Crisis Calls For Fasting

The prophet Joel gives us an outline God’s plan for His end-time visitation and the restoration of His two peoples. And, of course, in this Charismatic Renewal one of the Scriptures that has been quoted most often is found in Joel chapter 2 verse 28:

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; . . .”

And I suppose almost around the world Christians are quoting that verse and saying, ‘This is what’s happening in our day. God is now beginning to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, upon every section of the human race.’

However, God opened my eyes to the fact that though He, in a certain sense, sovereignly promises to pour out His Spirit, and I believe He will, it’s another example of the fact that His promise is made and yet He requires us to fulfill His conditions. Just as He made the promise in Jeremiah 29 which Daniel claimed, but Daniel had to fulfill the conditions. Just as He made the promise in Ezekiel 36 that He will restore Israel, but He says in the 37th verse:

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

His promise is there, but He demands nevertheless that His people meet His conditions. And so here also, in Joel 2:28, the promise is there: ‘I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.’ But if we look in the preceding verses we find that there’s a very clear condition, most emphatically stated, and the condition is that God’s people will come together in fasting and prayer to claim His promises and His mercy. And I do not believe that we shall ever enter into the fullness of the fulfillment of God’s promise in regard to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the close of this age until we meet His conditions. And I want to take you briefly through this and show you this condition three times stated in the preceding verses of the prophet Joel. Joel chapter 1 verse 12, just by way of introduction.

“The vine is dried up [that’s the church], and the fig tree languisheth [that’s Israel]; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, . . .”

It’s interesting to note that Jesus quoted that verse in Luke 21 verse 29 when He said, ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees…’ Maybe some of you did not realize that He was actually referring to Joel 1:12. So Jesus knew that all the trees were going to be blighted and desolate, but He said there’ll be a time when they will begin to bud and spring forth again. This is the time that we’re speaking about. And then it says:

“…joy is withered away from the sons of men.”

In desolation there’s no joy, and because the joy of the Lord is our strength, God’s people are left without strength, they’re weak and ineffective. And then in the face of this picture of desolation God declares through Joel the divine remedy in verse 14:

“Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.”

‘Sanctify a fast.’ To sanctify means to ‘set apart.’ And then the word solemn assembly means ‘a day or a period or a place set apart for a specific divine purpose.’ This is not something casual or half-hearted or ill-conceived. A certain measure of it was fulfilled through Senator Hatfield’s resolution setting apart April the 30th of last month as a National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting. The word sanctify means ‘to set apart.’ And in that day God requires that, so far possible, we devote ourselves to the one thing that’s preeminently necessary which is repentance and seeking God.

Then you move on to the second chapter of Joel and the 12th verse, and in the face of the critical situation God says:

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart [what does that mean?], with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: . . .”

You know that there are two kinds of mourning—there’s the mourning of the unconverted and the unbeliever which is hopeless, the hopeless grief of the lost is a tragic thing to behold. But there’s another kind of mourning of which Jesus spoke when He said, ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ In Isaiah 61:3 He says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . . to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise [in place of] the spirit of heaviness; . . .”

‘Mourning in Zion’ is not self-centered, personal grief, but it’s a deep contrition and repentance over the terrible condition of God’s heritage and God’s people. And that mourning carries with it a special blessing—‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’

And so God calls His people to seek Him with all their hearts with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. And then further on still in Joel 2:15 we get the most emphatic declaration of all. It begins with the cry:

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, [The trumpet blowing is the most public form of proclamation that can be made amongst God’s people.] sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, . . .”

I want you to notice the emphasis on gather. This is the situation where if we all hide ourselves away in our own little prayer closets and corners we’ll perish divided. God demands that we set apart a day and a place, that we give ourselves to fasting and that we gather together. These are His basic requirements. Gathering together is an essential part of what God is asking from us.

“…assemble the elders, gather the children, . . . [And then in verse 17:] Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, . . .”

