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Flipside Christian Church
January 7, 2021
In this unfiltered and uncensored episode, Pastor Karl dives into the spiritual discipline of fasting, exploring its profound biblical significance and practical application for Christians. Drawing from Romans 7 and Matthew 6, he explains how fasting—denying oneself to strengthen the spirit—breaks spiritual strongholds and deepens our connection with God. Pastor Karl outlines fasting’s biblical purposes, such as repentance, discernment, and protection, and contrasts it with non-biblical practices like fasting for Lent without a spiritual goal. He shares practical examples, like the Daniel Fast, and emphasizes replacing what’s denied with prayer, Bible study, and meditation. With insights on other disciplines like simplicity and solitude, Pastor Karl challenges listeners to embrace fasting as a transformative act of devotion, ensuring it’s a sacrifice that draws them closer to God’s kingdom.
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Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to,
What is this?
Uncensored and unfiltered.
Live.
I got Jeff in the house with us and Scott
and Brenda and, a host of Holy Spirit.
That's, I'm trying not to get depressed.
I'm just trusting
there's, bajillion of you online
and you're just a little Covid scared,
perhaps. Or,
I'm trying not to believe that
it's because it's
the spiritual discipline of fasting
when no one's here.
So maybe they're fasting from church
attendance.
I don't know,
anyway,
it's gotten better
because you guys are here.
Can I ask you just to move over this way
a little bit?
So when I look at you, I also kind of see
the camera a little bit.
No, you won't be in there.
Not in the shot, are they, Jeff?
What? We get the top of their head.
Okay, there we go.
Oh my goodness.
All right, well, there might be
more people showing up I don't know, but,
regardless,
if you're online, following us.
Welcome.
This is on our fifth.
Unfiltered and uncensored.
We did one on is homosexuality
compatible with the Bible?
And then we did one on race
with patient to nine.
Then we did one on, the disc profile.
And we did the last one on evangelism,
and then this one
on, spiritual disciplines of fasting.
Welcome. Someone else just showed up
through the door. There we go.
Look at that.
We are a thriving
five of us now and again.
Most people are online, I'm sure. So,
there is this outline here.
I want to pick that up.
For those of you who are online,
we don't have this outline online
posted yet, but I'll make sure that the
that our online people do that,
let me
let me just say this just to make sure
that we're all, understand,
I am by no means,
I by no means have perfected any of this.
I'm going to talk about, it's all in
practice, and it's all in the works.
But I don't
I don't talk about this as if as if
I got all of this dialed in all the time.
But but let me just
let me just let me just start with this.
We're talking about spiritual disciplines,
specifically fasting
as a spiritual discipline.
I'm gonna ask you the same thing
if you can just. This will.
Just so I feel like I'm looking
at the same people in the same camera.
I appreciate it.
We're talking about spiritual
disciplines,
and fasting is a spiritual discipline.
And we're going to dive
into maybe some more spiritual disciplines
on what they are,
but we will focus on fasting this evening.
But let me just let me just share with you
this quote.
If there's an inward devotion,
there ought to be an external expression.
There's there's no way
that any of us would believe
if we're in a relationship
with someone we love, that we love them
internally but have no outward
expression of that love.
It just would not work
in the human relationship.
And we don't expect it to work
in our relationship with God either.
So if there's an internal devotion,
there ought to be an external expression,
spiritual discipline
are the external expression
of an internal devotion towards God.
I been in church a long time.
I heard a lot of people talk,
especially in the context of church,
about a discipleship program.
What kind of program does your church
have about, in making disciples?
Does it need a discipleship program?
Let me just say this.
If people practice spiritual disciplines,
there's
no need for a discipleship program.
The spiritual disciplines
are designed to develop us in faith.
And so if we just took seriously
the commands of Scripture
and the examples of Scripture
and the implications of Scripture
about spiritual disciplines, discipleship
takes care of itself oftentimes.
So, let me share this verse
and I'm going to pray, this is
this is why I want to do this,
this unfiltered, uncensored on fasting.
This is why it's so important.
And when they had come to them,
to to the multitude, a man came to him,
kneeling down to him and saying, talk,
this is a man talking to Jesus.
Lord, have mercy on my son.
He's an epileptic and suffer severely.
He often falls into the fire
and often into the water.
So I brought him to your disciples,
but they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said,
oh faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you?
Bring him to me.
And Jesus rebuked the demon,
and it came out of him, and the child
was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately
and said, why could we not cast it out?
Why can we cast the demon?
Now that boy Jesus said to them,
because of your unbelief?
For assuredly, I say to you,
if you have faith as a mustard seed,
you'll say to this mountain, move
from here to there, and it will move
and nothing will be impossible for you.
However, this kind does not go out
except by prayer and fasting.
Like I said,
if if if if if people if
Christ followers
practiced spiritual disciplines,
there would be no need for a discipleship
program.
Spiritual disciplines are
what make a disciple a growing disciple.
Once you accept Christ, you're a disciple
should be of Christ.
What makes you grow as a disciple
are the spiritual disciplines
we see in Scripture.
And so spiritual disciplines
take care of any discipleship program
you could ever come up with.
Matter of fact, most discipleship
programs are focused on 1 or 2
spiritual disciplines Bible reading,
prayer, and Bible memorization.
That's a
very narrow focus of what a disciple is
and discipleship program is.
So if we just understood what what
spiritual gifts are, sorry, what spiritual
disciplines are we would understand then
what it means to be a growing disciple.
Part of what it means to be a growing
disciple is fasting and fasting
is one of those things
that has a profound spiritual
and physical effect.
Jesus says,
this kind of demon does not come out
except by prayer and
fasting.
Now, the interesting thing to me is
Jesus had just sent the disciples away
and given them authority
to heal every disease
and to cast out demons.
He just did that,
just a few chapters prior.
And then they come back
and they encounter a situation where where
the authority he's already given them
doesn't seem to be effective.
And they ask, why isn't it effective? Now?
He says, because you don't understand
the role
of fasting when it's attached to prayer
and the role of prayer,
it's attached to fasting.
There's there's something unique about it.
And so because there are some kind
that don't come out except, by prayer
and fasting, regardless of what some Trump
people think about storming the castle,
this kind will not come out by storming
the Capitol, only by prayer and fasting.
We we have to understand
fasting and its role and how to do it.
So let me pray. Father. Thank you
that you have given us tools
that we can practice, that,
that enable and increase our relationship
with you
in profound ways, in profound ways.
I thank you that you have opened
heaven to us
and the authority of heaven to us.
If we'd be mindful on how to access it.
I pray that you give us insight
this evening to fasting,
that we would live as people with
both the power and the authority,
because of our relationship with you,
that would cast out these kinds
by prayer and fasting.
And your name I pray, Amen.
Most religions teach their followers
to abide by practices or disciplines,
that are outwards expressions,
outward expressions of an inward devotion.
Now when, when
when I use the word discipline,
what I mean by discipline is restraint.
And so when we talk about
spiritual discipline,
what we're talking about is restraints
that we put around ourselves.
The three Abrahamic faiths
Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Those who trace their beginnings
back to Abraham all have or should have,
expectation of their disciples
on how they practice their faith.
