United Fasting For Restoration

Tonight I want to speak about what I believe to be the greatest form of spiritual power available to God’s people, which is the union of prayer with fasting, and not merely individual fasting, which is good, but collective fasting which I believe is the summit of power. The title of the message in our outline is ‘United Fasting for Restoration.’ There is one outline, but it’s a lengthy one and I’m happy to be able to divide it into two sections. So tonight I’ll deal with the first half of it and tomorrow I will go on to the second half.

Since the word fasting is in the title, it might be good just to pause for a moment and define fasting. Now it can be defined in various ways, but on a scriptural basis I would say that fasting is ‘abstaining from food voluntarily for spiritual purposes.’ Normally when we fast we do not eat, but we do drink. There are times in the Bible when people fasted without food or water. Moses did it twice. Elijah, I think, did it once, and for forty days. Now I would not recommend anybody to undertake a forty day fast without food or water unless they’re in that relationship to God and that supernatural condition in which Moses and Elijah were at that time. However, in the fourth chapter in the book of Esther, Esther and her maidens fasted three days and three nights without food or water—seventy-two hours. Personally, I’ve done that twice. And I would say that should be the limit that you ever go without liquid, unless you’re in a supernatural condition. To go beyond that without liquid is very dangerous physically, but it’s not dangerous if you have suitable preparations and safeguards to go many, many more days than three without food. And I speak from personal experience. I don’t want to go into the number of days which I fasted, which is not relevant, but there’s not question that it’s possible to go forty days, or twenty-one days, and so on without food if you’re in the right physical condition and spiritual condition. I’m not saying that the effect of our fasting depends on the length. It doesn’t. It depends on being sensitive to the will of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I would also mention this. I’m personally convinced that fasting properly practiced is also extremely

“beneficial to our physical health. In fact, I think it’s a greatly neglected means of curing physical ailments. Now I’ll open with a Scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:9 where Paul says:
For we are labourers together with God . . .”

It really isn’t necessary to turn there, but I just want to point to you that there’s two quite different concepts. One is working for God; the other is working with God. Many earnest, good Christians are working for God. They’re doing something that they think needs to be done and then they’re asking God to bless what they do. But I’m talking about a totally different concept. I’m talking about seeking God and finding out from God what He requires to be done, what is His purpose at this hour and in this situation and then moving in to do it with God. Not initiating our own thing, but seeking the mind and purpose of God and submitting ourselves to that. I believe there’s a tremendous difference. I believe the child of human planning and human expediency is an Ishmael. The child of divine initiative and divine purpose is an Isaac. And I believe in the birth of every Isaac there must be an element of the supernatural. It must go beyond what we can do with the best of our natural will and ability. And I don’t know that I fear anything more just at this time than bringing forth an Ishmael in place of an Isaac, because when I look at the history of the Bible I find that Abraham with the best motives and trying to do the thing that God was going to do anyhow, produced an Ishmael. And for just about four thousand years Ishmael has been the biggest problem for Isaac and his seed. If ever the Bible teaches us anything, it teaches us to beware of begetting an Ishmael.

So we need, first of all, to discover the divine purpose and then we need to move in it. As a matter of fact, in the fourth chapter of Galatians, we might turn there for a moment, speaking about Ishmael and Isaac, Paul gives us a further warning. Galatians 4:28 and following:

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”

That’s divine purpose, divine initiative. Something that Abraham would never have thought of and could never have worked out by himself.

“But as then he that was born after the flesh [that’s Ishmael] persecuted him that was born after the Spirit [that’s Isaac], even so it is now.
Bear in mind that Ishmael will always be the enemy of Isaac.
That which is born of the flesh [Jesus said] is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.”

And that which is born of the flesh, in our ministry, in our fellowship, in our activities will always hinder and oppose that which God wishes to bring to birth by the Spirit.

“Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman [Hagar] and her son [Ishmael]: for the son of the bondwoman should not be heir with the son of freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”

Notice we are not merely to get rid of Ishmael, we’re to get rid of his mother too. And his mother, Hagar, is a type of the law, of legalism—of man trying to do his own thing, his own way, in his own strength, and by his own will. So tonight we need to know, first of all, what is God’s purpose, and I believe the Scriptures clearly reveals God’s purpose for these days for His people.

I believe the end time purpose of God is restoration. I believe this is clearly spoken of, for instance, in Acts 3 verse 21:

“…the times of the [restoration] of all things…”

The King James says restitution, I prefer restoration. Restoration means ‘putting things back in their right place and their right condition.’ As I see Scripture, God has two covenant peoples related to Him by an unbreakable covenant in the earth—the one is Israel, the other is the church of Jesus Christ. Because God has brought into being the church, He has not cut off Israel. He is still committed to Israel, He is committed to the church. The one is essentially a people by natural descent, the other by spiritual rebirth. And at this time and since the beginning of this century God has been sovereignly moving to restore His two peoples. Each people has a God-given inheritance. Primarily Israel’s inheritance is geographic. The church’s inheritance is spiritual. And almost year by year from 1900 about and onwards, God has been moving to restore Israel to their geographic inheritance, and to bring the church back to its spiritual inheritance in Christ.

And one thing revolutionized my thinking. When God spoke to me in a restaurant in London one day, London, England, and He showed me. He said this, ‘You can see how far away My people Israel have been from their God-given inheritance for eighteen centuries.’ And I said, ‘Lord, I see it.’ Then He said, ‘In My sight the church has been just as far away from its spiritual inheritance in Christ all those centuries.’ The church has just as far to get back to get into its spiritual inheritance as Israel has to get back into its inheritance in the land. And actually, it is not my purpose tonight, but I could take you stage by stage by stage from 1900 onwards and show you how the process of restoration has been going on parallel step by step for Israel and the church.

