A Call To Fast

It is the beginning of the New Year and we are faced with a few giants that must be conquered. The global economy is in shambles and the hearts of the leaders that govern this chaotic marketplace are failing. Many have committed suicide and others tremble not only because they have lost their luxury gods but because they are guilty of creating the credit crisis, mortgage meltdown and trading fiasco.

At the heart of this sudden downturn are the churches of Jesus Christ and its responsibility in all of this. Judgment must first begin at the house of God. Why is that you might ask? Well, after all we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are the little beacon of hope that has in times past and once again has turned the world upside down and in this case we need to turn it right side up.

Could it be that we have fallen asleep at the wheel and the enemy has crept in? Maybe the watchman on the wall and the keeper of the gate has been preoccupied with other things and the enemy has gone below the radar and taken possession of the keys.

We must look to God's word and see what Joel the prophet says.

Joel 1: 4-7 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

That's right, the palmerworm, the cankerworm, the locust and the caterpiller has eaten everything up and we cannot stand idly by and let it define us nor destroy us. Our first response needs to be to CRY OUT and say, "Abba Father." If my people which are called by my name shall HUMBLE themselves and pray... Humility is admitting that you can't do it on your own and you need God's divine help.

Joel 1:8-12 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.

The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

And to whom do you suppose he is making this call to? It is the ministers and the priests of God

Joel 1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

So I am now going to sound the shofar and call a solemn assembly and a fast and show God our desperate need for him to heal our land. We can’t just keep saying that we need him but we have got to show it in deed and that is what this fast is about. Let us sanctify ourselves for 21 days. We will deny ourselves of television, movies, meats, sugars and dairy products.

Joel 1:14 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

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