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We're going to welcome everyone to Byron Gray School of Ministry today. This is leadership. We're going to cover today the topic of fasting. So I've entitled this understanding fasting. So students, we do have some students in here with us today. And so you can take your Bibles or however you're going to do this, but we got a lot of scriptures to go through today. So we're going to start on the subject of fasting. We are not in the book of Job. Now, the reason I felt it was important to go back to the book of Job is because most Bible scholars believe that Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, that it probably predates even the writings of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. And so it's very important that we get ahold of that. Now we're going to read something here because we know Job was in the midst of a trial. Job was allowing him to be tested. Satan, God allowed Satan to attack his family, his children, his income, his livestock, everything, and then even his health. And he couldn't understand it because Job was a righteous man. He loved the Lord with all of his heart. He feared the Lord. He was a godly man. He was one of the most godly men ever. In fact, God mentions him through other prophets, saying Job and Daniel were special people. So Job was very special, but he's in the midst of this trial. And I think God allowed it because, you know, he's going to allow us to go through difficult times, satanic attacks, friends not understanding what we're going through or where we are or what we're learning or what God is trying to teach us. And so, anyway, this is just a very important passage. Let's read Job. This is Job 23, and we're just going to read 8 through 14. You can read the whole chapter as you so desire, but I figured here was a good place to start. Verse 8. So Job 23 verse 8, Behold, I go forward, but he is not there and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him. Boy, how many Christians feel like this sometimes? I'm seeking the Lord, but I can't seem to find him. He seems so far away. You know, we love the times when we feel his presence and he feels close and we feel that peace, his peace, his joy, his strength. But there are times that God will hide himself or make himself where we don't perceive him. And so Job was saying in the midst of this trial, not only am I being attacked on every side, not only am I going through all this, but I can't seem to find the Lord in all of
this. And so this is when we walk by faith and not by sight. But he goes on to say this, he said, though I can't perceive him, I can't feel him and all this stuff. Verse 10, he says, but he knoweth the way that I take. So he says the Lord knows that I'm going to follow him. And when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined. Now listen to this. Verse 12. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Now, this is something I want you to really get a hold of, is that it's obvious that Job, going way, way back, understood the principle of fasting. And fasting is really one of the first principles you need to get in it is Job talks about I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. When you love God and you love his word, I'm going to tell you, you should find times that you're praying or studying or seeking him and that his word and his presence and his revelation and that process of seeking him becomes more important to you than even eating. I know that there have been times where I've been studying all day seeking God and it wasn't that I was trying to fast not eat, but it was just that his word and time with him, I just got lost in it and realized, you know, after a whole day had passed, I wonder why I was feeling kind of hungry. And then all of a sudden I realized I haven't eaten all day. I think Job is sharing that, but I think he's also sharing how that there should be seasons that seeking him, seeking his word, seeking time with him and seeking to know him better should become more important to us than our regular schedule of three meals a day and snacks in between, right? Living, you know, again, we live, so sometimes I get tired of having to eat. You know, sometimes it's like, Lord, why didn't you make us where we have to eat so often, you know, I get like, you know, the body gets tired, it gets hungry, it gets feeling weak and weird. It's like, I got to go eat something. You know, I mean, so we live around that. So fasting is really, really the main purpose is breaking free from constantly having to take care of the needs of the flesh and our regular routine and really that interruption. And that's what Job is really expressing here. He's like, I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But anyway, I bring this up because it's very important to know that for somehow, even though we don't have much revelation on it,
even in Genesis and other places, it's obvious that God maybe through Adam and Eve, maybe through Enoch, maybe through Methuselah, maybe through Noah. But it's pretty obvious that going way, way back, they understood how important it was to fast and to seek God with seasons of not just prayer, but also fasting, especially in times of trial or crisis or attack when you're under attack, spiritual warfare. But anyway, let's continue here. So just showing you some of these things, going back into the Old Testament, just pulled up, you know, typed in, fasted, just the word. And you see going all the way back to the days of the judges. It says here, then all the children of Israel, this is Judges 2026, then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came into the house of God and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until even and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. So again, this was a season of them being in trouble. And what did they do? They came seeking the Lord with fasting. That's all the way back in the book of Judges. Then in the book of Samuel, they gathered together to Mitzvah and they drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mitzvah. So fasting was connected to repentance and humbling yourself and admitting where you've sinned or you've made a mistake or maybe you've just become fleshly. So fasting is connected with actually humbling yourself and dealing with sin, dealing with the sins of the flesh. Samuel 31, 13 here, they took their bones and buried them under a tree and Jabesh and fasted seven days. This is when Saul and Jonathan died and they fasted and mourned because they understood that there was the judgment of God was taking place and it wasn't good. So they fasted. So fasting is connected with mourning. It's connected with repentance, humbling yourself, chastening yourself before God. Here's a few more verses. You go into the Kings and it came to pass. This is 1 Kings 21, 27. It came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly. These were words of judgment that came to him from Elijah, the prophet Elijah. And even the wicked King Ahab humbled himself and fasted and sought God's mercy and God had mercy on him. If you read this story, you'll say God had mercy and delayed his wrath and judgment upon Ahab, he said, because Ahab humbled himself with fasting. I say this about fasting.
Fasting is a way to demonstrate your faith in the fact that you need to deal with your flesh, okay? That you need to stop and recognize, wait a minute, I've been getting a little too, so for some people it may be sin, sinful things, or some people it just might be just fleshly things that are maybe not so much sin, but they're just distractions. And sometimes we just neglect the Lord because of distractions. But anyway, fasting is a good way to do that. Of course Ezra, when they were seeking God's wisdom and direction and his help in the midst of all of that going on and rebuilding the temple and returning from Babylonian captivity and all the challenges that they face being surrounded by enemies and internal problems, that's what Ezra says, 823. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us, meaning that as a group, and let me just say this too, there's public fasting where God's people are called collectively to fast together by leaders. That fast, there's no way to hide the fact you're fasting there, everybody knows you're fasting. And then Jesus talked about when you fast, about hiding yourself and not making it known, that's private when you're doing it privately. You can't hide it if you're doing it with a group, right? But anyway, I notice it says we fasted and besought God and he was entreated of us, so they received their answer. God intervened for them, but it was fasting and prayer. So this is in the book of Ezra. Nehemiah, when he heard that Jerusalem was still in ruin and desolation, it says, and it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days, plural, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And then God moved and had the king ask him, why are you sat? And the door opened up for Nehemiah to tell him what was on his heart and provision came forth and the king made the decree and Nehemiah was able to come back with a blank check and all the supplies he needed and start rebuilding Jerusalem, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. So fasting and prayer gives you favor. God moves through that over and over and over again. The book of Joel, we're still back in the Old Testament. And again, it seems like the people in the Old Testament, the Old Testament people of God, and even the wicked, some of the wicked understood the importance of fasting and seeking God. You think about Jonah, you think about the Ninevites fasting. I mean, did Jonah go? The prophet tell them, y'all need to fast.
Maybe God will forgive you. No, there was none of that. You know, 40 days in the Ninevites destroyed and the wicked Ninevites fasted. They wouldn't even let the animals eat for three days. So it's obvious that they understood if you wanna humble yourself before God and you wanna really show God that you're serious, fasting's part of that. It's not everything. There's a lot of people that fast and a lot of religions that fast, but they're not seeking God correctly. But Joel 2, 12 through 18 says here, and this is an instruction that he gave the children of Israel. Therefore also now sayeth the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. So this is a command. This is not a suggestion. It's like you see and if you go back and you read Joel, he said you guys are under judgment. The cankerworm, the locust, these things have come in and destroyed things and you wanna know what's going on. Here's what you need to do. Seek the Lord, turn even to me with all of your heart and with fasting and weeping and with mourning and rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil. Now this is the King James way of saying, get him to turn away from the evil that he's already determined to do. The judgment, the wrath, the punishment, the correction, the chastening. He's saying if you'll do this, you might get him to not do what he's about to do, right? Pretty serious. He says, who knoweth if he will return to repent? Now, I wanna add this right here and I'm gonna show you this more in a minute. Fasting is not a way to manipulate God. It's not like, well, I'm gonna fast and God will definitely do this. That's why he says maybe. He's basically saying maybe his. He says, who knoweth if he will return and repent? Fasting is not about manipulating God. It's about you humbling yourself. The rest is God's decision and he knows whether it's real or not. And sometimes he says no. And the judgment and the chastening and the correction continues regardless of your fasting. But then he's gonna find out, are you going to continue to stay humble and seek him in spite of the correction, the chastening, the rebuke, the trial continuing. But anyway, he says, who knoweth if he will return to repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children and those that suck the breast. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.
