I am kind
of like a kid on Christmas morning, unwrapping
a present, a secret that I want to
give you.
It's not a topic that's going to be
popular, but it's one that's helped me many
times.
And when we read in Matthew two weeks
ago, the spirit is willing but the flesh
is weak.
Meaning the flesh doesn't want to do the
things of God.
The spirit does and the flesh doesn't.
The spirit is weak to the things of
God.
So I want to encourage you, I want
to show you, the title is Fasting, They
Found the Secret.
Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray so that
you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is indeed willing but the flesh
is weak.
The flesh is weak.
And I want to help you strengthen the
spirit.
And it was interesting, one interesting thing about
the Holy Spirit is that it's a hard
concept to understand for some, but the Holy
Spirit actually leads us.
He'll direct us, He'll guide us, He'll quicken
us, He'll convict us, all these different things.
So you kind of have this picture here
of the Holy Spirit just leading us and
He does that.
But you can quench and grieve the spirit
to such a degree that they will, have
you ever grieved your spouse?
And joy turns to, and happiness, it's all
that you're grieving.
And that's the same picture we have here.
So the spirit is willing to lead, but
He only leads those who want to follow
Him.
So it's almost as if the Holy Spirit's
saying, I will lead you, I'm willing, but
you have to obey.
So that His Holy Spirit just doesn't pick
you up off the ground and just throw
you towards God's will.
He waits for you to submit to that.
So the spirit's willing, the Holy Spirit is
willing.
The spirit within us is willing, but the
flesh is weak.
And it's the flesh that holds us back
often to the things of God.
So here's how you engage the spirit.
Matthew 6, 18, I'm gonna paraphrase it.
Don't let it be obvious to others that
you are fasting, but only to your Father
who sees what is done in secret will
reward you openly.
Here's a big misconception in the Christian church.
I'm gonna wake everybody up.
Fasting is a very important spiritual discipline that
was lost about 100 years ago.
100 years ago, church history, they knew of
fasting.
It was a very important part.
I can take you to Martin Luther and
John Calvin and John Knox and John Wesley,
before they would preach in the Methodists and
in Welsh in the 1700s, back to the
founding of our nation with the pilgrims and
Puritans and a lot of different groups, they
would fast.
And before you go, oh no, this does
not sound good, let me remind you that
any time you obey God and you kill
the flesh, the reward is incredible.
That's why Jesus said, but when you fast,
do it in private.
In other words, don't be showing off.
What about if I say, oh, I've been
fasting for two days, guys, look how spiritual
I am.
I'm so holy, and can't you believe it?
And you're losing that reward.
So Jesus is saying, when you fast, and
interesting, not if you fast, but when you
fast.
He'd say, when you pray, when you give,
and when you fast, do it in secret.
And your father, who is in secret, will
reward you openly.
So that's the title of the message, They
Found the Secret.
And you're probably wondering what's so important about
fasting.
Well, let me just start off with a
few things.
You get spiritual insight.
Spiritual insight.
And I don't have a lot of time
to turn to these, but if you want
to write down the name Daniel, you can
turn to the book of Daniel, or also
Google the Daniel Fast.
And Daniel received spiritual insight.
What he did, he said, I'm not gonna
eat sweets, I'm not gonna eat junk food,
I'm not gonna drink wine, I'm not gonna
do anything that's the delicacies, just vegetables and
beans.
It's like, oh, that would be tough, wouldn't
it?
No, that sounds easy, try it sometime.
You won't even make it through tomorrow morning
without coffee.
So what it is, the Daniel Fast, and
I don't really have a, we know that
a fast in the Bible is going without
water and food often.
Jesus would do it, Moses would do it,
we don't recommend that.
Obviously you need water, I don't think you
can go more than three, four, five days
without that.
So it's abstaining from food.
But it gave Daniel spiritual insight, and many
people who fast, they see their spiritual insight,
God opens somehow their spiritual eyes.
And also in regard to a Daniel Fast,
and I would actually encourage those who haven't
fasted before, hopefully I can get to that
in a little bit, you don't want to
just go, I'm gonna go 30 days, water
only, because you won't make it three days,
usually.
We've got so much junk in our systems
that you'll start having severe withdrawals and you'll
end up in the emergency room.
So you have to work your body sometimes
into that.
Daniel Fast is very good because you eat
very clean.
It's basically God-given food.
Minus dairy, minus meat, all these things that
the body craves.
What fasting does, Jensen Franklin, I don't know
if you've heard of him, you can google
some of his sermons on fasting, wonderful motivation,
he tells a story about fasting, really it
sharpens us.
Do you ever want that edge to return?
Do you remember when you were quoting Scripture,
when you were ministering to people, you had
that edge.
And if you had it, you know what
I'm talking about.
And if you've been in sports, you know
when you can just start shooting and they're
going, they're going, or hitting baseballs.
