SO WHAT KIND OF FAST IS OUR FATHER LOOKING FOR?

The feasts are always pointing us higher. So while we should afflict our souls in some way on this day, and going without food or water should help, the heart we have in doing that in very important to our Father. Let us hear Isaiah 58 on what the Father means by afflicting our sould. (I have chosen Don Esposito's Hebrew Roots Bible for this scripture, because I really believe he has done a great job with this translation of this chapter.

True and False Fasting HRB

Isa 58:1  Call out with the throat! Do not spare. Lift up your voice like the ram's horn! And declare to My people their rebellion, and their sins to the house of Jacob.

Isa 58:2  Yet they seek Me day by day, and desire knowledge of My ways. As a nation that has done right, and not forsaking the judgment of their Elohim, they ask Me about judgments of righteousness; they desire to draw near to Elohim.

Isa 58:3  They say, Why have we fasted, and You did not see? We have afflicted our soul, and You did not acknowledge. Behold, on the day of your fast you find pleasure; and you drive all your laborers hard.

Isa 58:4  Look! You fast for strife, and for debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. Do not fast as today, to sound your voice in the high place.

Isa 58:5  Is this like the fast I will choose, a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow his head down like a bulrush, and he spreads sackcloth and ashes? Will you call to this as a fast and a day of delight to YAHWEH†?

Isa 58:6  Is this not the fast I have chosen: to open bands of wickedness, to undo thongs of the yoke, and to send out the oppressed ones free; even that you pull off every yoke†?

Isa 58:7  Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, that you should bring the wandering poor home? When will you see the naked and cover him, and you will not hide yourself from your flesh?

Isa 58:8  Then your light shall break as the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of YAHWEH shall gather you.

Isa 58:9  Then you shall call, and YAHWEH will answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you put the yoke away from among you, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of vanity†;

Isa 58:10  and if you let out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday†.

Isa 58:11  And YAHWEH shall always guide you, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. *°*

Isa 58:12  And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall rear the foundations of many generations†; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in.

Isa 58:13  If you turn your foot away because of the Sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, to the holiness of YAHWEH, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words†;

Isa 58:14  then you shall delight yourself in YAHWEH. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of YAHWEH has spoken†.

Wow! Are we listening?

Hear is one of the 99 verses I mentioned earlier regarding the word ATONEMENT:

Exo 29:36  And you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it. 

THE COST OF ENTERING THE HOLY PLACE

If you read just this particular chapter, you will see how much had to be done to atone for sin, and to allow the High Priest Aaron to enter the Holy Place where he could communicate and bring sacrificial blood on behalf of the people to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jocob (Israel). Atonement was not cheap then and it is not now. It was as that time a shadow of Messiah's coming suffering for us all. To enter any other way than the prescripbed way at the time, would almost certainly cost you your life! But many today think to enter without counting the cost or bringing our Father the sacrifice of His son as we come, our new and living way right. Do we come into his pressence with joy and thanksgiving, as instructed or just a shopping list. Are the vast majority just trampling the outer court, not really getting to know their maker. Never actually even getting near the Holy Place. Remember to even drink today of Yahushua's table, "the blood", Paul says is making many weak and some are even dying! That new testament based on old testament knowledge.

YET OUR ELOHIM NOT ONLY DESIRES TO KNOW AND SAVE US, BUT DWELL WITH US AND IN US.

The last verse of this same chapter says:

Exodus 29:46

And they shall know that I am the YHVH their Elohiym (God), who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the "Yahuah" their Elihiym. 

Do you perhaps wonder, as I have, that if Yahushua was slain before the foundation of the world, why were all these elaborate detailed requirements ever even required? I believe that without them, we may well have never understood the depth of the new testament.

Rev 13:8

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

If there is one thing we should allow to sink deeply into our soul, it is that our Elohiym is Holy.

Try and get an appointment with any ruler in the world, never mind the creator of all the rulers! Our Elohiym is above all. Let us not take our creator and saviour for granted. Let us come to Him with a humble and contrite spirit. For a

such He will not turn away! But from the scripture above we can see that even if we turn away from Him, we will in the end find ourselves worshiping him anyway, even if we will also spend eternity in outer darkness away from Him.

Isaiah 57:15
For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 

ARE YOU HUMBLE AND CONTRITE?

He will dwell with you in the Holy Place. But the proud do not want their maker to be King over them. They are always rebellious and want to do things their own way instead of His way. They do not even seek His way. They look for those who will tell them what they want to hear. For grace that gives them license to sin! So they seek those who will tell them what they want to hear.

Aaron the priest made atonement for himself and for the people.

But when Yahushuah Messiah came, His sacrifice was once and for all. He came to fulfil what was a forgone conclusion. He would die for the sins of the world. He was slain before the foundation of the world for all who would believe. But on the cross, He was achieving much more than grace for past sin. He came to do what the Old Covenant was unable to do. It condemned, because our flesh was unable to keep it the eternal laws of Elohim. So He came to fulfil also the prophecy of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. He came to write those laws on our hearts, so that we would be able at least to practice His righteousness till he comes again and death is swallowed up in victory. There is no place for habitual sinners in the Kingdom. We are called to overcome sin, for only the SON, but NOT the SLAVE, remains in the house of Yah forever. There is place for habitual practices of righteousness however, even if they fall, they rise quickly to practice again. Because they are humble and contriite, He picks them up in His mercy.