Let the priest and the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch of the altar and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord. And give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God? Then, have we learned what then means? My students should be. After that, after you've really done this, then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people. So God says when you're, when we're in trouble, listen, when we're in trouble, nine times out of 10, when we're in trouble, it's because of our own doings. Right? We get our own selves in a mess. The church does this collectively. Israel did it collectively as well. They would get themselves in trouble. They would sin. They would get into idolatry. They would get away from God. And then God would allow enemies to come in, other nations to come in. And basically, they would open a doorway for the enemy to attack them. And the Lord would say, look, you wanna know how to fix this? Seek me with all your heart, with prayer, with fasting, with mourning, with weeping. Let your priests, let your leaders intercede. Call the people together. All men, women and children sanctify fast. Everybody fast and seek the Lord. Maybe he will turn this evil away from us. Maybe he will push the enemy back. Maybe he will have mercy on us and pity us. That's why it's important. And it's obvious, again, it's obvious, this is going way back. I mean, this is around 75800 BC. They understood the principle of fasting, how important. Matthew 6, this is where Jesus mentioned fasting, one of those places. And I just wanted to point out, let's read this right here, Matthew 6, 16 through 21. He says, moreover, when you fast. Now, let me just put that, he didn't say if you fast. He'd say, well, you know, might be a good idea for you to do this once in a while. It's so obvious. And again, I didn't cover everything down through the Old Testament. We're gonna go back and cover some of that. But the point is, is that the children of Israel, especially, they went to synagogue regularly and they went through the Old Testament. They would understand the importance of fasting. So when Jesus says this here, he's trying to deal with hypocritical fasting and religious pretension, which the Pharisees were into. But just the fact that he says, when you fast. I've heard Christians actually say, well, Christians, now that we're saved, now that we're born again and we have Jesus living in us, we don't need to fast. It's not what Jesus taught. Jesus said, when you do this, right? So not if. He said, moreover, when you fast,
be not as the hypocrites. What's a hypocrite? Someone who pretends to be something that they're really not. He says, don't be as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear and amend to fast. Rarely I send you, they have their reward, but when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not undomend to fast, but unto thy father, which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now, before we read the rest of this, I just want to say that we shouldn't ever be wanting to make a show, an outward show of our fasting. Again, there's sometimes, especially when you live with people or you're around people like our church and students, we always love going out to eat, right? So it's kind of hard to hide it. It's not about that you've got to be able somehow to be a super spy and not let anybody know that you're fasting. It's just, don't make it a show. It should never be the purpose I want people to see that I am spiritual. See me fasting. If that becomes the motive, then he says, what does the Lord say? Then you got your reward. If that's what you're looking at, wanting people to think you're spiritual or super spiritual, then that's your reward. Let me tell you, that's not the reward I want from fasting. Right? And that's why, and I think it's interesting here where Jesus is talking about fasting and prayer in Matthew 6 here. He says in verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Can I say this? I think in the context, and this is just me, but I think in the context of this chapter where Jesus is taught on the outline of how to pray, the Lord's Prayer, then he's taught on prayer and then he teaches on fasting. And then he says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth. I think he's talking about prayer and fasting. Seeking God is laying up treasures in heaven. You are storing up in heaven. And let me just say this, the things that you're gonna need, because what happens is God provides for you later on out of seasons, like say for instance, you have seasons of maybe a lot of prayer and a lot of fasting and you're storing up those treasures in heaven. Let me tell you later on when you need stuff, when you need favor or God's intervention or whatever, that's where it's gonna come out of that storehouse. I'll give you for instance,
Jesus fasted 40 days before he started his ministry. We're gonna get into that. Nobody should fast 40 days. We'll get into that in a minute. But he fasted 40 days, that was a special thing. But you don't see him doing that again in his ministry time. In fact, he was accused of being a glutton because they didn't see him fasting all the time. Well, Jesus basically did his fasting before he started his ministry. And that 40 day period, he stored up the treasures he needed to do his ministry. And I saw this many years ago. There was a time that I went through where, okay, when I was younger and say I wasn't pastoring a church, I wasn't even a youth pastor at the time, but I was seeking God and I was spending entire days in prayer. I was spending many, many, many days. Like I fasted 21 days. We're gonna talk about that. That's the longest I ever fasted. No food, 21 days. And I think that's about the limit. Anybody should go and I'll explain that to you why in a minute. But during that time period, sometimes I'd fast three days, sometimes I'd fast five days, sometimes I'd fast seven days. But I went through like a two or three year period where I did a lot of prayer and intercession and spiritual warfare and fasting. And I wanna tell you, I can look back on that. And when I came out of that time, oh man, people were getting saved all. I mean, the power of God was flowing. That's when I saw the deaf woman healed, the crippled woman walk. I mean, it was like for a number of years, I knew just, I just knew from the Holy Spirit that I was kind of living off of that time period. Not that I wasn't still praying and fasting every so often, but that was a special time. And it was like I had stored up some stuff in heaven. And as time went on, it was, stuff was coming, power of God was coming out of that storehouse. So I think that that's what the Lord's talking about. And you wanna think about your, kind of like a bank account. What have you deposited? What have you saved? You need to have something in your bank account because you're gonna run into a time maybe where you're not able to fast and pray, or you're in a crisis and you're gonna need, or you're gonna run into somebody who has a tremendous need and you're not gonna be able to say, well, hold on, I can't cast the demons out of you because I haven't had a season of fasting. You're gonna have to be prepared. So I would say this, that if you, there's a lot of people, okay, there's a lot of people like students. You got a hunger and a desire to do the ministry, to be in full-time ministry. Let me just tell you something. It's not all it's cracked up to be. Let me tell you the most important thing you can do when you don't have a bunch of speaking engagements
or you're not pastoring a church or you're not leading a Bible study. You need to count those times as special as the times that you're doing public ministry because that's really the time you need to be spending extended seasons in fasting and prayer. That's really what prepares you for the ministry and for public ministry. Because let me just say this, public ministry actually can't, it will deplete you of your spiritual strength, power, virtue, whatever you wanna call it, very quickly. All right? I remember when, let me just put it this way. I remember when I was a young man, I thought I wanted to preach all the time. I thought, and then I started going to Brownsville revival and I'd see Steve Hill preaching six days a week or five days a week and I'd be like, I wanna do that, I wanna preach every day. Let me tell you, be careful what you wish for, right? I realize, I look back on that and I go, wow, how on earth did he do that? The man would get up at five or six in the morning, pray, seek God, prepare his message for that night, have counseling and ministry and sometimes preach during the day, then go to the service, the revival service, preach that night, the service would go from seven o'clock, sometimes to two in the morning because then when he finished preaching in altar calls, he would pray for thousands of people. He said they would leave the revival at two or three in the morning, knowing he's gonna be getting up at five or six in the morning and then saying to the staff and the other ministers on staff, see you today. That was never see you tomorrow, see you a little way later today, right? And they did that for five years. You know, that was the grace and power of God enabling them to do that. And some people think, oh, I could do that, though you better be careful because I know Steve Hill spent many years, he spent years in David Wilkerson's ministry school, he learned about prayer and fasting from Leonard Ravenhill and then he spent many years serving down in Argentina. And what I'm saying is he can just jump out of, you know, I'm saved, I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit and I'm spending a year in ministry school and I'm gonna preach every day or I'm gonna pray for people every day. No, you have to have stored up something in the season of fasting and prayer. I got to tell this, I'll tell this little story I've told it before, but it's true because, you know, the Lord, I wanted to go in those early years when I came back in 1987 and I came back here from Arkansas. You know, and I've told the story how I led my best friend Craig to Jesus and Billy and of course led my brother Allen and other people and led them to the Lord, led them to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit
and we would have Bible studies and we would have prayer meetings and we would go out and I'd take them out on the streets, I'd take them to the mall and out witnessing and stuff. Many of them, their first time I ever out preaching on the street and talking to people, I took them. And then the Lord sent me back to Arkansas and Oklahoma for a season. And then my friends, Craig and Billy and even my brother Allen felt like they were supposed to go to Bible school. So they ended up going to Southeastern, the assemblies, one of the assemblies of God's school, Southeastern Seminary down in Florida. I can't remember where it is in Florida. But anyway, they went down there and so there was like a, I don't know, there was probably like six months or so or longer or it may have even been about a year. I didn't really see them because they were in Florida and I'm here in Alabama and the Lord told me you're not going to Bible schools because the Lord told me earlier on, I'm teaching you my way. I'm not, you're not gonna learn from them. And so it's funny, so we, long story short, they come home from, you know, I guess on summer break or whatever and we get together again and me and Craig are hanging out and Craig, and again, I remember Craig was like my best friend from elementary school. And so he's been sitting in Bible school and really a worldly Bible school. But what have I been doing the whole time he's been gone? Fasting and praying, spending days and days and days and fasting and praying and doing spiritual warfare and going out on the street. So it wasn't that, you know, I was trying to be super spiritual or anything but this was hilarious. So we meet and we pray at his house. We were met and pray together and we were gonna go out and talk. I think we're gonna go out witnessing. So we're praying and in the prayer time, I started binding the principalities and powers over Auburn and Opelika here. And I had become well acquainted with them, fighting them, right? And so I started binding them in Jesus name. So he decided he was going to join in and bind them as well. Now this is his testimony, not mine. He said that as he started binding them, he saw them. God gave him a vision. Let him see these two, the one over the main principality over Auburn and the one over Opelika. And Craig's binding them in Jesus name. And he said, this is Craig's word. He said, they looked at him and they said, who are you? And then he said, they pointed at me and said, him we know, we don't know you. And he was like, it shook him. And I realized that the reason they knew me is because I'd been spending time in fasting and prayer, not playing around at Bible school, you know, playing basketball and chasing girls. Okay. And listening to professors teach false doctrine.