So, for instance,
Islam has its required disciplines or
restraints, but,
the profession of faith requirement for,
for for Islam.
Five daily prayers requirement,
charity of the poor requirement.
Fasting during Ramadan requirement.
Pilgrimage to Mecca. Requirement.
To be a good Muslim,
you have to practice these things.
If at all possible.
And there are other dietary and
and attire restrictions and prohibitions
they have around as well,
if you want to be really good.
But but you any, any Muslim will say
these are the five requirements
you have to practice as a good Muslim
Judaism
as its required disciplines as well.
Within Judaism,
there are three daily prayers.
The Jew, the Orthodox Jew must pray.
There's the observance of certain
religious holidays within Judaism,
not the least of which is Passover,
Yom Kippur, Purim and Hanukkah.
There is within Judaism the Sabbath
regulations that every good Orthodox
Jew must practice.
There's other dietary restraints
surrounding,
the practice of Judaism,
and there's the rites of passage.
The bar and bar mitzvah.
Any good Jew has got to practice
these disciplines,
these spiritual disciplines,
or these spiritual restraints
for Christianity.
What are the spiritual disciplines
of our faith
for those who follow Jesus?
What are the spiritual
disciplines of our faith?
If Islam could say,
these are the five things of Judaism
today, these are the things.
So you have to do as
a good Muslim, as a good Jew,
what is it for Christianity?
This is difficult
for some because of one Bible verse.
This is why talking about scriptures
was difficult because of this Bible verse,
for it's by grace
you've been saved through faith in this,
not from yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not by works,
so that no one could boast.
And what happens is that Christians, feel
that spiritual disciplines
are secondary or optional
because they've already been saved.
So what do I have to do?
Anything?
This is why
most spiritual disciplines are oftentimes
forgotten by Christians,
because we figure, well, we've been saved
by faith.
I get into heaven.
I'm forgiven. Why?
Why worry about this other stuff?
There's an important distinction
to make between Christianity
and everything else.
Christians practice
what we call ordinances of our faith.
And we make a distinction
between ordinances and sacraments.
Now, for instance, in Catholic
streams of faith, they practice,
what they call sacraments the sacrament
of communion, the sacrament of baptism.
The word sacrament
means that they believe
grace is held within that event.
So, for instance,
with the sacrament of communion,
they believe that grace is, is, is,
is received in communion.
So that when I receive communion
as a Catholic, I believe that
I am actually receiving grace,
which forgives me of my sin.
The worst thing that a Catholic can do
is Miss Communion,
because by missing community,
they're missing grace.
By missing grace, they're not forgiven.
And so Catholics and and another faiths
believe that there's
that in the sacraments
that faith is contained in the doing.
Christians don't.
Christians believe in the ordinances.
The ordinance does not contain grace
within the object.
Now, for instance, for, for for Christians
or for good Baptist folk or,
evangelical
to ordinances, baptism
in the Lord's Supper,
those don't impart grace.
Grace is freely given.
Those are simply symbols.
And reminders of our faith.
So communion is the reminder
of the death of Christ
and His shed blood on the cross.
And baptism is the reminder of the death
and resurrection of Christ.
And our identity with him and in him.
But in none of those things do we gain
grace because they're ordinances,
they're not sacraments.
And so because of that,
because we don't gain grace by what we do
and because we Ephesians, we're
saved by faith because of God's grace.
We believe most Christians believe
that all these spiritual disciplines,
secondary at best,
they're not really needed.
And thereby most Christians
don't regularly practice
spiritual disciplines.
And that's why most Christians
cannot identify biblically
what are the biblical spiritual
disciplines of our faith.
But the truth remains.
If there's an inward devotion,
there must be an outward expression.
And so if we say we love God, there's
got to be an outward expression of that.
And spiritual disciplines
are that no more.
And this is all set up.
But it's
this is important for us to understand
spiritual disciplines.
And I'll get to fasting in a minute.
But spiritual disciplines are intended
to make our souls healthy.
And here's why that's important.
Now imagine if this Bible verse were true.
Imagine if we believe this Bible verse.
Watch this.
Beloved,
I pray that you may prosper
in all things and be in health
just as your souls prosper.
Imagine if that's true,
that your prosperity and your health
will be to the degree
that your soul is prospering.
If your prosperity, and if
your health is in line
with the prosperity of your soul,
how much more would you practice
spiritual disciplines?
You understand?
I'm saying.
Now, now, this is
this is John who's writing was
it was the disciple that Jesus loved.
He's the one that he's
the only one of the disciples
that wasn't other than, you know, Judas
who kind of took care of himself,
who wasn't martyred for his faith.
There was something special about John.
It God allowed him this longevity of life
and this incredible revelation of Christ.
And and he might know
what he's talking about.
The physical benefits
of, of spiritual disciplines
cannot be overstated.
There is benefit to our bodies
by practicing spiritual disciplines.
And I would suggest by this verse
that there are probably some
who are sick, who should not be.
Think about it
now, because I've titled this unfiltered
and uncensored.
I can say stuff here that I can't say
on Sunday morning, and so,
imagine
what your prosperity
and your health might be
if your souls were to prosper,
and if your prosperity and health
is tied to the prosperity of your soul,
how much more would we be
cognizant of practicing spiritual?
This was now, please, I'm not saying that
if you're sick reports
because your soul's poor.
Please don't misunderstand me.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm just trying to make a point.
I'm just trying to make a point.
I'm kind of pushing the limit
to make a point.
If in fact, there is a connection
between our souls and our bodies,
how much more will we focus on
practicing spiritual disciplines?
So for the Christian,
can you name
five commanded spiritual disciplines?
Now we only got one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven of us here.
And I know the answer.
So we only got six here
that doesn't have the notes.
So what are commanded
spiritual disciplines fasting.
Fasting.
Wow. You get an A and a gold star
and a jewel in your crown.
Rene said fasting.
Well,
I mean, we we know some of them, right?
What are they praying?
Absolutely.
That ought to be an easy
that's a no brainer.
The study in a word.
Reading the Bible absolutely.
Baptism Lord's supper okay.
Are those spiritual disciplines
or are those ordinances?
Those are ordinances
and spiritual disciplines.
Tithing. Yeah.
Is that a question or statement?
Oh, I wish it was.
You wish it were a statement.
But but this is what I'm talking about.
And there's no shame in that.
But we oftentimes
reproduce people who go to church
but don't understand discipleship
because
discipleship is practicing
spiritual disciplines.
And if we don't talk about the spiritual
disciplines, how does a disciple develop?
The spiritual disciplines
are supposed to be live.
We're supposed to be living. So,
I would go so far as to suggest
that one of the reasons that Christians
don't practice spiritual disciplines
is because we carry around us
the disguise of living by faith.
We would rather say, well,
I live by faith,
not by works,
so I don't have to practice that.
And that is so contrary to God's word.
There are a lot of spiritual disciplines
in Orthodox Christian teaching.
And so I just want to
I want to go through a list of 14 of them.
I don't know if you know there
or that many of them, but here's,
here's a list of, of spiritual disciplines
we got we got this one right.
Prayer. So that's obviously
a spiritual discipline.
We're commanded to do is just not
a suggestion or an or an, an implication.
It's a command.
