Fasting Forum (Full 1 hr. 45 mins Program)

The Physical and Spiritual Consequences of Poor Health

It's no secret that we are at the crossroads. Opiate and alcohol abuse are leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Obesity is skyrocketing and plaguing the young as well as the old. It has reached epidemic levels in children as well.

Diabetes is plaguing millions and cancer and heart disease are the number one killers of Americans. Now, of course, the question comes out, well, big deal. Spiritual health is what's the priority and I do agree with that.

However, I'm going to hopefully answer that in just a minute because we pray for God to heal rather than help with self-discipline to change harmful habits. Now, we know that certain habits cause illness, cause disease and it's sometimes I feel when I'm praying for people that will definitely pray.

Pray works. God answers in miraculous ways. He's doing amazing things. But when I pray for somebody on, let's say, heart problems or different issues, how do we know that it's not tied to taking care of this gift that God has given us?

Yes, I'll pray for your anxiety. Yes, I'll pray for your fear. But you might want to stop drinking a pot of coffee. Right? That's adding to that. So many times we want God to heal but we don't want to take responsibility for our actions and stewarding this gift that God has given us.

Most are not caring for this wonderful gift of health that God has given us. There are multiple, I'm going to quote now James Morris, there are multitudes of diseases which have their origin in fullness and might have their end in fasting.

So they have their origin in fullness and they might have their end in fasting. Fasting does not kill us, overconsumption does. Right? We all think fasting is going to kill me. No, that doesn't kill us, overconsumption does.

And if you go back two and a half years ago and you watch a video, it's called, I believe, Overcoming Addictions Through Fasting. I was about 45 to 50 pounds heavier. And just as a personal testimony, my energy is much better, my attitude towards people is much better, I can run, I can play with my children, I can minister better, I can preach better.

So I think we miss how much our physical affects us spiritually and also energy levels and actually when God says go out and do this, minister to others, be an example, share your faith, go out and help people.

I can't, I'm too full, I'm too bogged down and I think it really hinders what God wants us to do. Now again, granted the physical benefits of fasting are secondary. The spiritual benefits are the priority.

Fasting as a Transformative Christian Discipline

But tonight I'm actually going to focus more on the spiritual. Here's why, I'm sorry, more on the physical. Here's why, every single message I've ever given on fasting, I think it's a dozen, always was focused on the spiritual.

So you can go and you can listen to, let me just give you some examples. Lean Mean Fasting Machine, it's on our website. Health, what does the Bible say? Fasting over forks, part one, fasting over forks, part two, you know, it's a little play on words with forks over knives.

A prisoner of appetite, fasting, the good, the bad, and the hungry. Fasting, they found the secret. This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting breaks enslavement, overcoming addiction through fasting.

So you can see there's a lot of fasting sermons over the last six years. And I can tell you that fasting has probably made the biggest difference in my life personally in regard to preaching, in regard to studying God's Word, in regard to living the victorious Christian life.

It's by far prayer and fasting and worship in the Word that has changed my life more than anything. And I can tell because back many years ago when I would preach, when I would not eat, say the night before, and I would come to a men's breakfast, empty stomach, say no to the gravy, no to the eggs, no to the sausage, and I could feel the presence and power of God.

And then when I would choose to cave in and eat, I was very sluggish, wanted to hurry up through my message, and let's get out of here, right? It's nap time. So I could always tell a difference when the flesh was full and when the Spirit was full.

Now of course food isn't bad, right? In many cases God has given it to us to enjoy, and I'm going to get to that in a minute. But when it begins to imprison us and we begin to be prisoners of our appetite, and we start to consume things that are not healthy and they're actually detrimental, that's when it begins to tilt the scale in the wrong direction.

So let me just talk about a few spiritual things, then I'll get into the physical benefits. In Joel 1 .14, we see the power of fasting. Joel said, Consecrate a fast, call the sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the people, and cry out to the Lord.