So there was a difference. It wasn't that we, I was better than him. We had just been doing different things. We'd been storing up different things. And my authority in the spirit realm against the enemy had been growing because of fasting and prayer and enduring their attacks. I hadn't been goofing off. You know what I'm saying? I mean, cause Craig went down there and played, I mean, he played basketball for the college, for the team and not saying any of that's wrong. It's just, we were focused on different things. All right. And when you, what you put in your bank accounts, what you get out, you put in marbles, you get marbles, you put in money, you get money, right? All right, let's keep going here. I probably spent too much time on that, but it's a good point. The word fasting in the old Testament is, let's see if I could say this right. Basically it's som, I guess, something like that. But it means to abstain from food, to cover the mouth. Let me ask you something. If you cover your mouth, can you put food in it? Let me tell you something. There are no fasts where you still eat, okay? That's like an Obama-ism or a Clinton-ism, right? Fasting means you don't eat food, all right? I mean, it's really wild. It's just, people make up stuff. And we're gonna talk about the so-called Daniel fast in a minute. But fasting means you don't eat. You abstain. And last time I checked, the word abstain means to refrain from something, to not do something. So, of course, the outline of biblical usage here says to abstain from food, to cover the mouth, to fast. And this right here, it says, the Jacinius Hebrew Cal D lexicon says, the primary idea lies in the mouth being shut. I like that. Not open stuffing it and chewing, even if it's carrots. All right, let's keep going. Here is the Greek word for fasting or fast, nes-tia. Abstinence from lack of food, voluntary or religious. Notice that the outline, it means to basically not eat. All right, abstinence from food, the Thayer says. I love that, it's pretty clear, definition, right? Even Google understands what fasting is. Abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as religious observance. Of course, they had to throw that in or some kind. No, all, all food.
Refrain from eating, it says, deny oneself food, go without food, go hungry, eat nothing. All right, but it means to abstain from food. Now, here's what Jesus said. Here's how they use the term fasting. This is Matthew 1532. Just so you know, they understood fasting mean to eat nothing, right? So then Jesus called his disciples and him and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they continued with me now three days and have nothing to eat. Somebody say nothing, nothing to eat. And he said, I will not send them away fasting. Oh, he related having nothing to eat as fasting. And Jesus didn't want them to faint in the way because they had been with him there for three days, listening to his teaching. And so that's when he fed the 5,000 with the five loaves and the two fish. Here's another place where Paul was on the ship. And, you know, they'd been in a storm, basically a hurricane, typhoon, and it'd been pretty bad. And they were just trying to survive. And so they had not been trying to fast on purpose, but they've been 14 days without eating. But notice what Paul says here. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying this is the 14th day that you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. 14 days, they didn't eat anything because they were just trying to keep the ship from breaking apart. They were trying to survive. So pretty serious there. But notice again that eating nothing, taking nothing is defined in the Bible by Paul here as fasting. I think fasting is related to the not eating food. It's because the first sin of mankind was eating something that was forbidden. It had to do with food. It had to do with sticking something in their mouth that they didn't need to eat, that God told them not to eat. So it's interesting, fasting is when you choose not to eat what you are allowed to eat. It is the opposite. So whenever you're fast, really you should realize you're reversing what happened in the Garden of Eden. You're doing the opposite. You're reversing that. Of course, we know the story. When they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of the good and evil, Genesis three, one through five, I won't go through all that. But God said you can eat of every tree in the garden, but don't eat of this one. And so sin entered in by that disobedience of eating something. It's not the serpent, seed, it's not sex. How you turn this into sex, you gotta be a twisted mind.
I don't mind saying that because somebody's messed up in the head, right? Mr. Zane Garcia being one of them. So eating that forbidden food in the Garden of Eden created the sin nature of the flesh. Now this is very important. Remember, there was no sin. Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were sinless creatures. They were perfect. They were in a perfect environment. Well, I guess somebody could argue that, but near perfect environment, right? As perfect as we will see until Jesus comes back, right, until we see heaven. But that's what created the sin nature. Now there are people that argue that human beings don't have a sin nature. Well, I guess they can argue it all they want to, but the Bible says it exists. I'm gonna show you some verses. We need to talk about this. The sin nature of the flesh, which means the evil desires of the flesh. Well, people say, well, now Eve decided to eat that because of the evil desires of her flesh, but not necessarily. It wasn't that she was evil or had sin in her at that point. She was just tricked into it. She was tricked into it. She was convinced that it was something good. Okay, so it was more of a trick. She was deceived. All right, it didn't have to do with her sin nature, but the moment they partake of it, it says here in this verse is Romans 5.19. And you can read the whole chapter. It goes into a lot of detail, but this verse kind of sums up the chapter when he says, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. So if because of Adam's sin, we all become sinners, then there had to be a sin nature created in Adam when he sinned and then passed on as we're all descendants of him. So for by as far as one man's obedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall all be made righteous or notice he says many. Now that's important too, because you got the universal salvation people saying Jesus took on the sins of everyone. So everyone's gonna ultimately be saved whether they believe or not. That's a lie. That's a deception. Meaning the reason he says, because he says in a few verses there that the provision through Jesus' righteousness, his obedience in keeping the law perfectly and then dying as a sacrifice for our sins that all can be made righteous. It's available for all, but only many will be made righteous, meaning not all, okay? And that's important to point out. But this tells you that there's a sin nature that we inherit from Adam, all right? A fleshly nature. Romans tells us this,
it's just a Romans six. And I wanna say this, the reason I'm bringing this up is because fasting is one of the tools and it's one of the main tools that's gonna help you keep the flesh and the sin nature of the flesh from reigning or ruling over you, dominating you. Now, you're not gonna get rid of it. We're gonna talk about that today. No one, nobody can say that I have not sinned or I never sin or ever will sin again. All that is nonsense, okay? But that sin should never have dominion rule over us and that's very important. So let's just read this. He says, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So first, reckon means to account something. So it means you believe Jesus paid the price for your sin, you couldn't pay the price for your sin. And so you reckon yourself dead to sin through Jesus, through what he did for you, okay? That you are dead to sin, you hate sin, you don't wanna live in sin, and you understand the price that it took to deal with the sin nature, all right? But then he adds this, he says in verse 12, let not sin, therefore reign, rule, dominate in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof, neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments unto, of righteousness unto God. So he's saying here, don't let sin, the sin nature reign over you. Now, because we have Jesus in us, we do have his grace, his power, his strength, but why would he say if he's gonna just do it for us, why would he say let not, you, he's talking to us, let not sin, reign, or rule you? Because there's stuff we have to do. And the person who will not do the things that are going to subdue the flesh, i.e. prayer, fasting, Bible study, just flat staying away from places or people or situations that will tempt you if you won't do those things, then sin will reign, that's why he's saying you gotta not let it. You have Jesus, you have forgiveness, you have his spirit to help you, but you still have to choose because you're still gonna have to fight this thing, still in you, all right?
And that's what we find out in Romans 7. The apostle Paul talked about this sin nature. Let's read it, Romans 7, 14 through 21 here. He says, for we know that the law, basically God's commands, God's righteous commands, is spiritual, but I am carnal, I am fleshly, sold under sin. Now this is a believer writing this. This is a born again, a Holy Spirit believer, and he's saying I'm still sold under sin, meaning I'm still have a problem. I'm still in a sinful body of Adam that hasn't been redeemed yet. He says, and then he complains. Here's Paul complaining, but he's admitting, for that which I do, I allow not. Basically he says, there's things I do, I tell others not to do, right? For what I would, that do I not? So there's things I wanna do, but I don't do them. How many times people say I wanna pray, but then they don't. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that, which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good. So what he's saying is if I do things I shouldn't do, I consent to the law, meaning I admit that it's wrong. A lot of people won't even admit things are wrong anymore. But he said, basically he's saying there is I admit that the law of God is right, the word of God is right, his standard is right. And so if I do something that's wrong, I admit it, I consent to, I say admit the law is right, I'm wrong. And again, I'm talking about law in the context of New Covenant, New Testament law, not Old Covenant law. Now, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So he's talking about, I don't wanna do these things that I shouldn't do, but they're sin dwelling in me. So this is again the admission of the sin nature that Christians still live with every day, okay? He goes on to say, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Oh my goodness. For to will is present with me, meaning I want to do what's right and holy and righteous and be obedient to God. But how to perform that always, what? But how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would or that I want to do, I do not. But the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that that I would not is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. He is stuck, this battle is in you constantly. Fasting is one of the absolute necessary tools to help control the evil that dwells in your flesh.
