Fasting Forum (Full 1 hr. 45 mins Program)

It's no secret that we are at the crossroads. Opiate and alcohol abuse are leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Obesity is skyrocketing and plaguing the young as well as the old. It has reached epidemic levels in children as well. Diabetes is plaguing millions and cancer and heart disease are the number one killers of Americans. Now, of course the question comes out, well, big deal. Spiritual health is what's the priority. And I do agree with that. However, I'm going to hopefully answer that in just a minute because we pray for God to heal rather than help with self-discipline to change harmful habits. Now we know that certain habits cause illness, cause disease, and it's sometimes I feel when I'm praying for people that we'll definitely pray. Pray works. God answers in miraculous ways. He's doing amazing things. But when I pray for somebody on, let's say, heart problems or different issues, how do we know that it's not tied to taking care of this gift that God has given us? Yes, I'll pray for your anxiety. Yes, I'll pray for your fear. But you might want to stop drinking a pot of coffee. Right? That's adding to that. So many times we want God to heal, but we don't want to take responsibility for our actions and stewarding this gift that God has given us. Most are not caring for this wonderful gift of health that God has given us. There are multiple, I'm going to quote now James Morris, there are multitudes of diseases which have their origin in fullness and might have their end in fasting. So they have their origin in fullness and they might have their end in fasting. Fasting does not kill us. Overconsumption does. Right? We all think fasting is going to kill me. No, that doesn't kill us. Overconsumption does. And if you go back two and a half years ago and you watch a video, it's called, I believe, Overcoming Addictions Through Fasting. I was about 45 to 50 pounds heavier. And just as a personal testimony, my energy is much better. My attitude towards people is much better. I can run. I can play with my children. I can minister better. I can preach better. So I think we miss how much our physical affects us spiritually and also energy levels. And actually when God says, go out and do this. Minister to others. Be an example. Share your faith. Go out and help people. I can't. I'm too full. I'm too bogged down. And I think it really hinders what God wants us to do. Now again, granted, the physical benefits of fasting are secondary. The spiritual benefits are the priority. But tonight I'm actually gonna focus more on the spiritual. Here's why. I'm sorry. More on the physical. Here's why. Every single message I've ever given on fasting, I think it's a dozen, always was focused on the spiritual. So you can go and you can listen to. Let me just give you some examples. Lean Mean Fasting Machine. It's on our website. Health. What does the Bible say? Fasting over forks. Part one. Fasting over forks. Part two. You know, it's a little play on words with forks over knives. A prisoner of appetite. Fasting. The good, the bad, and the hungry. Fasting. They found the secret. This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting breaks enslavement. Overcoming addiction through fasting. So you can see there's a lot of fasting sermons over the last six years. And I can tell you that fasting's probably made the biggest difference in my life personally in regard to preaching, in regard to studying God's Word, in regard to living the victorious Christian life. It's by far prayer and fasting and worship in the Word. That has changed my life more than anything. And I can tell because back many years ago when I would preach, when I would not eat, say the night before, and I would come to a men's breakfast, empty stomach, say no to the gravy, no to the eggs, no to the sausage, and I could feel the presence and power of God. And then when I would choose to cave in and eat, I was very sluggish, wanted to hurry up, do my message, and let's get out of here, right? It's nap time. So I could always tell a difference when the flesh was full and when the spirit was full. Now of course food isn't bad, right? In many cases God has given it to us to enjoy, and I'm going to get to that in a minute. But when it begins to imprison us, and we begin to be prisoners of our appetite, and we start to consume things that are not healthy and they're actually detrimental, that's when it begins to tilt the scale in the wrong direction. So let me just talk about a few spiritual things, then I'll get into the physical benefits. In Joel 1.14, we see the power of fasting. Joel said, consecrate a fast, call the sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the people, and cry out to the Lord. So the magnitude of the situation determined the response. Fasting is depriving the flesh of its appetite as we pray and seek God's will and God's mercy. So that's mainly what it is spiritually. When I fast, I starve the flesh and I'm filled with the Spirit. Because fleshly appetites and spiritual hunger do not often go together. We've talked about that before. Is it easy to pray and worship after Thanksgiving dinner? Or is it time for football? And we see that, so we see this interesting relationship that we have to have food to survive, but when food becomes our God, becomes our idol, and we begin to be filled with the things of the flesh, and eating and consuming, it will affect us spiritually. There's just no way around that. The Bible's clear on that as well, not to mention gluttony and a lot of different things. And again, I'm preaching to you as a fellow sojourner, as a fellow struggler in this area. I have not mastered it. My daughter just had a birthday party and Krispy Kreme was knocking on the door. I'm going to say, no, I'm not celebrating with you. I'm fasting forever. Or am I going