Also, Bible
reading, study of the word of God.
Absolutely.
Simplicity is a spiritual discipline,
and it's actually a command in Scripture.
You can search it for yourself.
But we are called as Christians
to live uncomplicated lives.
And so just consider for a minute
as an act of spiritual discipline
and the health of your soul,
which then age your body
and see if that's not true.
If you're adding something
to your schedule over and over and over
that further complicate your life, you
might consider asking, is this God's will?
Because we are called to live
simplistically, it doesn't mean without.
It doesn't mean I take
on a vow of poverty, but it does mean
simplistically.
We're not supposed to have high blood
pressure.
We're not supposed to have sleepless
nights.
We're not supposed to be, have schedules
where we just always too busy.
If you're.
I know none of none of you all here
do because you got super balanced lives.
But if you are ever too tired in church
to pay attention
or start falling asleep in church, or
to try to get up and go to church, it's
probably a sign that you're out of balance
and not living a simplistic life.
If God, if God knows
how much he has created for us to do,
and he's given us 24 hours to do it,
and we at the end of our 24 hour day
and decided
we have not got everything done
that we needed to get done.
Probably there was something
we thought we needed to get them.
They don't really need to get done,
because God is not going to add more to us
than he has allowed
us to be able to accomplish, because
he has called us to a life of simplicity.
Just think about it.
It's a spiritual discipline.
Start cutting stuff out of your schedule.
Solitude.
This is not something that, people readily
think of as a spiritual discipline, but
it's certainly talked about in Scripture.
The problem, especially in our day
and age, is are so connected to,
this thing that we can never, ever, ever
get alone.
Because even when we're by ourselves,
we're still connected.
But a spiritual discipline, a solid.
Don't just think about it.
If if we practiced simplicity
and solitude,
how much what our stress level decrease,
how much would our chaotic life decrease?
Right.
And our maybe our health would prosper
as our souls prosper.
Does it make sense?
But on the magic about it,
in other spiritual
disciplines, meditation,
when you think on God's Word and you let
it ruminate and bubble up in your heart.
So because God's Word is alive and active,
when it starts to live inside and bubble
inside, meditation
is when we all know how to meditate
because we know how to worry.
All worry is, is negative meditation.
And so we already know how to meditate.
We just choose to meditate
on the wrong things, on on God's Word.
When I was doing my undergrad stuff,
I took a it sounds so weird.
At the time I took a class for a semester
on spiritual disciplines,
and we practiced all of these spiritual
disciplines throughout the semester.
It was it was it was wonderful.
Chastity,
I'm not talking about just,
abstinence if you're not married.
What I'm talking about is
chastity is no romantic connection.
If you're not married,
you should always be.
You should practice abstinence.
But. But for those who are single
to practice chastity as well,
which is more than just absence, it's.
It's purposely choosing to fast to
or to not just fast, but but to practice
as a spiritual discipline, non connection
romantically with someone.
Paul says
if you're called to Christ
as a single, remain that way because you
have more time and energy to serve God.
So there are times when, when,
when a discipleship practice
a single discipleship practice
chastity and say, I'm not going to have
a romantic connection to anybody for this
at a time. On, I'm
going to work on my relationship with God.
Service is a spiritual discipline.
We don't need to talk a ton about that.
Quietness is a spiritual discipline.
If you've if you've never taken
a set amount of time, whether it's hours
or days, and just remain quiet
before the word of God say he said,
in the Old Testament, he said,
you know, I'm going to talk to you,
but I'm not going to talk to you
in the earthquake.
I'm not talking in the fire.
How am I going to talk to you?
My still small voice.
How do you hear?
Still small voice.
If we're not quiet, right?
I mean, just think about these spiritual
disciplines.
If I'm practicing simplicity
and meditation
on God's word and solitude and quietness
and what kind of positive effect
that that have on my body.
Profound.
May your souls, well, your health
prosperous, your souls prosper.
It's it's it's biblical rest.
It's the Sabbath commands
the spiritual discipline.
And we all know that there are some people
have such a difficult time
taking a day off,
and their day off
might consist of housework,
or the day off might consist
of working on the car and their day off.
My consist of working in the garage.
It's not the Sabbath.
It's a spiritual discipline.
Confession of sin.
Spiritual discipline.
Always confession of sin to God.
Sometimes confession is sin to others.
Giving thanks to spiritual discipline.
Corporate worship.
That means worshiping together
in the context of a local church body.
Can you worship God on your own?
I guess you can.
But your call to worship God in corporate,
with each other, with other people,
sacrificial giving.
So, yes, absolutely.
Jeff, you said tithing.
Giving you tithing is a command sacrifice.
So giving is a discipline. Absolutely.
And then of course fasting.
So I would suggest that there's
a multitude of spiritual disciplines
that as we practice these things,
our souls prosper
and our health prospers.
I think that's just
how God designed this to work.
But my guess is few of us practice these
spiritual disciplines
on a regular, consistent basis,
and few of us have run the gamut of
at some point in our lives,
a concerted effort
to practice all of these.
At some point.
But these are them.
Fasting as a spiritual discipline
is one of the most ignored
spiritual disciplines that the Christian
has in our on our toolbox.
It's one of the most misapplied spiritual
disciplines that the Christian has.
But it is practiced by most world
religions.
Most world religions
tell their adherents to practice fasting.
It's interesting
that Christianity doesn't.
So fasting.
I'm gonna give you a real simple
definition.
Fasting is simply denying yourself
of what your self wants.
Real simple definition of fasting.
Denying yourself of what your self wants.
It's giving up of the craving
of the body
in order to gain and eat of the spirit.
That's what fasting is.
Biblically,
there's only a couple different,
examples of, of, of of,
there's a lot of examples of fasting,
but it's a fasting only only happens
in two different ways in the Bible.
It happens a lot more in our culture
because we're we're just overwhelmed
with things in our culture.
We'll talk about that in a minute.
But one of the greatest
disciplines to develop in
life is the ability to tell yourself, no.
Well, that's one of the greatest abilities
that we can develop.
Children cannot tell themselves no,
I want, I want gimme, gimme, gimme.
And so they have to learn the ability
to tell themselves, no.
Same thing with us spiritually.
We have to learn the ability to ourselves.
Now Jesus said, but if you want to follow
me, what do you say?
If you want to follow me?
What he said to do,
deny yourself.
Tell yourself now
take up your cross and follow me.
And fasting is one of the
the best ways, the fastest way
to learn the art of being able
to tell ourselves no.
Following God demands
we practice self-denial.
And that's what fasting is.
Most Christians have
never engaged in a proper biblical fast,
and most Christians don't.
If they've tried it in the past,
they don't regularly practice it
as a part of their ongoing life.
I'm sure many people
have heard about people
who fast during lent.
During lent, I'm going to give it 40 days.
I'm going to give up chocolate
or caffeine or whatever.
Most people do that without knowing why
and without knowing how and not knowing
what the results should be.
And it's not a biblical fast,
and it produces no long term benefit.
And I'll talk about more of that
in a minute.
But let me just share with you some
biblical examples of fasting in the Bible.
And I always want to go back to the Bible.
In the Bible, people faster
for times of personal,
mourning and the nations mourning.
