Jentezen Franklin - Fasting to Unburden Your Soul
Deuteronomy 18, «The priests the Levites, the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: nor shall they eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his portion. Therefore they shall have no inheritance among the brethren: the Lord is their inheritance,» the Lord is their inheritance. «As He said to them». Verse 3, «And this shall be the priest’s due from the people,» this is what the people are to bring to the high priest when they bring their sacrifice. Sacrifice is a major part. All we hear about is grace today. And I believe, I’m a grace preacher, I believe in grace, but there is something that God says about sacrifice. I never outgrow it, I never ever need to lose sacrifice in my walk with God. And listen to what he says, «Tell the people to bring and offer a sacrifice, which is a bull or a sheep, and they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach».
I wanna preach today on, «Fasting to Unburden your Soul». Fasting to unburden your soul. Jesus Christ was our high priest under the new covenant. That’s the old covenant. And the old covenant, when the families came once a year, they brought a bull or a lamb, whatever they could afford, and God gave specific instructions to let the lamb be sacrificed. «But I want you to take a portion of that lamb. Take the shoulder, take the cheek, and take the stomach and give that to the priest as his inheritance. That’s what he will live off of and what he will have». And it’s a strange text, and yet it speaks some profound truth about what can happen when we fast because Jesus is our high priest. And He’s saying to us on this fast, «I want you to bring me your shoulders».
Shoulders speak of burdens. «I want you to bring me your cheek». And I’ll explain what that represents. «And I want you to bring me your stomach». So, the shoulder deals with the burdens of life. The daily pressures, the worry, the fear. It’s what we carry the heaviness with. It’s the heaviness of life, the burdens of life, the things that are missing in our life and the questions, and the hardships, and the trials, and the tough, tough seasons that we walk through. He says, «If you are coming to your high priest, Jesus Christ», which is a type of this text, «Bring me your burdens, bring me your shoulders on this fast, bring me your heavy, heavy situations».
The Bible said in Matthew 23 that they bind heavy burdens and place them on men’s shoulders. What is that talking about? It’s talking about the burdens of life that people, that they can get burdened down with things and what fasting is, it’s bringing your burdens to the Lord. It’s transferring from off of your shoulder all of the things that are heavy to you, that are tough for you, that are worrisome and fearful for you, get it off of your shoulder. Bring Him your shoulder on this fast and say, «Lord, I’m going to wait on you, I’m going to look to you, I’m going to cast,» and this is the great verse, this is the great promise. He said cast all your cares on Him for He loves you. And He said, «My yoke is easy and my burden is light so cast all, cast all. Come unto me all you who are weary, all of you who are heavy, all of you who been through stuff and it’s so heavy».
And some of you are carrying burdens, just leave that up a moment. You’re carrying burdens for your children, and you’re carrying burdens in your life, and you’re carrying burdens: health burdens, and financial burdens. «Come unto me,» this is God’s invitation. «I don’t want you to carry it. I don’t want you to work harder. I don’t want you to try harder to fix it. I want you to bring the heavy burdens, bring it to me. The stuff you cry about, the stuff you worry about, bring it to me all you who are laboring and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest. Take my yoke, learn from me, I’m gentle in heart. You will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Bring me your shoulder, bring it to me. I’ll take the burden off of you. And yes, you’ll still have the issue, but I’m going to work on it. I can fix it, I can carry it, I can do it, you can’t».
Now, right on with this shoulder and burden process is the promise of the fasting chapter in Isaiah 58. He says that when you fast, «Is not this the fast that I’ve chosen»? And it goes on to say that, «You will, on this fast, loose the bonds of wickedness. You will undo heavy burdens. When you fast, I want you to come to me and I want you to bring those heavy burdens, and when you fast, you’re gonna unload, you’re gonna give me the shoulder that’s been carrying all this stuff. And I’m gon' let the oppressed go free, and I’m going to break every yoke, and I’m going to lift the heaviness off of you, and you’re gonna smile again, and you’re gonna have faith again, and you’re not gonna let the trials of life just oppress you and beat you down. But I want you to bring the shoulder, bring the burdens, bring the heaviness because I can take it, I can carry it».
Sometimes, we think that, you know, when we go into a new year, we just are supposed to bring the same old stuff. But I feel like God is trying to say to us today on this fast, «Don’t go into the new year with last year’s burdens. Let it go. Leave it there, lay it down on this fast». Say, «I’m just not gon' go around like this the rest of my life». How many of you are burdened for your children? How many of you are burdened for your grandchildren? Let me see your hand. How many of you are burdened about situations and you think about them all the time? Could we give Him our shoulder? And He just gave you the promise that if you do it in fasting, I will break the oppression. I will lift and undo the heavy burdens that’s been on you. Hallelujah.
