Marcus Mecum - Fasting For Your Future
My goal today is to encourage you on the fast if you've not decided to fast, then hopefully, I can help you with that. If you have decided, I'll encourage you in your fast. But Daniel 9, let's look at verse 3, "Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes". Now drop to verse 23 of that same chapter. I'm gonna skip a little bit but you'll know why in a minute. "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out. I have come to tell you, you are greatly beloved," everybody say, "Greatly beloved". The new century version says, "I love you very much". I like that. "Therefore, consider the matter, and understand the vision".
Now let's drop down or go to chapter 10:11, "And he said to me, 'o Daniel, man greatly beloved,'" there it is again, "'Daniel who I love very much, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you'. While he was speaking this word, I stood trembling". He's having an incredible encounter with God. "And then he said to me, 'do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself'".
That's where we're at today. It's the first day. We're setting our hearts, we're humbling ourselves. It says, "'your words were heard, your prayers were heard, and I have come because of your words'. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia," speaking of a demonic spirit that reigned over the area of Persia, "Withstood me for twenty-one days, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes," this is one of God's warring angels.
Michael and Gabriel would be God's top ranking warring angels, "'came to help, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come'. And when he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground, and I became speechless. And suddenly, as one having the likeness of the son of men touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and I spoke, saying to him who stood before me, 'my Lord, because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my Lord talk with you, my Lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now and no breath is left in me'".
He's having such an encounter with God, he doesn't even have the strength to speak. And he said, "Man greatly beloved," there it is again, "You who I love very much, fear not, peace to you, be strong'. So, when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, 'let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me'".
I wanna talk to you about fasting for your future. Before we get there, to understand a little bit about the Daniel fast, and the book of Daniel, the man that we're reading and studying and considering as we enter this fast, if you could write an epitaph for the life of Daniel it would be how he lived godly in an ungodly culture. Is there a more relevant message? Is there a more relevant individual to study than Daniel who had to remain godly in an ungodly world? When you read the book of Daniel like many people, they misunderstand that the Bible was not written chronologically. Or it was not comprised chronologically or laid out chronologically, it was laid out in categories.
So, you would have the first five books of the old testament, the Torah, then you would go to the historical books, then the poetic book Psalms and Proverbs, song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes. Then you would go to the major prophets and then you would end with the minor prophets. Daniel is a major prophet. I'm saying this for a reason. The book of Daniel is broken up into two sections. The first six chapters would deal with history, the last 12 chapters are prophetic in nature. When it comes to the book of Daniel, when John the beloved is taken up to the third heaven and is given a Revelation that now the very last book of your new testament is John writing down what he saw and what he heard, he quotes Daniel more than any other book in the Bible. And so, in many ways, the same vision Daniel had, John the beloved is having.
So, this is a critical message. This is a critical individual to look at concerning God's people and his end time church. Daniel would be one of the last books of the old testament, again, not in the way it's laid out but chronologically, it would be. The last book of your Bible chronologically, would not be Malachi, Malachi would be concurrent with Nehemiah. Remember Nehemiah is the one that calls the children of Israel out of Babylon, this is the second Exodus. The first would be they're called out of Egypt into the wilderness after 400 years. The second would be they're called out of Babylon after 70 years of captivity.
Nehemiah would lead that Exodus, go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls, and rebuild the temple of the holy city. The prophets that would be concurrent with Nehemiah would be Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah. There assignment was to encourage God's people to not give up and to not quit, and to help them focus on the things that would matter the most when it would come to God's end time church, because then you end and there is a 400-year silent period, there's 400 years where God chose to be silent. So, it's the end of an era, is my point. We're looking at the end of an era and this is why it's relevant to the days that we're living in.
Daniel had lived through a war, and as a result, he lived in exile for the rest of his life. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had defeated Israel and after the defeat Daniel had survived but at the age of 16 along with many other young men, he was talking into Babylon, into captivity where Daniel would live until he died at 90 plus years old. So, he lived his entire life in Babylon. He never was able to get out of that. God never delivered Daniel from Babylon. His whole life was lived in an ungodly culture. This is why we're looking at him, "How do you live godly in an ungodly world"? When you look around us and you look at our world, you are being inundated consistently with messages that are going to try to rob you of what God is wanting to do in your life and in your heart. And Daniel was not in Babylon by choice.