So the magnitude of the situation determined the response. Fasting is depriving the flesh of its appetite as we pray and seek God's will and God's mercy. So that's mainly what it is, spiritually. When I fast, I starve the flesh and I'm filled with the Spirit.

Because fleshly appetites and spiritual hunger do not often go together. We've talked about that before. Is it easy to pray and worship after Thanksgiving dinner? Or is it time for football? And we see that, and so we see this interesting relationship that we have to have food to survive, but when food becomes our God, becomes our idol, and we begin to be filled with the things of the flesh, and eating and consuming, it will affect us spiritually.

There's just no way around that. The Bible is clear on that as well, not to mention gluttony and a lot of different things. And again, I'm preaching to you as a fellow sojourner, as a fellow struggler in this area.

I have not mastered it. My daughter just had a birthday party and Krispy Kreme was knocking on the door. I'm going to say, no, I'm not celebrating with you. I'm fasting forever. Or am I going to have a donut?

So I'm there with you. It's not about perfection. It's about getting back up and falling forward and at least looking to our health more often than we do. And here's why. I don't want to take the Scripture out of context.

The Body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit

Paul said, I was going to note this, when he talked about the Holy Spirit being our body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now the context, and I like context, because it means you won't take the verses out of context and make them say whatever you want them to say.

The context is sexual immorality. He's saying, be pure vessels that God can use because your body is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit. So why wouldn't that apply to other physical parameters? Why wouldn't taking care of, and I don't know how much, I'm trying to really be careful here because I was overweight, I was made fun of, and I know that it sometimes is difficult.

So I want to be very sensitive, but at the same time I want to be very truthful. And sometimes that hurts. And sometimes it steps on toes. I was going in a very bad direction as I was in my twenties, and thankfully God changed that.

But I don't want to get on a rabbit trail. I want to stay on this topic. Remember this, the flesh always wants to negotiate. Right? Come on, just a little crispy cream. We had one, why not three more?

Right? Come on, why do you want to get so extreme? Just invite me in. And the flesh is always negotiating. So remember that with fasting. The flesh is not your friend. It's always going to negotiate. Well, I'm not supposed to have sugar.

Well, that big cookie has honey in it. Well, that's God sugar. I guess I can have that. Right? I'm not supposed to have meat. Well, fish isn't really meat. Let me have that. You know, your flesh is always going to negotiate with you.

So fasting is really, I think Jenson Franklin wrote about this in one of his books, the power of the made-up mind. That really stuck out to me, the power of the made-up mind. There is will involved in this.

There is self-discipline. There is making up your mind. Because as soon as you give your mind an inch, it's going to take a mile. Mine is at least anyway. As soon as I start to make excuses, and that's why for me, I know this might sound hard to some people or difficult to understand, but for me water fasting has actually become easier than a Daniel fast or a juice fast.

Because it's simple. Water. That's it. Not on a juice. Well, can I make a smoothie? Like throw three bananas in there and a whole bunch in. See, that's a juice, right? Kind of. Or Daniel fasts, you know, what about this or that?

And vegan cookies, they have 400 calories and lots of sugar. And I can kind of trick myself into doing things. Remember this, the flesh always wants to negotiate. So take it to God, be led of the Spirit.

Prayer, Fasting, and Spiritual Warfare

Matthew 17, 21, Jesus said that a certain evil spirit does not go out of a person except by prayer and fasting. And the Bible students will know that this verse is not in some translations because it's a disputed text.

But as we've taught before, the principle is throughout Scripture. Fasting applies pressure to the spiritual realm. Fasting applies pressure to the spiritual realm. Think about that. The flesh is always wanting to indulge, right?

So fasting says I'm not going to indulge on the flesh, I'm going to focus on indulging on the Spirit and seeking the things of God more than the things of the flesh. Author, actually he's an author, but his name is Arthur Wallace, he said often pressure has to be maintained before there is breakthrough in heavenly warfare.