to have a donut? So I'm there with you. It's not about perfection, right? It's about getting back up and falling forward and at least looking to our health more often than we do. And here's why. I don't want to take the Scripture out of context. Paul said, I was going to note this, when he talked about the Holy Spirit being our body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now the context, and I like context, because it means you won't take the verses out of context and make them say whatever you want them to say. The context is sexual immorality. He's saying, be pure vessels that God can use because your body is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit. So why wouldn't that apply to other physical parameters? Why wouldn't taking care of, and I don't know how much, I'm trying to really be careful here because I was overweight, I was made fun of, and I know that it sometimes is difficult. So I want to be very sensitive, but at the same time I want to be very truthful. And sometimes that hurts. And sometimes it steps on toes. I was going in a very bad direction as I was in my twenties, and thankfully God changed that. But I don't want to get on a rabbit trail. I want to stay on this topic. Remember this, the flesh always wants to negotiate. Right? Come on, just a little crispy cream. Well you had one, why not three more? Right? Come on, why do you want to get so extreme? Just invite me in. And the flesh is always negotiating. So remember that with fasting. The flesh is not your friend. It's always going to negotiate. Well I'm not supposed to have sugar. Well that big cookie has honey in it. Well that's God's sugar. I guess I can have that. Right? I'm not supposed to have meat. Well fish isn't really meat. Let me have that. You know your flesh is always going to negotiate with you. So fasting is really, I think Jenson Franklin wrote about this in one of his books, the power of the made-up mind. That really stuck out to me. The power of the made-up mind. There is will involved in this. There is self-discipline. There is making up your mind. Because as soon as you give your mind an inch, it's going to take a mile. Mine is at least anyway. As soon as I start to make excuses, and that's why for me, I know this might sound hard to some people or difficult to understand, but for me water fasting has actually become easier than a Daniel fast or a juice fast. Because it's simple. Water. That's it. Not on a juice. Well can I make a smoothie? Like throw three bananas in there and a whole bunch in. See that's a juice, right? Kind of. Or Daniel fast, you know, what about this or that? And vegan cookies have 400 calories and lots of sugar. And I can kind of trick myself into doing things. Remember this. The flesh always wants to negotiate. So take it to God. Be led of the Spirit. Matthew 17, 21. Jesus said that a certain evil spirit does not go out of a person except by prayer and fasting. And the Bible students will know that this verse is not in some translations because it's a disputed text. But as we've taught before, the principle is throughout Scripture. Fasting applies pressure to the spiritual realm. Fasting applies pressure to the spiritual realm. Think about that. The flesh is always wanting to indulge, right? So fasting says I'm not going to indulge on the flesh. I'm going to focus on indulging on the Spirit. And seeking the things of God more than the things of the flesh. Author, actually he's an author, but his name is Arthur Wallace. He said often pressure has to be maintained before there is breakthrough in heavenly warfare. Are you ever praying for something and it's just not happening? Well, I'm just going to give up. I prayed for five minutes today, that's enough. Often when you're breaking through, when you're breaking down strongholds, when there's spiritual warfare, it's not a quick process. Sometimes there is pressure applied. When Paul says pull down strongholds, that doesn't mean that stronghold's coming down that minute. Right, Lord, take away this stronghold during worship and you leave here. Boy, that was easy. I don't want alcohol anymore. I don't want to smoke anymore. I don't want coffee anymore. I don't want sugar anymore. Boy, Lord, you are... Man, that was so good. Or is it a stronghold? And that is not coming down easily. It's coming down one brick at a time, one sledgehammer hit at a time, and you're applying pressure to the spiritual realm. That's what fasting does. It applies pressure to the demonic influences and to our own flesh, and it takes time. One of my hopes is that you don't get defeated, because I haven't done too many fasts perfectly. Right, just, oh, that was easy. That was perfect. You know, in a moment of weakness, you grab some walnuts, or you take some juice, like, oh, forget it now. I'm going to just forget it. I'm starting over. No, you just say, oh, well, I'm learning from that. I'm going to move forward. So you don't allow a little tiny step back to become a long-term setback. And most people don't fast perfectly, because really God's not looking at caloric intake. He's looking at the condition of your heart. That's what He's, some of the biggest breakthroughs I've ever had were fasts that I just blew it miserably. Now, I'm not giving you permission to fast, right, because some people say, why do you tell me that? Now I'm just going to blow it all the time. Well, I'm trying to encourage you that when you do mess up, you get back on track. Many, what I'm speaking from as well, maybe I should have told you this, I did a fast, I had no idea how long it was going to be, and it ended up being 22 days. It just ended about two weeks ago. Out of 22 days, 14 days were water only. And I was trying to go, and nine of those days in a row were water only. And I was trying to just be led of the Lord, and one time was when I had to speak, and I was not