There's that edge, and there's an edge in
the Christian faith that many of us want
to get back again.
I've lost that edge.
I've lost that passion.
And he talked about Jensen Franklin in one
of his sermons about a lumberjack who was
actually getting ready to retire.
He'd been a lumberjack 30 years.
And this younger lumberjack, bigger, stronger, was there
that day.
It is going away.
And he said, hey, why don't we have
a contest and see who can knock down
the most trees?
Well, the older lumberjack said, okay, I'll try
that.
I mean, you're bigger and stronger and probably
can go longer, but let's do it.
So they started going at it and the
younger lumberjack was just, he was just knocking
down trees.
And you know, the big acts, have you
seen those guys?
And just hitting that tree and that's a
good workout.
And he was hitting down trees and every
hour or two he'd see the older man
having to sit down and relax.
And he goes, oh, I got this guy.
No problem.
So he, you know, he just kept doing
what he was doing.
And by the time the day was over,
he'd lost.
The younger lumberjack had lost, and he could
not believe it.
He said, how did I lose?
You were taking a break every two hours.
He said, I wasn't taking a break.
I was sharpening my axe.
But isn't that true?
That's what fasting does.
It sharpens that axe.
It returns that edge.
And if I could just encapsulate it, what
you're doing is you're starving the flesh to
be filled with the Spirit of God.
Hunger.
We all have a hunger for something, a
hunger for food.
It's not wrong.
It's God given.
But there's also a hunger and a desire
for God.
And these forces, these pulls are competing against
each other.
So as you starve the one, you get
full of the other.
And you've noticed, I mean, after a big
dinner, you're a claim jumper, and you get
home.
Do you want to read the Bible and
pray?
No, usually not.
You want to do this.
Because it's that wrong hunger.
Spiritual power.
Fasting brings spiritual power.
No better example of this than Jesus Himself.
He went on a fast for 40 days,
and the Bible specifically says coming out of
the wilderness, being filled with the Holy Spirit,
now ready to start His ministry.
Now, I don't know about you, but I
don't call it a coincidence that Jesus fasted
and then began His ministry.
And was filled with the Spirit.
What He did, He subdued the flesh.
And it's almost like, you have this picture
here, you have a couple guys wrestling, or
you see it on some of the Discovery
channels, this big lion, these lions, and this
lion beats the other lion.
Well, now that lion submits to Him, doesn't
he?
He knows.
He knows, okay, I'm not taking this guy
down.
There's a submission that takes place.
That's what fasting does.
The flesh submits to the Spirit.
It says, okay, you got me.
I'm submitting to the Spirit.
So the Spirit's willing, the flesh is weak.
And once you overcome the flesh, once you
overcome that, and the flesh says, okay, you
got me, there's a submission that takes place.
And just to let you know up front,
you're either disciplining, if you don't like this
topic, too bad, you're either disciplining your body,
you're either disciplining your body, or your body's
disciplining you.
There's not, we want to live in this
middle ground, there's not a middle ground.
You're either, like Paul, bringing your body under
subjection, or your body is controlling.
And that's why we get in bad habits.
You ever get in a bad habit and
you just can't break it?
It's just, why do I keep having it?
And you just, it's like, I just can't
break free of chocolate.
I just can't break free of alcohol, or
caffeine, or, it's just this habit has got
me.
It's because the flesh has got you.
And fasting breaks that.
There's spiritual power that takes place.
Spiritual wisdom happens when we fast.
Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted for the
elders, before committing them to the Lord.
Spiritual protection.
Ezra fasted before he led the people to
rebuild some of the area of Jerusalem that
was in light and waste.
Spiritual victory.
Israel lost 40 men in battle in just
a few days, and Judges 20.
The people went to Bethel and sat weeping
before the Lord and fasted that day until
evening, the next day God delivered them.
And you can go back to Moses with
the Ten Commandments.
I can take you to Nehemiah.
I can take you to Elisha.
I can take you to Peter.
And it's throughout all of the Bible.
It's in church history.
Folks, this is the secret.
This is the secret.
You know when you make, I don't know
if you've ever made a shotgun shell, or
you don't make it, but you put one
together.
You have the empty shell, and you put
in a machine, and then you put in
the primer, and then you put in the
powder, and then you put in a plastic
wad, and then you put in the shot,
the BB, and then you close it.
It takes all, that's what fasting does.
Many people are just, you got an empty
shell.
You got some powder in it, great, good
for you, but there's no shot.
Nothing's gonna happen.
That's what fasting does.
It brings that spiritual insight.
It brings that spiritual wisdom.
It stars the flesh.
And after you fight the flesh, and you'll
go through bad moods for 10 minutes, and
you'll be, like today, I had to get
something to eat.
So instead, I stopped and got one of
those green drinks.
Oh, man.
But, 10 minutes later, I was feeling worship.
I couldn't, I can't explain it.
It just came alive.