Are you ever praying for something and it's just not happening? Well, I'm just going to give up. I prayed for five minutes today, that's enough. Often when you're breaking through, when you're breaking down strongholds, when there's spiritual warfare, it's not a quick process.

Sometimes there's pressure applied. When Paul says pull down strongholds, that doesn't mean that stronghold's coming down that minute. Right, Lord, take away this stronghold during worship and you leave here.

Boy, that was easy. I don't want alcohol anymore, I don't want to smoke anymore, I don't want coffee anymore, I don't want sugar anymore. Boy, Lord, you are... Man, that was so good. Or is it a stronghold?

And that is not coming down easily, it's coming down one brick at a time, one sledgehammer hit at a time, and you're applying pressure to the spiritual realm. That's what fasting does. It applies pressure to the demonic influences and to our own flesh and it takes time.

One of my hopes is that you don't get defeated because I haven't done too many fasts perfectly. Right, you say, oh that was easy, that was perfect. In a moment of weakness you grab some walnuts or you take some juice like, oh forget it now, I'm gonna just forget it, I'm starting over.

No, you just say, oh well, I'm learning from that, I'm gonna move forward. So you don't allow a little tiny step back to become a long-term setback. And most people don't fast perfectly because really God's not looking at caloric intake, He's looking at the condition of your heart.

That's what He's... Some of the biggest breakthroughs I've ever had were fasts that I just blew it miserably. Now I'm not giving you permission to fast, right, because some people say, why do you tell me that?

Now I'm just gonna blow it all the time. Well, I'm trying to encourage you that when you do mess up, you get back on track. What I'm speaking from as well, maybe I should have told you this, I did a fast, I had no idea how long it was gonna be, and it ended up being 22 days.

It just ended about two weeks ago. Out of 22 days, 14 days were water only. And I was trying to go, and nine of those days in a row were water only. And I was trying to just be led of the Lord, and one time was when I had to speak and I was not feeling good.

I was either gonna counsel or eat something. So I had a little bit of almond milk and a few walnuts and I was able to come to church and speak. So am I gonna let that detour me from my commitments? So I kind of struggle through it, but perfectionists would say, oh, you blew it.

You gotta start all over. I'm like, I'm not starting all over. There's been 19 days. There's no way I'm starting all over. That's impossible. But you see, God honors that because it's a heart striving, not perfect.

So I wanted to encourage you in that because most people, you know, I can't do this anymore, Shane. I got an email from a guy. I can't do this. I've tried 12 hours and I cannot do this. I said, you've got 12 hours though, right?

He's like, yeah. I'm like, well, that's an accomplishment. Look at that. You think I started just by going a week? I mean, my first full day was I was gonna hit somebody. Right? It was 24 hours and I actually caved in and had some orange juice before I was gonna speak on a Saturday night.

I'm not gonna go, oh, I had orange juice. I can't believe it. Because it's the heart. It's God's looking at the heart. So you're struggling. God sees that honor. He honors that struggle. I think it was Jonathan Edwards when he preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God that sparked revival.

He actually had a commitment not to eat or drink water for three days. I don't, I don't, I don't, unless the Lord tells you to do that, I don't promote that. But he got, he was able to speak. He had to have some water.

Now that, he might be getting too extreme. I don't know. I'm just, my point is that sermon still sparked revival, even though he didn't quite honor what he wanted to honor with God. Anybody ever fell short?

Say, Lord, I want to, I don't want to do this. So the enemy wants you to keep beating yourself up so you stay in a cycle of defeat. That's usually why most addicts never come out of their addiction, because they stay in that cycle of defeat and failure.

Four Factors Affecting Health

And they just stay in that versus God says, Hey, you fell, come out. Let me, let me pull you up. Let me guide you. Let me lead you. Fall forward into God's arms. So here's the thing, four things that really affect our health, our fallen nature, right?