Exo 30:10  

And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto Yahuah.

Now we know that this was a shadow pointing to Messiah, who would open a new and living way for us into the Holy of Holies.

TWO OF AARONS SONS ARE KILLED FOR BEING CASUAL AND DOING THINGS THERE WAY!

It is interesting to note that the previous verse warns to "offer no strange fire" on it. Two of the sons of Aaron were killed by our Father in heaven, fire coming out from Him and consuming them! Why? Because they did exactly that which was forbidden. They came casually drawing near to His presence, with fire in vessels as requested, but not in the prescribed way.

Now we need to realize that in order for us to enter into the Holy of Holies, it cost Yahushua a brutal end to His physical life for our sake. He was not just taking our sins upon himself that we may be forgiven our sins. He was making a way for us to be able to come into the Holy place, and be taught by Him, that we may also become like Him. His seed in us is meant to mature into something that walks like He walked. He overcame sin that enslaves the flesh, by writing His law, not on tablets of stone, but upon our hearts. So, by grace we can now draw near and if hungry enough, we can learn to dwell with Him behind the veil. This was the purpose if the New Covenant that Jeremiah 31 speaks about.He gives those who reckon themselves dead to sin, His Holy Spirit, that they may walk as he walked, boasting in Him alone, for no man can walk as He walked without the Spirit enabling such a thing. The beloved apostle John calls this "practicing righteousness". If we fall, we must confess our sin and then our advocate will stand between us and the wrath of the Father. But neither He or the Father are mocked. As the scripture teaches:

2 Ti 2:19

Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 

It is easy to believe once saved always saved. But is that really what the scripture teaches?

Am I missing something? Follow my thinking to the end and then please show me from scripture where I am going wrong.

There were five foolish and five wise virgins, right?

Five do not makes it! Not because they were not forgiven. They all were virgins, in terms of what Yahushua has done. He suffered to take upon himself the sin of the whole world. But 5 did not have enough oil at the end point.

Is there something most in churches today are missing? Did not our saviour teach us that the last days would be times of great deception and even apostasy.

Mat 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Mat 24:43  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Mat 24:44  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Mat 24:45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

Mat 24:46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Mat 24:47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

Mat 24:48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;

Mat 24:49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;

Mat 24:50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,

Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Paul says in Romans:

Rom 5:10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Rom 5:11  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

This word RECONCILIATION is in fact the word ATONEMENT and translated so in the Old King James.

Strong's shows us that it means to be restored to favour with God.G2643   (Strong)

καταλλαγή

katallagē

kat-al-lag-ay'

From G2644; exchange (figuratively adjustment), that is, restoration to (the divine) favor: - atonement, reconciliation (-ing).

But having been restored to favour, we are expected according to John the apostle, to change our lifestyle! And Paul agrees and in fact expects us "to go on to perfection if God permit". Read the beginning of Hebrews Ch 6 and for context the last part of Chapter 5

Hebrews 6:1

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Luk 8:14  

And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

1 John 2:6

He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Paul says that we are in fact to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to our saviour!

Romans 6:11

Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All the promises of God are yes in our Saviour.

But lets be honest. How many believers are truly experiencing anything like that? One of them is that He is our healer. But many turn to Doctors before their Elohiym. God is surely not liar. In fact John says that he who does not keeps God's commandments is the liar! (See 1 John Ch 2)

1 John 2:4

He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Here also the words of our saviour.

Jhn 8:55  

Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, 'I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. (His word as already explained was all that your read in the Torah or Tenach. Yahushua was the flawless, spotless son of Elohim, whom we are called to follow, walking as He walked. A high calling indeed. I am grateful that we still have an advoate should we fall, but now that I fear Him, because of all I have read, I am less likely to take his commandments casually and be found in habitual sin. God forbid that I am ever again found in it! 

Here are the instructions for the keeping of this DAY OF ATONEMENT:

The Day of Atonement

Lev 23:26  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Lev 23:27  Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto YHVH.

Lev 23:28  And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the YHVH your God.

Lev 23:29  For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.

Lev 23:30  And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.

Lev 23:31  Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Lev 23:32  It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

The word afflict can mean quite a few thigns in the Hebrew.

I will just mention these.

We are to

1. afflict,
2. weaken,
3. humble ourselves. And if we choose not to, and do things our way, is it not sin?

This is what we risk if we do not listen!

We will be cut off from among our people. Our Father will always do what He says. Consider Adam and Eve. Did they indeed die on the day they ate the fruit? They certainly did. The Spirit left them immediately and in time all die to this day.

Consider also these scriptures.

James 4:6

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

James 4:10  

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Note you are to repent at leasure when you have done wrong. The return is not instant, less we forget and return to our vomit.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (Paul)

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

OUR FATHER IS COMMANDING US TO AT LEAST THIS ONE DAY IN A YEAR AFFLICT OUR SOULS, BE HUMBLE AND WEAKEN OURSELVES.