It's like, I felt, oh, I conquered the
flesh.
I'm ready to preach tonight.
Had I caved into that, it puts you
back, it backs into submitting to the flesh.
Now, before I keep going, I wanna just
tell you something about the physical benefits of
fasting, because when God tells you to do
something, it's also going to benefit you physically.
Let no anger and bitterness and wrath and
anger, let all that be put away from
you.
We know, ask a secular psychologist, that we
know, we know that holding on to those
motions are, it's toxic.
It will result in your health.
It will hurt your health.
If you hold on to bitterness and rage
and anger, it'll hurt you.
I don't know how that all works in
the body, but God does.
So physical benefits of fasting, it helps with
aging, better attitude, better resistance to disease, better
sleep, change of habits, cleaner skin, creativity, drug
detoxification, improved senses, vision, hearing, taste, joint relief,
more clarity mentally and emotionally, more energy, more
relaxation.
Let me just, on this point, more energy.
This is amazing.
When I do a fast, a juice fast
sometimes, it's like, you know, sometimes you can
have, I just want to lay down, take
a nap, and then within five minutes, I'm
up.
I wanna play, I'm with the kids.
And I can't, where did all this energy
come from?
That's how God designed us.
There's a scripture that says, I pray, I
didn't reference it, because I just wrote it
down about a half hour ago, or an
hour ago.
I pray that you be in good health
and prosper just as your soul does prosper.
I believe that God wants us to be
in good health, and it runs parallel with
spiritual health.
Now, all of us know that's not often
the case.
Sometimes very spiritual people are sick from no
fault of their own.
So I'm not one of those people who,
you know, just say you should never be
sick, because that's clearly not the case.
But, I wonder how much of our sickness
is related to the choices we make.
And that's what fasting does.
More energy, more relaxation, rejuvenation, rest for the
digestive organs, a form of a Sabbath, technically.
Spiritual awareness, weight loss, all these things.
So we see this wonderful spiritual insight, wonderful
spiritual power, wonderful things it does by killing
the flesh.
So spiritually, we see how wonderful it is,
and then we see that it also has
physical benefits.
Tremendous physical benefits.
Now, I don't know of anybody in this
room who doesn't want physical benefits.
So you want to be tired?
And groggy, and all your joints hurt, and
your back, and your neck, and all these
things?
There's good books out there to explain what
fasting does.
Fasting helps to get the body back to
the original healthy state.
And here's why I believe that there's physical
ramifications.
Because the spiritual side is built up and
strengthened, the health of the body often returns.
Because when you build up the spiritual side,
and you honor God, it often has an
effect on the body.
I've seen it more times than I can
even count.
Fasting is directly related to our spiritual appetite.
Hunger for God outweighs hunger for food.
John Piper explains it this way.
The absent...
Now this is going to hurt a little
bit.
It hurt me.
So it's going to hurt you.
The absence of fasting in our lives is
the measure of our contentment with the absence
of Christ in our lives.
And he's right.
Removing fasting is directly related to how much
of Christ we have in our life.
There are two competing hungers, which I alluded
to earlier.
The spirit and the flesh.
You know that by now, right?
You have this spirit, spiritual side, filled with
the spirit of God.
If you're a believer.
If you're not a believer, then you're under
the dominion of the flesh, a slave to
the flesh.
But as a believer, you're filled with the
spirit.
You have the spirit and you also have
the flesh.
And they are not friends.
They go like this all the time.
They're fighting back and forth all the time.
Galatians 5 I'm actually going to read from
a commentary.
I don't quote it too much.
The New Living Translation of the Bible.
What that is, it's more of a thought
-for-thought commentary on what a passage says.
So if you have a New Living Translation,
I would encourage you to also get a
study Bible.
A good study Bible.
English Standard Version, New King James.
It's more word-for-word study.
And then you look at other resources to
kind of add some more light on that.
But I like what it said about Galatians
5-17.
The sinful nature, over here, wants to do
evil.
Which is just the opposite of what the
spirit wants.
And the spirit gives us desires that are
opposite of what the sinful nature desire.
And these two forces are constantly fighting each
other so that you are not free to
carry out your good intentions.
What he means by that is spiritual side.
I have great intentions.
And I'm just going to carry them out.
Well, that sounds good and you can.
But there's a guy over here knocking on
the door.
The spirit gives us different desires.
Don't get the last word in.
Be nice to your spouse.
Love them.
Tell them how much you appreciate them.
That's the spirit telling you what you do.
But then what's the flesh saying?
You've worked all day.
I'm tired.
There's no dinner ready.
She keeps getting the last word in.
I'm tired of this.
I'm the man of this house.
You tell you the man of this.
I can't get the spirit to say, don't
you dare.
Take the road of less.
Just humble yourself.
Take a drive.
Well, who's going to win?
That's the battle.
And it happens.
You can put this on lust.
You can put this on anger.