If you study those three passages you’ll see that all God’s people are involved, even the children. And I know families, I know one family which has achieved a most remarkable, miraculous answers—a father, a mother, a teenaged boy and two boys that are below their teens, but when that family fasts, every member of the family fasts, the little boys as well. And some of the most remarkable and miraculous answers to prayer I know have come through their fasting.

But setting aside that, in these verses that I read there’s a particular emphasis on the leaders of God’s people. If you study the words used, it’s elders, priests, and ministers. And you know there’s one obligation about being a leader. It’s very simple. You have to lead. I was pointing out to the brethren on the platform that the King James Version is in many ways rather biased, because it suggests that the leaders of God’s people are over God’s people. There are two particular passages—Acts 20:28 where Paul speaks to the elders and says:

“Take heed . . . to the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, . . .”

But the Greek says, ‘in the which,’ not ‘over the which.’ And in another the place is says, ‘Obey them that have the rule over you,’ but the Scripture says, ‘those that stand in front of you.’ Leaders in the New Testament are not over, they’re in front. There’s a tremendous obligation and responsibility on spiritual leadership especially in these days.

I remember talking to a man who was a leader of a spiritual group and he said to me, ‘Brother Prince, I have to run to keep up with the people I’m supposed to be leading.’ I don’t know whether you’re familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, I doubt whether it’s known to many people today, but there was a little poem about the Duke of Plaza-Toro:

“Who led his regiment from behind—
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was in the fore, O—
That celebrated, cultivated, underrated nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro.!”

So there are leaders who lead from behind except when the retreat comes, then they’re in the front. But that’s not the divine pattern of leadership, and there’s a challenge to every one of us in a position of spiritual leadership. You read about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He’d led His disciples— eleven of them—to the garden. He took three of them a little further than the other eight, and then it says, ‘He Himself went a little further.’ And oh, there’s so much in ‘going a little further.’ And it was through going a little further that He won the victory in the garden that gave Him the victory on the cross. So God says three times, ‘Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.’ And I believe we have to take the promises that follow in these chapters in their proper order. We move on now to the promises. Joel 2:25:

“And I will restore to you [God says] the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.”

Please note, God’s promise is tremendous. He does not merely say He’ll drive out the invaders. But He says He’ll restore that which they have eaten. Isn’t that good news? I remember a lady came to prayer when I was in a meeting of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship in Birmingham, Alabama. She was led by a friend. I don’t think she knew very much about what was going on. She was rather a pathetic sight. She was partially paralyzed, her left leg was partially paralyzed, her left arm was partially paralyzed, and the muscles of her face were partially paralyzed, so that her face was crooked and she could not smile. And I prayed for her and felt the sense of God’s power and presence come over her and I stepped back and did no more. And for ten minutes a little group of us stood around and watched God heal that woman visibly. At the end of ten minutes she could use her left leg freely, her left arm freely, and she smiled for the first time in ten years. And the lady who had brought her said to her, ‘Do you know that in ten minutes you’ve got ten years younger?’ And it was true. She’d lost ten years of her age. That’s what I call restoring the years. Praise God. Hallelujah!

When you’re like me and you’ve past twenty-five the second time around, you begin to value some of the promises of the Bible that you didn’t notice earlier. Psalm 103 verse 3 says that God forgiveth our iniquities, all of them, and healeth all our diseases. But I like to live in Psalm 103 verse 5 which says:

“Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

That’s where I’m living. I’ve got beyond the need for mere healing. And I find it’s one of six benefits that’s promised on redemption ground to every child of God. I’ll tell you, frankly, my personal conviction

is God’s children do not have to grow old like the world. And you do not have to be sick to die. I remember Jim Brown, the Presbyterian pastor from the East Coast, preaching on healing in his church one day, and at the end of the meeting one of the ladies in his congregation said, ‘Well, Rev. Brown, don’t you believe you’re going to have to die? I believe I’m going to have to die.’ The implication was that she was going to have to be sick. And Jim Brown said, ‘Well, sister, die well.’ I believe that’s within the provision of God.