In the Bible, people
fasted for their repentance of sin before
God when they knew they'd been convicted
and they needed to repent of their sin.
For God to forgive and to change.
When they were seeking discernment
for decisions, they fasted.
Acts 13 of the great passage of calling
solemn Barnabas to go plant churches.
They prayed their worship,
and they fast did,
before they decided on Paul and Barnabas.
For the Holy Spirit spoken and chose them
and sent them out of ministry.
Biblical examples of fasting
for protection from personal danger
and national danger,
or for the preparation of battle.
When you know that the
enemy is approaching, when you know
you have to go out in battle,
people fasted for God's protection to say,
God, you have to intervene.
Right now. We're going to pray and fast.
People in the Bible
fasted as a desire to draw closer
to God in devotion
and in the destruction of idols.
I'm going to talk more about that
in, later
people fasted in the Bible
and order to intensify prayers.
Daniel nine is all about the prayer
that he offered to God.
God's answer.
And then he prayer and fasted
until the answer came.
And people
fasting the Bible as a way of consecration
or preparation for an assignment
from God in Acts 14.
Right after acts 13,
after the church fasted and prayed
and worshiped and the Holy Spirit
said, send out Paul and Barnabas.
Later,
as Paul and Barnabas were going around
establishing churches,
they prayed and fasted.
In this, in the stablish
of the leaders of those local churches,
and personally,
I fast from Saturday night
until Sunday evening,
in preparation for the activity
God has called me to on Sunday mornings.
And it's it's it's,
it's it's, it's a biblical reason to fast.
And those are the reasons
why in the Bible we see people and nations
fasting before God. So,
if if you're fasting
in order to lose weight,
it might be a good idea,
but it's not a biblical fast.
So those are the reasons
you would fast biblically.
So let them let me let me share
this with you.
Fasting should always have a directed goal
in every occasion
in the Bible that we just looked at,
there was a directed goal for the fast.
There was a purpose to it.
Either something you're attempting
to achieve for God in your life,
or a spiritual growth to receive from God.
Fasting without an intended
prayer for goal will not yield
the power and benefit of fasting.
And it isn't a biblical fast.
They're always.
And this is why the idea of fasting
at lent is not a biblical fast,
because most people practice
the fasting at lent.
Just giving up something
because that's what you're supposed to do.
I'm going to fast from caffeine, overly.
I'm a fast from chocolate over lent.
There's no prayerful biblical goal
in mind
for your benefit of your connection
with God
or for God's revelation in your life.
Fasting is something we do for God.
It's just not a religious activity
or something we do to increase our health.
Most people who do it
because it is the time
and a lot of people coming out of the,
Catholicism always fast for lent.
There's a lot of there's there's
this little wave of Christian evangelicals
that think, well, we need to fast for lent
because that's just what you do.
So we're going to give up something
for 40 days during lent.
And it might be a good religious activity,
but it really doesn't have any spiritual
benefit if it's not understood biblically
and if there's not a focus point
towards it.
So if those were examples of fasting
in the Bible,
what would be our reasons to fast?
Let me just go through
these are reasons to fast
or when there's a difficult decision
to make and to discern God's will.
And you just don't know,
if prayer is talking to God,
I suggest that fasting is the way
you hear from God,
because in fasting
you're shutting stuff off
so that you can hear God.
Our lives are so cluttered.
Now, I,
I would suggest this, and maybe it's
because my boys are.
Two of my boys are getting older.
And the more I can impart to them the,
you know, the the,
I just think it's more
and more and more important
for me to be a little bit
more direct in their lives
as they get older.
But I would tell them,
I tell anybody else,
don't marry
someone without fasting about them first.
That's too big of a decision.
And I would go so far as to say,
if the one you're wanting to marry
won't fast about marrying you, you're
probably shouldn't marry them either.
I just think
that, especially in today's world,
with how many voices
we have speaking to us, it's too important
to go into without fasting.
You want to marry someone
that if you're in a coma
and can't pray for yourself,
you know they're going to pray to you.
Come back to life.
And that's a decision you need to go into
with great prayer and fasting.
So if you got a difficult decision
to make fast,
if you got a major life change
that's coming up,
or that you have just gone into a
you didn't see coming
fast.
More often than not,
when we go through major life changes,
they're so chaotic.
They're they're they're
so wrapped around, confusion
and questions.
Most major life changes
don't come with a lot of answers.
They come with a lot of questions.
And one of the best ways
to go into a major life change
or to navigate a major change
is in the practice of fasting.
Reasons to fast.
When you want to draw closer to God
and hear God's voice again.
We talked about a little bit,
The prayers,
the way we talked to God, fasting,
the way we hear from him
because we're shut and stuff off,
and I'm saying no to myself
so I can say yes to his voice.
Because more often than not,
that voice will come.
And that still small whisper,
and when we're, fat and happy, it's
hard to hear, still small whisper.
Because we're so content.
Reasons to fast
when I have to repent from sin.
There are
there are times,
if you're a Christ follower,
when the Holy Spirit has been so heavy
and, and, you know, you cross that line
that you said you'd never cross again
and again and again.
And you need something more than just
the 32nd.
God. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.
And, reasons
to fast to break free from bondage.
We all know those times when,
again in sin, we thought,
well, I'm never doing that again.
Only to what?
What?
None of you are like me.
Better only to what?
To do it again?
See, here's the problem.
A convicted mind is not enough to keep us
from committing sin.
And so many times
what we struggle with is is sin.
And we feel guilt and remorse
and we ask forgiveness.
And we got a convicted mind,
but we need something greater to break
bondage.
Now, this is a whole separate topic and
maybe I'll talk about it some other time.
I don't believe in for the Christian
talking about addictions,
because the Bible doesn't
use the word addictions,
but the Bible does use strongholds.
And for the
Christian, I think we face strongholds,
meaning
that the devil has created in our lives in
some that we've allowed to be built,
and how to have helped him
in the construction in our lives
and for strongholds in the Christian life.
The strongholds are not going to be
torn down by simple 32nd prayers.
God I'm sorry.
Please forgive me. My sin
that's going to come through these types.
Jesus said,
only come out by prayer and fasting.
So you need a stronghold
broken in your life.
Learn this discipline
and protection from God.
Reasons too fast.
Protection from God.
God, I need you to protect me.
I need you to protect my family needs.
I'm embarrassing you, my church.
God, we're going into something.
Something's happening right now, father.
We're going to fast until
you need God's hand to move.
All through Scripture,
we see people fasting
and the incredible results of it.
Just look quickly.
What happens when we fast?
Well, biblically,
Moses fasted and then he received
the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
Elijah fasted for protection from Jezebel
and was protected Esther faster
for protection from the king,
because she had an assignment
to go to him, and she went to him
as the nation fasted for her protection,
and she was protected
Darius faster for the safety of Daniel,
Daniel fasted for answered prayer.
Jesus fasted before his public ministry.
Paul fasted after his conversion
before going out into ministry.
The church fast reverse in and men
out to plant churches.
Things happen biblically.
Things happen
when people and communities fast.
So how do you know
when you should fast?
And it is.
You can't fast every day,
right?
So let me tell you.
How do you
how do you should know if you should fast
when the Holy Spirit leads
you based on things happen in your life?