The flesh, your flesh. Listen, I don't care how spiritual, how righteous, how much you love God, how strong of a Christian you are, how holy spirit filled, how anointed you are, how gifted you are, all of us still have flesh. And that means according to this, we all still have sin that dwells in us. We all still have evil that dwells with us. We have something constantly warring against our minds that has nothing to do with the devil. We have a traitor called the flesh. The flesh, the sin nature. The devil simply and demons tap into that and they use that. They got an accomplice, right? They are at work constantly. And what does he say? He said, and usually this battles in the will, in the mind. He continues, Romans 7, 22 through 25, he says, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. This can't be, again, I've heard people with all kind of excuses say, well, this is Paul talking before he was saved. But wicked people don't delight in the law of God. It's a burden to them. Obeying God, God's morality, God's standard, God's rules, all that's a burden to them. But Paul said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But listen to this, this verse right here. But I see another law in my members, my physical body warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Sin is in your members. It's in your body. It wants to sin. It wants to fulfill its evil desires all the time. He said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, what he's saying is that it had not Jesus come and died for my sin. I would never be able. I would never be able to conquer this or overcome this or even get rid of it. There's no way I would be delivered from the body of this death, this sin nature. And then he says, but thank God Jesus came in the flesh, lived the sinless life and died in my place. Thank God for that, there's no hope. See, there's a lot of people out in the world think, well, I'll just be good person. Good luck with that, right? No one can be good. That's why he says there is none good, no, not one. Not even Christians, all Christians, oh, I'm good, no you're not. You might be a little gooder, as they say. So you might not be doing what you used to do fully and you shouldn't, but to say you are good compared to the only one who was truly good and perfect.
No, there is none good, no, not one. We look to Jesus for our righteousness and then he adds this, he said, so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. So he's saying in the mind, in the soul, I desire and I'm trying to serve God with all I can, but my body, my flesh is still trying to serve sin. This is the war that you are in. And if you don't become a person who regularly fast, if that's not incorporated into your walk with God, you're going to see the sin nature, the flesh sin nature gets stronger and stronger. This is just, and I've walked through this for 32 years now, I fully understand this. You let your guard down, you're not fasting and praying and staying in the word, you're feeding the flesh, other things, even distracting things. You will, you let your mind, the sinful, the carnal mind run wild, then guess what? You're going down and it's not a blaze of glory, it's a blaze of sin, you're going down. This war, you got to fight and you got to fight it with fasting, see? First John is real clear here. If we say, first John 1.8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So Paul was really admitting, yes, sin dwells in me, it dwells in my flesh. It's warring against the law of my mind constantly. I have to fight this, I have to let it not reign. Sin cannot reign, I will not let sin reign in my mortal body, I will not let it rule me. So many Christians don't get this. You know that that's why I've been so adamant over the years against the false doctrine of once saved, always saved, because once saved, always saved basically says, well, you're eternally secure no matter what and so what ends up happening is Christians begin to ease up and understanding this fight and they begin to just give into it, well, my sins washed away and God understands. No, you better reread. Let not sin reign, rule, dominate, control because you have a wicked evil traitor that you live with every day, your own flesh. So no one can walk around, we got people walking around and saying, I don't have a sin nature anymore because I'm born again. That's what Joseph Preach's preaches. He's one of the biggest false teachers out there. No, no, no, Apostle Paul said we have it. John said we have it, we have it and you better get control of it
because listen, where you end up in this battle is gonna determine heaven or hell. It really is, it can determine that. At minimum, maybe let's say you do have seasons where you totally give in and submit to the flesh and the sins of the flesh and the lust of the flesh. You better get out of it because when you die or when Jesus comes, you better be living in a place where sin does not have dominion over you. Not talking about you have no sin but that it doesn't have dominion over you. This is important. How did I know Pastor Dean if it has dominion over me? Do you live in it habitually? Do you practice it? Is it a continual ongoing thing in your life? I mean, there's a lot of people that think, well, they're in adulterous affairs. They're in adultery, they're living in it. They constantly, they're hooking up with their adulterous or the adulterer or whatever and they're doing this constantly but then they're saying, well, I'm a Christian and I confess and say, God, forgive me but they keep living in it, all right? Well, if they keep living in it, then it's ruling them. It's raining in them, all right? Now, there's a Christian that may commit adultery and then they repent and get out of it like King David did and yeah, it's gonna cost them. They're gonna, you reap what you sow and sin has consequences always but it's different and if they repent and stop, it's not raining, it's not ruling them, all right? And I've made this point many times but listen, fasting, I can just tell you if you're gonna get through this life, if you're gonna have any kind of a strong Christian walk where sin, the sin nature doesn't control you completely, you're gonna be somebody who regularly and has incorporated fasting into their life. You're just not gonna win. Psalm 19, more about the sin nature. David was very honest. David said here, he starts talking about, really, Psalm 19 is the Roman seven of the Old Testament, all right, because this is what he says. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired than gold, yay, much, yay than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Mover by them is thy servant warned by God's word, his standard, his righteousness, his law, his commandments. Mover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping them there is great reward. But then he says this,
and he was known as the man after God's own heart, and he said, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me, thou from secret faults. What does that mean? It means really stuff no one sees, but still is sin, is evil, wicked, secret things, hidden things, cleanse me, who? Basically David was saying, I love God's word. I love God, I love God's presence. I love God's holiness. I wanna be righteous and holy. Why do I have these problems still in me? All right, and then he cries out and he says, keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin. What is presumptuous sin? Presumptuous is when you basically you're saying, you know what, I can do what I want. Don't let that happen to me, or I can do what I want and get away with it. That's being presumptuous. Oh, I can get away with it. And he was crying out, don't let that happen to me. If you even, if you look up the Hebrew here, it means like boiling, like you're cooking a pot or something, and all of a sudden it starts boiling over. Oh, he didn't want his struggles with the flesh to become something that boiled over and made a big mess. Even though, guess what? It did happen with David. He said, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Look what he says, very similar to Romans six. Let them not have dominion over me. David said, look, I struggle with the flesh. I'm struggling with sin here, but I don't wanna get to the point where I think I can just do whatever I want. Don't let that happen to me. And then he says, don't let these sins have dominion over me. Then I shall be upright. I shall be innocent from the great transgression. What is the great transgression? The great transgression is when you fully just depart from God and just live in it. Believe me, I know Christians who just left God and live in their sin. They have embraced it. They don't fight it anymore. They don't resist anymore. They don't care anymore. Yes, that'd be the question in case you didn't hear it on the mic. One of our students here asked, could that be someone who's become a reprobate? Yes, it could be. You get to the point where you're so bound up, like there's a guy that, well, there's a guy I was talking to yesterday or the day before, and he was talking about a friend of his that is so locked into the once saved, always saved doctrine, the hyper grace idea. He said he lives with his girlfriend, so he's living in constant fornication. He drinks and gets drunk all the time. He's smoking weed all the time, but he is absolutely convinced he's saved and he's all right. He is committing the great transgression. He is completely away from God, departing from God and convinced that he's okay. This is one of the greatest deceptions there is,
to think that you can live like that, a habitual fornicator, a habitual drunkard, and that I'm all right. God loves me, he understands. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that over the years. God loves me, he understands, he knows my heart. Yeah, he knows it's wicked and evil and deceived. Yeah, he knows. Yeah, and we all know he knows, so why are you telling me? See, the man after God's own heart still had us in nature. We all know what this was about, right? Now look, this is important. I know y'all think I'm going down a rabbit trail, but I really haven't, all right? Because let's look at these Galatians. We go to Galatians five, and this really picks up in the same place where Romans six and seven and eight's talking about, because he says this, and I'm going to show you, he says, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Then he tells you again, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But, this is a good but right here, but if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. Now led of the spirit, is it so interesting? Just keep that in mind. Remember, walk in the spirit, this right here, here's your secret, the secret to victory, the secret to sin not having dominion over you. Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Doesn't mean the flesh won't lust, or the flesh won't desire to do bad, but you won't fulfill it, you won't go complete. Being tempted is not sin. So when you fulfill it, the temptation, okay? I got a lot of people think, oh, I'm struggling, I'm being tempted, well, join the crowd. Good for you, that means you're on the right side. Being tempted is not sin, it's normal. The flesh wants to sin, Satan comes along, demons come along and try to pull us into it, tempt us, put thoughts on our mind, give us feelings, give us dreams, give us all these weird feelings and things, but the secret to not fulfilling it or bringing that temptation and it becoming sin and the fulfilling of the lust of the flesh is you walk in the spirit, all right? Now he goes on to, let's look at the works of the flesh. So here's what the flesh wants to do. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, enemies, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, do, Greek word prasso, practice habitually. He's saying real plainly here, if you practice these things. So he's clearly shown here again, the flesh nature, if you're gonna not let it have dominion over you, how do you know it's not having dominion over you? You're not practicing these things habitually. If you're practicing any of these things or more than one of these things, habitually, you're actually doing them, then you're not winning, you're losing. And we're like Trump around here, we like to win. Winning's good. This battles for your eternal life, your eternal soul. So it's important to win this one. We must be overcomers. But just remember this, walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. So led by the Holy Spirit, that's important, walking in the spirit. What does that mean? How do we do that? How do we walk in the spirit? How are we led by the spirit? Well, let me show you something. Oh, well, I must read this. The fruit of the spirit's love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, uniqueness, temperance, which is self-control, controlling the flesh, against such there is no law. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with affections of lust. We live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. All right, let's look at this. Again, it repeats it. So Jesus comes in the flesh. Now this is puzzling to me. This is something you have to consider. That Jesus came in, he was fully God, fully a man, but because of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary and the supernatural aspect of the virgin, you know, birth and the conception, what happened there is God bypassed the sin nature of Adam by doing that, all right? And Mary was basically just becomes the vessel for the flesh, all right? But he bypasses the seed of Adam, all right? And so Jesus has a human body that does not have the sin nature of Adam. That's why he's called the second Adam. Because Adam, when he was created, had no sin nature. He's called the second Adam. However, it's obvious that Jesus could have sinned.