You can put this on addiction.
Whatever.
It's the same battle that's happening between us.
It's like you have, Billy Graham gave this
story many years ago, and I've told it
a couple of times.
It's almost like you have two dogs battling
within.
And which dog wins?
Well, whatever one you feed the most.
If you're built up in the spirit, I
can tell you right now, I treat my
wife much better when I'm in prayer and
in the word and in fasting and repentance
and brokenness and humility and filled with the
spirit of God.
It's very good in our home on weekends.
Right?
Come home from church on a spiritual high,
but come Wednesday, remember me?
Remember me over here?
It's pulling back in the little things.
You know what all those little things are.
The trash isn't out.
The house is dirty.
Whatever it is that flesh just wants something
to grab onto.
So that's what happens.
That's why fasting is so important.
Fasting, basically, you just starve that dog to
death.
He's going to be quiet for a while.
A couple hours go by.
Maybe usually for me, it's later around two
or three.
It's like, oh.
And it's funny.
As soon as ten minutes go by, you're
like, wow, I'm glad that hunger's gone.
And then a couple hours later, here it
comes again.
So he stops for a while.
And as you go longer, I mean, I've
read books, a lot of books.
You can pick up good books on fasting.
I don't know how people do it.
Ten days?
Fifteen days?
Water only?
I must be weak.
The longest I think I've went just water
only is about two and a half days
up at the Oaks.
Wow.
Let me tell you.
Yeah.
You go through just extreme irritability and then
you put on YouTube worship and you start
crying.
It's like this and once you get that
out, I think I don't know if Yvette's
here, but I came down and I preached
right after that.
I came right from the Oaks to here
and she said, you need to go do
that more often because you're just in a
broken state.
The flesh has been subdued.
It's what happens.
That's how important fasting is.
When we give in to the desires of
the flesh, this guy, it results in anger,
addiction, depression, guilt, shame, anxiety, fear, and disappointment.
Sound like anybody in this room?
I want to encourage you.
On one hand, I want to explain what
is happening.
When the flesh is dominating, these things will
dominate.
Everything I just read, anger, addiction, depression, guilt,
shame, anxiety, fear, and disappointment.
Many times we can't break these things because
we keep opening the door to this.
That's why fasting comes in.
Fasting is the right hook and the left
hit.
It just knocks the flesh down.
Now you're saying, flesh, you're in submission.
You just lost.
Bill Bright, have you heard of him?
Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ wrote the
following.
Fasting was an expected discipline in both the
Old and New Testament.
Fasting and prayer can restore the loss of
the first love for your Lord.
Did you catch that?
I mean, that right there would make me
want to fast.
Because all of us have the tendency to
drift back this way, don't we?
Where's that first love?
Where's that passion?
Did you ever used to sing worship and
tears would start coming down your cheeks?
Or leading worship?
Ronnie, Leslie, you're leading.
You just start the power of God and
you feel that first love.
That's why I'm glad we sang that song.
He's my first and my last.
You felt that.
You returned to that first love.
That's what fasting does because you're starving the
flesh.
It's impossible to keep feeding the flesh all
day long.
Hamburgers and this and milkshakes and get home
and all this stuff and chips and ice
cream and then watch CNN and Fox News
and oh no, it's Hillary or it's Trump.
We're all in trouble.
Oh no.
And we're just feeding this flesh and we
walk around and we wonder, where is Christ
in my life?
Where?
Shane, I hear you.
I want it.
But I've lost that first love.
Fast.
It's the best thing you can do.
But of course it's fasting and praying.
Because you can just fast to fast like
I want to lose weight and that's not
fasting.
And actually it's a pulling away from entertainment.
It's a pulling away from the enjoyments of
life.
And it'll make a big difference.
When you feel that hunger and say, nope,
I've done it before.
My wife's cooking something and it smells really
good.
I say, alright, you guys enjoy dinner.
I'm going to go in my office and
read and I open the Bible and I'm
mad.
I'm mad for about 10 minutes.
And I put earplugs in because I can
hear the plates jingling and the kids enjoying
it.
I've got to go far away because you
start smelling it and you're in trouble.
And it happens every Saturday.
Most of you know I try to fast
on Saturday.
And I love it.
When I get here my stomach's empty but
my spirit's full.
And I go check our PO box in
Quartz Hill and there's that Tony Reno's Tony
Pizza on L14.
It's like...
I've got to get in and out of
here quick because that smell is just...
It's this guy.
Come on.
One piece.
That's how he does it.
Because who can have one piece?
That's impossible.
That's like saying, go to In-N-Out
Burger and have one bite.
And one french fry.
Just one.
And that's what he does.
Anyway, I don't even know where I was
at.
Back to restoring the loss of the first
love.
That was an important point too.
Fasting is a biblical way to truly humble
yourself in the sight of God.
And that is absolutely true.