I believe this is pictured in the book of Joel. I believe Joel is the great revelator of the end-time visitation in outline. Joel is divided into three chapters, and I believe each chapter is a phase. The first chapter is desolation. It pictures the most total desolation you can imagine. Nothing has been left unaffected. The second chapter the theme is restoration and in Joel 2:25 God actually says:

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, . . .”

Let me pause for a moment and give you good news. God has committed Himself to do a tremendous thing. His people have been invaded by this army of insects. He does not merely say, ‘I will drive out the insects.’ He says, ‘I will restore the years they’ve eaten.’ And that’s what God is doing now. The third chapter of Joel the theme is judgment:

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”

Judgment of blessing upon those that respond to what God is doing; judgment of punishment upon those that refuse and reject what God is doing. That’s the outline—desolation, restoration, and judgment.

And in the forefront of Joel’s picture, both in the picture of desolation and in the picture of restoration, there are what I call two type trees—you can find them in Joel 1:7, Joel 1:12, Joel 2:22, the fig tree and the vine. The fig tree, I believe, is a type of Israel, the vine is a type of the church, and I believe that in Luke 21:29 Jesus was actually quoting Joel when He said:

“Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now begin to shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.”

In other words, this is the period of restoration that’s going to climax God’s purposes for the age. So the purpose of God is restoration. Let us look for a moment also at Psalm 102 which conveys the same message, beginning at verse 12. The opening part of the psalm is once again a picture of desolation. Everything is blighted. There seems to be no hope. And then the psalmist says, ‘But you, Lord, you haven’t changed.’ Thank God.

“Thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. [And then comes this glorious promise in verse 13:] Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, [has] come.”

Now I believe that Zion is the key word in the Bible that covers both God’s covenant people—Israel and the church. And verse 13 reveals that there is a set time. The Hebrew word is moed, which is used of all the set feasts of Israel, their solemn feast days, like the Day of Atonement, the Day of Pentecost, and so on. Each feast day which was set apart and marked out on the calendar which had to be most solemnly observed was called a moed. So there was a set time in God’s prophetic calendar, marked out ahead where He’s going to have favor upon His peoples in the earth.

The word favor is the Old Testament equivalent of grace, and it means we haven’t deserved it. How important it is to see that.

I’m sure most Christians see clearly that Israel did not deserve to be restored to their land. But I wonder how many Christians know how clearly the Jews see that we don’t deserve what God is doing for us. In each case it is grace. It is not of works, Paul says. If it were of works it would not be of grace. So this is the time in which we are living. If you believe in marking your Bible and you’re accepting what I say, you could write a little mark against verse 13 and say ‘now,’ it’s happening now, God is doing that now. Verse 14:

“For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.”

I don’t know whether that’s true about you, but for me it is literally true. I love the stones and the dust of Jerusalem. I’ve loved them for thirty-two years. Some people couldn’t understand that, but the first day I saw the city of Jerusalem in August 1942, I fell in love with it. And it is literally true; I love the stones and the dust of Jerusalem. And let me say, I’m not a Jew by birth.

But there’s other stones and dust that have lain in rubble and ruin for many, many centuries. Those are the church. And to one who does not see with the eye of God there’s nothing very beautiful or attractive about those ruins. But when God’s love fills our hearts, we see that God has a purpose of restoration and we begin to love the ruins, the stones, and the dust. And then verse 15 says:

“So the heathen [but I like to say ‘the nations’] shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.”

When God restores His people, it’s going to bring glory to His name and it’s going to bring awe and wonder upon the nations of the earth. God is going to demonstrate His glory in such a way that the whole earth will stand in awe at what God is doing. And then verse 16:

“When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.”

Here’s one of the clearest statements that the upbuilding of Zion immediately precedes the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. And today God is building up Zion. Israel and the church—both are being built up in the face of satanic opposition, in much conflict, in much distress and anguish, but in the midst of it all God is building up Zion, and very, very soon, I believe, He will appear in His glory. If you take the two themes of favor or grace and up building, the total picture is restoration. That’s the picture that God has given us.

All right, now then, since restoration is God’s purpose, our place and our privilege is to cooperate with God in His purpose. And I want to take some examples from the Old Testament of this principle which is most important. Brother Watt brought it out briefly the other day that when God promises to do something it doesn’t mean He’s going to do it without us. His promise provokes our cooperation. It provides for us a basis for faith in praying and working to the end that God has declared He will accomplish. And I want to take up three examples from the Old Testament.

The first one is from the book of Jeremiah, the 29th chapter. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10. Jeremiah predicted clearly the Babylonian captivity of God’s people, Judah. But he also predicted the restoration from the captivity and he told them how long the captivity would last. He said it would last seventy years, and then God would visit them in grace and restore them to their own land. And this promise is given in Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10:

“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place [that’s Jerusalem.] For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Now God says, ‘At the end of seventy years I will restore you.’ But He says, ‘When that time comes, then you’re going to have to seek Me with all your heart. And when you seek Me with all your heart, I’ll do what I promised to do.’ But His doing it is not without the requirement that we seek Him with all our heart.

Now in the 9th chapter of Daniel we find that Daniel, in captivity near the end of the seventy years, discovered this promise in the scroll of Jeremiah and set himself to claim the fulfillment of the promise which he read. We read this in the first three verses of Daniel chapter 9.