So let me just give you, for example,
have any of you ever been
going throughout your day and you get this
thought in your head, I need to call.
I need to check on, I need to see
or laying in bed late at night.
You know what, I need to make sure
I do that first thing in the morning
and then you forgotten, or you got busy
or you just neglected it.
And then something happened,
and then you're convicted.
Let me tell you what's happening
right there.
What's happening right
there is you're convicted
because you denied the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit.
That's the Holy Spirit for the Christian.
So Holy Spirit saying, I'm moving right
now, either in your life or in their life.
I'm in both of your lives.
I'm doing something,
and I'm inviting you to join me in that.
Listen to me.
And so when the Holy Spirit
leads you, based on any of those things
we just talked about to say,
hey, this is the time that's special.
This is unique.
You need
by prayer and fasting,
we have to learn to listen
to the Holy Spirit and respond
in fasting.
So how do you know you should fasting
when the Holy Spirit lead you to.
When you think about that,
if a spiritual authority calls you to it,
if there's a spiritual authority
in your life
and that spiritual authority says, listen,
this is what I'm calling us to.
As a Bible study, as a
family, as a church, as a community,
when that spiritual authority
that God has put there says,
this is what we must do,
we need to do, I'm calling you to do it.
Then it's time to fast.
If you're ever partnering
with someone on their benefit.
It's,
it's a special thing when you know
someone's going through something
and you start fasting for their benefit,
not for yours.
Now, I've never told anybody this.
And just stand on the back.
And I'll say it right now, when I got word
that Iva was on a waiting list
to get, you know, to be
admitted to the nursing program,
I did part of this.
I did this Daniel
Fast for about seven days.
And you didn't know she did.
I didn't even tell anybody.
But there was something special
that she needed.
And I was in a position to understand
and do that on her behalf.
Now, I'm not saying that because I did it.
She got in what she did.
So you're welcome, Iva.
But I'm just saying that this is
this is what the body does.
And then certainly
in those Christian seasons
of either Lent or Pentecost,
it's kind of the natural church calendar
that calls people to and
and occasion to fast.
Absolutely take advantage of it. But,
let me share with you
this Bible verse or this passage
why why fasting is so powerful,
why it's so powerful.
Romans seven.
One of the greatest
sections in all of Scripture,
Romans
6785678.
I'm just profound.
And right in the middle of that is Romans
seven, verses 15 through 25.
And most of you know the context of this
passage, let me just tell the context.
Paul's, Paul's struggle,
struggling with understanding.
Why do I keep doing
what I don't want to do?
And why do I never do what I need to do?
And I'm really he says.
I'm realizing something about me.
And basically he says,
nothing good lives in me.
That is in my sinful nature.
I don't do what I want to do,
and I do what I don't want to do.
And he asks us questions profound.
Who can free me?
He doesn't ask
what can free me because he knows
the answer is not in order to know who.
And what he
realizes is that there's a war going on
within him.
There's a battle going on
between the forces of evil and God's
kingdom, the kingdom of the devil
and the kingdom of God.
And he knows that he is powerless
against the kingdom
of Satan in and of himself,
and he has to be completely reliant
upon the kingdom of God,
the reason why fasting is so powerful
is because nothing can break
the bonds of the kingdom of.
I shouldn't say that sometimes the
the bonds of the kingdom of the devil
are only broken by prayer, and fasting.
And as long as we continue
to fight the spiritual battle
against the kingdom of the evil one
by church attendance
by 32nd prayers
and a devotional reading,
we will always
suffer at the hands of the evil one,
because some of these only come out.
By prayer and fasting.
Fasting breaks the bondage
that I have to myself, to my mortal body
and my selfish desires.
And fasting binds me to Christ
like few other things do.
It's never commanded in Scripture
that we fast.
It's always implied, though.
Jesus says in Matthew six, when you fast.
And so the implication is
that his people will fast.
So he fasting
is a weakening of the flesh
and the strengthening of the spirit.
And this is why most people
never experienced the profound power
that fasting carries with it,
even after they fasted.
Because though there's been
a denial of the flesh, there's not been
a strengthening of the spirit, though
there's been a restraint from something.
There's never been
the building of anything.
And so here's the thing.
The point of the fast
is not just to deny yourself
this.
The point
of the fast is in the denial of the self,
to strengthen the spirit through
prayer, through Bible study,
through meditation.
I mean,
someone told me
a long time of this little ditty.
They said, well, which to which,
if there's two dogs in a fight,
which dog wins?
The one you fed the most?
You starve.
One of them,
the one that gets fed, is going to win.
And so if we are truly
in this spiritual battle,
which of those two dogs is going to win?
The one that gets fed?
And if some of these only come out
by prayer and fasting,
and we've never fed that dog by fasting,
the other kingdoms are going to win
every time.
Because some of them only come out
by prayer and fasting.
And I just wonder
how much of the
move of God that his people have missed.
Because you're not practiced
prayer and fasting.
Jesus actually said,
if you got a house
that's full of demons
and you cast the demon out
and he goes off in the air
and only finds your place as anything.
So I was living
pretty good back in the house.
And Jesus says, if you don't feel
the house, you leave it empty.
That demon is going to come back
with seven cousins,
and it's going to be worse off
than what it was.
And so oftentimes when we fast
and rid ourselves of something,
if we don't replace it with something,
what's going to come back to us
after we get done with
the fast is going to be worse off than we
were when we started fasting.
So there's got to be
the denial of the self or the whatever,
and the replacing of it with something.
So fasting requires something for us.
I'm going to I'm going to get to the,
the fasting in a minute.
But, but, but we need to talk about this.
To fast requires some type of sacrifice.
One great passage of Scripture
in second Samuel 24.
David wants to, make this sacrifice,
and he and he leads some land to do it.
And the owner of the land
says, well, here,
let me just give it to you
so you can use it to honor God.
And David says, I will not offer to God
that which cost me nothing.
And and so, so,
so when we follow God generally,
and especially when we go into a fast,
it requires a sacrifice.
So here's kind of how this works.
If we're going to fast for 24 hours,
that doesn't mean
we eat a huge meal on the front.
And so we're really not that hungry
by the time we get done with the fast.
That's not
that's not how this goes.
If I'm going to fast from my television
show, let's just say
it's not that I'm going
to record that somehow
so I can make sure I can catch up to it
when I'm done with it.
That's there's no sacrifice there.
So there's got to be a sacrifice
I will offer.
Got nothing of that.
Didn't cost me something.
It requires a sacrifice.
That sacrifice might be just my time
and attention to something.
That sacrifice might be a pleasure
or something.
I really enjoy doing.
And if it's going to be a fast,
we can't just set it aside
and pick it up when we're done.
That's that's not a fast.
I mean, it might be a fast,
but we're not replacing it with anything.
We're just picking it back up.
We're it's
just a delay. It's not a denial.
It could be a sacrifice of time
or our attention that we do something
could be a sacrifice of some pleasure,
could be a sacrifice of money.
At the at the end of the day,
what has to happen in
the fast is it has to be a denial
without a picking back up of anything
that pulls me away from God.
Anything that
with which I gain my pleasure,
from my comfort, from that so fast.
That's what I fast from.