Because by denying the flesh you say, God,
I need you in this area.
I need you to return my son or
my daughter to you.
I need them to come back to you.
I need my spouse to come back to
you.
I need this to happen.
God, I'm humbling myself.
I'm humbling.
It's a form of...
You can pull up nowadays on Google, all
scriptures on fasting.
And it's in every category for healing, for
deliverance, to be set free.
Mainly in the Old Testament it was in
sackcloth and ashes.
Call the sacred assembly.
Humble yourself and fast.
Jonah came out to the city of Nineveh.
He said, repent or God is going to
destroy you.
What did they do?
Fasted.
And God relented because it was a mark
of humility.
I'd love to do a whole series on
this because we've got to get to a
point of surrendering in this area.
And if we're all honest, and I know
we're all here tonight, why don't we want
to?
Why don't we want to fast?
If we're honest, it's because I love food.
Basically what we're saying is I can't submit
that area.
The flesh is winning in that area.
Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your
true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance, and
a transformed life.
When you fast, the Holy Spirit will reveal
your true spiritual condition.
And I can't just say do this kind
of fast.
What I do is I take it to
the Lord and I say, Lord, what do
you want me to do?
I read on it.
For some people try going with water all
day or juice.
Because you'll feel it around 10 a.m.,
2 in the afternoon, dinner time, you feel
this flesh is not happy.
And you know what's funny?
You're not going to die.
I mean, we got enough right here, I
could probably go a month, of not eating.
And there's books that you can read, pick
them up at different stores on fasting, even
from secular sources that say after the third
day hunger leaves, and you're just tons of
energy, you clean the house, the body's rejuvenating,
you've got foul breath and different things, because
the body is cleansing itself.
See, God designed it for spiritual benefit, but
also it cleanses the body.
I'm wondering if it has anything to do
with the Sabbath.
I mean, we take a Sabbath from work,
why not give our body a rest?
Fasting can transform your prayer life into a
richer, more personal experience and a dynamic personal
revival in your own life.
And that's true, because when you're fasting, you're
not in a hurry.
Let me get through prayer.
Because many times we want to get through
prayer because we're in a hurry.
We've got to be somewhere, we've got to
do this, we've got to eat breakfast, or
lunch, or dinner.
Why do most people want to leave here?
Where are we going?
In and out.
No, I hope not.
Don't tell me that.
Let's get into a little scripture.
Isaiah 58, 39.
Why have we fasted, they say, and you
have not seen?
Talking to God.
Why have we afflicted our souls and you
take no notice?
Now the main context of Isaiah 58 here,
the main context is acting spiritual.
These people were acting spiritual.
God, we are going through the fasting motions,
but you don't take notice.
We are going through the fasting motions, but
you're not taking notice.
That's what the context is.
We're fasting, and God says, I don't care
if you're fasting.
You're not, the heart's not right.
And I also thought of people saying this,
I'm reading my Bible, but God, you're not
taking notice.
I'm praying, but God, you're not taking notice.
He says, you're right, because your heart's not
right.
Are you curious why I preach on humility
and repentance and brokenness so much?
Because that's the key.
I can get you all fired up on
prayer, but you'll pray and you'll say, God,
why aren't you hearing?
Why aren't you taking notice?
You'll read your Bible, God, why aren't you
taking notice?
Because the heart's not right.
A.W. Tozer said prayer will become effective
when, you ready for this?
If you wonder why sometimes prayer's not effective,
prayer will become effective when we stop using
it as a substitute for obedience.
That's a sermon right there, because we use
prayer as a substitute for obedience.
God says, obey me in this area.
You say, nope, let me just pray.
God says, I'm not going to hear that
prayer.
See, prayer and obedience work together.
Prayer, obedience, fasting, worship, if you can't break
that, they talk about a three-stranded rope
is not easy, broken, try a four-stranded
rope.
It's not easily broken.
In fact, continuing in Isaiah, Isaiah 58, in
fact, God is saying, in the day of
your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all
your labors.
Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and
to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this
day to make your voice heard on high.
So basically, they're fasting, but they're not treating
people good.
They're not seeking God.
They're still engaging in the pleasures of this
life.
In other words, we find this in the
New Testament.
Your fast will not work unless you present
your bodies as living sacrifices.
It's interesting on that scripture.
Paul says, I beseech you, brethren, I beseech
you, I beg you, brethren, to present your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, which
is your reasonable service.
Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that
you may prove what is that good and
perfect will of God.
Many people want the will of God, but
they don't want to present their bodies as
living sacrifices.
See, show me your will, God.
No, you do this first.
See, once you present your body as a
living sacrifice, what does that look like?
Dying to self.
Well, Shane, can you be more specific?
Yeah, not my will, but your will be
done.
Can you be more specific?
Yeah, not letting the flesh lead you.
When that happens, then God's will becomes clear.
So I often tell people who want to
know God's will, present your bodies as a
living sacrifice to God.