“2:] in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books [more literally I understood from the scrolls] the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet [that’s in Jeremiah 29:10 where we read it], that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”

So Daniel saw the prophecy, he knew approximately when it was given, he knew how long the captivity had run, he knew that the end of the captivity, according to this, was near at hand, but he also read God’s requirement that he was to seek the Lord with all his heart for the fulfillment of the promise, and this is how he responded. This is the key, verse 3:

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: . . .”

‘To seek the Lord with all your heart’ means to set you face and to seek God with fasting and with prayer. That’s what God is now requiring of us.

Turn to another example of the same principle in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, and again, if you want to, you can write ‘now’ against these words in Ezekiel 36. Speaking about Israel’s persistent stubbornness and God’s judgment upon it, in Ezekiel 36:19 God says:

“And I scattered them among the [nations], and they were dispersed through the countries: [verse 20:] And when they entered unto the [nations], whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.”

Because of their rebellion God scattered them out of their inheritance amongst all other nations. And wherever they went the message went out, ‘These are the Lord’s people.’ And God says, in effect, ‘They embarrass Me. They embarrass Me terribly, that I was identified with these people, because they lived and did the very opposite of the things that I require.’

Now I want to suggest to you that the same is true of the church. The church was driven out of its inheritance because of its disobedience, idolatry and stubbornness. And the church’s gone on representing itself to be the church of Jesus Christ amongst all nations, causing God pain and embarrassment, because we have not shown to the nations the truth about Jesus Christ.

Just think what the church has shown to Israel. I don’t know whether you know this, but even before World War II in the city of Jerusalem alone, there were registered seventy different Christian sects, and the city was not big in those days. It maybe was about forty or fifty thousand. And those sects and churches and missionaries were largely at war with one another. And even since the birth of the state of Israel, it is a recorded fact, which I happen to know on good authority, that more than once one group of missionaries has gone to the religious minister of the state of Israel and asked him to get rid of other groups of missionaries out of the county.

Now Paul said in Romans chapter 11 to the Gentile Christians, ‘I would like you to behave in such a way that you provoke the Jews to jealousy, that they’d want what you have.’ But I honestly have to tell you, over nineteen centuries the Jews have seen very little in the church to make them jealous. We have shamed the Lord by our testimony. Israel has done it, but so has the church. And I believe God is just as much embarrassed by the church as He is by Israel. God says, ‘Now I’m going to intervene.’ But He said, ‘Before I do it I want to tell you it’s not because you deserved it.’ I would to God that we who live in this last day pouring out of the Holy Spirit would realize this, we are no better than those that have gone before us. In many cases we’re not as good, but we’re living in an hour of divine grace and visitation. That doesn’t come because of our merits. It comes because of God’s sovereign mercy and faithfulness. And so when I read these words addressed to Israel they apply in principle every whit as much to the church. So God says, verse 21 of Ezekiel 36:

“But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the [nations], whither ye went.”

And God’s restoration of the church is no more for the church’s sake then is restoration of Israel is for Israel’s sake. In each case the motive is for His holy name’s sake.

“And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the [nations], which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.”

God intends to reveal Himself to the nations through what He achieves in His people. We are the means of His communication and revelation to the Lord. The church, Paul says, in 1 Timothy 3:15 is ‘the pillar and ground of the truth.’ How many of us realize that? The truth is presented not in the individual testimony of a preacher or a Christian, it’s presented in the corporate testimony of the church. If you take the word pillar and the word ground as foundation, consider how much of a building is left when you remove the foundation and the pillars. All you have is a shambles of building materials. And without divine order of the church, all that the world sees is a pile of stones and timber, and they say, What’s the good of that? So God says, ‘I’m going to reveal Myself by what I do in My people.’ And then He says, verse 24 and you can write ‘Now’ against verse 24:

“For I will take you from among the [nations], and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
This has been happening for the last fifty years in Israel and in the church. Verse 25: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: . . .”

Notice with regard to Israel that God said He would gather them in their uncleanness. Many Christians says, ‘Well, why is God gathering Israel, because they haven’t repented, they haven’t turned back to Him through faith in Jesus Christ?’ He said, ‘I’m going to gather you in your uncleanness and I’m going to deal with you in your own land.’ That’s the place where God always deals with Israel—in the place where it was said to them, ‘Ye are not the children of God, in their place shall it be said to them ye are the children of the living God.’ And God says, ‘I’ll sprinkle clean water upon you.’

Now I believe, myself, that clean water is the clean water of the Word of God. And today it’s happening in Israel. I use Israel as an example for you to understand the church. See, many Christians don’t realize that in all the years of their dispersal, the average Jew hardly ever read the text of the Bible. When he went to the synagogue he heard a rabbi’s interpretation of a rabbi’s interpretation, and he read books which were commentaries on commentaries. And the actual pure clear words of Scripture seldom came to him.

Now the remarkable thing is true, the same has been true largely of the Catholic Church. For many, many centuries the average Catholic never actually read a Bible for himself. When he went to Mass it was in a language he didn’t understand, and he was told that he was only to get it through the priest and through the prayer book. And mostly what he got was a third-hand at the very best.

Now, almost simultaneously, and this is dramatic, almost simultaneously in time, Israel had been exposed to the truths of the Scripture in their own language again, and the Catholics have been exposed to the truth of the Bible in their own language. The parallel is dramatic. You see, the Bible is the textbook of the Hebrew people. And today in Jewish schools in Israel they get the Bible as literature, history, language and religion—four ways. Furthermore, because of the pressure of Christian neighbors being lifted, they’re beginning to study the New Testament. And I heard recently about a school in Israel, a government school, where they were required to study the Athanasian Creed as a matter of history.