This was not his choice, this was the result of past generations' disobedience, and now he's living in the consequence of that. Like us in many ways, we have generations that have proceeded us that abandoned God, walked away from God, allowed principles to take root in our country, and as a result, here we are facing the compound interest of all of those evil investments that have been made seemingly small at times, seemingly little at times. But just like in any type of investment, you show up one day and here we are saying, "How did we get here? It's happened so fast".
For so many years, it was little, it was small, it was a slow slide. But then all of a sudden, boom, here we are. Children, you know, being faced with government, in many ways, saying, "We're going to, you know, cut off this, and we're going to change this". And, I mean, it's just, how did we get children? Haven't they always been kinda leave them alone. I'm not being a preacher, I'm just saying for, how did you get here? How did we get in this kind? And how do you live godly in it? How do you maintain convictions and standards and not sound judgmental, and not sound political? How do you just say, "God's word is his word and I'm gonna honor it, and I'm gonna seek it, I'm gonna hang onto it"?
Well, Daniel gives us that. Daniel faced assassination attempts because of his standards. Enemy is all around, constant temptation to abandon his convictions and compromise. Just, every time he turned around, just, the world was there saying, "Come on, you don't have to live like that. You don't have to be that extreme". But Daniel, though he's in Babylon, Babylon never got in Daniel. Constant attacks, but yet you don't see Daniel eating up with revenge. You never see Daniel even showing a hint of bitterness or unforgiveness. Odds stacked against him, but yet he's not a victim. He's not insecure. He's not inferior. He's not discouraged. Daniel stayed faithful when everything externally was against him.
And I love the fact that Daniel goes to God because of the condition of the world that he's in, the culture that he's in, the constant ungodliness that surrounded him, the constant attacks. And when he goes to God, God shows up and tells him three times, "I love you very much. I love you very much. I love you very much". So, it appears that there are situations and seasons we go through that God knows he's not going to take us out of those. But you and I look at that and we say, "No, if God love me, he would rescue me. He would deliver me. If you love me, God, take this away from me. Take this pain. Take this difficulty away from me". But there is another option that God usually chooses and that's, "I'm not gonna take you out of this struggle, however, I will reassure you of my love while you're in this struggle".
So, Daniel is fasting and praying, and God is reassuring Daniel that he loves him. And he's fasting not over what's happening right then, but he's fasting over his future in verse 14. And God gives him a supernatural vision and I believe they're several reasons to fast, one of them that we're gonna talk about today, which is for your future, for your family's future, for the future of your dream, for the future of our nation, for the future of our church, fasting for our future. Fasting is abstaining for a spiritual purpose. For those of you who have been around for a while, you understand that but some of you have never gone through 21 days of prayer and fasting. It's not about not eating. Fasting is abstaining for a spiritual purpose.
That's why we're talking about attaching yourself, attaching your faith to the purpose. What purpose do you have in this fast? Why are you pushing your plate back? It's not because you don't want to eat. God's not looking for your food, right? But God is trying to assist you in the things that matter more than food. There are things in life that matter way more than food and you know this whenever you get sick, you immediately lose your appetite because your body is trying to heal itself, because your health matters more than food. So, God has implemented fasting to assist us in the areas that we're missing something, we've lost something. There's something that's off in our life, and we're needing strength, and we're needing healing.
And so, God gives us the idea of fasting, as a result, abstaining for a spiritual purpose. The most important reason would be to draw closer to God in the fast. Joel 2:12 says, "Turn to me with your whole heart and with fasting". The emphasis on heart, not fasting. God is after your heart during this fast. Why? Because in many ways we're looking at our lives and we're saying, "There are parts of my life, there are areas of my life that are undone. There are areas", what did the prophet say that the angels took the coals off the altar and touch his lips and the Bible says the reason for that was, he was undone.
