Living Hope Fellowship Church

A GOD CALLED PLACE

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

A GOD CALLED PLACE

Preface

(fasting)

          There are God ordained things, found in His Word, that we can do to move Him.  Isaiah, Chapter 58, tells us about fasting and what it will do for us.

Isaiah 58:6 says, “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?”

If we bind the devil with authority like we are supposed to, people will be giving their lives to Jesus.

Jesus fasted and prayed.  He withheld himself from all worldliness.  When Jesus prayed, God heard and answered! 

God has placed responsibility on us as children of God to do the work that He wants done on the earth.  I see this thing is my responsibility.  How about you?

A GOD CALLED PLACE

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus said, “. . . with God all things are possible.” 

Luke 1:37 says, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”  God specializes in man’s impossibilities.  When man fell, a lot of things became impossible to him.  When man sinned, death came in, and sickness, disease, torment, insanity, impossibilities, and limitations came with it. 

Thank God, He made a way for us through Jesus!  In Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “. . . If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” 

Disease and sickness is of the devil.  It is God’s will for you to be healthy, and what we lost with Adam God gave us back with Jesus.  3 John 1:2 says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 

I was not raised in Pentecost.  I know all about tradition, five generations of it in the same building.  We had the mentality that we had to go through life and endure the same things everybody else does, but we knew that heaven was going to be our home.  However, I started reading the Bible, and it said God intermingles with men and even gets in people’s business.  People called unto the Lord, and God answered!  He performed miracles when they needed them. 

When you cry out to God, believe Him to answer.  A lot of times we say things, thinking God doesn’t pay attention, but bitter and sweet are not supposed to come out of the same fountain. 

I found I can call on God, and He will answer.  If I want God to do something that is impossible, I have to do something to show myself strong in faith.  Luke 17:6 says, “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

In Mark 11:22 Jesus said, “. . . Have faith in God.” Romans 12:3 says, “. . . God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,” so everyone has the ability to believe. 

When I started giving more of my life over to God, Jesus started giving more of His life to me.  I started paying more attention to Him, and He paid more attention to me.  I started crying out to God, and the first thing God said to me was, “Ask me to forgive you.”  People think something is wrong with your mind when you say God has been talking to you.  However, if you are any kind of leader, and God is not talking to you, there is something wrong with your mind. 

We have to do something to stir up God.  There are evil things in the world that stir God, but there are good things that stir God also.  He is not a God of wrath and judgment only.  “His mercy endureth forever,” is the most quoted phrase in the Bible.  It takes power to forgive and to be merciful.  It takes to power to declare the truths of God’s Word in the face of a world that really doesn’t want to listen to you. 

Indifference gets to God.  He will allow things in your life that will force you to take one side or the other.  Indifferent people can’t make it.  Revelation 3:16 says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”  When you are indifferent, you won’t talk to God.  You won’t be thinking about God, He has nothing to do with your business, and anything can happen to you.  It is wide open season for the devil and the ways of the world. 

God wants us to infiltrate the world with His Word, His light, His salt, and His truth.  He wants us to affect the world for good.  1 Peter 2:9 says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”  He wants our light to shine in the darkness to lost souls

There are God ordained things found in the Word of God that can be done to move God.  He wrote it down so we can read it and do it.  You first have to believe that God hears you when you pray.  Without faith (see Hebrews 11:6) it is impossible to please Him.  However, with faith, anything is possible to him that believes. 

The book of Isaiah is called by some scholars the fifth gospel, because it is so interwoven with the gospels.  It is astounding how much of the life of Christ you can see in the application to us as believers. 

Isaiah 58:5-6 says, “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?  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?”

God has placed responsibility on us as children of God to do the work that He wants done on the earth. 

Isaiah 58:7-8 says, “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?  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.” 

Your mind will be cleared up.  Fasting is good for your health.  The Lord guards your back, your rereward.  The devil is not going to sneak up on you and ambush you.  Fast and pray.  Tell Him, God, you have to answer.  I have a need.  If you don’t work, I’m going to die.            Remember the woman with the unjust judge?  How much more will God, a just judge, move for us?  He wants us to ask, and we will receive.  Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

If your house is on fire, and all you have to do to get out is kick open the window, you are going through it.  If you have to kick down the door, you will find a way to get out!  This is the way we should seek God.  The devil comes along, and we just lay down like an old possum! 