Our DNA, that, that, how the, the, the curse is in the body. It is going to deteriorate. We're going to get sick. I've had to pray for kids that have died at three, five, six years old from leukemia. I remember vividly remember first getting into ministry.

My pastor took me to a 19 year old girl who was dying. I think it was leukemia. And I'll never forget that. Just how her body looked like a skeleton and just, just, just that this going through a lot of things before she finally died while we were at the house.

And it just, some things we can't explain, but we know that health, that deterioration sickness is relayed to our fallen nature. We also know there's demonic oppression. I'm hoping I can get to that a little bit on Sunday and talking about spiritual warfare.

We know that the, the woman that was bent over for so many years, Jesus said, woman, thou are loosed from your infirmities. Why should this daughter of Abraham be bound by Satan? So we know that that is sometimes linked.

How many of the people in the Bible that had demonic possession and had diseases epileptic in the Bible and things. So we know that as well. And again, I just go from what the Bible says, toxic thoughts.

Do you know unforgiveness bitterness? I just talked to a pastor today in Lancaster. He's fasted 21 days before in water many years ago. And I want to ask him a few things about this. He said he knows of people where they've been set free as soon as they released unforgiveness.

If you don't forgive others, how is your father going to forgive you? And sometimes we might have that hold on us that the, and I don't know how, but we know, we know that anger ask any cardiologist. It's not even a Christian.

Anger is very bad on the heart because it releases certain stress hormones that are detrimental to good health. So we know that our thoughts, the way we think unforgiveness, bitterness, all these things, you ever just walk around when you're like that and you are, you can tell it's not good for the body, but when you're worshiping and there's peace and there's joy and you're filled with the spirit and you loving people, you feel that it affects us physically.

And the fourth point is failing to steward this gift that God has given us. Now that is my main focus this evening because I've just given you a dozen other sermons that are about 10 hours on the spiritual benefits.

So the main focus though is fasting and what it does to the spiritual, or I'm sorry, the physical. See the spiritual is on my mind though. That's a priority. But here's the question. Here's a question I've been thinking about all month as I've been writing the book and actually it was this 22 day fast that allowed me to finish the book.

Cause when you're not eating, do you know you have a couple extra hours each day and I'm told Morgan, I'll be home later while you're having dinner cause I'm going to work. And it gave me the opportunity to work on this.

But here's what I kept thinking. I teach pastors, teach stewardship. Why stewardship on finances? We teach stewardship on your marriages, right? And our marriages. How do we, how do we steward our walk with our Lord and J and savior?

Why is it then not important to steward our health? Because it affects everything. How a person, how, how our body is, is, is, is, is, is it healthy? Is it not? Now there are people I'm going to go visit.

Hopefully one this week that's in a bed and cause a convalescent home. Another lady we talked to on Facebook who's in a wheelchair bed bound. So I'm not talking about those things because it's not like, well, you know, you must not be doing good spiritually.

That doesn't, that doesn't always happen. There's very, very spiritually mature people that are dealing with health issues. But for the majority of people, why shouldn't we steward our marriages? I mean, why shouldn't we steward our health?

Can you pray and seek God better? I know I said this a few weeks ago, but I want to repeat, can you pray and seek God better with a headache, tight pants and sluggish, lethargic body strug out on your favorite addictive substance?

Oh, that wasn't very encouraging. Let me ask that. Can you seek God better, right? When your pants are tight and you're sluggish or hung over. Oh, there we go now. Well, I guess we got the right crowd in here, but you can't, you can't.

I remember, um, I took, I don't, I don't have a problem with pain meds, but a couple of years ago, the dentist, I've told you a story. He gave me a month's supply of Vicodin for a root canal that I think I still have.

It's expired. I need to throw it away somehow, but I've told you not supposed to just throw it in the trash cause it gets in the water supply and all that. But anyway, that's a rabbit trail. I took it right and it got me to sleep cause it was, it was a bad one.