HENCE MANY FAST ON THIS DAY OF YOM KIPPUR. EVEN THOUGH I BELIEVED THAT THESE FEASTS WERE RELEVANT, I USED TO ARGUE THAT WE HAVE REASON TO REJOICE ON THIS DAY, RATHER THAN AFFLICT OURSELVES, FOR OUR SAVIOUR HAS RISEN AND WE ARE IN HIM AND HE IN US. BUT NOW, AS YOU SEE, I REPENT OF THAT. IT TRULY IS HIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!

THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS STILL NEEDS TO BE FULFILLED, AS DOES SUKKOT. HAS THIS ONE BEEN FULLY FULLFILLED?
I THINK NOT. OUR FATHER IS BEING PATIENT NOT DESIRING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH. AND THAT INCLUDES THOSE IN THE CHURGHES. ALTHOUGH WE ARE ABLE IN THE SPIRIT TO DWELL BEHIND THE VEIL WITH HIM AND PRACTICE RIGHTEOUSNESS, HE COMES AGAIN AND CALLS ON US TO BE READY, AND THE MILLENIUM REIGN CLEARLY HAS NOT YET HAPPENED OR WE WOULD SEE LITTLE TO NO EVIL IN THE WORLD! YOM KIPPUR IS A WAKE UP CALL, AS IS TRUMPETS. BUT YOM KIPPUR WARNS ABOUT NOT JUST THAT HE MAY COME SOON. BUT WHAT MAKES A READY PERSON. LETS BEAT OF BREASTS IN HUMILITY. FOR THE HEART OF THE FLESH IS DESPERATELY WICKED. WE NEED THE HEART OF YAHUSHUA AND SHOULD HUNGER AND THIRST FOR IT.

NOW I BELIEVE THAT HE KNOWS THAT WITHOUT THESE QUALITIES OF HUMILITY AND CONTRITENESS, WE MIGHT NOT MAKE IT, LIKE THE FOOLISH VIRGINS.

IT IS BETTER TO OBEY THAN TO SACRIFICE, BUT IF HE SAYS AFFLICT YOURSELF ONE DAY IN A YEAR ON HIS APPOINTED DAY, SHOULD WE NOT BE WILLING TO DO IT? (FORGETTING NOT ISAIAH 58, WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT)

WE CANNOT OFFER HIM SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE SACRIFICE OF HIS SON AND FAITH TO PLEASE HIM. WE ALL KNOW THAT.

BUT SHOULD WE BE LIKE DAVID OR SAUL? DAVID WAS HUMBLE AND SAUL DID IT HIS WAY. SO THE KINDOM WAS GIVEN TO DAVID, WHO DID SOME TERRIBLE THINGS, BUT REPENTED IN REAL HUMILITY AND CHANGED. ARE WE ALLOWING YAHUSHUA TO WRITE THE LAWS OF HIS FATHER, WHICH HE SUBMITTED TO, UPON OUR HEARTS. YAHUSHUA ALSO KEPT THE MOEDIM (LEVITICUS 23 )"FEASTS" OF HIS FATHER. WILL WE ENTER THE KINGDOM, IF WE ARE PROUD AND REBELIOUS CHILDREN? OR WILL WE FIND OURSELVES LIKE THE FIVE FOOLISH VIRGINS, BANGING ON A DOOR THAT IS CLOSED, WHERE THERE IS WEEPING A WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH. IT WILL BE TOO LATE THEN, TO CHANGE YOUR MIND.

Mal 4:1  

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

THE FEAST THAT FOLLOWS THE DAY OF ATONEMENT IS THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. A FEAST OF REJOICING. FOR IT IS ALL ABOUT THE REWARD OF HIM COMING TO WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THE EYES OF THE HUMBLE AND TO LIVE AMONG THEM. WE ARE BEING BUILT INTO A TEMPLE OF LIVING STONES, THAT WE MAY BE A TRUE HABITATION WHERE OUR HOLY FATHER AND SAVIOUR DESIRES TO LIVE. IT CANNOT BE A TEMPLE THAT IS BUILT ON ANY OTHER FOUNDATION THAN THAT OF OUR MESSIAH. HIS RULES ARE THE RULES OF HIS FATHER. NOR CAN WE BUILD ON IT WITH OUR OWN DEAD WORKS! THEY WILL BURN UP IN THE FIRE. HE IS A JEALOUS ELOHIM. WHOSE FEASTS WILL WE KEEP AND HOW WILL WE KEEP THEM?

Eph 2:10  

For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yahushau unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

So this Day, let us remind ourselves of His Holiness and what it has cost our Father and Saviour to save us. We have nothing of ourselves to offer him or to boast about. We must always come humbly into his presence, and not casually or with strange fire. We must do things His way, not our own way. We must afflict our souls His way on this Day of Atonement.

Here what the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isa 57:15  

For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isa 66:2  

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

_________________________________________________________________