So, every now and then you have to say, "God, take the coals off the altar of heaven and touch my lips, touch my mind, touch my heart, touch my marriage, touch my kids, touch my church, touch", while we are undone. Zechariah 7:4-5 gives the question, "Did you fast for me"? Fasting is most importantly for him. There are health benefits, there are real benefits depending on the kind of fast you choose, but the goal is, "Did you fast for him"? Acts 13:2 says, "They fasted and ministered to the Lord". So, you have to determine to minister to the Lord over the next 21 days because you're, at times, going to say, "This is dumb. Why am I doing this? I'm hungry. I just think about food all the time".
And when those thoughts come, you have to at that time know that you're ministering to the Lord and you gotta turn your attention off of your belly, and you gotta get your attention on him and say, "God, I'm ministering to you right now". There's something about this that every time I feel the hunger pain, I'm gonna know I'm doing it for you and it's gonna trigger in me, "This is for him. I'm doing it for him. I'm ministering to God through this. I'm calling a time out on business as usual. I'm not gonna just go back to the normal rhythms of life. I'm gonna change every rhythm I possibly can". There are things we got to do, but outside of that, any other rhythm I'm gonna call a time out because I have to have a course correction.
Now, this is for me personally, I mentioned earlier that this is my 25th annual 21 days of prayer and fasting. And every single time this time of year comes around I can look back and say, "I've gotten off course". And I'm just gonna throw it out there, if I get off course, I think that we might all get off course 'cause this is my job, by the way, to stay on course, right? And what happens is because I've done it for so long and because it's a rhythm, it's a pillar, what I'll do is around the time we start getting through thanksgiving, I start looking at my course and I start thinking, "Ah, I'm not moving in the direction I want to".
And I start positioning myself in December going into January for my course correction. Then over the next 21 days, the goal is to make those corrections. Then the momentum of those 21 days usually Carries me for a week, a month, two months, three months. Sometimes I correct things during the fast and I never return to those things that before were getting me off course. Whatever they might have been: lack of discipline, apathy, pain, heartbreak, the world, things of this world, my phone, the Romance novel that you're reading, just course correction. I'm talking to the men about the Romance novel real quick. Course correction.
And this is what I want you to see, now that's it's been 25 years, if you were to add those seasons of preparation, fasting, and the momentum of them, I've fasted for years and years of my life. Years of my life had been spent fasting. If I'll fast for the next 25 or 30 then I'll look back over my life and I'll have years and years that even if I couldn't fast, if I couldn't maintain all of those things at all times, I have something in my life when I get off that corrects me. And I believe the reason that I'm still in ministry today, serving God today in the way that I am, focused in the way that I am, that this church is focused the way that we are is because we know how to course correct.
We know you can't live on the mountain top spiritually, but there are spiritual disciplines that you can say in an ungodly world, in a distracted world, in a busy world, in a chaotic world. There is something that is God given that can course correct you, so at the end of your life, even though you get off every now and then, the fast has come in and it get you back on course. It is absolutely impossible to fast and not draw closer to God. Every time I fast, I draw closer to him, every time. That's why it's called fasting and prayer, not fasting and scrolling on your phone, not fasting and becoming a workaholic to not think about food.
Malachi begins by rebuking the priest for many reasons, but the theme was, "Are you fasting for me"? Fifty-five verses, 47 of those God speaking in them himself, 85% of the book of Malachi God himself is speaking and he's saying, "Are you fasting for me? Are you doing it for me"? Motive matters with spiritual disciplines, if not, it becomes legalistic, if not, it becomes a heavy burden. "Are you fasting for me"? He said. And then he said, "If you'll return to me, I'll return to you".
So, instead of beating yourself up over the past year, he's just saying, "If you'll return to me, I'll return to you, we'll course correct and we'll move forward into the future". So, we're fasting for our future. Daniel is fasting because he needs a vision for the future, he needs purpose, he needs direction. And sometimes I lack direction, sometimes I lack clarity on what exactly does my future look like, and like Daniel fasted, I need to fast, you need to fast so God can give us a clear message and vision for our future. I'm encouraging this church and all who are apart of this ministry in whatever way to fast for our future.