The whole next day I was trashed. Like, why am I so tired and grumpy? I just, this stinks. I'm depressed. I don't ever want to touch that again. See, it affected my whole day. I didn't read the word. I didn't worship.

I wasn't nice to people. And I go online. Oh, side effects. Oh, well there you go. And see, so you see how the physical will affect us spiritually many times. So that's what I'm truly trying to get at.

Fasting, Disease, and the Body's Healing Processes

That's why I believe God has put on my heart. Granted, this is a unique calling cause not many pastors focus on the physical or you have the people who visit focus on the physical like Dr. Colbert and Jordan Rubin, Dr. Axe, maybe they'll sound familiar.

And they, they focus on that, but there's not too many trying to see the correlation and bring it together. Or maybe it's not their calling and different things. God will call us to certain things. The maker's diet.

I've told you that before, about 15 years ago, I presented my book to a publisher and I backed out of it and just did it on my own. And then they took Jordan Rubin's book, the maker's diet, which 2 million copies now sold.

Right. But people are like, Oh, don't you regret that? I'm like, not at all. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be selling products and doing organic farming and I'm called to preach. So God knows what he's doing.

But I see the health benefits and people are set free when the health is in alignment, when they're, when they're, when they're, when they're taking care of their gift that God has given them. For example, next door, I pray for heart trouble, but the same person stops by McDonald's and Coalstones on the way home.

We'll pray for MS, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, but they, can they, can those be caused by neglect? They often can be. There's fasting retreats where they'll deal specifically with multiple sclerosis and put somebody on water only for a month.

And the results are amazing. Why? Because the body is repairing. The body has time now to repair instead of it's constantly getting rid of the toxins. Now it has time to repair. We pray for cancer, but are we consuming the things that are fueling it?

Now I have two or three people right now that are friends of mine that I'm praying for them in regard to cancer every morning. So I'm not just going, you need to eat carrots. I mean, I'm not naive. I know that, you know, sometimes that, that, um, sometimes we just don't have answers.

Sometimes, you know, this isn't bulletproof. This isn't something that always works like a magic wand because God wants us to seek him. God wants us to, to put him first. And we just don't have answers.

Many times, but we do know, uh, just like they know smoking, right? Causes. We all know that now. How do we know that? Well, a hundred years ago, they thought it was great. They thought tobacco was wonderful.

Uh, get some tobacco, really get your lungs going. Well, now what do we know? Same thing with this area. We know that cancer and disease often is fueled by neglect of the body and fuel like cancer needs oxygen to survive.

It needs sugar. It needs a fuel source. So if you starve that fuel source, usually primarily sugar or toxins, then that, that will begin to starve that disease. Now there's a web, there's a YouTube video I want to recommend.

I normally don't just listen to the audio because I wasn't able to look at the pictures. That's why I didn't share it. I don't know if they're bad pictures, right? You ever, anybody ever recommend something to you and you go, Whoa, what was it?

What were you thinking? But anyway, it was just called this. What if you stop eating for eating sugar for one week? And I could not believe that everything from heart issues to eyesight, to bad breath, to skin, uh, to cancer.

And it's, it's, um, in the research that backs, it's amazing. So this is why fasting is so important because it begins to change, uh, even our, the health of our body. Now, let me, let me just interject.

Fasting does not heal the body. It gives the body the optimal environment for healing. See, people think, well, fasting heals me. No, fasting doesn't heal you. Fasting to me is giving your body a Sabbath.

Isn't it interesting that we're supposed to take one day to rest, but why not rest the body, the digestive tract? So that's all fasting does. It gives the body optimal in an environment for healing. Uh, this might be as a shocker, but I, I think most of you know this.

We all have cancer. Do you know that all of us have cancer? We get cancer. Cancer are, they are cells that send the wrong signal. You have leukemia in the blood or you have it in the tissue. Uh, the cell no longer understands the signal and then a mutation forms.