Well, believe me, it isn’t going to take long before something happens. The same is true with the Catholics. There isn’t a Pope, there isn’t a council, there isn’t anybody on earth that can reverse the process that started when the Catholics were exposed to the Word of God. It’s irresistible. So God says:

“[I’ll sprinkle the clean water of My word] upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. [Verse 26:] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Now I’m glad that Ezekiel was a Jew because he couldn’t be accused of being anti-Semitic. If I’d said that for nineteen centuries the Jews had had a heart of stone, they’d call me anti-Semitic. But it was a Jew that said it. And what’s the difference? You see, a heart of stone cannot respond to anything. Now a heart of flesh may still be a wicked heart, but it can respond, and for eighteen centuries or more, basically Israel have a heart that could not respond to the Holy Spirit. It was a divine judgment, but God in the last few years has taken away taken away the heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh. And I’ll tell you

when it happened. It happened in 1967, in the Six-Day War, when Israel for the first time in two thousand five hundred years regained political and military control of the Old City. I’ve been in Israel before and after. The change astonished me.

Now remember, a heart of flesh is not converted, but it’s a heart that can respond. And in the United States today, proportionately, I would say more Jews are coming to Jesus Christ than Gentiles. You cannot go anywhere in any Charismatic group in the United States today without meeting Jews that are turned on for Jesus.

Another remarkable thing about it is that now they have not ceased to be Jews. For many, many centuries when a Jew put his faith in Jesus Christ, the Jews called him meshumad, which is the Hebrew word for convert, but it means ‘a corrupted one.’ They regarded him as a traitor. He was officially buried. His identity and inheritance as a Jew were totally cut off. But today the Jews for Jesus are proud of being Jews. They’re assertive about it, if anything they’re a little too proud of it. But what a change. And then God says:

“[When I have given you a heart of flesh.] And [then] I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

You realize, of course, that you cannot walk in God statutes. You cannot keep His judgments till He puts His Spirit within you. No manner of human effort will ever achieve it. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. It’s impossible. You can make all the resolutions, you can study all the texts, you can look at the commandments, you can have your statements of fundamentals, but until the Spirit of God moves in, you cannot do the will of God—it’s impossible.

Now then, God goes on to tell all that He’s going to do for Israel, and in the verses that follow I have counted seventeen times that God sovereignly says, ‘I will, I will, I will…’ God doesn’t say, ‘If you do this, or if you do that. I’ll do it anyhow.’ But at the end of it all—and I was so excited when Brother Watt turned to this verse—in verse 37 he says this—after saying ‘I will’ seventeen times He says:

“I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; . . .”

I’m going to do it all, but you’re going to have to pray. You see, that’s the marvelous balance between predestination and freewill. Predestination is a valid truth. We cannot do away with it, but so is freewill. How do we reconcile them? God’s foreknowledge. Praise God, He knows what we’re going to do, but He still expects us to do it. He’s promised what He’ll do, but He says, ‘I won’t complete doing it until you do your part.’ You see, the understanding of God’s purposes—the revelation of promises and prophecies—is not an excuse for laziness, it’s a challenge to commitment as we were never committed before. And as for me, I have to tell you this; I’m not interested in being a spectator on the sidelines. I want to be involved. That’s my nature. Every time I saw something going on that attracted me, I got into it. Sometimes I got some wounds, but I got into it. And I want to be in what God is doing. I’m not interested in just standing on the sidelines and watching it happen, and God doesn’t want us on the sidelines. He wants every one of us involved and committed to the fulfillment of His purposes.

All right. We take the last picture which is in Ezekiel 37—these are the patterns of how we cooperate with God’s purpose of restoration. Do you understand? And Ezekiel 37 has got the famous vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, and God says categorically, these bones are the whole house of Israel. You know, it’s possible to be a dry bone without knowing it. Do you realize that? You talk to the average New York Jew who’s making a hundred thousand dollars a year and drives a Cadillac and so on and so forth, has a cottage on the lake and all that. Do you think he thinks he’s a dry bone? Not for a moment. And you know there are a lot of Christian dry bones that even don’t know they’re bones. When you’re just a bone you don’t even now what you are. And God says of Israel and He says of the church, ‘I’m going to open your graveyards and bring you out of them.’ And it’s happening simultaneously and He says, ‘I’m going to unite you together into bodies, I’m going to fit you bone to bone and I’m going to cover you with ligaments and sinews and flesh and skin.’ This is what we were talking about this afternoon. The joints and the bonds. This is happening in the church. The relationships are being restored. The ligaments of love and peace are binding people together and He says in Ezekiel 37 verse 7: it’s ‘bone to his bone.’

You know there’s a bone somewhere that you fit in with, and you’ll never function until you find that bone and fit in with it. And let me tell you this—this has got me into trouble. There’s one country they wouldn’t publish this message of mine because of this, but never mind, God bless them. But the basis of the union of the bones is function. It’s the job that you’re going to be able to do with that other bone. It is not the graveyard that you came from. You may have come from a Baptist graveyard, and you may find yourself joined to a Catholic bone. Could you imagine that? Oh, I know a Baptist bone and a Catholic bone that are flowing together in a beautiful supernatural ministry for the Lord. A Catholic priest and a Baptist evangelist, Brother Bob Arrowsmith, we mentioned their names at the table this evening, joined together, Hallelujah!

And then, listen friends, this is not my message, this is just, you know, a little dessert, it’s an entrée. I mean it’s not an entrée; it’s an hors d’oeuvre, that’s what I mean. But there’s a double—, two phases in this vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. The first phase ended up with bodies, complete bodies but lifeless. And then God said to Ezekiel, ‘Prophecy the second time to the wind [or the spirit or the breath].’ The breath came into the bodies in exceeding great army. Now that’s God’s purpose—an exceeding great army. That’s what He’s working towards, and everything else is just in line with the fulfillment to that purpose.