Stop fighting Him and surrender.
In verse 5, is it a fast that
I have chosen?
A day for a man to afflict his
soul?
Is it to bow down his head like
a bulrush and to spread out sackcloth and
ashes?
Would you call this a fast, an acceptable
day to the Lord?
Anyway, they've got the sackcloth and the ashes
on.
They would put the ashes on themselves.
They would put this clothing that hurt.
They did all this stuff, and we're not
eating today, but they're treating their neighbor with
contempt.
They're bribing them.
They're engaging in other pleasures, and they're not
following the heart of God.
So God says, I'm not going to honor
this fast.
It's as if God is saying, the fast
that I've chosen is one in which your
flesh fills the pain.
Your spirit is built up, and you treat
people the right way.
It's not a time to seek pleasure, take
advantage of people, and get into arguments and
debates.
Fasting humbles you.
I can recommend a good book.
I don't know if you can get it
real quick on your phone, or order it.
It's God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallace.
God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallace.
The reason I brought this whole area of
fasting up, I know most people tune me
out right about now, but that's okay.
I want to encourage the church to call
a corporate type of fast mid-year, which
is now.
Sometimes a lot of churches do it January
1st, and that's good, but I need more
than one for the whole year.
So I would encourage you, if you want
to fast, there's a church that we're starting
now.
I'll talk about this probably through the end
of July, not every week, of course, or
through the month of July.
We'll be in Matthew still, but I want
to start thinking about fasting because it doesn't
just happen overnight.
Some people might start immediately, but you've got
to prepare your body, and I'll talk about
that in a minute.
But as a church, because what's going to
happen, sometimes you'll start doing great, because it's
real easy to say you're going to fast
after a full meal.
You eat good, and you're like, this sounds
great, Shane.
After dinner tonight, that's when I'm going to
start.
And it sounds easy, but once the rubber
meets the road, that's when it gets difficult.
So I want to keep encouraging people over
the month of July, because they're going to
start out, and they're going to fall.
And they're going to say, forget this.
And I want to just encourage you to
keep doing, to falling forward.
And it's not about, you know, pleasing God,
I've got to do this.
What it does is it sets aside time
for God, prayer and fasting.
It's not about rules.
It's not about a ritual.
It's not about legalism.
It's saying, I want to starve the flesh
and be closer to God.
So whatever that looks like to you, I
don't know.
I want to do the Daniel diet, or
the Daniel fast, and just everything that's clean.
It's very difficult.
I've done it before.
And anything that tastes good?
No.
Basically.
Unless you like beans and broccoli and things
like that.
But there's Ezekiel bread, which is outstanding, right?
With some honey on it, maybe, right?
Oh, we can't put honey on it?
Well, it's not about, again, it's getting the
flesh submitted in weak areas.
Some of you need to get off coffee.
Some of you need to get off soda
quickly, because it's killing you.
This is a time to start.
If you want ideas, there's plenty of books
out there.
Jensen Franklin has a great website.
Maybe you could say, half a day, I'm
just going to have water.
I need my breakfast.
What I've done before, I've had breakfast and
then the rest of the day, nothing.
But freshly squeezed juice.
Maybe some orange juice and some celery.
And that's it.
Until dinner.
That's hard, too.
But I'm starving the flesh and starving the
flesh.
And I'm hoping, God, I'm hoping to get
to one of those two or three day
water fasts again.
Not, again, for legalistic, but just to, I
feel prompted by God to get back into
that.
Because when I was doing that two years
ago, I felt the edge was back even
more.
The Word of God and everything was coming
alive.
I'm going to talk about a few things
before we close.
Prepare yourself.
Here's what you need to do if you
want to do this.
Prepare yourself.
Get the body and the mind ready.
Because your mind might be ready right now,
but it won't be ready when you're starving.
And there's actually a couple chapters in that
book, I think I recommended, or Jensen Franklin
talks about the power of a made up
mind.
Very true.
Because if you go into the fast thinking,
you know what?
I'm going to try it.
And, you know, I'll be kind of flexible.
And, you know, you'll have every excuse in
the book.
Every excuse.
Because if I don't get specific, my orange
juice will turn into a latte, which turns
into maybe getting a donut, which maybe turns
into I'll start next week.
Because you're throwing, so go before God and
say, Lord, I want to fast.
But you have to get the body ready.
What I mean by that is, okay, Shane,
start tomorrow.
I'm going water only.
Well, you better start weaning off of caffeine.
You better start weaning off of sugar and
junk food and garbage that does nothing for
your body.
A lot of the food we're eating breaks
no life to the body.
It's not God created it's man-made in
a factory.
I just ran into a guy today.
I don't know if it was a divine
appointment or not.
But he missed his doctor's appointment.
Couldn't find it.
I was listening in.
He's supposed to get gastric bypass surgery.
And he only looked like 50 pounds overweight.