And it has to be denial of that
without the I just can't wait
till this is done.
So I'm going to get I'm going to get right
back to it. When as soon as it's done.
That's not a biblical fast.
It has to be a sacrifice. Now,
I forgot who it was.
It was a couple weeks ago.
Someone asked me in the Bible,
what did people fast from now?
We understood why they fasted.
Protection. Morning. Repentance.
They need God to show up in a callous way.
We. There's a lot of results of fasting.
The Ten Commandments with Moses, the
protection of, you know, all these people.
Daniel. The answer, prayer,
all that stuff.
But in the Bible, like,
what were the types of fasting?
I think the context of the conversation
was, people heard people fasting from,
I don't know, from, like I said, chocolate
or caffeine or their cell phone
or whatever. Like,
is that a biblical fast?
Well,
if you just want to look at the Bible,
there's only two as far as I and
maybe someone out there knows different,
but but but what I see
and clearly in Bible there's only two
two things that people fasted from.
And because this is uncensored,
unfiltered, I can say whatever I want to,
food and sex between a husband and wife.
Those are the two things
that people fasted from in the Bible.
And just to prove it,
because I know someone out there
in, internet lands can be like,
what are you doing wrong now?
First Corinthians seven,
do not deprive each other.
Except this is a married husband and wife,
except by, perhaps by mutual consent.
And for a time, so that you may
devote yourselves to prayer,
then come together again
so that Satan will not tempt you
because of your lack of self-control.
And so take a break
for the purpose
of your connection with God.
And then make sure in this context
that you come back together,
because there are some who are so weak
that Satan's
going to get the best of them.
If and so these are the two things food.
So I don't want to talk
about the sexual fast.
That's not for this
time. I'll talk about the food fast.
So the food fast.
Let me be very clear.
Don't fast.
If you need to take your medication
with food,
you're not.
God doesn't want anybody to die
in the middle of their fast.
So save dying for later.
But don't do that because you're fasting.
You got to take your pills.
If you're in a season of life
where you can't fast and practice fasting.
But if you're season
and if you're in a season of life
that you can't fast,
you're training for a marathon.
I would not encourage fasting for training
for a marathon, just like this is.
And this is why I think this is one reason
why the Bible doesn't say you must.
Fasting. Here's how to do it,
because it's got to be a relational thing
between you and God.
And so I wouldn't put a bunch of rules
around it necessarily.
When you're done with that season
that you can't fast,
and if you get through that season,
then start fasting.
However, the Holy Spirit lead you,
so you got to put on weight.
Don't fast.
If you gotta lose weight, don't fast.
Don't fast because of the weight issue.
Because not about that fast.
If you're in a season where you can
and want to intensify
your connection, communication with God.
So because the Bible talks
about a food fast,
how do we do it?
How do we fast?
Well, there is the idea of fasting
from all food.
That's hard if you go longer.
If Jeff goes longer than three hours
of fasting without food, that's really,
really, really difficult for him.
You can learn the discipline
24 if you if you're in the first 24 hours,
it's like, oh man, by the 20, 22,
23 hours, you start thinking, oh man, I,
I cannot wait till I start eating
two day, three days.
That's pretty difficult beyond three days.
You know, there are biological
things that start to happen
where you start to your body
starts to get used to hunger for a while.
But there is the discipline of fasting.
It's no food, but not all fasts
mean no food.
There are other types of fasts.
This Daniel fast
that I some of you got that handout.
It's a great way to practice
fasting on a prolonged in a prolonged way,
or when you just start
the discipline of fasting.
It's a great way to practice fasting.
This comes to us through the Bible,
the book of Daniel, when,
the, the Hebrew boys were in Babylon
and they were
had to learn all the ways
of the Babylonian
culture and laws, and they were given
all the fruit of the king and
a few of them said, you know what?
We don't want to eat all that food.
Do us a favor,
feed us vegetables and water, and see
if we're not better than everybody that's
eating all the choice foods of the king.
And based on that
and some dietary, understandings
we have of, of, of the Jewish culture,
people have come up with the Daniel Fast.
And so I would recommend at least starting
the discipline of fasting
by practicing the Daniel Fast.
And basically it's all fruits
and vegetables and beans and liquids.
And it's the cutting out of meat
and poultry.
Anything that sweet like honey and sugars
and processed stuff.
And there's things loose on here.
Foods to avoid meat,
bread, pasta, crackers, cookies, chips.
Cheese,
candy. Energy drinks, milk and cream.
Egg sweeteners. Alcohol.
Soft drinks. Honey and coffee.
You like?
Well,
that it's really not much else to eat.
There's a lot of other stuff to eat.
It just as that.
It kind of narrows all down.
All the good stuff.
But then, according to Daniel, fast foods
that you just decide about
and this is where you have to determine
what is God
calling me to
and how am I going to go through this?
You decide if you're really going
to cut out coffee or not, or tea or oils,
and depending on who you study
and who you read, there are many who say,
well, extra virgin
olive oil is absolutely okay.
Some other oils are not.
You have to decide about nuts.
Brown rice and white rice is out yet.
Decide about brown rice or not.
Quinoa, oats, oats.
Certain seasonings are okay.
Certain ones are not.
You decide what those are going to be.
You have to decide about gum and mints.
Here's why.
Because they contain sugar,
and sugar is off the list.
And so it depends on how strict
you want to get with this.
If it contains sugar,
it's supposed to be off the list.
That's why some salad dressings
on most salad dressings are off the list,
because they use oil that isn't
extra virgin olive oil and sugar
and salt in them,
and that's all off the list.
So most salad dressings are off.
Although, interestingly enough,
balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive
oil are on, so you can't season your salad
with those two things.
And that's okay according to the manifest.
So it depends on how strict
you want to get with this.
There's all kinds of things to any fruit,
any vegetable, basically any bean
potatoes are on here, which is good.
So if you fry your potato in extra virgin
olive oil, you can have French fries.
That's awesome.
But you can't have ketchup
because that contains vinegar and salt.
So. And sugar.
So there's some it's some real interesting
things as you go through this.
And again, depending on how strict
you want to get, the point of it is this
at the heart of the dinner fast
is the idea of sacrifice
just between you and God
for the sake of you're connecting
more closely to him and only you and God.
Know what that looks like in your own
daily life.
I would say this
the point of the Daniel Fast
is learning the discipline of denial.
And so,
my suggestion
is to start with a Daniel fast.
And if you have it, I'm
sure we'll put it on our website.
So you can download this.
And look at this.
There's doodles of instructions
out there on the internet.
Just look at that.
Google's really smart in most things.
So do that.
But I would encourage you, Daniel fast.
Here's
the great thing about the Daniel Fast.
The data fast was one of those,
that you can practice for a lot longer
than a day, a lot longer than a day,
but you will feel it.
You are going seven days.
You're going to feel it.
And that's the point.
So I would encourage everyone
to start with the Daniel fast and choose.
But there are other fast as well.
There are other fast,
other credible fasts.
And see if these wouldn't
be a good fast, fast from the television.
Or you could put just media
a fast from social media.
That would be a great fast
for most people.
That's one that I don't
I don't know if it needs to be a fast.
I just maybe it needs to be a death.