Now I want to point out to you in relation to the church, that the first time God moves it’s a lot of bones that come up out of their graves and move around, and you get the thrill of watching bones moving around and knocking against one another, and clacking together and making a lot of noise, the Bible says. Well, that’s the Charismatic movement up till now. It’s been a lot of bones clacking around, you know. I’m baptized in the Spirit, I speak in tongues, I cast out demons, I have a gift and all this. But there’s been no real integration, there’s been no real submission, there’s been no real uniting.

But God is now making a body and the body is the church. And in every area God is going to make one complete body which is the church in that area, New Westminster, Surrey, North Vancouver, wherever it may be. And then, friends, when the body is complete, then the Spirit is going to come into the completed body. And the second visitation of God is not upon bones, but upon bodies. And the lesson is this—if you haven’t got into a body you’ll never receive the second visitation. It’s only coming to the completed body.

Now, God achieved all this but He didn’t achieve it without Ezekiel. He said, ‘Ezekiel, you prophesy.’ And when Ezekiel prophesied the thing that God revealed as His will came to pass. Now I do declare, in a certain measure, that I believe God has assigned me that role. I don’t have to go round and get all the bones together, but I do have to declare a message which starts the bones moving. And by the grace of God, I say it and I trust I’m not arrogant, I’ve done that in many places. I used to think at one time that if I didn’t get every bone together myself I wasn’t doing my job. God showed me, ‘That’s not what I’m asking you to do. You deliver the message and leave the results to Me.’ But God won’t do it without those who deliver the message. God could have done without Ezekiel but He didn’t. God could do without you and me, but He won’t. We are involved in the fulfillment of His purpose. First of all, we must have an intelligent scriptural understanding of His purpose, then we must identify ourselves with it and be used according to God’s purpose in each of our lives to bring that to fulfillment which He has promised.

All right, that’s by way of introduction. Now what I’m saying in the message that I’m bringing tonight and tomorrow night is that united fasting is essential to end-time restoration. It is not optional. God demands it. It will not be achieved without united fasting. Now let’s take a few points and make them one after another, close the message about half way through the outline, come back tomorrow night—if the Lord wills and we live—we’ll finish it off. But the first point I want to make is that Christ expects His disciples to practice fasting. In the Sermon on the Mount, which is really the basic requirements for Christian discipleship, in Matthew 6 verses 16 through 18:

“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

I just want to point out one single piece of linguistics. Jesus did not say if ye fast, He said when ye fast. That language indicates that He expected all His disciples to fast. The question is not whether they

would do it, but how they would do, and there He laid down certain basic principles. He also speaks both in the plural and in the singular. When ye fast, when thou fastest. I believe that is significant. I believe there’s the individual who fasts alone in his closet in private, but when He says, ‘When ye fast,’ I believe that’s collective fasting. Some people say, ‘Well, fasting must always be done in secret.’ I believe that’s the devil’s theory. Jesus uses exactly the same language about prayer. So on that basis, prayer would always have to be done in secret. So the public prayer meeting is out. Well who wants that? The devil.

So there’s the individual praying and fasting who does it in secret, but there’s collective praying and fasting which is done together and must be public because it must be publicly announced—a time and a place must be appointed for it.

And let me point out to you about individual fast that Jesus says, ‘If you do it in the right way, God will reward you.’ So if you don’t do it, bear in mind that you’re forfeiting a reward. Then again in Mark chapter 2 verses 18 through 20, Mark 2 verses 18 through 20:

“And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him [Jesus], Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?”

You understand that fasting was a normal part of religion in the time of Jesus. It was practiced by the Pharisees, by the disciples of John. In fact, fasting is a normal part of all serious religion in every culture and in every nation. Hindus fast, Buddhists fast, Moslems fast, all religionists that take their religions seriously practice fasting. When I wrote that book of mine Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting, a friend of mine researched in the Library of Congress in the United States to see if there were any Christian books on fasting. And you know what they discovered? Many books by Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists and so on. Not one book by a Christian in the entire Library of Congress on the subject of fasting. I think that’s a reproach to us as Christians. Fasting is an integral part of all serious religion.

All right, so the people of Jesus’ time didn’t see His disciples fasting, they said, ‘How come? Why not?’ And here’s the answer that Jesus gave. Verse 19:

Now, perhaps a little parable, and, of course, we have to interpret the parable, and I’ll offer you my interpretation. Yours may not agree, but this is mine. I believe the bridegroom is Jesus Christ. I think there’s no question about that. The children of the bridechamber are the disciples. Now Jesus said at the present time when He was speaking, the bridegroom is with them, they cannot fast. But He said emphatically the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them then in those days they shall fast.

Now, we ask ourselves: Has the bridegroom been taken away from us? My answer is Yes. Because we all say we’re waiting the Bridegroom’s return. So if we’re waiting the Bridegroom’s return, that’s evidence He’s been taken from us. So in the day between His presence on earth and His return again from heaven, in those days Jesus says of His disciples they shall fast. So in the days in which we live fasting is a mark of Christian discipleship. If you don’t have it, you miss one of the God-given marks of discipleship. So Jesus expected all Christians to fast.