Do you know that you have to look very carefully through the Bible to find a child of God who died sick? I can tell you one. It was Elisha. That’s a remarkable fact, because there was so much power in his bones when he was buried that a man who was buried in the same grave came alive again. That’s one of those paradoxes that’s not easy to understand. But actually you really have to search the Bible to find a believer who died sick. Sickness is not normal—it’s abnormal. Health is normal.

“All right, going on now to Joel 2:28:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; . . .”

Afterward—after what? We must ask that question—after what? What’s the answer? After we’ve done what God told us to do, which was what? Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Three times God says, ‘Seek Me with all your heart with prayer and fasting.’ Then He says, ‘It shall come to pass afterwards, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.’

Now I’m well enough aware that the apostle Peter in the New Testament quoted that verse, and instead of ‘afterwards’ he said, ‘in the last days.’ But Peter’s quotation, inspired as it was by the Holy Spirit, does not set aside the truth of Joel. And when we come right down to the last days, it’s Joel that’s got the message. God is calling us to sanctify a fast, to gather together, to seek Him with our whole heart, ‘Then,’ He says, ‘you’ll see what I can do.’

We’ve seen enough of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in recent years to know that God’s time has come. But I do not believe we’ve seen a small fraction of what God intends to do. How many of you are acquainted with or familiar with Brother Jerald Derstine? Well he’s a friend of mine and you may have read that remarkable book of his about the visitation of God upon the Mennonites which took place in Minnesota in 1954–55—a supernatural visitation, and they were not Pentecostal, believe me, far from it. And which, incidentally, amongst other things Brother Jerald’s house was taken over by God for a week. And during that week no one went to bed, no one got up, no one ate, no one went out, no one came in except by direct divine order, straight from the Head.

Well, in the middle of that week a young man who was not experienced in the things of God got a tremendously powerful prophetic utterance, in which his own personality was almost set aside. And amongst the things he said was this—mind you it was 1955—but he said this, ‘All that you have so far seen of the outpouring of My Spirit is as one and a half drops in a ten-quart pail.’ Well, I suppose we’ve seen a couple of pints by now. But the great bulk of the outpouring lies ahead, and awaits our meeting God’s conditions.

All right. Now then let’s turn to the 58th chapter of Isaiah, the great fasting chapter of the Old Testament. Now this chapter sets forth two pictures of fasting. One that is acceptable to God and one that is not. And I want to say there is nothing that automatically gets the results that we need. God has no gimmicks and He has no cure-alls. And one provision of God is no substitute for another provision of God. Fasting is no substitute for repentance, it’s no substitute for studying your Bible, it’s no substitute for any other area of divine discipline. But on the other hand, no other area of divine discipline is a substitute for fasting.

Paul prayed concerning the Philippians that they might stand perfect and entire in all the will of God. In other words, every area of their lives was to be brought into perfect accord with God’s will. And one area of your life which God’s will touch is this area of fasting. Your life is not in perfect accord with the will of God until you fulfill God’s requirements for fasting. Now you can fast and miss out on the other requirements, but even if you keep the other requirements, you’re not complete without this.

“So God says, this is Isaiah 58 verse 1:
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, shew my people their transgression, . . .”

And then you get a picture of people who are seeking God daily and fasting and He doesn’t hear, and they’re really aggrieved and upset. ‘God, we fast and you don’t hear. What’s the matter?’ And God tells them why He will not except their fasting. And basically there are three reasons. Number one—wrong motives. Number two—wrong attitudes. Number three—it’s a mere religious ritual without any inner corresponding reaction of the heart. Verse 3:

“Wherefore have we fasted . . . and thou seest not? [And God answers:] Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.”

You’re still busy with your covetousness, your greed, your personal ambition. You don’t really set aside, you don’t humble yourselves before God. Then He said in verse 4:

“Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: . . . [you are still resentful and bitter and angry in your relationships with other people. And then He says in verse 5:] . . . [you] bow down [your] head [like] a bulrush . . .”

