Have you ever felt like your spiritual acts of worship aren’t producing anything? Watch to see what kind of fast God honors.

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of over 100 books, booklets & Bible studies. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 1,300 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries.

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On one occasion, I was running out of
fuel in my car, and I was driving and it

was clear that it wouldn’t be long
before I would run totally out of gas.

So naturally, I pulled over to the
filling station, and I said, “Fill ‘er up,”

and the tank became full again. The
problem occurred as I was driving along.

My car started to sputter. It started to
jerk back and forth. I pulled over to the

side to try to figure out what in the
world is going on here. Everything looked

fine to me, and my gas tank was full of
fuel, but it was obvious something was

still not working. So I pulled over to
the mechanic at the local station to ask

them to please help me figure out why
things were not working as they ought to

be working. He examined it, and he said,
“Sir,

I think I found your problem. I’ve
checked your fuel, and what you have in

your tank is not what the car requires.
you’ve given it something; you’ve given

it a type of fuel that it is not
designed to use, and that is causing all

of your problems.” In Isaiah 58, God’s
people were concerned that their

Christian life was not working, that
their spiritual relationship with God

was not producing anything. In fact, they
say, “‘Why have we fasted and you do not

see? Why have we humbled ourselves and
you do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of

your fast, you find your desire and drive
hard all your workers.” They wanted to know

why heaven wasn’t coming down and
intervening in

their circumstance, even though they were
fasting. Now fasting is giving up a

craving of the physical to gain
assistance from the spiritual. And they

were doing that. They were having this
prayer fasting meeting, and nothing was

changing. Well, that’s when God comes in and He
throws a blockbuster curve, a curve we

all need to hear and learn if we’re
going to take seriously getting God into

our circumstance—personally as families,
in our churches, and most certainly in

our nation. If you’re going to have a
successful, sacred time with God, whether

individually or a gathering, you need to
learn this truth from Isaiah 58 as to

why all of our spiritual efforts,
including fasting and prayer, many times

are not working out at all. Listen to
what God says. He says, “It is a fast like

the fast which I choose.” I don’t want the
one you’re giving me. I want the one that

my engine requires.
It must be acceptable to me, not just

likeable to you. He says, “This is the fast
which I choose: a day for a man

to humble himself.
It is the bowing of one’s head like a

reed and for the spreading out of
sackcloth and ashes as a bed. Will you

call this a fast, even the acceptable day
of the Lord? Is this not the fast which I

choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the bands of the yoke and to let

the oppressed go free and to break every
yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with

the hungry and bring the homeless poor
into your house, when you see the naked

to cover him and not to hide yourself
from your own flesh?”

He tells them something was missing. They
wanted a vertical experience with God

without a horizontal touch in the lives
of others. They wanted God to do

something for them while they did
nothing for others. They wanted heaven to

visit them while there was no touch on
Earth to improve the lives of others.

This is a great truth that you and I
need to know. Whenever you go up to bring

heaven down, heaven wants to see how you
went out to deliver help to others.

Over and over and over again in the
scriptures, God connects the vertical

with the horizontal. That’s why Jesus
said, “By this shall all men know that

you’re My disciples.”
Not that you praise and you pray and go

to church, but that you love one another.
There is an impact beyond yourself.

You and I get God’s attention when we give
to others what we ourselves are asking

from God.
That’s why Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it”—

that is the thing you give—”will be given
back to you.” God wants to see whether you

are a conduit for the very blessing you
are requesting. Because if you want Him

to work to you, but it can’t also flow
through you, then He’s much less

interested in working to you because you
become a cul-de-sac. You don’t become a

conduit. You don’t become a means through
which He can flow through. You just want

Him to flow to. If you want to get God’s
attention when you go to God, let me make

a recommendation. Tell Him what you’re going to do for somebody else if He comes through for you.

Because now you’ve gotten
His undivided attention cause that’s the

fast He chooses,
that’s the gasoline that’ll make Him

roll in your life and your spiritual
experience. What will God do when He sees

that you’ve attached the vertical to the
horizontal and the horizontal to the vertical,

where you’ve touched heaven while
wanting to benefit Earth? Listen to what

He says in closing. He says, “Then your
light will break out like the dawn

and your recovery speedily will spring
forth. Your righteousness will go before

you and the glory of the Lord will be
your rear guide. 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 shine in the darkness and
your gloom will become 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 water does not
fail. Those from whom it will rebuild the

ancient ruins; you will raise up the old
foundations. You will be called repairers

of the breach, the restorers of the
streets in which you dwell.” Did you get that?

If He sees you calling on Him while
reaching out to bless somebody else, He

is going to join you in what you are
requesting and needing from Him. We’re living

in a day when everybody wants to be
blessed, but those same people who say,

“I want to be blessed with this and I want
to be blessed with that,”

are not equally saying at the very same
time, “And I want to be a blessing for the

blessing that I’m requesting. I want you
to flow through and not just flow to,

because I want to be a benefiter, not just a beneficiary. I want to be a

helper and not only one who’s helped.”
When that kind of calling on God takes

place with fasting and prayer, that kind
of sacred gathering occurs, now heaven is

now giving you its undivided attention.
Over and over and over again, God says,

“When you reach out to others, I’ll reach
out to you. When I see that you are a

helper to others, I’m going to be a helper to
you.” Now why is God this way? Well, there’s

a statement made about God that sums it
all up. It says, “God is love.” It doesn’t

just say, “God loves.” People love. Because,
God is a Trinitarian being: Father, Son,

and Spirit. One God composed of three equal
Persons who is distinct in personhood and

One in essence. It’s like a pretzel
with three holes. The first hole is not the

second hole, the second hole is not the third hole, but they’re all tied together by

the same dough. Because They all bear the
divine nature, so God has never known

what it’s like to be alone. He’s always
dwelt in community, so He’s always dwelt

in love. So, He is love. So, He is
comfortable when He sees us being what

He is. And when He sees us being what He
is, He can be who He is to us, as we are

being who He is, and that is operating in
a context of love. So if you need

something supernatural from heaven in
history, if you need God to break through

and bring light to your gloom,
joy to your despair, peace to your

purposelessness, if you want to see that,
give away what you’re asking for and

then watch God—pressed down, shaken
together, running over—give you the very

same thing that you have been requesting.
He’s waiting to hear from you.

He’s waiting to see you give up the physical
for the spiritual, and then He’s waiting

to see how His answered prayer in your
life is going to touch somebody else.

Isaiah 58 wants you to fast, wants you to
pray, but not the one that you put in the

tank, but the one that He can roll on. Because
it’s fuel from heaven that benefits Earth.