Now there’s much more to be said about Jesus’ own practice of fasting, the practice of the apostle Paul and others, but time does not permit. The next statement I want to make, and I’m following my outline, is that the New Testament church practiced group fasting—not merely individual fasting, but collective fasting. In Acts chapter 13 we read these words at the beginning of the chapter, verse 1 and following:

“Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; [five men are named. Verse 2,] As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

These men, leaders in the church, collectively ministered to the Lord in fasting. Now this is an important concept—ministering to the Lord. The average Christian has little or no concept. They talk about to people, but ministering to people is secondary. Ministering to the Lord is primary, and one way of ministering to the Lord is fasting, waiting upon Him, worshiping Him, praying, seeking His mind and

His council. That’s ministering to the Lord, and when you minister to the Lord, the Lord reveals His purpose, and then you get an Isaac and not an Ishmael, because the initiative is with God. We don’t think up something we ought to do. We minister to the Lord until He shows us what He wants done. And that ministry to the Lord in the New Testament came by collective waiting upon God in fasting and prayer. So now they had the revelation of God’s purpose—‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul.’

“The second time they fasted again, notice this verse 3:
And when they had fasted [again, notice this verse 3:] When they had fasted and prayed again, they laid their hands on them, and sent them forth.”

Now the purpose of prayer and fasting the second time was to commission these two men who were sent forth, to claim for them the needed grace and authority and power, and to claim for them the open doors in the area or ministry to which God was sending them. And it’s very significant that you read at the end of the 14th chapter, after they returned they declared that God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and it states the fulfilled the task to which they were sent. That was the result of collective prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting opens doors which cannot be opened in any other way. Furthermore, work that originates in prayer and fasting, waiting upon God and then due commissioning, will fulfill the task to which it’s sent.

When I was a missionary in east Africa between 1957 and 1961, it was my practice in those days together with my wife to fast regularly each week a day. We followed this practice for many years. When I got to east Africa I found myself in a new kind of position. I was principal of a college. I had tremendous number of more or less secular responsibilities, so I said to myself, ‘I’m too busy to fast.’ And for a time I didn’t do it; and I found that somehow my spiritual life was declining. I wasn’t enjoying the blessing of God, I didn’t have the anointing. I didn’t have the faith and confidence. And one day God showed me, ‘You’ve omitted the fasting.’ So I went back to it, busy as I was, and the blessing and the anointing began to come back.

And then I said to myself one day, I said, ‘I’m here in east Africa and I’m here for four or five years, will I at the end of this period be able to say when I leave I’ve fulfilled the task for which God sent me?’ As I read in the New Testament how those who were sent forth there, fulfilled the task. They got the job done. And God showed me very clearly. He said, ‘If you want New Testament results, you must have New Testament methods.’ They fulfilled the task because it was originated in prayer and fasting. And I believe that. I don’t believe there’s any other way to get New Testament results.

Now, in the course of their journey in various cities they brought numbers of people to the Lord, these people became disciples, and then on their return journey they visited them again and constituted them into congregations. And the means by which they brought congregations into being was the appointment of elders. It’s very significant. There was a transition from merely being disciples to being churches when elders were appointed. And we read in Acts 14 verse 23 how they appointed the elders:

“And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.”

Now we find here of three instances of public, collective prayer and fasting on the part of the leaders of the early church; first of all, to minister to God and to seek the revelation of His will; secondly, to commission apostles sent forth to fulfill a God-given task, and thirdly, to appoint elders or leaders or shepherds in a local congregation. And if you put those three things together, all the primary responsibilities of Christian leadership were accompanied by prayer and fasting—the seeking of the mind of God, the sending forth of apostles, the appointing of elders. And I think, if you study church order and government, apostles and elders are the two great hinges on which all other order and government hangs. And notice, in the early church, both elders and apostles were the product of united prayer and fasting. In other words, the whole basis of church life and order was united prayer and fasting.

All right. Now then, let’s go back to Israel and the Old Covenant. I have to keep my eye on the time. It’s only about 7:30 at moment so we’re doing all right. The next statement is: In the Old Testament God required Israel to fast collectively each Day of Atonement. When this really came home to me, I pictured it to myself. Think of an entire nation completely turning away from all food and all secular activities for one day every year and humbling themselves before Almighty God. And they did this by fasting. Now I want to show you that very clearly in the Scripture. Turn to Leviticus 16 verse 29 through 31, and you’ll find the actual statement about the observation of the Day of Atonement. You know, that’s what the Jews call Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and that the last war in Israel, the forth war, broke out on that particularly sacred day. And you’ll remember that the news commentators pointed out that the majority of the Jewish soldiers went into battle fasting. Why? Because it was the Day of Atonement. Now let’s look here—Leviticus 16:29 through 31:

“And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.”

We’ll come in a moment to the meaning of the phrase ‘afflict your souls,’ but notice that they were to make this a solemn day, set apart by a divine ordinance forever. How did they afflict their souls? Well, the New Testament tells us that they did it by fasting. This is a very interesting correlation of Old and New Testament. I want you to turn if you’re following in your Bible to Acts chapter 27 and verse 9. This is the account of the beginning of Paul’s journey by ship to Rome. I’m sure the story is familiar to most of you. We’re not going into the details of the story, but it says in verse 9:

“Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, . . .”

What does it mean by ‘the fast’? It means the Day of Atonement. That’s right. That was the New Testament word for the Day of Atonement. What season of the year does the Day of Atonement come? Well, last year it came on the 6th of October. It always comes either at the end of September or the beginning of October. What does it mean when the fast is past? It means that winter is coming on, and in the biblical days they didn’t sail in winter—they only sailed in the summer. So that way, you see, we know specifically that the day referred to was the Day of Atonement and it’s called ‘the fast.’ In other

words, we have the evidence of the New Testament that the Jewish believers and the apostles themselves recognized that ‘to afflict their souls’ was to fast. And on that day and that day only, the high priest went beyond the second veil into the Holy of Holies.