‘Is that what I’m asking for?’ I wonder how many of you have ever seen the certain sects of the orthodox Jewish people when they pray. They sit in a chair and they repeat by memory Hebrew prayers of which they don’t understand the meaning. And as they repeat them in a monotonous voice, their bodies bow backwards and forwards exactly like the head of a bulrush in the wind. And God says, ‘That’s not going to get you anywhere with Me. It’s not empty ritual that I ask. It’s the response of your heart.’

So, having explained why that fasting was not acceptable, God then goes on to describe the kind of fasting that is acceptable. And essentially the main emphasis is on motive, and the main requirement of motive could be summed up in one word which is unselfishness. So we read this, verse 6:

“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?”

I believe that our motive in fasting should be to bring deliverance to the captives, to set free those that are bound and burdened with heavy yokes of sin and demonic power and satanic enslavement. Though I’ve been ten years and more in this ministry of deliverance, and I’ve seen thousands of people delivered, I’m absolutely convinced that there are many people in the church who’ll never be delivered until the church accepts its responsibility to fast and pray for their deliverance. We are accountable for one another. We are members one of another. If one member suffers, the other members suffer with it. It’s not enough that I’m all right, that I’m healthy, that I’m free. What about those that are not? My responsibility is to fast and pray for them.

I wonder how many times we really pray unselfish prayers. Let me give you an illustration that comes in my book, but it comes to my mind. In 1953 I was pastoring a small congregation in London, England. It was not large, but they were dedicated, devoted Christians. And there came to me from a reliable source a report that Joseph Stalin, who was at that time the unchallenged dictator of Soviet Russia, was planning a systematic persecution and liquidation of the Jews in Russia. And somehow it was as though God laid the responsibility for the Russian Jews at my door. Now, I’m not a Jew. I’m not Russian. I was not threatened. But I had read in the eleventh chapter of Romans that the Jewish people have not obtained mercy, that they through our mercy might believe—that we have an obligation to Israel, natural Israel. And so it seemed to me that God was asking me to take up the need of the Jews in Soviet Russia.

And so I was in touch with two or three other groups that believed in prayer and fasting. We agreed together to set aside a specific day to fast and pray in London for the Jews in Soviet Russia. I believe the day was a Thursday. We met, we prayed, there was no dramatic demonstration, but we just prayed. You know what happened? Within two weeks Stalin was dead, and the whole course of Russian policy changed from his death. And when I published this in my book, I received two letters from different sources, from Jewish people, who told me that they had good knowledge that Stalin actually died of a heart attack while he was planning the liquidation of the Russian Jews.

You know that the power of prayer can be very frightening? In the 12th chapter of Acts we read how Herod drew out his sword, killed James, planned to kill Peter, and then the church realized that they faced a crisis and sought God in earnest prayer. And a little while later Herod was making a speech and the people were applauding him and crying out that he was a god, and it says that the angel of God smote him and he was eaten up with worms and died. It is almost frightening at times to think of the power of our prayer.

Let me give you another illustration. About five or six years ago I was ministering regularly in Chicago in a place called Faith Tabernacle. And right on the corner of the building was a liquor store which also surreptitiously dealt in drugs. It was a wicked place. Now it was absolutely wall-to-wall with Faith Tabernacle. And one day about October that year, in a prayer meeting in Faith Tabernacle, suddenly without premeditation I heard myself say, ‘I curse that liquor store.’ About a month later I was phoned in the middle of the night, about 2 A.M., (I lived outside Chicago in Park Ridge), somebody from the church said, ‘Brother Prince, Faith Tabernacle is burning down. Do you want to come and see it?’ I said, ‘Well, if it’s burning down, what’s the use?’ And then I thought that might look a little casual so I struggled out of bed and drove into Chicago to Faith Tabernacle. Do you know what had happened? The liquor store on the corner had caught fire and was burning, blazing, was destroyed, gutted. The wind was blowing off the lake toward Faith Tabernacle, but as the flames began to lick Faith Tabernacle, the wind changed one hundred and eighty degrees, and blew the flames in exactly the opposite direction and all that happened to Faith Tabernacle, it was filled with the smell of smoke. It was not touched with the fire. And the man in charge of Chicago’s fire brigade came to the elder of the church, and when he saw what had happened he said, ‘Brother—Mister Carlson, you must have a special relationship with the Man Upstairs.’ I just wish we could grasp in some measure the power of our prayer, and then be careful how we use it.