You know, I'm like, what do you guess?
So I said, hey, you don't always have
to do that.
Oh, I can't stop, you know, In-N
-Out or Carl's Jr. or something.
So I had a book I had written
a long time ago on this.
I gave it to him and talked to
him.
He just felt that he was hopeless.
What it is, it makes your stomach really
small.
In some cases, I wouldn't rule it out.
If it's a health issue, you're going to
die in a year versus this.
That's what it's there for.
But it makes your stomach really small.
But it's not necessarily the right way to
do it.
As believers, I believe there's another way that
we can do that.
But you've got to get the body ready.
So somebody wanted to fast.
I would have them start cleaning up their
diet.
Start weaning.
If you have five cups of coffee a
day, switch to green tea.
Have about six tea bags a day.
Get that down to five to four to
three to two to one within a week
or ten days.
Or your caffeine withdrawals will kill you.
You'll go, I can't handle this.
Caffeine is so potent that even now before
people have surgery, they'll give them a caffeine
IV to prevent withdrawals.
Hmm.
That's why they call it the Christian crack.
Right?
Or sugar.
Just as dangerous.
A lot of people...
I mean, this guy probably...
I've got diabetes.
I can't eat...
Why did you just buy that 32-ounce
soda at the AM, PM?
Well, that's different.
No, it's not.
That's not different.
I mean, you've got 10 teaspoons of sugar
per 12 ounces.
You know what 30 teaspoons of sugar looks
like?
You'd have two hands.
There you go.
Put that in water.
That's what we're consuming.
We wonder why we're in the mess we're
in.
So you have to start, okay, I'm getting
this stuff out of my diet.
I'm cleaning up my...
And you're getting the body ready because the
fast is...
A thousand years ago, it was much easier,
I believe, because there wasn't chemicals and preservatives
and all these things.
There wasn't tons of sugar, fake food.
The body wasn't addicted to all these things.
So fasting now, I believe, has to be
strategic.
You stop weaning...
Start weaning off of junk.
It's what it is.
I'm adamant on this because it is.
Half a million people...
Because people say, oh Shane, that's extreme.
Well, listen to this.
Half a million people a year will have
their chest opened up and a vein taken
from their leg and sewn onto their coronary
artery.
I call that extreme.
And that is Dr. Caldwell Esselton.
Thank you, Rosie, for posting on Facebook.
If you're here, I saw this today.
This is perfect.
I mean, isn't that so true?
People say, oh, that's extreme.
Really?
Our failed health is extreme.
What's happening in our culture is extreme.
Second thing, commit yourself to be specific and
realistic.
Be specific and realistic.
What I do is just start simple.
Lord, here's what I want to do tomorrow,
maybe...
You know what it is.
I'm going to start tomorrow or Monday, and
you get specific, you get realistic, and you
set realistic goals.
Say, Lord, here's what I want to do.
I need your help.
And when you fall, fall forward.
Because not everybody does it perfectly.
God's not looking for perfection.
He's looking for a heart that simply wants
to honor Him and His Word.
Isaiah 58 continues.
This is the fruit of the labor.
Is this not the fast that I've chosen
to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go
free?
Now, let me stop here for a minute.
Some people talk about Isaiah.
They think he's talking about this is actually
what a fast will do.
A fast will loose the bonds of wickedness.
It will undo the heavy burdens.
But he's actually telling the people.
Isaiah is telling the people, wait a minute,
in addition to your fasting, loose the bonds
of wickedness.
Undo the heavy burdens that you're putting on
the people.
Let the oppressed go free.
And break every yoke.
In other words, humble yourself and live according
to how God wants you to live.
Share your bread with the hungry.
Bring them into your house.
When you see the naked, cover them and
hide not yourself from your own flesh.
Then your light shall break forth like the
morning.
Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your
righteousness shall go before you.
The glory of the Lord shall be your
rear guard.
Then you shall call and the Lord will
answer.
You shall cry and he will say, Here
I am.
So the people are saying, God, we're fasting.
Why aren't you hearing me?
Why aren't you hearing us?
He says, because you're oppressing people.
You're arguing people.
You're debating your wickedness.
All you want to do is fight and
argue and take pleasures in the things of
this world.
Start treating people right.
Start breaking before the Lord.
Start just humbling yourself.
And then my light will break forth.
That's exactly what it says.
The glory of the Lord will be your
rear guard.
You know what a rear guard is?
The armies used to come and attack people
from the rear.
But God says, I'll be your rear guard.
I'll go before you.
I will be your shelter.
I will protect you.
You'll call on me and then I will
answer because your heart was right during your
fast.
Now, ironically, when you do fast, you also
loose the bonds of wickedness.
If there's a wickedness in your heart, you're
caught in something.
And you know what it is.
We could sit here and name a lot
of things, couldn't we?
I can start at anger and finish at
pornography.