Say, how is that? Well, if he couldn't have, then the temptation was not real. He had to be tempted in all points like we are. Well, how can it be a temptation if you can't do something? Well, let's say I was completely paralyzed, right? And I couldn't get up and go anywhere and do anything, right? I'm not really gonna be tempted to go down to the strip club, right? You get what I'm saying? I can't, it's not a temptation because, and I'm saying nobody's around to help me or anything. I can't do it. So it's not, the temptation is not real. It's only real if I can do it. So, you know, now some people may argue with that, but I mean, it must have been possible. Now he didn't do it. Jesus never sinned. He overcame the temptation. And maybe he was able to overcome the temptation because remember, he says he laid aside his godhood in the sense of using his power, his divinity to do this. I think it was because he didn't have a sin nature and because he was led by the spirit into the wilderness. And before he was to do anything, Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, remember he obeyed, he was led by the Holy Spirit to submit to John the Baptist and be baptized. And he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And it says he returned from Jordan and was, everybody say this, led by the spirit into the wilderness. Led by the spirit in the Holy Spirit took him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil for 40 days. And it says, and in those days he did eat nothing. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into this time to allow the temptation of Satan. But how did he handle that temptation by fasting? Oh, if this doesn't seal it for us, nothing will, right? Being led by the spirit. If you are led by the spirit, listen to me real close here. If you are being led by the Holy Spirit, you are being led to pray, fast, study, take time with God. If you're not doing those things, you're resisting him because he is, I promise you, trying to lead you into what's gonna protect you from the temptation. But if you won't do those things, you're not being led by the spirit. And if you're not walking in the spirit, what will you do? If you're not walking in the spirit, you will fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So basically, if you refuse to spend time praying, fasting, studying, meditating in God's word, putting the flesh under, if you don't do that, remember, let's back up to our verse here, hold on. In Galatians 5, 16, for this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you're walking in the spirit, you will be praying. You will be fasting. You will be doing the things that the spirit wants you to do. See, it's really, real simple. For instance, if I was an alcoholic, all right, if I was saved but I had been a severe alcoholic, say I only been saved a few days, all right, the Holy Spirit's not gonna lead me to walk into the liquor store to talk to my buddy. He's not leading me that direction, right? It's real clear he would be leading me to get away from that. So our problem, listen, our problem, 99 times out of 100 is we just aren't walking in the spirit because we are refusing to do what he's leading us to do. Well, I need to go in here and talk to my buddy. He owes me 10 bucks. No, you don't. Don't go in the liquor store if you're just a brand new Christian who was an alcoholic. You understand? It's not, people say, I wanna be led by the spirit, Pastor Dean. How am I led by the spirit? I can tell you some places he's leading you already. He's leading you away from the strip club. He's leading you away from the liquor store. He's leading you away from friends who are bad influence. He's leading you away from your honey. He's leading you away from homosexuality. He's leading you away from pornography. Those are easy. If you'll listen and do those things, you're walking in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust and the flesh. And then you can be in a place when the Holy Spirit says, hey, take this week and I want you to fast for seven days and spend time, extra time with me. Then you can be in that place where you can hear him say, I want this special time with you. See, the thing with Jesus here, that was a special time. Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days. He did eat nothing. He went on a Daniel fast. He ate nothing. All right? He was a bad, and Jesus came out of it,
and here's what's beautiful. Jesus came out of that time and the power of the Holy Spirit was on him. If you read the gospel, and I almost put this up, and I'm like, if I keep going, it's gonna be three hours long. But he comes out of, if you read the gospel of Mark, I love how Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one marks a more succinct gospel. It's just like it jumps right into it. And he comes out of the wilderness and the temptation and immediately the demons are crying out in the synagogue every time he walks in. You wanna be anointed and powerful for God, you gotta have those times where you've listened to the Holy Spirit and let him lead you in times of intercession and prayer and fasting because it's out of those times that you're gonna come forth with a greater anointing and you're gonna come forth with what you need to help people. You're gonna come forth with power to heal people, come forth with power to cast demons out of people, come forth with a greater anointing on your preaching and teaching so that it impacts people. I remember people used to ask me, it's like when I was in my 20s, they would ask me, how do you have this revelation? How do you preach like you do? How do you cast demons out of people? We've got people in our church, they've been saved 30 years and they never cast demons out of me. And I can all point back to them and say, look, I know it's because I spent time with God. I spent time fasting and praying and seeking God. I spent time asking him for that anointing and that power and that authority. I spent time doing what I needed to do to get it. That's what it's all about. You cannot give what you don't have, but you can get it if you spend that time with the Lord. And I'm gonna tell you, there's something, and this brings me to this point right here. Fasting is definitely connected to having power against Satan and demon spirit. You saw it with Jesus in the wilderness. He's dealing with satanic temptation and attack so bad that angels had to come minister to him and help him. And he's fasting the whole time. I can tell you, I believe this. If he had to have been fasting, would he have won that battle? Pretty serious. Let's read this, this Matthew 17, verses 15 through 21. Now they had, this man had brought his son who was clearly demon possessed. Here it says he's lunatic, but he was demon possessed with a deaf and dumb spirit. And the spirit was also trying to kill the boy, throw him in the water and the fire. So this Israelite man had a demon possessed child,
wigging out, freaking out, flipping out. And so Jesus had been, where? He'd been up praying. And the disciples were trying to deal with the situation. And he had already given them the anointing and they'd already been healing the sick and casting out demons. And so it says, Lord have mercy on my son. Cause they had brought the, this man brought the son to the disciples and they couldn't cast him out and says, Lord have mercy on my son for he is a lunatic and sore vex for oft times he falleth into the fire and often to the water. And I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, oh, I know he did just like that. Oh, faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you bring him to me? We don't think about that, but really, he was like, Father help him please. I can't deal with it much longer. Ah, Jesus rebuked the devil and departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart said, why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove and hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. How be it this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. So basically what Jesus connected this to is you have basically run out of the power that you'd been living off of. See, Jesus had anointed them. If you go back to Matthew 10, he had given them an anointing and sent them to cast out demons and heal the sick. Remember, he sent out the 70 in the 12 or part of that. He sends them out. They go out two by two and they cast out demons and heal the sick. But what they didn't understand, and this is the lesson Jesus was teaching them. You can't receive an anointing and a commission from the Lord. You can go forth. You can cast out demons, heal the sick, preach the gospel, see people saved. And if you think you're gonna live on that anointing and that's that amount of storage that you have forever, you're mistaken. You leak. Jesus talked about virtue leaving him. Remember the woman touched him. He said, I felt the virtue leave me. Let me tell you, there's something about the anointing. It's like a power plant. If the power plant's not running, let's say it's a power plant powered by a river, by the water movement. If the water stops, the power plant will run for a little while on its stored energy that it has. But after the little while, guess what? It's gonna stop. It's the same in a car. You're pressing the gas pedal in the car and it's continuing, it's pushing, the engine's moving, everything's pushing it forward. You take your foot off the gas, guess what? It'll coast for a little while. It'll still appear that it's moving.