Galatians 6:2 said, «Bare one another’s burdens». And if you’re carrying a heavy burden, I want you to know Jesus carried the cross, and the scripture said when the burden got so heavy of the cross, that He broke and He fell under the weight, Simon Cyrene was there to help Him pick up His cross. And on this fast, we are joining our fast and our faith with you to say you don’t have to bear your burden alone, and I’m gon' help you carry it. And we are all do this together, and together we will see our high priest, King Jesus, defeat it all at the cross of calvary. If you believe it, say «Amen,» somebody. I need you to praise Him just a minute. That burdens are going to lift. I want somebody to praise God that heavy burdens of oppression, of mental oppression can come off of you in Jesus' mighty name. Hallelujah.
And then, He said, «You know, just give me the shoulder. The burden of guilt, the burden of shame, the burden of condemnation. Just let me carry it. Give me your heavy burdens as you fast». Secondly, bring the cheek. What is that about? That speaks of offense. That speaks of being offended because the Bible said in Luke 6:29, «If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either». But He said, «To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also».
Turn the other cheek. And so, what that’s speaking of, if somebody strikes you, they hurt you, they hit you, they offend you, and it makes your face turn in the opposite direction that you were focused in going. And the attempt of offense, when it strikes, is to turn you in another direction. In a direction of bitterness, in a direction of unforgiveness, in a direction of filthiness of the spirit where you become an angry, bitter person. And God says, «I want you to bring me your offenses on this fast. I want you to bring me the wounds, and the hurts, and the hits that people have done to you. The injustices. I want you to quit trying to fight it and all you’re doing in being ugly about it is being more bitter yourself. You’re getting more bitter yourself».
The only answer is to get somewhere with God, and pray, and read your Bible, and be cleansed, and be freed from all of that and say, «I am not too proud, oh God, to say turn me back in the right direction. I was offended, and I don’t wanna go down that road, I wanna go more toward forgiveness, and you and your promise». That’s the power of fasting. You say, «Well, I’m just not there yet». Go on this fast. God will get you there, God will break you up, God will get you. His presence will mean more to you than your offense. His presence will… you will hear a song or something. Something will happen, and suddenly you will forget about, you feel like you’ve gone a million miles away from all that stuff that was occupying your mind.
Just remember Isaiah 50:6, make the decision to forgive your last year slap. If you got slapped last year emotionally, let it go. Let it go on this fast. Refuse to hate and be embittered against anyone. In the name of Jesus, church, this is the gospel. This is what holds us up, this is what spoils the harvest, this is what destroys the souls of people. You cannot let that stuff accumulate and build inside of you. If you don’t empty it out, if you don’t come all along, that’s why this is so powerful because if you’ve drifted off in your attitude, and in your actions, and in your soul, this fast will bring you back to the point that, «Hey, I’ve forgiven you of millions of things and you’re worried about that one little offense that they did? You forget about them, and you get your eyes back on the cross and the blood». Hallelujah.
Lastly, give Him your stomach. What is that about? When you come to the high priest, give Him your shoulder, your burdens. Give Him your cheek, your offenses, your hurts, your wounds, your pains. Give it to Him. But then give Him your stomach. Give Him those wrong appetites. Give Him your appetites. It speaks of our appetites. It speaks of giving to God everything in us that we’ve just picked up. And I’m telling you this is why it’s so necessary to go on a fast, because you don’t realize how far you can… I promise you if you go on this fast that you will look back in a few days and you will say, «I can’t believe how far I drifted». Your stomach speaks of your appetites, and you have to, it speaks of your flesh, it speaks of the human part of you that, are you going to be dominated by the flesh or are you going to be walking in the spirit?
And that’s why we come and we say on these 21 days, «God, I give you my stomach, I give you this hunger. I have this hunger for you. I am not satisfied with other things. I hunger for you. I thirst for you». And blessed are they that hunger and thirst for they shall be filled. «I give you my stomach. I don’t want anything in my life to keep me from the call of God. I don’t want to pick up anything now in my life that is not from you. I want you to empty out my stomach so that out of my belly will flow rivers of living water,» and this spake he of the Holy Spirit.
You need to be cleansed. You need to take the trash out. You need to get renewed in your stomach for the appetites that are not pleasing to the Lord. Man shall not live by bread alone, but I need God to fill me up with His word, and fill me up with His calling, and fill me up with His purpose. I’m telling you today that there is a powerful scripture that says in Psalms 106 that He gave them their request but sent them leanness of soul. And what happens is, we get so into stuff. Don’t hunger for a bigger house.
Seek first the kingdom and He’ll add everything to you that you need, and many times, even that you want. He is a good God. He will withhold no good thing from them who walk uprightly. But you have to have seasons. And a lot of people, they get more, and they get more… throw that verse up. And He gave them their request. This is what happens. We get more, we get more, we get more, but we don’t hunger for Him anymore. Our contentment is in things and it’s temporal, and it will not last. And if you don’t feed that spiritual hunger with something that is spiritual, you’ll try to replace it with more stuff and ultimately, it will lead you to leanness of soul. That’s why I’m bringing him my stomach. On this fast, I’m saying I don’t want any appetites in my life that you can’t satisfy in your word. I want it your way. I want your plan. I want your will.