Prophetic Call to the Bridegroom Fast
I. THE PROPHETIC ALL TO BRIDEGROOM FASTING
A. Prophetic proclamation of the joyful fast: Zechariah 8:18-23 and Matthew 9:14-17 describe the highest form of
fasting in the experience of the heart … the bridegroom fast.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month … shall be joy and gladness and cheerful
feasts for the house of Judah … many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in
Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord’ … (they) shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us
go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” (Zechariah 8:19-23)
B. There are three prophecies flowing in one stream of though in Zechariah 8.
1. A resurgence of fasting as the judgments of God leave cities in disaster.
2. A resurgence of prayer: the Lord raising up houses of prayer in the earth.
3. All the nations of the earth will want to know about the God of Israel. A move of god will come to Jerusalem and
then to the cities of the earth.
II. THREE APPLICATIONS OF PROPHECY OF A RESURGENCE OF FASTING
A. Fasting filled with joy and gladness: encountering God in the place of tragedy.
1. Those fervently fasting in the midst of judgment will see no contradiction in the bridegroom, the king, and
the judge … everything is done for love.
2. The heart of the believer fervently seeking the heart of God with fasting will know a superior joy in the
encountering the bridegroom God. This is the secret power of the joyful, lovesick martyrs at the end of the age.
3. A superior kind of feasting, as in John 6 … Jesus said, “Feast upon Me”.
B. Zechariah 8:20-22 speaks of the great prayer movement at the end of the age. The intercessors will be joyful
fasting intercessors like Isaiah 56:7.
C. Leaning lovesickness at the end of the age.
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved … Set me as a seal upon
your heart … for love is as strong as death … its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.”
(Song of Solomon 8:5-6)
There is a company of believers living the fasted lifestyle, in testing, coming up out of the wilderness leaning lovesick
upon their Beloved with the fire of love sealing their hearts as in Song of Solomon 8:5-6.
III. GOD DESCRIBES HIS JOY
A. One time God tells us the nature of His joy over us: it is like that of a bridegroom.
“For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:5)
B. John the Baptist describes his joy once. John hears the voice of the bridegroom.
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears
him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.” (John 3:29)
C. At the marriage supper of the Lamb, joy and gladness are the two primary responses.
“And I heard … the voice of a great multitude… saying “Alleluia! For the Lord god Omnipotent reigns!
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made
herself ready.’” (Revelation 19:6-7)
D. Isaiah 61 and 62 and Psalm 45 speak of the joy and gladness of the bridegroom God.
E. The word joy is linked to the bridegroom. I use the word lovesick speaking of this joy. It speaks of the love
between bride and bridegroom; the joy describing love.
IV. THEY WILL FAST
A. Jesus prophesies, ‘they will fast’ in Matthew 9:14-15 according to Zechariah 8.
“The disciples of John came to Him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples
do not fast?’ … Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is
with them … the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will
fast.’” (Matthew 9:14-15)
B. I believe in wholesale global fasting fulfilled in the bridegroom generation.
C. Jesus describes the pinnacle of fasting in the grace of God. He sets forth the highest experience available in God,
pointing to the bridegroom encounter.
D. Jesus introduces a new way of life for the redeemed regarding their relationship to God and their view of God
Himself. A new paradigm of fasting will break into the people worldwide as this new encounter with God is released on
the earth.
E. John the Baptist was initiated and established in the bridegroom fast. John had a burning and shining heart of love
for God.
“He was the burning and shining lamp …” (John 5:35)
V. THE BRIDEGROOM GOD INTRODUCES HIMSELF
A. The bridegroom God first introduces Himself in Matthew 9, describing the nature of the relationship of the
redeemed to the bridegroom God with lovesick fasting.
B. Proclaimers of the Bridegroom:
1. The first man to proclaim Jesus as the bridegroom God is the man known for fasting in the desert. Fasting
and
the bridegroom are closely related.
2. The bridegroom message is core to the forerunners. God will choose those with spirits as John the Baptist
to introduce Jesus before the Second Coming.
C. Fasting before a bridegroom enlarges our capacity to receive the embraces of the Lord. If you want to feast on
the bridegroom God, feast on the Song of Solomon.
D. We will begin to experience the passionate God of desire; the divine romance, the superior pleasures, the essence
of carrying the primary reward on the inside, the secret of the Revelation 15 joyful martyrs at the end of the age on the
sea of glass.
VI. THE NEW WINE
A. The Holy Spirit releasing rejoicing as at the wedding feast, reaching the hidden regions of the human heart with
lovesickness, anointed in the First Commandment.
“Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the
wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17)
B. New wineskins, new structures necessary as multitudes encounter the Bridegroom.
C. Jesus introduces the mourning, the lovesickness related to the absence of His former embraces – His intimate
love and enjoyment of them, His holy passionate life, His beautiful acts, His kindness, fiery righteousness, profound
wisdom …