June 17, 2024
Turning Hunger into Holiness
Hunger into Holiness
Have you ever wondered how fasting can transform your spiritual journey? Join us as we unpack the profound impact of fasting in the Christian life, revealing how it serves as a powerful outward expression of our inner commitment to God. We’ll explore the importance of consistency in fasting, much like mastering an instrument or sport, and discuss various types of fasting—from giving up certain foods to abstaining from activities like social media. Our conversation is filled with practical tips to help you fast effectively and safely, making this spiritual discipline an integral part of your faith.
In this episode, we also highlight the communal benefits of fasting, showing how it can bring friends, families, and church communities closer together. Learn how hunger pangs can become spiritual prompts, turning your focus back to prayer and God's guidance. We’ll dive into the ways fasting enhances spiritual awareness, strengthens faith, and equips you with the spiritual power to overcome fleshly desires and the enemy's lies. Plus, don't miss our introduction to "Wisdom for the Day," a podcast offering daily insights from the book of Proverbs to further enrich your spiritual journey.
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Thank You. I Love You!
SEE YA!
Rick
Be An Encourager...Not A Discourager!
Chapters
00:00 - The Power and Purpose of Fasting
08:01 - The Power of Fasting and Prayer
Transcript
WEBVTT
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Hey, this is the second bonus episode about fasting.
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I hope you enjoy it, let me know.
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Go to your show notes.
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Click on send a text message.
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Let me know what you think about these bonus episodes Y'all enjoy, see ya.
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So what's the point of fasting?
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I mean, we learned that fasting is abstaining from eating for a period of time.
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It's just an outward expression of an inward commitment to God to pursue Him, and when you fast, you slow down to hear from God.
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Fasting can take various forms and last for different lengths of time, but one thing is the same throughout is that Christian fasting is always combined with prayer.
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The point of it is is that it's a concrete way to offer God a sacrifice.
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It's a way to praise Him, it intensifies your ability to pray and it helps you focus and hear from God more clearly, because it's a discipline.
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It's a spiritual discipline.
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It's just like playing a musical instrument or learning a sport playing golf.
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If you want to get good at it, you need to do it over and over and over.
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It'll help you grow in your faith and really it's a tangible way to deny ourselves.
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It's a way to declare before God that we know that it's all about him, not about us.
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And Jesus said whoever wants to follow me must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
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Jesus fasted Matthew chapter 4, 1 through 4.
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So fasting is one way that we can follow Jesus or do what he says.
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Do what he did.
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Jesus assumes that you're going to fast.
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Jesus promoted fasting to his disciples when he said in Matthew 6, 16, when he said when you fast, the Lord will reward you in secret.
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That's funny.
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He didn't say if you fast, he just assumes that we're going to fast.
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In one sense, fasting is very personal.
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It's a way to offer praise to God and be in an extended communion with him.
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In another sense, fasting is very communal because when we fast together for a common purpose, with our friends and families, with our church, it's so, so powerful.
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Fasting is for everybody Children, adults, working people that are busy, retired people, stay-at-home moms, students, even people with health issues can fast.
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Everyone can fast from something for some length of time.
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Now, the simplest way to fast is to just give up food and drink, or drink only water for a certain period of time.
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But you can do a Daniel fast where you abstain from meat or some kind of pleasant food like desserts or Coke.
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That's from Daniel, chapter 10, verse 2 and 3, where he describes this kind of fast Fasting from desserts or junk food or some other kind of food that you really enjoy.
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Or if you've got health issues and you really can't fast from food, you could choose to fast from TV or social media.
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The point of this kind of fast is to take all the time you spend doing something else and spend it with God.
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Right, if you've never fasted before, you might just start by giving up one meal a day, or you could give up one type of food Coke or dessert, whatever.
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Give that up for the entire fast and as you grow in the discipline of fasting, over time you're going to be able to work up to fasting for days at a time, or maybe just fasting every day from lunch or dinner.
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And if you fasted before, just make it your goal, whether it's in duration or substance.
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Just ask God how long he wants you to fast and what he wants you to fast from.
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Now.
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Here's some tips.
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Here's what Jesus said when you fast, don't make a production out of it like the hypocrites do.
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Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face.
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God doesn't require attention, getting devices, and he's not going to overlook what you're doing.