“Now we’re going back to Isaiah 58 verse 7, again speaking of the fast that’s acceptable to God:
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?”

I do not believe in spiritualizing those words. I believe God requires us to care for the widow and the orphan and the naked and the unwanted and the uncared for. And I don’t believe that our spiritual life has much validity when we live in selfish disregard of the needs of those around us. I think that’s one basic condition, not merely for fasting, but for prayer in any form to be accepted of God. I’ve said to people sometimes, so often our picture of the church is a kind of middle class social club where people meet to enjoy one another’s company on Sunday morning. And if need in its raw nakedness comes in, whether it be spiritual need or physical need, we’re a little shocked and upset that anything so unattractive could find its place in the church.

Now, let me look also with you at one other condition for acceptable fasting which is put in the middle of verse 9 and the first part of verse 10. Then I’ll go back and sketch out the results. The second part of verse 9, the first part of verse 10:

“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 thy soul to the hungry, . . .”

Again, the requirement that we be unselfish in seeking to help those who need our help. But let me point out to you just those three things. God says to ‘take away the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.’ And I believe that I can simply explain. ‘The yoke’ is legalism, it’s making all sorts of human laws as to what people have to do to be acceptable. And you know what I’ve found? Every group has got their own list of laws, and we judge one another by whether they come up to our particular list of laws. I was Pentecostal long enough—in fact I still am—to know the Pentecostal laws pretty thoroughly. They smile at the Roman traditions, but friends, it doesn’t take ten years to form your own traditions. Do you know that? Religiously.

I remember preaching in Copenhagen, Denmark, for two weeks in a Bible school and I had to take the streetcar from the house where I was staying, get off and walk to the church. And where I got off was a big statue of a man named Bishop Absalom, who was some bishop way back in the history of the Lutheran Church, and there was this big statue with the bishop on it brandishing a great big sword, which always struck me a little incongruous. And so I got—my mind was taken up with Bishop Absalom. And I remember preaching to those good Pentecostal people one day—in fact I’m the missionary to that church till today—and I said to them, ‘Being a Christian doesn’t consist in the things you don’t do. The things you don’t do never make you a Christian.’ I said, ‘You’ve got your little rules about ‘you don’t drink,’ and ‘you don’t smoke,’ and ‘you don’t swear,’ and ‘you don’t dance,’ and ‘you don’t go to the movies.’

All right. But I want to tell you about Bishop Absalom. Listen! He doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t dance, he doesn’t swear, and he doesn’t go to the movies, but he’s not a Christian because he has no life. You are not a Christian in virtue of what you do not do.’

You talk to the sinner in the world—I found this many times as a soldier in the Army—‘Are you a Christian?’ ‘Well I don’t do…’ the six things that he doesn’t want to do, you know. He’s got his own little list. If he keeps those commandments he’s all right.

One of the great things that creates barriers between Christians is legalism. ‘Well, they go to the movies.’ I smile at Christians when I think, you know, we were never to go to the movies as Pentecostals. It was sinful. Well, I can do without going to the movies anyhow, because I went to so many before that really I don’t miss them. I mean, sincerely, I sowed my wild oats. I don’t need to sow any more. And I sowed much wilder oats than going to the movies too. But—all right, it was sinful.