Where do you want to meet in the
middle?
Everything.
We're bound.
Some of you are bound by something.
Fasting will loose that.
It will undo the heavy burdens.
Are any of you feeling a heavy burden?
Are you weighed down?
I can't do this another day.
I can't keep going.
God, I need you to move.
I'm weighed down by jobs and responsibility, by
my marriage, by health issues.
All these things are weighing down on me.
Fasting will undo those heavy burdens to let
the oppressed go free and to break every
yoke.
And this is what addiction is.
People are bound in addiction.
And if you've never been addicted, thank God.
And if you have that nature, you know
exactly what I'm talking about.
Because any chemical can come in there, and
you're bound.
It's a yoke.
What a yoke was, they would put a
yoke around an oxen.
And the yoke would be tied to the
cart.
And this yoke, this oxen would carry the
yoke on his neck, which would carry, which
would pull, kind of like a fifth wheel
on a trailer, in the back of your
truck.
It's a yoke.
And God's saying, I will release that yoke,
that heavy burden.
You'll be free.
And that's what fasting does.
Here's what I love about fasting.
You know, God, I'm submitting to you.
I'm humbling myself.
I'm praying.
I'm in your Word.
You've got to move.
Your Word says you will move.
And there's release there.
There's freedom.
But when we stay bound, and we're not
doing what we know God's called us to
do, there's no peace there.
There's no joy.
We're bound.
We're stuck in that rut.
And fasting breaks that loose.
The light breaks forth when we humble ourselves.
Healing takes place.
I've seen it many times before.
Spiritual healing, emotional healing, mental healing, physical healing
can take place all because of fasting.
This kind cometh not out but by prayer
and fasting.
Either that scripture's in the Bible or it's
not.
Jesus, why couldn't we heal this person?
This kind cometh out not except by prayer
and fasting.
See what happens?
Now you're in a position of victory.
The glory of the Lord shall be your
rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will
answer.
You shall cry, and He will say, Here
I am.
I mean, the wonderful thing about God, He
will never, He can't.
He can't be a liar.
He will never let you down.
We sing those songs.
Your friend will let you down.
The church will let you down.
Anybody on this planet will let you down.
The system will let you down, whatever that
means.
The government will let you down.
The next president will let you down.
Everything.
But God says, Here I am.
Just call on me.
Nothing shall separate me from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Nothing, nor height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor any created thing will be able to
separate me from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, my Lord.
And you stand on those promises by praying,
and fasting, and seeking God.
The demons tremble when you pray, and when
you fast, and when you worship.
Why do you think, I don't know if
you've ever been involved with somebody who has
been demonized, and you just say in the
name of Jesus, I plead the blood, because
of the blood of Christ, and they'll start
freaking out.
They'll start sometimes falling down.
Why?
Because there's power in that name.
This kind cometh not out, but by prayer,
and fasting.
The reason, I think, is you're just a
humble, broken person before God, because you've been
fasting.
You're not just going to come around, two
in-and-out burgers, double-double, and a
chocolate shake.
Let me pray for you, my brother.
Whew, I'm tired, but I'll pray for you.
See, what's the difference?
I mean, it's a joke, but it's not.
I want somebody praying for me who's fasting,
because that's when you're...
To me, you turn up the serious button,
the gauge, and that's what it does.
That's how it works together.
Pray.
We have to pray, and the fast just
says, God, I'm emptying myself.
Flesh, be quiet.
Be quiet.
It's okay.
Tell your flesh to shut up.
Right?
You can tell your flesh, shut up.
Kids don't tell your parents, don't tell other
people, but you can tell your flesh.
You have permission to tell your flesh.
I do.
Shut up.
Come back later.
You're not talking to me right now.
Well, Shane, that's not what eloquent preachers say.
Well, I don't care.
I'm a broken preacher, and I need God.
I need fasting.
I need prayer.
I need worship, and it's funny.
God gives us this arsenal.
God gives us this arsenal at our disposal,
and we say, no, and we complain, and
I do, too.
I love food.
I can't eat on Saturday.
It's ridiculous.
Now we've got a barbecue next Sunday, and
I committed to a Daniel fast, and you're
all going to be seeing what's on my
plate.
Grilled vegetables.
Can't wait.
But let me tell you the secret.
I want God more than I want that.
See, what is hunger?
Hunger is a strong desire for something.
You have to refocus the hunger to God,
because that's a hunger.
It's a competing hunger.
It's a competing force.
So I would encourage you, starve the flesh.
Of course, you've got to throw the disclaimer
in there to see your doctor so I
don't get sued.
Make sure you're physically able to do these
things.
There are some people who can't.
I mean, I didn't fast for 10 years
because of borderline hypoglycemic blood sugar levels, but
when I got off two Vente coffees a
day and a whole bunch of sugar, those
symptoms seemed to disappear.
Hmm.
You wonder how much is self-inflicted.