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He's going to reward you.
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Well, that's Matthew 6, 16 through 18.
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I have to say, if you're taking medications or you have health concerns, be careful.
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You know if you're diabetic, you you have health concerns.
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Be careful.
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You know if you're diabetic, you can't just stop eating.
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You know what you need to do.
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It's also a good reason to start praying for healing, but that's a whole other podcast.
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You need to have a plan prior to starting your fast.
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When are you going to do it?
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From what time to what time?
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When are you going to do it?
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From what time to what time?
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What are you fasting?
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Write it all down and don't think of fasting as a way to get brownie points with God.
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You don't have to earn his love and you're going to find yourself getting tired more quickly during the fast.
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So get extra sleep, get extra rest, but don't sleep the whole fast time away.
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I used to fast with the youth at the church.
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We would do a 24-hour fast and I swear some of them tried to sleep the whole 24 hours.
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Well, of course, that's going to be easy, so I had activities to get them up throughout the day Ah, they loved me.
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Drink plenty of water and don't stop getting exercise, but listen to your body and adjust.
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Carry around gum or mints, because many people are going to have bad breath when they're fasting.
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My spiritual advisor for this podcast said well, well, you should maybe fast mints, because you always have mints.
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I'm like I have mints for y'all, not for me.
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I have mints so that I'm not breathing nasty on everybody.
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So trust me when I say you don't want me fasting my mints.
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Now, if you fast pretty regularly, you're going to lose weight during a fast, but that shouldn't be your motive.
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The purpose is to grow spiritually during this time that you set aside for fasting.
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And when you break that fast, do it slowly.
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Don't jump right in and eat a 12-inch double meat, foot long from Subway after you haven't eaten for three days.
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Trust me, you just don't want to do that.
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So what happens when you fast?
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When you fast from meals, you're going to find that you have extra time.
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Use that time for extended prayer, listen to God, read the Bible, rest in God's presence.
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The Holy Spirit guides us when we fast.
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The disciples found direction through fasting in Acts 13.2.
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It says while they were worshiping and fasting.
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The Holy Spirit directed them.
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God rewards those who seek him.
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So God gives an invitation with a promise In Hebrews 11.6,.
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The Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
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Fasting with prayer brings us the greatest reward God's presence in our lives.
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Now, when you fast, you're going to get hungry.
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The hunger pangs of fasting, those are a great reminder that God satisfies all our hungers.
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And those hunger pangs, those are your spiritual ears.
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Your spiritual ears.
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Yeah, those hunger pangs should automatically, instead of you moaning and groaning how hungry you are, you should automatically, when you feel that hunger pang, you turn to God and pray and listen.
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Fasting is going to make your spiritual ears more accurate.
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You're going to be able to hear from God better, and fasting enables your spirit to be yielded to God's will.
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It's a physical, concrete way of saying not my will, but yours, because it renews your spiritual vision and it strengthens your faith.
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Fasting brings power.
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Fasting and prayer is a powerful means for causing the fire of God to fall in your life.
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And that fire produces the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, but especially the fruit of righteousness and the spiritual power over the lusts of the flesh and the lies of the enemy on our souls.
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When you fast, you will experience the heightened awareness of God's presence and you're going to be spiritually and physically and mentally refreshed.
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If you need help learning how to fast, learning how to start to fast if you want more information, send me a message, rick at Renewed Mindsets, we'll figure it out together.
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Hey, you don't know how much I appreciate you listening to this podcast, and if you're listening and you're regular, do you know that I have a second podcast?
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It's called Wisdom for the Day.
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You can find it at wisdomforthedayorg or right here.
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Wherever you're listening to this podcast, just do a search for Wisdom for the Day.
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It's basically a daily podcast from the book of Proverbs.
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I read about two verses a day and do a deep dive on those two verses.
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As much as I appreciate you listening to this one, I really want you to listen to the next one and I don't want to take up all your time, so give me five minutes.
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You can listen to that while you're shaving.
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You can listen to it when you first get in the car and waiting for it to warm up or cool off.
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I guess now, since it's going to be summer, I'd appreciate it.
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If you like it, let somebody else know about it too.
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That's wisdomforthedayorg.
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I love you, see, ya.
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