The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah deals with fasting, the restoration, the end time, the Sabbath, and even more. Verses 9–12: “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”
This passage speaks about fasting, but not the literal fasting of merely abstaining from food, for He says, “Is this not the fast which I chose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth….” Isaiah 58:6–8. We are facing the greatest fast people will ever know. It is not a fast in which we decide not to eat but to seek the Lord. It is the fast that God chooses; we will divide our bread with the hungry. We are chosen to be a Joseph ministry in the earth. Many will come to us to be fed. In the days to come it will be more necessary than ever before to be a people of revelation and perception, guided by the Spirit of the Lord, and not as the rest of the world who are stumbling in darkness. Another necessary factor will be that the family spirit prevail, that we love one another and take care of one another, that we even be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren. Many people will come and go, all of them calling themselves Christians; but the people who will stand will be those who have spiritual insight and perception, who will cleave to one another in the love of God. They will be able to make it and will come gloriously into the days God has for them.
God has been speaking about another factor in our preparation for the days ahead: humility will be very necessary. God is bringing down all arrogance. God is bringing down the proud. The veneer is to be removed; and the reality, exposed. We have a responsibility to continue to prophesy against hypocrisy and wickedness. Years ago we began to prophesy against Babylon; now we see God bringing it down. What does the Lord say we are supposed to do?
“And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:10, 11. In the days of restoration, when the old foundations are coming to light, the most important work of all is the work done in the spirit of the remnant. In them the pointing of the finger disappears.
We must be freed from any desire to judge, to point the finger, or to accuse. The key to our succeeding and being a blessing depends upon our not judging other people. If we allow Satan to lift us up with spiritual pride so that we are ready to accuse and point our finger at the other man, we will be absolutely worthless in the days to come.
These are the days of judgment, but let God do the judging; you keep your finger out of it. If you become austere and spiritually superior and begin judging, you are far down at the bottom of the list of those through whom the deliverance will come. It is absolutely essential that you walk humbly before the Lord, because the main thing God is dealing with in the earth is the pride and arrogance of the people who have left Him out of the picture. Psalm 9:17 says that all the nations that forget God will be returned into hell. In the arrogance of their hearts, people feel they can ignore God; but God will deal with them. The whole aspect of tribulation is directed against pride and arrogance.
Those who walk on with the Lord in meekness will be the elite of the coming Kingdom. They will be the people who inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). That humility will prevail in the days to come. Begin right now to walk in it. Do not think you have more light than anyone else, or you will be right in line to be judged. God will deal with that pride and arrogance. This walk with God has been a walk by the grace of God and has been contradictory to any ideas of legalism for one reason: God plans to deliver the humble.
Prophecies have repeatedly come: “If you walk humbly, in love and in unity, God will use you to bless every nation on the face of the earth.” That humility has been a long time coming. The unity and the love have also been slow coming. We have been praying about these things, and God is working in us. People can sense the love, the unity, and the humility.
God will bless the people who walk humbly before Him, who remove the yoke from their midst, the pointing of the finger, the judgment of their brothers, and the false superiority. The Lord says, “Their light will rise in darkness. Out of all the darkness that fills the earth their light will come forth.” It will be the humble people who will prevail in the days and the months just ahead.
Any relationship—whether it be husband and wife, brother and brother, sister and sister, sweethearts, or parents and children—will find itself being torn apart if one of the parties walks humbly and the other walks in arrogance. We must all walk humbly; otherwise, the consequences will be devastating.
There are strange standards of conduct in the world. Foolish young girls fall for any arrogant fellow who comes along, acting as if he is God’s gift to womankind. Such a man is completely irresponsible; and if a girl marries a fellow like that, she will have a life of hell ahead of her. A young man can become entranced by a flirtatious girl who exudes sexuality. If a fellow marries such a girl, he will find she has nothing to give and that she is a poor wife. The fellows who are trapped by this kind of glamour may bypass a good, spiritual girl to pick up some worthless bit of fluff.
The attitudes of self-confidence and self-assurance operate also in the religious world. Godly men, as well as godly women, sit in the background; and they never seem to attract much attention because the religious world looks for the ego trip. The coming days of judgment have one target: the proud and the arrogant whom God will bring down—every one of them! The humble and the poor of this world will be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom (James 2:5).
Another age is coming, and young people will look at one another in an entirely different manner. Boys will not be looking for girls who exude sexuality. They will be able to take a true assessment and will look for a beautiful spirit. There will be another way of thinking, an entirely different attitude. It will begin when God begins to judge the pride and the arrogance that is natural to man.
There has been the preening and parading of men even in the pulpit. The personality cult has been people’s religion—that showmanship and vaudevillism. What suckers the people of God have been! But it is their own fault; it is the result of their false, deceptive standards. The day will come when a man like Moses, though slow of speech, will arise, and people will listen and not rebel against him because they will not be following a personality who has great ability to persuade, but they will be listening for a word from God.
People’s standards and ways of judging will change. We are coming into a day that does not require any kind of program at all. There is no need for choirs or special programs. No one has ever been entertained as royally as we will be in these days when we are witnessing the unfolding of God’s program. Nothing has ever held our attention more, as God has been leading us into the ways of the Kingdom. We are intrigued with it; and new interests, new desires are coming forth.
Television no longer intrigues us. It causes a restlessness in our spirits. We sense something is wrong; we can sense the corruption of it. In the midst of the corruption that is coming upon the whole land, the only healthy thing to be found is the humility and the strength of God’s word that is beginning to come forth. We are becoming a different people. We are thinking differently.
Did you ever walk with God while everyone thought you were a freak, until you began to feel as though you really might be one? That day is passing away. God will mark those who gather in His name and speak in His name, as Malachi has said, “When I gather together My jewels, those are the ones I will choose; those I will love” (Malachi 3:17).
The Kingdom is coming! The Kingdom is here! When did it start? It started in your heart some time ago, for the Kingdom is within you (Luke 17:21). The King began to reign. He began to be Lord over you! It is inevitable that it will take place everywhere, because it is already happening within you. It will manifest itself in every area. God is invading every area of your life. Do you think He will stop there? Not until He has filled the whole earth, for the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). That day is coming. It has already started. Just be open to it.