfort zone. They keep a “letter of the Book” but the spirit or heart of the Book was far from them. They keep account of their “good deeds”. God knows if you are doing something for Him. He knows, so what in the world do you care about anybody else knowing? All to often among religious-minded people, things are done to impress other people in order to seem more righteous than others, which causes envy, resentment, and conflict. This was exactly what ancient Israel was doing.

Isaiah 58:4-5 “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”

In every way, what you do must be from the heart to the praise and glory of God. Your focus must be on God and obedience to His word -- not on impressing others. When you try to impress others, you end up impressing no one.

The fast that God has chosen is nothing like many think. God is not interested in any one starving himself to death. Many say that they fasted long periods of time just to make a name for themselves. That is not a true fast in the eyes of God. God told us in His word what a real fast is all about. Following the true fast of God will bring great benefits.

Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” These are things that God says are to be done. You cannot love God if you don’t love others. How can you say that you love God whom you have never seen and you don’t love your brother who sits next to you. You can’t do anything for God. You serve God by serving mankind and by serving your brothers in Christ. God says for us “to loose the bands of wickedness”. How do you loose the bands of wickedness? You fight injustice. You fight against anything that is unjust to humans. People care more about dogs than they do human beings. We are to “undo the heavy burdens” You must try with all your heart, with compassion and love and concern, to relieve people who are bound by heavy burdens of oppression. Your heart of compassion must be toward those who are under pressure, under burdens and who are laden down. The life of the truly godly person must be one of unselfishness. It is human and natural to be selfish. The person who is really a new creation in Christ is enabled by God to forsake selfishness.

The only way people are going to see God is through us. The only hand that is going to reach out to people is our hand. The only one that is going to speak kind words to people is going to be the one whose heart and mouth is dedicated and controlled by God. God is not going to come out of heaven and speak to folks. We are to represent Him with a heart like He has. He had heart enough to save you when you were rotten to the core. Every one of us was rotten, low down. Every one saved today came from the darkness and stench of sin. Sin is sin! There are no cute sins! There is no nice sin! To God, all sin is sin! To be cute now and act like you have never done anything is being dishonest. Anyone who acts like that is lying and there is no truth in him. Those who are saved now were just as rotten as anybody else. God showed His love and compassion on the saved person and rescued him from destruction.

This is for a saved person. You are already saved if you accepted Jesus into your heart. But now how do you live? What do you do? God said for us to ”let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke” You are to forgive and free everyone. You oppress people when you say you forgive them and they know you haven*t because of your attitude toward them. To forgive somebody is to let that person go free in such a way that it is as though they never did anything to you. God says for us to “deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” If anyone comes to you hungry, feed the person. Do not complain about not having much; share what you have from your heart. Sharing is not an issue when your heart is right. When God fixes the heart of a person, obedience to the word of God is his daily life. Kindness and compassion rule in the heart that is fixed by God. The love of God that is imputed into your heart makes it possible to truly see the suffering of others and to act according to what the word of God tells you . You will clothe the naked and feed the poor in love and compassion without a selfish motive. God loves people; to be godly, we have to love people. We don’t judge them. We are not to just help the saints and ones we know, but we are to help people we don’t know, too. When you do what God says in His word, then the promises He made for being obedient will be manifested in your life. Look at what follows the truly obedient believer.

Isaiah 58:8-11 “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out the soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”

Just look at those wonderful promises! ”thine health, [physical health], shall spring forth speedily”. Have you been sick a long time? Look at the promise. The promise is that your health will spring forth speedily. There will be no delay in your healing! When you give freely and generously, the blessing of being a giver will go before you and you will always receive. People will favor you and the favor of God will be upon you so much so that you will never have a need that is not satisfied. Yes, the glory of the Lord shall be upon you and God Himself “shall be your rereward” your protector and rear guard. There will never be a time when you are not protected! You will always be guarded by the Almighty God. God’s glory, splendor, and beauty will always be your covering. The Lord shall always answer you. While some folks keep calling and calling GOD, He doesn’t answer them. They don’t have the right frame of mind. They can pray and carry on, yet God is not paying attention to them. But He does pay attention to those that walk in these steps of love and compassion like unto God. The only way it can be seen in this world is through those of us that represent Him. Change your mind and you will change your life today.

Bishop W. C. Hunter

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