But then, you see, after this legislation came, then came television, all right? So, it’s sinful to go to the movie theatre, but you can play precisely the same movie on television in your home, and that’s all right. What’s that, friends? In one simple word, it’s hypocrisy isn’t it? Sham. If it’s bad out there, I say, it’s ten times worse inside your home. Now I’m not preaching against television, I’m just pointing out you don’t live by man-made rules. Jesus said, ‘Man shall not live by man-made rules, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

All right. ‘The yoke, the putting forth of the finger.’ What’s that? Criticism. ‘Look at her. She’s cut her hair. Can you believe we lived in days when Pentecostal ladies didn’t cut their hair?’ You know, I knew a beautiful young Swedish girl that was the daughter of a Pentecostal pastor. She had the most glorious hair and she had a beautiful singing voice, and one day she was in the church and the pastor walked up to her and tugged her hair to see if it was real. If you’ve not been through Pentecost, you’ve missed something. I don’t regret it. It was a discipline I’ll never forget. But one thing I’ll tell you, I’ll never go back to all that nonsense. Once is enough for a lifetime.

And then there’s the ‘speaking vanity.’ Vanity is ‘insincerity’: ‘God bless you, pastor. That was a nice message. We enjoyed it.’ And when you get home you spend ten minutes at the Sunday noon meal table explaining to everybody in the family why it was a lousy message. And then you spend another ten minutes pointing out all the sins of all the church members. And your little boy growing up ten years later says, ‘Daddy, I don’t want to go to church anymore.’ And you wonder why. You destroyed his faith in the very thing you were trying to get him interested in.

All right. Now what are the results of fasting the way God has ordained? This is exciting. It’s in your outline. I’ll just go through it quickly. There are ten results I’ve listed. I’m not saying they’re all, but enough to keep you interested for a while. Beginning at verse 8:

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; and the glory of the LORD shall be thy rear[guard].”

You hear those four beautiful words—light, health, righteousness, glory. They’re all promised to fasting that’s based on meeting God’s requirements. It says in Malachi the fourth chapter: ‘Unto you that fear My name shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.’ That’s almost the same— light, righteousness, healing, glory. And then going on in verse 9, the fifth result, answered prayer.

“Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; then thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.
What can I do for you? God at your disposal.”

The sixth result is in verse 11, continued guidance: ‘The LORD shall guide thee continually. The seventh result is satisfaction: ‘And satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: . . .’ Do you have continuing satisfaction? I have to thank God, I do. The Lord keeps me satisfied. And I tell you this, if you do not find satisfaction in the Lord as a Christian, and I mean real satisfaction, you’ll look for it somewhere else sooner or later.

The next result is refreshing: ‘And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.’ Others will dry up round about you, but your waters will never fail. The ninth result is work that endures. In verse 12:

“of many generations; . . .”

The work that you build will last for many generations. I’m no expert in church history, but, so far as I’ve been able to ascertain, every man in the history of the church that had a ministry and did a work of which the fruit stood and endured was a man of fasting. I cannot find an exception to that. It’s a requirement for work that endures.

“And then finally the tenth result in verse 12:
…and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
Restoration is the outcome of fasting. We are going to close in a moment.”

Let us look at some examples quickly in history, the history of God’s people. Let me point out to you that there was a period of restoration from Babylon, and that there are four books in the Old Testament that deal with that restoration. They are Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. The facts are given in your outline. I will not turn to them, but I want to point out to you that every one of those persons associated with the restoration of God’s people was a person of prayer and fasting—Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. On their own testimony, they practiced fasting. I believe fasting is essential to restoration. I believe it’s that humbling of ourselves and emptying of ourselves which causes God to bring to pass His promises of restoration.

Now we’ll turn to one final example which is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Second Chronicles chapter 20 the story of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and his land invaded from the east by a large army of aliens determined to destroy him and his people. And we’ll just glance through the outline briefly. Verse 2:

“There come some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; . . .”