Now I believe when that war broke out on Yom Kippur, God said, ‘This is the time on My clock.’ I believe Israel is always the minute hand on God’s prophetic clock. And I believe God said, ‘The time has come for the church to humble their souls by collective fasting, and when the church does that the way will be open into the Holiest of All.’ You remember we’ve been talking about the ministry that’s within the second veil, the king/priest ministry? I do not believe God’s people will enter into that ministry until they meet the conditions laid down by the Word of God, which is collective fasting to humble their souls. That’s very clear.

All right, now the last thing that I’m going to establish tonight and then we’ll close our message is fasting humbles the flesh and we’ll look at some Scriptures. Turn to Galatians 5, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17:

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Now we need to understand the word flesh. Flesh is used in a specific sense by Paul and New Testament writers, by Jesus also when He said, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh.’ It does not mean the literal, physical body. But it means that nature which we have inherited, together with our physical body by descent from Adam. And the essence, I believe, of the flesh can be summed up in one word rebellious. I believe the Bible teaches each one of us born a rebel by nature. We are all by nature, Paul says, in Ephesians 2, verse 3 ‘the children of wrath.’ Why? Because we are all the children of disobedience or rebellion in verse 2.

Now I know this is a thorny theological problem and I won’t go into it. Let me just offer one remark. God does not judge you for your nature, He judges you for your acts. And you cannot hide behind your nature to excuse your acts. But the fact remains that we have a rebellious nature. There’s a rebel inside every one of us and you can run to the ends of the earth, but you’ll not escape your problem because you take it with you just like Jonah did, and many have done since.

All right. Now this is what Paul is talking about—the flesh, not the physical body. The idea that the physical body is evil is an unscriptural idea. As a matter of fact, the Scripture says ‘my body is fearfully and wonderfully made.’ It’s a marvelous God-created instrument. But the flesh, the nature that’s associated with that body, that is in opposition to God. Paul says in Romans 8, ‘They that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ It’s impossible. The carnal or fleshly mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So we’ve got to deal with the flesh.

I could further specify the flesh, I think, under two areas—the soul, which is the ego, the ‘I’ the stubborn that says ‘I want, I wish, I think, I feel, I’m important.’ Every one of us has got an ego like that. It has to bend and bow before Almighty God before God can ever have His way. The Bible says, ‘Be not stiff-necked.’ That ego has to bow in every one of us, and sometimes it’s an agonizing experience. I try to learn from the first hint of God’s dealings with me when my ego is in opposition to God. I say, ‘God, I hope You won’t have to chastise me severely. I’ll try to learn quickly.’ The Bible says, ‘The righteous foreseeth evil and hideth itself. The wicked pass on and are punished.’ When I see evil I like to try to hide myself. I don’t want to walk on into trouble. I see so many Christians. They just don’t take God’s hints. They resist Him and resist Him and resist Him until He has to crush them. My aim is not to do that. Personally, my ego has got to be submitted, it’s got to be brought into subjection.

A lady came up to me at the end of a Bible study on Romans once in which I’d been explaining these things, and she had a kind of fussy, busy air about her. She said to me, ‘Brother Prince, you know what I think?’ And I said, ‘No, and I’m not the least bit interested.’ Now I didn’t mean to be rude, but I saw that she was busy with her little ideas. Friends, what you and I think is irrelevant. It’s what God says that matters. See, the ego sets itself up against God. The carnal mind is just as much expressed by fear and unbelief as it is by lust and anger. All of that has got to be brought into submission to God.

And then the second element that I find in the flesh is what I call the insistent, self-gratifying desires of the body. ‘I’m hungry, I want to eat; I’m thirsty, I want a drink; the seat is too hard, I need a cushion under me; I need something to make my face look pretty; I need a more comfortable seat in the car; I need air conditioning wherever I go.’ The body demands attention. ‘I’m important; care for me.’ You know God’s appointed means in dealing with both? It’s fasting. Now I’ll show you that in Scripture, Psalm 35 verse 13. This is the testimony of David:

“But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; . . .”

How do you humble your soul? With fasting. You see, fasting tells that fleshly element, ‘Shut up. I don’t want to listen to you. You don’t dictate to me. You’re not the master; you’re the servant.’ You see, we have to ask ourselves this question, every one of us. Is my body my servant or my master? Does my stomach tell me when to eat or do I tell my stomach when to eat? God has dealt with me. I think I have to give this testimony, it’s related.

Recently in a very surprising way on the text, ‘If any man will come after me let him deny himself.’ That’s the first condition for following Jesus. And until you deny yourself you cannot follow Jesus. Now I enjoy eating. I really have never been a glutton and I think you’ll agree I’m not overweight. But I enjoy eating, and I’ll be honest with you, it may shock you to your eyeteeth, I enjoy a glass of wine. And I find much more comfort in drinking wine than Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola, or coffee. I also find much better scriptural precedent for doing it. And when I go home I look forward to my wife’s good cooking and to the other things that I’m going to have with it. But God began to speak to me, ‘If any man will come after Me let him deny himself.’ And I took stock of the fact that I’m nearly sixty and I thought to myself, ‘Is my body in the best possible condition to serve God? Am I presenting God with an instrument in the best condition?’ And I thought, ‘No.’ Now this is very personal. I wouldn’t want any other person in the building to go and do what I did, but I knew God was speaking to me, and about denying myself in order to serve Him better, to be more sensitive to His Holy Spirit. You see, I discovered that from time to time a gift, like the word of knowledge, works in me, and I can tell people what’s wrong with them, I can tell people whether God will heal them and so on. But I find that many times I think that God wants to get something through to me and I’m not sensitive enough to get it.