So a cancer cell begins to form. My immune system destroys it. The microchondria in the center of the cell there with the adamant protons, and we could get real technical, but I'm not going to go there.

Just suffice it to say is your body is designed to go in and like Pac-Man get those cells and those damaged disease. But if we feed our body with toxins, we're overweight and stressing it out. Then we're taking all these stimulants and throwing in a tons of sugar.

The body's barely can't even let alone the immune system is shot, let alone trying to go and kill disease because it is just tax. It's overburdened. So fasting allows all that to heal itself. Interesting statistic.

I don't know if I have it in here or not, but one pound of fat requires an extra mile of blood vessels. So for every pound, so when I fit 45, 50 pounds heavier, I had 50 miles. I still can't get over that.

50 miles of the blood vessels, right? You know, are so small and they're running in different veins, but you stretch those out. So you wonder if the heart's working harder, the body's working harder, there's more toxins to remove.

So it's all connected. Now let me show you a, well, let me throw this out there. If our body could not fight disease, we would die at birth, right? A child dead, dead, dead. But our body is so efficient on going and destroying the immune.

The immune system is so efficient going and destroying the toxins and the free radicals, the oxidation and all these big words you hear. Our body is so designed to do that. Now as we get older though, more toxins come in, it gets harder.

We get overweight, myself included, and the body gets sluggish and run down. So we get sicker much easier because the body's not allowed to go back and restore and replenish. Let me see. Do we have that clip up there?

The first one of the, um, I think it's the atoms. Atoms, Jason. Oh, there we go. Okay. Let me, let me show you this real quick. Atoms are surrounded by electrons. Okay. This is going to go somewhere. Don't worry.

This isn't a boring chemistry class. Now these, these, these atoms are surrounded by electrons, right? They keep circling the atom. Now here's what happens. I'm going to show you each shell needs to be filled with the select number of atoms.

Okay. You got it. So atoms, they need this, these, the each shell around it needs to be filled and either in order to be healthy. So this full outer shell, right, is stable. It's a stable atom. Now you heard the word free radical before.

Let me show you what happens. But if an atom has a shell that is not full, let's say it's missing one. Let's go to the next screen. See, this is a nice, happy atom. This free radical goes and begins to cause trouble.

He starts pulling off of the atoms. This one, I need that. I need that. I need that. Or they start grabbing from the DNA. They start grabbing from your protein. They start grabbing from your fat. And now this, this is a free radical.

It's dangerous. So here's the antioxidant, right? Like you've heard that berries, all God, God, God, God given food. I'm just going to tell you a tip right here. The top three antioxidant foods are Captain Crunch, Krispy Kreme and McDonald's.

Now this opposite, right? Isn't it interesting? Berries, God given food is our antioxidants. They'll go, Hey, free radical, don't bother this good atom. Let me give you, let me give you what I have. I'm antioxidant.

I'm going to stop the free radical. I'm going to give you this good thing I have. And then we can all be healthy atoms. But if you've got too many free radicals running around and not enough antioxidants, the body starts to break down.

And then we can get in deeper to where the microchondria, that's actually the fueling system of the cell that gets distorted and cancer starts to mutate. It forms another cell, another cell divides, another cell divides, and it keeps growing and you have a tumor.

So fasting though, you might say, because here's what the free radical is also doing. It's stealing electrons, these things right here. It's stealing those things from the DNA. He's taking from DNA. He's taking from proteins.

He's taking from fats. Now free radicals are somewhat important because they can help kill bacteria. So we need them, but an abundance, they will start to destroy the body. So fasting repairs. We can take all that off now and put on the fasting screen.

Fasting repairs. Here's how it helps. It helps the body get back to a healing state. So although it's not an antioxidant per se, it gives the body the ability. So when you fast, your cells go, Oh, emergency mode and they begin to consume then the bad, the free radicals and the bad things that begins to clean house.