But it'll start slowing down and come to a stop, why? Because you gotta put your foot, you gotta put more fuel through the carburetor or the jets and you gotta get it going again. It's the same way with us. We need refueling, all right? You don't live off of one anointing, one season, forever. And the disciples had to learn this lesson the hard way. Okay, Lord. And what happened was, their lack of prayer and fasting also affected their level of faith. It weakened their faith. They were unable to hear what the Holy Spirit was wanting to say because the problem was the unbelief of the Father, Mark nine deals with that. And Jesus told them, said, look, if you wanna be full of the authority of the anointing the power to help people who are this demon possessed and in need of healing and deliverance, you're gonna have to not think you can live off of little prayer and little fasting. And you know what happened, listen, this wasn't so much their fault as, remember, and I think it's, you might can look this up for me, where it said they had, you just look at the word leisure. Jesus' ministry and the disciples with him was so busy. There were always people coming and going. I mean, it was always someone, and listen, we're at that point. I mean, it's unbelievable the amount of need that exists. Mark 631, yeah, can we put it up? And we can come back to this in a second. But Mark 631, just that whole passage there where he tells them, and I'll give you a minute, but basically it was busy. The ministry was busy. And can I say this? Busyness and even ministry busyness, even though it's good to try to minister to people and as many people as you possibly can, you try to help as many people as you possibly can as ministers and listen to me, students, you got to be careful that the busyness of the ministry doesn't come to the point where it weakens you to where you get to a point you can't help anybody. All right, this right here, Jesus was telling them they needed to come apart and said, he said to them, come yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. For there are many coming and going and they had no leisure so much as to eat. I mean, that's how busy it was for them at that moment.
So maybe the disciples were not necessarily trying to neglect their prayer time or their fasting. They were just so busy trying to keep up with all the ministry problems. And you think about it. Here's 12 guys trying to deal day by day with thousands of people. They could go into a city and Jesus is mobbed and they're trying to manage all this. And they're trying to counsel people and pray for people and minister to people and intercede between Jesus and people. You remember Philip or somebody, Andrew, what I'm saying, there are people looking for you, Lord. People want to talk to you, Lord. And so what I'm saying is, and this is something that I've learned. When people recognize you have something, they want it. Not in a bad way. I'm saying, and this is the, how do I put it? This is the two-edged sword of ministry. If they find, it's just like, okay, I've seen a lot of this. And Nancy could testify to this too. We've seen a lot of this. It's like when people see there's a ministry that actually teaches the Bible and believes in healing and casting out demons and they know that they need healing or they need deliverance or they need counsel in some situation. And they know, they find someone who has it or someone they feel they can trust. That's where they're coming. Okay. And yeah, or Skype or, and that's what I'm getting at is that it's wonderful. Brownsville revival, other revivals. In fact, one of the things you learn if you study the history of revival and revivalist are even some of the great healing ministries like A.A. Allen and some of the others back in the forties and the fifties. A lot of them crashed and burned simply because they got worn out. And the reason they got worn out is because they just gave and gave and gave and gave and never took time away to really rest, to rest physically and to spend time with the Lord and recharge the spiritual batteries. I went through this, I'll say going back to, what was it, 19, oh, it was 1991 because I remember it was during the Gulf War. And during the Gulf War time period, so late 90s, early 91, I had, God had opened the door for me to start teaching deliverance for Christians and how Christians need deliverance and God opened a big door for me
to start preaching that in a very large church in Montgomery, Alabama, right? About 2000 member church and plus really just teaching it all over the city on the radio there. So guess what? I was about the only one doing deliverance ministry. So all these people started saying, I need deliverance, help me, help me, right? And that was good and there's great testimonies and great stories from that time. But I was also working full-time. I was also going to the federal prison, Maxwell Federal Prison on the Air Force Base every Monday night, preaching there for, I would preach for an hour and then pray for the guys. And sometimes we do deliverance to them. Sometimes I'd be there four or five hours, all right? Leave soaking wet with sweat. I mean, my clothes soaked through from sweat. But during that time, I was doing so many, I was fasting so much that, and then I was so busy that, and I wasn't resting at all. And I was in my 20s, so I'm like, I can do this. But let me tell you, six months of doing that every week, multiple deliverances a week, multiple preaching, teaching a week, fasting, trying to stay prepared for people. Believe it or not, I know no one will ever believe this. But I think at that time, I got down to weighing 160 pounds. Not a good weight for me, all right? I'm good 200 and up, all right? And I mean, I wasn't healthy. And I remember I developed a protein deficiency and some other things. And I mean, I started getting sick week. And the Lord was like, you need to stop. And so he made me leave Montgomery, come here to my aunt's because he knew she'd feed me good food. And then me and my cousin, Todd, we had the house that's outside out next door to us that used to be fine. We had weights and we had all kinds of stuff out there. So he and I started eating good, went and bought a bunch of protein amino acids and started taking those. And I started lifting weights and I took the next six months to, not that I didn't do any ministry because I did, but I cut way back and had to build my health back up. Now, when you're in your twenties and you break your health down, your body down, I learned, and that brings me to another point here. Let me say this about, we can go back to the PowerPoint. Let me say this about fasting. Fasting is not, God does not want you fasting to the point you're breaking your body down or you're harming yourself. There are people who have tried to fast way too much or tried 40 day fast, who have died, pastors, ministers.
And that is not God's will. Now, let me just say this. Yes, Jesus fasted 40 days. Oh yes, there was a time Elijah fasted 40 days. There was time Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and didn't eat. Those are very unique situations. Let me just tell you this. If you're meeting with God on a mountain and the glory of God's there and the mountain's on fire and God's talking to you face to face, then maybe you can go without food for 40 days. But you need to understand 40 days without food takes you to the brink of starvation. Human beings starts to die from starvation about six weeks. That's it, you die. Then if you have any weakness, if you're not a strong, healthy person, it could be less than that. This is not God's will. So no one should be fasting for 40 days. Jesus' situation was special. He had angels there minister to him. Elijah had eaten food from heaven and went in the strength of that meat for 40 days. It was very special situation. I don't see unless angels are meeting with you and giving you special food. Maybe you can go for 40 days. Other than that, you don't do it. The longest that I see anyone fasted in the Bible without food was 21 days. And you see that in Daniel, we'll get there in a second. But he was at the point that he was so weak, he couldn't stand. I did 21 days, no food. I was at the point, I was so weak. I was so weak that it was hard to even move. Now I drink, I didn't just do water. That's another thing. People out there think, well, when I fast, you're only supposed to do water. You better not do that kind of fast. And the water only, you should only do that three days, no more. Bible, if you wanna stick with Bible, Esther, by the time you see water only, Esther, three days, that was it. The human body needs more than water. You need electric lights. So you're going along fast like 21 days, 14 days, seven days, eight days, whatever it is. You need juice, milk, you need liquids other than water to sustain you, to keep you from throwing your electrolytes off. You can throw your electrolytes off bad enough through fasting that your heart, you throw your heart out of whack, out of sink, and you can die, okay? So this is, we're not to be stupid, right? Let's say this about fasting. Don't be stupid, right? God's purpose is not to break your health down, okay? It's just to keep your flesh under control. Kenneth Hagin, though I disagree with him on this, I can say at least the man had a revelation of how not to break his body down, but he said he never fasted more than three days ever,
okay? But he said he did that regularly. So that's a different way. He had his way, he felt like God led him to approach it. But I'm not saying that God will never lead you to fast more than three days. He's led me. God has spoken to me on more than one occasion. One time he said seven days. One time he told me 10 days. One time he told me 14 days. One time he told me 21 days, all right? I've had everything from one to 21 that the Lord's had me fast. But again, be smart. When I was on a 14 day fast, I was working construction in the heat. Guess what? You can't be stupid. I drank a lot of, you know, like Powerade, Gatorade type drinks. I drank in the middle of the day. Some of those like, what do they call them? Instant breakfast type things to give me some calories and to give me something to burn and to protect me in the heat. I would have made it 14 days on water, doing construction in Alabama summertime. I would have been dead man, right? So you gotta use some common sense. Again, fasting is not about breaking down your health, okay? And if you do have health problems, there are people out there that have diabetes, they have other health problems. So you should probably be very, very careful about fasting long periods of time, two, three days. For some people, especially some people have diabetes. I mean, that could be very dangerous, unless again, you're drinking some orange juice or some other things to kind of balance out your sugar levels. So what I'm saying is don't hurt yourself. That's what, you should never do that. And if anybody, I see any of our students trying to do 40 days, I am going to rebuke you. And if you don't repent, I'm gonna disown you. Because I'm not gonna be responsible for you dying and being stupid. So that's why too, I'm glad this is going on record here. Well, Jesus did it. Well, you know, Jesus raised the dead. So why don't you raise somebody from the dead? Maybe we'll talk about you fasting 40 days, okay? All right, just wisdom, all right? So let's keep going here. But you wanna cast out demons and heal the sick, you're gonna have to have fasting and prayer in your life. I'll say this, another time for fasting and corporate fasting is when you're going through a season of attack. We see this, I'm just gonna give you these passages because they're good. Second Chronicles 20, the story of Jehoshaphat is wonderful. Really, Jehoshaphat had disobeyed the Lord and God didn't want him associating with Ahab and in the previous chapters, he had associated with Ahab. And so God basically was like, all right, you're gonna disobey me, associate with my enemy.