Just kill that thing.
Talk about leading you away from God
and the kingdom of the devil.
That's,
a fast from noise
and solitude.
It was really interesting.
I didn't I didn't plan this.
It wasn't a thoughtful thing.
But the summer that I graduated
high school,
the stereo and all my.
It was tapes back then
because that was the new technology.
I know it's way.
I mean, you guys remember eight track,
so you understand that.
But, but way back in the day,
they stole my radio
and all my tapes in my car,
and I was I was a pizza delivery guy.
And so I would drive all around by you
in the heat of the summer
in polyester with no radio,
no music, no nothing.
And I'm cell phone, so you can listen
and just in silence and complete silence.
And it was really interesting to me,
how frustrated I was at first,
but because my parents did a pretty decent
job of helping me understand,
there is a God who loves me and he is real
and he is involved in my life.
I used that summer through an all hours
of my working
full time of just in quiet solitude,
and it was a real interesting discipline
to start to develop.
So the fast from noise is a great fast.
I would challenge you to it,
especially if you like to talk a lot.
Here's the thing.
Whatever fast you choose,
whatever fast it is,
there has to be a spiritual replacement
during the fast.
You can't just get we talked about it.
You can't just get rid
of something for lent.
There's got to be a spiritual replacement
for it.
And I would suggest
again to remember that what Jesus said,
you clean out the house of a demon
and you don't replace it with anything.
He's going to come back with seven
friends.
It's going to be worse
than you ever started.
And so this is why I think so
many people may have tried
to fast in the past, and it didn't work
because there wasn't
a spiritual replacement
of what they were given up necessarily.
And so
when you fast and even in a downhill fast,
you take that time
for concentrated
study and meditation on the Bible.
You're replacing what you're giving up.
So I'm going to give up,
my chicken and and and my eggs
and my sweetener, breakfast and lunch.
And I'm going to give that stuff up.
I'm still going to eat in my Daniel fast
in my veggies, in my
in my in my fruits and all that.
And and God and I talked and he said, it's
okay for me to have coffee still,
but I'm eating my potato that are fried
in, an extra virgin olive oil.
And, you know, so but but I'm, I'm
denying myself a lot of other things.
And so when I'm eating
and I'm
denying myself, these are the things
I'm going to add to what I'm eating.
Study, and meditation on the Bible.
Do you see what I'm saying?
So I'm cutting out some things,
but I'm adding the spiritual stuff to it.
You got to add something to the fact.
You got to replace it with prayer.
If you're going to choose to fast.
And I know people that
and I've done this a lot.
You fast for 24 hour stints.
So so three weeks of 24 hour fasts.
And so you eat in the evening at sundown,
and then you won't eat again
until evening at sundown.
And when you eat at sundown,
it's a Daniel fast.
So it's really restrictive.
It's not a complete all food
for the whole time, but you eat at sundown
and you eat a quarter of the Daniel fast,
and you don't eat it again for 24 hours
till the next sundown.
It's a great system
and cycle to get into fasting.
I've been practicing that
off and on this last year.
And usually when I
should be eating lunch
during that time, I'm walking.
Just walk for miles.
And during that time that I this
this this one season, I listen
to the entire book of Psalms as there's
a lot of Scripture there in the book.
As soon as you get to one chapter, 119,
you know, I was like,
oh my God, I'm so slow.
But it was wonderful
because I was cutting out everything
and I was adding the Bible to it.
And so there has to be replacement
of something.
There's the replacement of quietness,
instead of indulging in the food
that we would love
goes on, just get quiet
and in the quietness.
God I know, Holy Spirit,
I know you're talking to me.
Tune my ears
to hear your still small voice.
Replace
what I'm giving up and let him talk.
If you choose to
fast from fast food, that could be a fast.
If that's got a hold on you,
it's got a hold on your finances.
If you choose to fast from shopping
for a month, whatever that thing is
that God's put on your heart,
save that money that you would have fast,
and then offer it over
and above your regular tithe
because it's an extra I will not offer
to God something and cost me a thing.
I'm not going to fast from this thing
that's taking my money,
and then just after the fact,
I will spend it on something else
and it cost me anything.
I'm going to replace it.
I'm give it to God. So.
So here's the thing.
I hope you choose to fast.
Let me just finish with this.
I hope you choose to fast.
If you do, here's
your guidelines. Here's your guidelines.
Matthew 616 and 17 specifically,
when you fast, do not look
somber like the hypocrites do.
They disfigure their faces to show others
their fasting.
That's what the Bible says.
Jesus says, truly I tell you,
they receive their reward in full,
so they get no credit for it.
So when you're upset because
you're fasting and you look miserable
and are acting miserable,
and every comments
I ask can't wait till you dinner.
And I'm just so well, you just
got your reward and it says nothing
when you fast.
This is the assumption that we will.
The implication that we will
put oil on your head and wash your face.
It means. It means do your hair.
But the jail in.
But whatever you got to do, comb your hair
and make sure you look good
so that it will not be obvious
to others that you're fasting.
Nobody should know.
Nobody should know you're fasting,
but only to your father who is unseen,
and your father who sees us doing a secret
reward. You.
There was there was one afternoon
we were at this at the office here. And,
every once in a while,
the staff like, hey, let's go get lunch.
I was going to sandwich.
So Fidel brings us food or whatever.
And there was one time
when Fidel brought us all this fried food,
and it smelled so good,
but I was doing my 24 hour fasting.
And then the Daniel thing.
So nothing that he brought,
I couldn't eat anyway
because I was doing the damn thing.
But it was a during one of the students
was doing the 24 hour no food
and all this food sitting there
in the office, and it smells so good.
And, and I
it might have been Jeff, one of these.
You're going to eat something.
I know I'm good.
And a little bit later,
we're kind of walking
in the little hallway versus
going fast in there.
Was that you?
Did you ask me that you are you fasting?
I said, yeah, it's okay.
But no, like,
nobody should know.
Like you don't you don't put it on like
your Twitter book
that say I'm, you know, pray for me.
I'm fasting.
You don't like don't do that.
So that so that's one of the guidelines.
Nobody should know.
Just act normal.
When when I fast
every Saturday night to Sunday evening.
It was killing me at Christmas time
when we had all the food out here.
We had, like, the donuts and stuff
and pop tarts and everything,
and I'm like,
oh, that would be so awesome right now.
But nobody knew it.
Just don't eat it.
Just not, you know, say anything and,
but the other guideline is Isaiah 58
and Isaiah 58.
God says your fast is invalid
because you treated each other poorly,
and you neglected
to take care of the poor.
Who are among you.
And so in our fast,
you got to be very careful, look normal.
Don't let anybody know you're doing it.
I mean, within reason and and then
make sure you're taking care of people.
Because after all,
if we connect with God but
don't connect with the people, he's
not really connected with God.
So here's the thing.
And I'll close with this guidelines.
So those two things,
and then set the length of your fast
standard ahead of time.
Am I going to be one most fat,
most biblical fast, most fast
that that people do is either for one day
or it's like centered around.
And I want to get a numerology
but center on biblical numbers.
So one, three, seven.
There aren't many 30 day fast,
but they are out there or 40 day fasts.
Most 40 day
fast are not completely from food.