But if it's always digesting, always cleaning house, always trying to fight toxins, always fighting disease, it's, it's, it just gets run down. So fasting begins. It's actually how we are created. We were created to feast and famine.

We didn't, they didn't have 2000 years ago. You show me Taco Bell in the Bible or anything on the corner. And I know this gets convicting. I know most of you are excited about this, but not everybody is.

They don't like what I'm telling you about right now. You know, leave my food alone. Oh, okay. I'm just telling you how it affects your body. So free radicals can be created by poorly functioning microchondria, the powerhouse of the cell.

Fasting tells the cells to remove the unhealthy cells and replace them with healthy ones. So fasting plus stewardship is what we're looking at. Here's the thing. If the underlying problem, poor health isn't dealt with, illness will return with vengeance.

See many people, here's the mistake we make. Getting sick. Give me that. Give me that antibiotic. Okay. I'm getting sick. Okay. Well that doesn't cure the underlying problem of what's getting you sick.

So why does it return again? I mean, I must've had strep throat 12 times 15 years ago and on an amoxicillin, amoxicillin. What is going on now? Fasting? And I hate to say this, but in the last year and a half, I haven't had any nasal issues, congestions, cold, flu, nothing at all because the body's able now when I get sick, I'm sure I'll hear from everybody, right?

But, and then the, the charismatic go, don't speak death into yourself. And words have, words have power. And, but I'm just saying, as of now, it's been very beneficial in regard to how I used to get very sick, sore throats, nasal congestion, sneezing, coughing.

Yvette, you probably remember four or five years ago in Saturday services, I was always coughing a lot and, and it became, you know, it was just always sick sometimes. So to keep that in mind as well.

So if the underlying problem, which is poor health, isn't dealt with illness, we'll return with vengeance. This is why many people are chronically sick. They are always medicating and never healing. Now this isn't just pie in the sky Christian stuff.

I actually have, this is a DNA book from the college understanding DNA. I read it, I study, I want to see what, what atheists and PhD say about the body, but also how it corresponds with what God has created.

So this isn't just, you will, you will not, you will look at any serious study on fasting and you will see many advocates from all, from cardiologists to neurologists, to different areas. If they truly understand it, they will promote it.

There's actually something, the miracle of fasting. I don't know exactly if that's the correct title on Amazon prime and you can watch how they've cured a lot of things through water fasting. So I'm going to get to a few things here.

Practical Guidance for Beginning a Fast

Here's the takeaways. Pray for direction and strength. Seek God first. So I'm saying, so I'm sure most people are like, okay, what do I do? I'm, I'm excited about this. I want to do this. You have to pray for direction and strength.

You seek God first because seek him and everything else will fall in place. If you don't, then all you are on is a diet. That's real. It's, it's, it's, that's what's happened. When we put the spiritual on the back burner and it's all about losing weight, it's all about numbers.

It's all about measuring my, my, um, ketones and your, your, uh, the sticks, you, you know, you measure things and it's all about numbers and losing weight. We, we put God out of the equation. Then that's all it's going to be.

So Lord, I want to seek you. Would you direct me? And I've, there's so many different variations. I know people, I've got a book right now. I think it's, uh, it's called how Reese, he was a wonderful intercessor prayer warrior during world war II and God spoke to him.

He says, he felt plainly that he was just supposed to eat dinner only for two years. Yeah. I put the book down. So, Oh God, no, don't call me to that. No, don't call me to that. Right. But then you'll see other people where they're, the God's put on their heart to avoid all this, especially have an addictive personality.

Get rid of sugar, get rid of caffeine, get rid of alcohol. God will impress to get rid of everything that is addictive and just feed the body what it needs, not what it wants. So you seek God and see what he, and that's why I didn't know.

And that's why the fast was hard for me. Cause I didn't know, is this going to be a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. I'm going to get to that in a little bit. But again, fasting is challenging because the flesh always wants to negotiate.