So I thought, How can I make myself more sensitive? What is God asking me? And I relate this and I didn’t intend to say it, but I have told the Lord, ‘I will no more drink coffee, tea or alcohol.’ And the hardest one for me to give up was coffee, believe me. And I think much the most deadly—my personal opinion. If you want to dig your grave, start being a coffee addict, and there are a lot of coffee addicts.

You may not believe this, but I prayed for a woman two years ago in Atlanta, Georgia, who was a Pepsi Cola addict. And when that spirit of addiction came out of her it screamed and she fought me violently. And I got a letter from her a year later describing the difference in her life and she said, ‘My whole family are addicted the same way.’ This is just a fact. Now I’m not running down any particular brand of soft drink. I want to make that clear. Otherwise I could get into trouble, but…

Let me also go on to say this, I don’t know why I’m saying this, but anyhow—I suppose the Lord is compelling me to say it. You know some of the hardest work that we do is digesting. Did you know that? Digesting is about as hard a work as you can do. That’s why if you go swimming after a heavy meal you’ll get cramps in your arms because all the blood is required in your stomach. And if you regularly eat more than you need, so far from increasing your strength, you’re diminishing it, because you’re using all that extra unnecessary energy to digest food which you don’t need. The big problem of American Christians, and I don’t say necessarily Canadian, is gluttony. We hear sermons against nicotine and alcohol, how many do we hear against gluttony? And Jesus spoke about ‘surfeiting’ before He spoke about drunkenness, and He warned us that surfeiting and drunkenness can cost us our readiness for the rapture as I understand. In Luke 21:

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”

Now I’m talking about the relationship of the Christian to his physical body in the sense in which the body contains those elements that are at war with the Spirit. The body itself, I believe, is sacred. It’s the temple of the Holy Spirit. I have to observe that most Americans treat, and I think Canadians, treat their automobile with much greater consideration than they treat their body. If you treated your automobile the way you treat your body, you wouldn’t have an automobile that ran. So God at least has dealt with me, and, I say, this is personal. Nobody else has got to join the Prince group. But I do say this: That there’s a challenge to every one of us as to who’s master. Paul said, ‘All things are lawful, but not everything is expedient.’ All things are lawful but not everything edifies.

I’m reminded of a lawyer friend of mine in Washington, D.C. He heard me preach on fasting and he decided to do it for a day. He told me this story himself. It’s a beautiful illustration, really. He told me afterwards, he said he had a horrible day. Every time he passed a restaurant he wanted to go in. Every time he passed a pastry shop his nose was on the window, and he was just tormented by the desire to eat. So at the end of the day he took stock and he said to his stomach, ‘Now, stomach, you’ve misbehaved all day. You’ve caused me a lot of trouble.’ And he said, ‘I’m going to punish you. I’m going to fast tomorrow as well.’ And he told me, he said, ‘My stomach got the message.’ Now you may laugh at that, but it’s actual reality. You can talk to your stomach. You can bring it into subjection, and there’s just two situations. You’re either master or slave of your stomach.

God help me. I don’t want to bring anybody under condemnation, but let me read to you in Philippians. I really don’t. I have no desire to bring condemnation, but let’s look and this is very much in line with what we were talking about this afternoon, Philippians 3:17:

“Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample [or a pattern]. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: [And I don’t think he was talking about unbelievers] whose end is destruction [or corruption], whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”

When Paul saw believers like that it caused him to weep. How many would he see here tonight ‘whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who are taken up with earthly things’? And Paul says they’re the enemies of the cross of Christ. They’re not the enemies of Christ. They like Christ. It’s the cross they don’t like. Because Galatians 5:24 says:

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”

The flesh and the cross are at war, and one must be the victor. Fasting will not necessarily produce any results. I’m going to deal tomorrow with right and wrong fasting, but fasting is a God-appointed way to humble your soul. It is the God-appointed way. This is what I’ve seen out of Scripture.

I knew for years it had effect, but God showed me it’s the way. When I talk about afflicting your souls, I mean fasting. I mean doing it to bring the elements of your nature that are in opposition to the Spirit under the control of the Holy Spirit.

“Let’s turn in closing to 2 Chronicles 7:14. How many of you can quote that by heart?
If my people, which are called by my name, shall [what?] humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Notice, the healing of our land is not hindered by the sin of the unbelievers. It’s hindered by the sin of the believers. That’s what stands in the way of God doing what needs to be done for our land and for our nation. The church is the barrier. See, God works by divine order. The church is the body of Christ, Christ is His Son whom He honors. He will not bypass the church because it would be dishonoring His Son. So if God does anything in the earth of grace, it must be done through the church. If the church will submit and yield to God, then God can visit the world through the church, but if the church resists God, God cannot reach the world.

In the great revival in 1904 in Wales, the slogan of Evan Roberts, the God-given leader was this: Bend the Church and Bow the World. And when you can bend the church there’s no problem bowing the world. The problem with God is always with His stiff-necked, self-righteous, stubborn people. And God says, ‘If my people…’ What’s the first requirement? Not to pray, but to humble ourselves. ‘God resisteth the proud.’ If you pray out of pride, your prayer gets nowhere. ‘But He gives grace to the humble.’

Now that word humble themselves, there is the same word that’s used in Leviticus 16:29 of afflict your souls. If you trace that back in the concordance, there are two translations used in the King James—

to afflict or to humble—and either of them is pretty good. And when God requires His people to humble themselves, He’s telling them to fast collectively. That’s His basic requirement. He says, ‘When you do that and then pray and then seek My face and then turn from your wicked ways, I will heal your land.’

That’s the thing that God is now asking of His people at this time. Our part in restoration is to humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways. When we do that God will heal our land.