I'm gonna back off and let the devil come. So God backs away and here come all these armies. So it says it came to pass after this that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and beside them the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. So even though this in the Old Testament, this was a real battle. These Ammonites, of course, some of them were Nephilim. So they were descendants of the fallen angels and the human women, the giants. But this is spiritual warfare. And so this multitude came against him. And look at verse three. It says, Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and what? Proclaim to fast throughout all Judah and Judah gathered themselves together and asked help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. Now here's what happened. They came and sought the Lord and they fasted. And it was a corporate fast. And what happened? God speaks finally to one of the prophets and the prophet tells him, here's what you do to get out of this problem. And guess what? They did what the prophet said to do. They got out of the problem. But why did God intervene? Because they humbled themselves. They humbled themselves. They set themselves to praying and fasting. And then they said, I love the part where Jehoshaphat says, Lord, we don't know what to do. Look right here, verse 12. Oh God, wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon you. Well, I tell you what, I remember one of my pastors preaching what to do when you don't know what to do. Dr. Larry Lee, I'll never forget it. What to do when you don't know what to do. Praying fast, that's what you do. Repent of your sin and your stupidity. Jehoshaphat had to repent of hanging out with Ahab. He starts confessing all their sins. Lord, we've been sinful. We've been stupid. We haven't obeyed, forgive us, have mercy on us with prayer and fasting. And we need says any humbles himself and say, God, we don't know what to do. If you don't intervene, it's over for us. And God intervened, miraculously intervened. He even turned those armies against each other. And Israel went out and he says, took them days to gather up all the spoil. All right, so let's just keep going here. We got so much to cover. Let me get through this. Now, Esther, here's another time of crisis. And you think about it. This is when Haman had made his plot and convinced the king of Persia to sign an order to kill all the Jews throughout all the provinces. This was serious. And it says here, look at this. They begin to, they just couldn't believe what happened.
But look in the Esther, I love this. The people knew. He says when Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry. It came even before the king's gate for none might enter into the king's gate closed sackcloth. And in every province, with or so ever, the king's commandment and his decree came, there was a great morning among the Jews and what? Fasting and weeping and wailing. And many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So you see, even when it came time for Esther to intercede before the king, what does she ask them to do? Go gather together all the Jews. Look at verse 16. This is Esther 4.16. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. That's right, they didn't even drink. So three days, no more than that. Well, that was rough right there, not eating or drinking. And also my maidens will fast likewise and so will I go unto the king, which is not according to the law and if I perish, I perish. Of course, we know Queen Esther and the Jews were saved from Haman's plot, but fasting and praying was part of that. King David fasted for his dying son. Now remember, this was after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed, right? Not good. I can't even fathom this. I mean, it's easier to fathom the adultery, but the murder of her husband. Oh, not good, right? Terrible. Finally, Nathan the prophet comes and confronts David after he is taken Bathsheba to be his wife and she's pregnant. And the prophet Nathan rebuked him. And anyway, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord has also put away thy sin and thou shalt not die. How be it because by this deed thou has given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born into thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife barren to David and it was very sick. This throws out a lot of health and wealth prosperity theology right here. David therefore, besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth and the elders of the house went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoken to him and he would not harken into our voice. How will then he vex himself when we tell him the child is dead? Says, but when David saw his servants whisper, David perceived that the child was dead.
Therefore, David said unto his servant, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came into the house of the Lord of worship. Then he came into his own house and when he required and they set bread before him and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou did fast and weep for the child while it was yet alive. But when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept for I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Now we all know the child went to heaven. That's why David said, I will go to him. He will not return to me. But this is important because I wanted you to see that even though David admitted he had sinned and confessed his sin finally to Nathan. Yes, I've sinned against the Lord and I've sinned against all Israel. And he fasted for the child to live and God didn't answer his prayer, did he? Now, why is that? Well, the wages of sin is death. David had not only committed adultery, but he had murdered a man. And so you reap what you sow. Now the good news, the child went to heaven. The child's fine. The child went to heaven and didn't have to live in David's troubled household from that point on because he was very troubled after that. That's another thing, David's sin of adultery and murder. He said, your sin will be forgiven, but the sword will never leave your house. And it never did. But I want you to see that again, fasting is not some way we manipulate God when we get in trouble either. Sometimes we have to go on and take the medicine, the punishment, the correction, suffer the loss. See, the real question is you find out if the fasting is legit is when God says no, and he doesn't change the situation. He doesn't do the miracle. He doesn't stop the judgment or the trial. And yet David, what did he do after that? He worshiped the Lord. He didn't turn against the Lord. He understood it was his fault and he accepted that. But he said, it was worth a try. I thought maybe the Lord might be gracious unto me in this situation, but the Lord chose not to be. And again, what was the Lord teaching David through that? He was teaching David. Number one, you can't just manipulate me. Number two, your sin affects your house. Your sin affects your children. So you want things to go well, don't be doing this stuff. But this one was very important
because fasting is not about manipulating God and getting what you want. In fact, Isaiah 58 says that. Talks about fasting to get what you want. New, that is not the purpose of fasting. All right, all right. Daniel nine, let's deal with this real quick. We're gonna come to a close here. Daniel set himself, and this is another thing. Like for instance, we come to critical points as a nation, maybe or as a church, as a state. Let me tell you something's going on in our state right now. They're trying to pass a bill to force vaccinations, secretly found out from the Colonel last night. We need to be praying against that. And there's some evil Republicans probably taking some money from somebody. Again, they're trying to sneak this in in one of the most conservative states in the country, trying to sneak it through. But we need to be praying against that. But Daniel here, he says this, verse two will read, in the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books, the number of the years wherever the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face into the Lord to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. So Daniel was reading Jeremiah and realized, oh, we're at the time where God's about to move. He said, we're only going to be here for 70 years. Something's about to change. He was coming to a critical mass, critical time. And I love this, even though Daniel knew the prophecy was good that they would be released from Babylonian captivity and be allowed to go back. Daniel had enough wisdom to know, that doesn't mean everything's going to go smoothly. That doesn't mean everything's going to be easy. So I'm going to set myself to prayer and fasting and seeking God and humbling myself and repenting for our God. Daniel, that's why Daniel, that's why the Lord said Daniel was one of his greatly beloved because he understood, don't take anything for granted. And Daniel prayed through this. Now, of course, after that season of prayer and fasting, Gabriel shows up and gives Daniel a full revelation of what's going to happen in the last days. It's awesome. We don't have time for that. But here we get, and of course, I don't know churches do this. There's churches, there's these mega churches. Oh, I'm going to drink some coffee every year in January. These mega churches do a 21 day. And they say, you can do a Daniel's fast for 21 days. You just eat vegetables and pulse, right? Okay, I'm going to say it again. Fasting means not eating. There's no such thing as a fast where you eat.
All right, please understand that. And referring to what Daniel did in Daniel three with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they said that we're not going to eat the king's meat. It was nothing about being vegetarians nonsense. It was nothing about, it wasn't a partial fast. It was they were not going to contaminate themselves with meat that was been sacrificed to idols. And they were, they were putting a difference between them and the other Babylonian, Calvian wise men and children that were in training, right? So that again, it's not a fast. These people have turned this so-called Daniel's fast. It's really a diet. And it also pushes veganism, which is not biblical. Veganism is not biblical. I'm gonna say that again. God in this time period, we are not vegetarians. God, I mean, I remember the Passover, they were to kill a lamb and he said, eat all of it before morning. The Passover was all about eating meat. God had the ravens bring prophet Elijah meat, the flesh, right? Abraham loved venison, right? I mean, we could go down the list. We know Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples, and we know he ate fish. Jesus ate meat. The Bible says that false religions and cults will command you to abstain from meat. It's not complicated. Now, even science is agreeing that you need fat, meat, fat in your brain for it to work right. This is why all these false demonic religions and all this error about this, they don't want you to eat meat because they want to be able to control your brain, but I'm gonna get more on that later. But, so a fasting Daniel here, people said, well he says, in those days, Daniel, I was mourning full three weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. Folks, when he says fasting, right? When he says mourning there, mourning was always related to fasting. When he says I ate no pleasant bread, what did we find out last night? That just means he didn't eat food. Food is looked at as wonderful. Yes, it's wonderful to eat. It's pleasant to eat. Isn't it good when you get hungry and you get to eat? That's pleasant. It's in talking about eating. People make up stuff that does not exist. Oh, that just means you shouldn't eat cake and sweets. Where are you getting that from? It doesn't say that. And people are like, oh, it's a Daniel fast, so I eat no pleasant food. But you're stuffing yourself with beans and carrots and potatoes and yeah, it becomes all focused on what you can eat.