And there's not just water.
Most for any fast includes
some type of of nutrients.
And and certainly juice.
And I would say before
you ever even think about doing a 30 or 40
any fast, you better talk to a doctor
and a nutritionist about it.
First.
But choose what it is.
Now, here's the thing.
If it's anything more than three days,
you're going to be tempted
to break your fast, and you're going to
come up with all kinds of reasons
why God has now released you from it.
Don't.
The only reason the only person is telling
you to break your fast is going to be,
it ain't going to be God.
Now you can say, God, I'm going to fast
until I get a breakthrough.
I'm going to fast until you intervene.
Now, if you do that, be very careful
because God doesn't mind taking his time
now, he might show up on day two.
He might not show up till day 20.
And so if you're going to say, God, I'm
a, then you have to be careful not to,
you know, put yourself in a position
to be tempted right now.
Here's the thing.
If you do break your fast before
it's over.
Father.
I'm sorry, I love you.
I'm gonna pick it back up.
That's it. You understand?
And when you fast,
you'll be convicted that you broke it.
And you do that work with God,
and he experiences mercy and grace,
and you get on with it.
So set the length, and then set the plan
for spiritual replacement.
What are you going to put in place?
Decide ahead of time.
When I fast, I'm going to spend that time
studying the Word of God.
This section,
this passage, Romans six seven and eight,
the Lord's Prayer as we understand
it, Matthew two, our Psalm 23, or whatever
the book of Revelation I'm going to, I'm
going to I'm going to go through this one.
This is what I'm going to replace.
I'm going to spend this time in prayer
for this person,
for this event, for this thing,
and then decide
what type of fast you're going to do.
Is it a Daniel Fast?
Is it is it of all meat?
Is it,
is it complete food
or is it of social media?
Honestly,
I would love the young ones to fast
for a month from all social media,
do a 40 day fast of social media
that if they did it, if not even young
ones, there's some old ones.
If you
if they for 40 days fast from social media
and spent time praying and reading
the Bible as much time people spend.
So you know what kind of revival
people would experience.
I pray that you
prosper in all things and that you prosper
in your health as your soul prospers.
You know how much would come to.
Anyway,
pray during your fast of the goal of
for your of your fast.
Like you said, you have to set a goal.
What is it?
I'm wanting something from God.
I want to position myself for God.
I want him to move.
You're praying for that
the whole time that you're fasting?
God, this is why I'm doing this.
And so what I'm asking is
why I'm doing this. What I'm asking.
Let me tell you this.
If you have kids, show. It.
They will make you it.
Yeah.
And then feel the time
that you would be spent
that would be spent on yourself
in prayer, Bible and meditation.
Like, make sure
that whatever that
that time is that well,
that was absorbed in what you were doing.
Make sure that that is spent
in that replacement.
Like I cannot emphasize
that strongly enough.
So, I've gone an hour and ten minutes.
There's so much to fasting,
that we could talk about.
I don't want to take
any more of your time.
Although if you're online.
Thank you. I'm going to pray.
But for those of us in this room,
what are.
I'm not going to ask you if you have
what are your questions and comments
and experience?
What didn't I cover that you like,
what about this?
Nothing.
I did that good of a job.
I don't.
Okay, so
let me ask this.
What's your hesitation about fasting
or what has been your
hesitation about fasting?
Very.
I think a
further conversation,
I think, for me, myself
personally, would be on
what is prayer look like?
Because I think that's something, speak
for no one else at myself.
That's the place. Even me.
Today, I'm still trying to figure out
fully what that looks like
and how that changes over time.
So John was saying is for you,
it would be.
What does prayer look like
during that time of fasting?
Yeah.
Where it's at is the question,
is it just God,
please God, will you God move
or is it something different than that?
Is that what you're asking?
In essence, how or when?
How long should you pray, Lord?
Should you pray more often?
What does that look like throughout that?
I would if I could just make a suggestion,
I would suggest that
whatever the time frame is
that you would spend on whatever it is
you're giving up,
make that concentrated prayer time.
So if
you're fasting from food,
whatever you would spend, whatever time
you would spend in making your breakfast,
eating your breakfast, cleaning up
solitude in prayer.
Same thing at lunchtime.
Whatever time you would spent
preparing your lunch,
getting your lunch, eating your lunch,
whatever prayer.
Do you see what I'm saying?
So that would absolutely like it
can't be just, well, I'm not eating.
I'm going to get more work done.
That's not the spiritual replacement,
right?
So you've chased a demon out.
Seven more are going to show up.
You're just going to be more chaotic
and more confused.
Same thing at dinner time.
So whatever.
So if it's a fast from social media,
it's real easy to check
how long you've been on social media
on your phones.
So you know, ahead of time,
I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to spend four hours of my day
because that's
how much time
I spend on social media in prayer.
And so the other thing I would
encourage is this, and this is something
I'm learning to do, I have, I shared
with the church my prayer list, right?
I didn't even show the personal things.
I just shared the biblical stuff.
There's a whole nother page of just
personal stuff for me and my family.
So I that's an everyday thing.
But I've also started saying
as I'm fasting,
Holy Spirit,
help me hear what it is you're saying.
Give me a word from you.
Prompt
my spirit, give me ears to hear your voice
and then just quiet
and just let what will happen
is you'll have thoughts
and then you in that,
in that prayerful time you consider
is that from God?
If it's in line with Scripture, it's
absolutely from God.
And then, you know,
this is from the Holy Spirit.
I'm not going to neglect it.
You know,
this isn't really this is either.
This doesn't match biblically with
that's just my own sinful nature.
Father, I confess that. I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
Change this part about you.
See what I'm saying?
So. So I don't know if that really,
helps with the prayer part.
But that's how I would initially hear it,
and and at least some of my practice
and what I do, it's both the prayer
and the listening.
Some things that happen is in prayer.
If prayer is a conversation
and if God speaks to us through His Word,
sometimes
prayer is just listening to Scripture.
Because if prayer is a conversation
back and forth,
and if God speaks to us through His Word,
when I'm fasting and I'm walk
in, I got my earbuds in
and I'm just listening to the Bible.
That's my conversation with God.
And there are
so many
times he prompts stuff in that time.
That's prayer.
So that's a good question, though.
Yeah.
Anything else?
No. Okay.
So you're going to start fasting.
Okay.
But you're going to continue fasting.
Yeah. There you go.
Good, good. Let me pray. Father.
Thank you.
That you have given us
so many opportunities,
to come in contact with you.
Thank you that you given us
so many opportunities and,
and mechanisms
to deepen our relationship with you.
Thank you
that you have already made the way
for us to come before you.
Father, I thank you
that though there are some
pretty difficult things in this world,
in our lives, that they come out, though
by prayer and fasting.
And so, Holy Spirit,
I pray for those who are listening,
that you would prompt our hearts,
that you would quicken our spirits
to hear you and to respond
when you're calling us to fast.
And as we
do that, that we would replace what it is
we're denying ourselves
with things of your kingdom, with you
in such a way
that our relationship with you is deepened
and strengthened and fortified,
and we would see you,
your hand, and your kingdom
in our world, in our lives,
and on behalf of those
with whom and for whom
we're approaching your throne of grace.