Jehoshaphat knew that he did not have the numbers and he did not have the arms to meet this invading army. Now what follows is a pattern and I want to show you the various steps that followed, because all of them are patterns for today. Jehoshaphat’s first reaction is in verse 3:

“Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Here was a nationwide fast proclaimed by the leader of the nation. The next is in verse 4: Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: . . .”

As I’ve pointed out already, when it comes to collective fasting God demands that His people gather together. I’m sure that there were many rivalries and jealousies between the various cities and communities in Judah. But under the pressure of common danger they forgot their jealousies and squabbles and they came together as one people to seek the Lord. This is basic.

Then in verses 6 through 13, Jehoshaphat prays a prayer to God and it’s a very scriptural prayer. He reminds God of the history of His people, their background, God’s dealings and covenant with them. If you want to pray a powerful prayer it needs to be a Scripture based prayer. Jehoshaphat was familiar with history and familiar with the Scriptures. And his prayer came to this conclusion in verse 12:

“O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company . . . ; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.”

That’s the place that we have to come to. We don’t have the power. We don’t know what to do. We can only rely on Your mercy. That’s where we need to come. We have no might, we don’t know what to do, our eyes are upon thee.

The next thing that happened was there was a very dramatic, powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came upon a Levite named Jahaziel and he gave a powerful prophetic utterance. It was directive. God assured His people through prophecy that the battle was not theirs. It was His. That they would not need to fight. That they would go out the next day to a certain place and there God would deal with the enemy.

“After that came worship and praise. In verse 18, when this prophetic utterance came: Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.”

Did you ever read that word fall? What would it be like if all the people in this building in prayer fell before the Lord? It would be dramatic wouldn’t it? And we’re just what—four or five or six hundred people. Think of the whole company of God’s people simultaneously falling before the Lord.

You know we read a lot of words but we don’t take them in. I smile when people sing, you know, the standard institutional church, ‘Let angels prostrate fall.’ And they wouldn’t dream of falling themselves. If angels can fall, what about saved sinners? Can’t they fall? I think there was such a sense of God’s holiness and power and faithfulness that the people just could not stand. And in humility and worship they prostrated themselves before the Lord. I’d like to see it happen again.

“And then the Levites, [and] the Kohathites, . . . stood up [in verse 19] to praise the LORD. . . . And they rose early in the morning, . . . [Verse 21:] [Jehoshaphat] appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, . . .”

So, after prophecy comes worship and united praise. And that’s all they had to do. Isn’t that marvelous? That’s just all they had to do. Look in verse 22:

“When they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, . . . [Verse 23:] For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.”

Remember what I said about turning their tongues one against another? You see, when God’s people prayed through, God dealt with the enemy. God can do that again. And then all Judah had to do—I can’t pass verse 24 by. It’s always to me so dramatic.

“And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness [And that’s not Jehovah’s Witness, please], they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.”

You see, God’s people went out and there was a tremendous victory. But before the victory was won there was a place beyond which the invading forces, the enemy, could not come. And it was the watch tower. Do you know what that speaks to me about? It speaks about the single, dedicated intercessor. Habakkuk said ‘I will stand me upon my watch, and I will seek the Lord.’

Years back when the people of Sweden, immediately after World War II, faced the real possibility of a Russian invasion, a Swedish Pentecostal sister had a vivid dream one night, and in the dream she saw alien armies massed along the border of Sweden. But she saw a tower and somehow the armies could not pass the tower. And when she asked God, ‘What is that tower?’ He said, ‘It’s the prayer tower and they can’t pass.’ And though I believe God’s people are going to regroup and go forth in mighty victory, do you know what I believe God has had all through these lean years? He’s had one or two or three precious saints of God that day and night took their stand upon the tower, and held up the invading forces until the rest of God’s people rallied. And I always say that in a congregation like this because somewhere here tonight there may be half a dozen such saints of God. The church doesn’t recognize you, people won’t pin a medal on your chest, but one day when the rewards are given you’ll be first in line. God bless you.