What can I eat? That's not a fast. You're not mourning. You're trying to figure out what you can eat. Let me tell you the reason I know this was a fast. Because by the end of it, Daniel was so weak that he couldn't stand. That's 21 day fast. I can tell you that right now. I've done it and I've been there. So he says there, verse eight, therefore I was left alone, saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my comingness was turned into corruption and I retain no strength. Now I'll tell you, there was some neat things and you know, of course, Gabriel appears and Daniel's trembling and he's weak, but God starts giving him revelation and understanding. I'll share this. This is really cool. When I was on the 21 day fast, and I remember the first like 10 days was amazing. I couldn't believe how good I felt on day eight. And it was on day eight that, and this is true. If you're fasting for the right reason, you're obeying the Lord. And this was a specific called, God called me on this fast. But on day eight, this is what's wild. I'm fasting and the Lord begins to speak to me and show me, y'all seen the message that I've done on the 10 virgins, right? All right, the 10 virgins and the parable of the talents. And I wrote about them in grace abuse, but that whole revelation came. I'm sitting in a chair just by myself on day eight. And this whole revelation of what these parables mean and how to break them down and how to teach them comes to me. And I write it all down and the Lord says to me, you're going to preach these messages in a particular church. Now, I was in Montgomery at the time. You're going to preach these at a church in Montgomery that I had never even, I mean, here in Auburn at the time, that I had never even set foot in. I didn't know the pastor. I didn't know anybody that went to the church, but I knew of the church and the Lord said, you're going to preach this message in that church. I'm like, okay, wrote that down. So go on through the fast and whatever and get done. At the end of the fast, right? We're still doing Bible studies here and there. People are getting saved. I come back here, people getting saved all over the place. So I get a phone call from the pastor of that church asking me to come and preach there because they're looking for a youth pastor and to come try out as the youth pastor. So I went at the very end of that fast, the Lord said, go do that. So I went and I didn't preach it at that initial thing. But then they asked me to be the youth pastor. Well, long story short, I was only there for two months before God showed me everything that was going on there. It was for another reason. But during that two months,
the youth group went from like 12 to over 60. I mean, kids were getting saved like crazy. Parents were telling me, my children asked me, how do I get saved? How do I, what do I do? I mean, kids were being coming under conviction. I mean, it was just a powerful time. It was during that time that, you know, I was baptizing kids and I left and right and it was just, it was wonderful. It was a revival time, really was, right? So something happened. I remember the pastor was not gonna be there or whatever. So he asked me to preach on a Sunday morning. And by this time, because they had heard what was going on with the youth group, a lot more people started coming. So there's about 150 people that showed up that Sunday morning. It was packed out. And I remember the Lord said, I want you to preach on the 10 virgins and the parable of talent. The very message he told me, you're gonna preach in that church. That's the only Sunday service I preach. Gave an altar call. All these people came for weeping, crying. But that was the service and the woman in that service, her and her husband got saved, the one that was deaf and she's the one that got healed. And of course, then the Lord had me leave and get out of there because the leaders were wolves in sheep's clothing, but that's another story. But this is something else to understand. Extended fast are if, again, if you're obeying the Lord are gonna be seasons where either God's gonna intervene in a situation that he needs to intervene like he did with Jehoshaphat, with Esther. For instance, so the Lord had me, I'll tell you this story. I remember the Lord told me like this was like in 90, maybe 98, 99, I'd have to go back and look. But I remember the Lord said, I want you to fast for 10 days. And this is when I was going to the Brownsville Revival regularly. And in fact, I was scheduled to go down during my fast. So like on day seven, I think of my fast, I went to, no, no, it was like day five. I went, it was a weekend and I went to the Brownsville Revival. And when I got there, I found out that John Kilpatrick had been, he was in the process of building a house in Pensacola. He's the pastor of the church during the revival. And he was walking on some unfinished building that at this point had a spot that was like three floors up. He fell and broke his hip. And I mean, he ruptured. I think he ruptured. I don't know, he messed himself up. I mean, he was, and I remember the Lord telling me that I was in the middle of that fast that I had you fasting for him because I knew that the Lord was like, the devil was going to try to take him out.
And though he still fell and was messed up for a while, he didn't die. And it was the plan was for him to die. And the Lord showed me, said you, I had you fasting for him. And I didn't know that, that wasn't planned. So what I'm saying is the Lord, when he tells you to go on a fast, a lot of times it's to intervene in a situation. Also though, I came back from Brownsville and it was like I had tried, the Lord had told me to write grace abuse and I was really having a struggle, even trying to get started. And I would sit down and try and it was like I had this weird block. But on day seven, didn't plan it. It was like this breakthrough. I sat down and typed out the first three chapters like it was nothing. And it was like from then on, I could do it. And that actually set the precedent on how I write books, the way God showed me that works for me. So that was a good thing. I was able to obey the Lord out of that. So I wanna say this, the Lord told me another time, like I want you to fast seven days. There's something I wanna show you. So I was obeying him and on the fifth day is when God said to me, read Matthew 24. You've heard me tell the story many times. Read Matthew, read it five times. And finally, the revelation clicked, I understood. The rapture is at the end, not the beginning of the last seven years, the tribulation period. And that was the beginning of that. And so what I'm saying is, it's like you will break through darkness. You'll break through things that you may not have understanding of, that God wants to give you understanding. There's just so many things that comes with fasting. And sometimes you won't always know the purpose of why God wants you to fast. Like a lot of times it is just to get the flesh under control. But there's times of crisis or there's times, there's crisis that are coming that you need to be prepared for. But also it just opens the door for revelation and understanding from God about things. So anyway, we gotta hurry. These are just more verses. I'm gonna go through this right here. Y'all can read all those later. Of course, they were sending out Paul and Barnabas as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Paul and Barnabas. So prayer and fasting is also how you find the will of God, seasons of prayer, fasting. And God will speak to you about his will and direction for your life. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them out. Here Paul, he says, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things, approving ourselves as ministers of God in much patience and afflictions and necessities and distresses and stripes and imprisonments and tumult, labors and watchings in fasting. You're not gonna prove yourself as a minister of God unless you are one that fast.
Harry talks about it. He goes, he was being accused of not being a true man of God. And he said, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. Imagine if I said that, I'd be in so much trouble. I'd get so much hate mail. And labors more abundant and stripes above measure and prisons more frequent and deaths off of the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes, save one. I mean, he goes down through it all and then he says in weariness, verse 27, painfulness and watchings often in hunger and thirst in fasting often. I mean, he wasn't talking about hunger and thirst was another thing. Hunger and thirst is when you want food, but there is none. Fasting is when you choose not to eat, right? And he said fasting often. A lot of people say, Paul didn't talk about fasting. Why should he have to? He said, I do it often. It was pretty well understood from the Old Testament to the New Testament, how important it was, right? And that's it. I've already given you the practical guidelines. No 40 days, drink something. I wouldn't even do the three days, no watering, no drink. I mean, no food, that's pretty rough on your body. Unless God specifically said it and you knew for sure it was him. But you should fast from time to time. Listen, and don't think, some people get into the mistake of thinking, okay, well, I'm only gonna fast if God tells me to. No, you need to choose to fast sometimes, all right? But there will be seasons where he will tell you to go on specific fast. You need to do both. All right, so do that. And the fruit of it, listen, the fruit of it will be evident in your life. It really will. You will store up some things in heaven that you will get to cash out and use. And it'll be because of fasting and prayer and because you obeyed, okay? All right, so I'm gonna quit now. How long was that? Two hours, I figured it would be. All right, well, let's pray. I wanna pray for you guys. Father in heaven, I pray right now for our students. I thank you for our students in Fire and Grace School of Ministry. I thank you for what you've done in their lives already and God, what you're going to do. Make them men and women of God who understand the importance of fasting and prayer and seeking you and obeying you and bringing the flesh under control and not letting the flesh overwhelm them and defeat them. Lord, they truly, they would be people who the sins of the flesh and the desires and lusts of the flesh would not reign over them. Lord, that they would be people who would be prepared for specific battles the devil wants to bring, attacks, that they would already be prepared by listening to you and fasting and praying. And Lord, I know that you're gonna do great and mighty things with this.
Lord, I ask you to move upon our students and move them to fast and pray more the rest of this semester and the rest of this year and especially as we approach the conference and the graduation in the summer and the conference in the fall to be fasting and praying for this ministry, this church, for me, for our staff and our church family so that your anointing and power will continue to flow and your strength will continue to flow. And Lord, bless them in a mighty way, use them in a mighty way. And I pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. All right, God bless.