Comments by Joan Boney:
When I was a new Christian in 1975, I felt God was leading me to "fast" certain things: television, plays, secular books, sporting events, and newscasts.
I did as I thought God was leading me to do at that time. I just read the Bible and went to church and went to our weekly prayer group.
I must have done this for a year or more because one day my dad mentioned Jimmy Carter to me, I said, "Who's Jimmy Carter?" Everyone was shocked. He had just been elected president of the United States.
(I felt what God had me do was a type of "fast" but not in food.)
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I did look at the following in the Old Testament concerning fasting:
Isaiah 58
2 Yet they seek ME daily, and delight to know MY ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of ME the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and THOU seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and THOU takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
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?
7 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?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and HE shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on MY holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour HIM, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into HIS rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as HE said, As I have sworn in MY wrath, if they shall enter into MY rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For HE spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all HIS works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into MY rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, HE limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would HE not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into HIS rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from HIS.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in HIS sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
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?
7 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?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and HE shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on MY holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour HIM, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
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In the New Testament church we have a different set of rules than they did in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament sabbath, the laws were very strict. They couldn't gather food on the sabbath. They couldn't cook their food on the sabbath. They had to prepare all food the day before the sabbath.
They couldn't find their own pleasure on the sabbath.
The Old Testament Sabbath was a holy day whereby they were to rest from their works and focus on the Lord and the things of God.
So if anyone today wants to do the Old Testament sabbath, he could not go "out of his tent". He certainly couldn't entertain himself with television or secular books!
We are not bound today to the Old Testament sabbath laws.
Rather we live a continual rest in "the Lord", living in HIS rest, by committing all our works to God and letting HIM lead us.
Hebrews 4
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as HE said, As I have sworn in MY wrath, if they shall enter into MY rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For HE spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all HIS works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into MY rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, HE limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would HE not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into HIS rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from HIS.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in HIS sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do.
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