I will never forget as a kid I learned about the possum.  I was out running through the corn field, and I thought that was the biggest rat in the world!  I looked at his long nose and little beady eyes.  He had some hair on him except for his tail.  I knew he was wild, but I could tell he wasn’t a fast runner, so I knew I could out run him.  I was poking and moving him around with a stick, and then I thought I must have hurt him, because all of a sudden he got still.  I looked at the stick, but there wasn’t any blood on it.  I wondered what was wrong with that animal.  I guessed he had a heart attack.  That must be what happened!  I’d never seen that before. 

I went back and told my Dad about it, and he just laughed and said, Go back to where you found it.  It was just a little way from the house, so I went back, but it was gone!  That rascal got away, and I thought He was dead!  A lot of people act that way.  The devil pokes at them, and they act like they are hurt or dead, and then the devil dances on their life and tears up their family.

Jesus said He would give the child of God the keys to the kingdom of heaven and show us how to combat our enemy!  We don’t war against flesh and blood.  If we bind the devil with authority like we are supposed to, people will be giving their lives to Jesus.  No one is hopeless unless God says they are.  They don’t get saved, because we don’t press on and make a clear road for them to get there. 

Our economy is in a mess.  No man can fix it.  It is not in man to be able to do anything about it.  Man fell, so man needs a redeemer. Only Jesus can redeem the souls of men.  Don’t you think He can redeem the economy, yours and that of the whole nation?  We may go through some stress as we hold on to the Lord in spite of the neighbor’s unbelief.  Romans 3:3-4 says, “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?  God forbid. . . .”

The more you believe for, the more you will be tried.  Isaiah 58:9 says, “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;” 

What do we have to do to get God to hear us?  Do you think God will talk to people today?  People point the finger at others.  I have never seen the like of people saying that it is everybody’s fault or responsibility except their own! 

Isaiah 58:10 says, “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:”  Do what you are called to do, and God will raise you up. 

Isaiah 58:11 says, “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.”  He will guide you continually; it won’t be hit and miss.  It will be a joy to be around you. 

Verse 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.”  You are going to be a revivalist! 

Verse 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:” 

Go to church when you are supposed to.  Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”  If we can’t do little things like that, how can we expect to work for God?  He has called us to great things. 

Verse 13 says, “. . . not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:”  Oh, Lord!  I think I’m being crucified! 

Verse 14 says, “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.”  Where it says, “. . . and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. . . .” it means translation. 

We see a progression in Chapter 58 of Isaiah.  As we yield more and more to the Lord, He leans toward us.  I am not talking about manipulating the Lord.  The Bible says if we will seek the Lord, He will hear us and answer.  

The impossibility of your situation is not God’s problem.  His problem is getting you and me to believe enough to fast and pray and seek God regularly and consistently.  You say, I’ve tried and failed and tried and failed.  I’ve come 100 times.  Seek Him again.  The lord has called us to such a time as this.  I’ve had nothing but resistance since I’ve stepped out believing that God and I can do stuff together, and that He has called me to it. 

Some people read the Bible at a distance, and they say, How could those mean people crucify Jesus, when all He did was go about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil?  As Jesus went about doing good, He laid out the conditions for the success of His ministry.  The people didn’t get angry at His success, but at the conditions required to duplicate it.  Jesus fasted and prayed.  He withheld himself from all worldliness.  When Jesus prayed, God heard and answered! 

Jesus is the Son of God, and He has called all of us to be sons of God.  John 14:12 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” 

We are not called to be victims.  We are called to be victorious.  I know we face challenges, but I believe it is in direct proportion to our yieldedness to God.  Our faith is worthless if it isn’t tried.  James 1:3-4 says, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

The conditions are laid out in the Word of God.  If we meet those conditions, God will give us the victory when the rest of the world is coming unglued.  God is the cure for aids, cancer, insanity, a barren womb, baldness.  All things are possible with God.  God wants a contract with us.  He wants the glory, and He wants us to tell people about His glory. 

Jesus said in Mark 16:15, “. . . Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  He said to teach them whatsoever He had commanded them.  What did He command them to do?  Matthew 10:8 says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”  What He commanded them, He commanded you and me. 

I see this thing is my responsibility.  How about you?

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.