feeling good. I was either going to cancel or eat something. So I had a little bit of almond milk and a few walnuts, and I was able to come to church and speak. So am I going to let that detour me from my commitments? So I kind of struggled through it, but perfectionists would say, oh, you blew it. You've got to start all over. I'm like, I'm not starting all over. There's been 19 days. There's no way I'm starting all over. That's impossible. But you see, God honors that, because it's a heart striving, not perfect. So I wanted to encourage you in that, because most people, you know, I can't do this anymore, Shane. I got an email from a guy, I can't do this. I've tried 12 hours, and I cannot do this. I said, you've got 12 hours, though, right? He's like, yeah. I'm like, well, that's an accomplishment. Look at that. You think I started just by going a week? I mean, my first full day was I was going to hit somebody. Right? It was 24 hours, and I actually caved in and had some orange juice before I was going to speak on a Saturday night. I'm not going to go, oh, I had orange juice. I can't believe it. Because it's the heart. God's looking at the heart. So you're struggling. God sees that. He honors that struggle. I think it was Jonathan Edwards, when he preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, that sparked revival. He actually had a commitment not to eat or drink water for three days. I don't, unless the Lord tells you to do that, I don't promote that. But he was able to speak, and he had to have some water. Now, he might be getting too extreme, I don't know. My point is, that sermon still sparked revival. Even though he didn't quite honor what he wanted to honor with God. Anybody ever fell short? Say, Lord, I don't want to do this. So, the enemy wants you to keep beating yourself up so you stay in a cycle of defeat. That's usually why most addicts never come out of their addiction. Because they stay in that cycle of defeat. And failure. And they just stay in that. Versus God says, hey, you fell, come out. Let me pull you up. Let me guide you. Let me lead you. Fall forward into God's arms. So here's the thing. Four things that really affect our health. Our fallen nature. Right? Our DNA. The curse is in the body. It is going to deteriorate. We're going to get sick. I've had to pray for kids that have died at 3, 5, 6 years old from leukemia. I vividly remember first getting into ministry. My pastor took me to a 19 year old girl who was dying, I think it was leukemia. And I'll never forget that. Just how her body looked like a skeleton. Just going through a lot of things before she finally died while we were at the house. And some things we can't explain. But we know that deterioration, sickness is related to our fallen nature. We also know there's demonic oppression. I'm hoping I can get to that a little bit on Sunday and talk about spiritual warfare. We know that the woman that was bent over for so many years, Jesus said, Woman, thou art loosed from your infirmities. Why should this daughter of Abraham be bound by Satan? So we know that that is sometimes linked. How many of the people in the Bible that had demonic possession had diseases, epileptic in the Bible. So we know that as well. And again, I just go from what the Bible says. Toxic thoughts. Do you know unforgiveness? Bitterness? I just talked to a pastor today in Lancaster. He's fasted 21 days before on water many years ago. And I want to ask him a few things about this. He said he knows of people where they've been set free as soon as they release unforgiveness. If you don't forgive others, how is your father going to forgive you? And sometimes we might have that hold on us. And I don't know how, but we know that anger. Ask any cardiologist. It's not even a Christian. Anger is very bad on the heart because it releases certain stress hormones that are detrimental to good health. So we know that our thoughts, the way we think, unforgiveness, bitterness, all these things. You ever just walk around when you're like that? You can tell it's not good for the body. But when you're worshiping and there's peace and there's joy and you're filled with the Spirit and you're loving people, you feel that. It affects us physically. And the fourth point is failing to steward this gift that God has given us. Now that is my main focus this evening because I've just given you a dozen other sermons that are about 10 hours on the spiritual benefits. So the main focus, though, is fasting and what it does to the spiritual. I'm sorry, the physical. See, the spiritual's on my mind, though. That's a priority. But here's the question. Here's a question I've been thinking about all month as I've been writing the book. And actually it was this 22-day fast that allowed me to finish the book. Because when you're not eating, do you know you have a couple extra hours each day? And I told Morgan, I'll be home later while you're having dinner because I'm going to work. And it gave me the opportunity to work on this. But here's what I kept thinking. I teach, pastors teach stewardship. Why stewardship on finances? We teach stewardship on your marriages, right? And our marriages. How do we steward our walk with our Lord and Savior? Why is it then not important to steward our health? Because it affects everything. How our body, is it healthy? Now there are people, I'm going to go visit hopefully one this week that's in a bed in a convalescent home. Another lady we talked to on Facebook who's in a wheelchair, bed-bound. So I'm not talking about those things because it's not like, well, you must not be doing good spiritually. That doesn't always happen. There's very spiritually mature people that are dealing with health issues. But for the majority of people, why shouldn't we steward our marriages? I mean, why shouldn't we steward our health? Can you pray and seek God better? I know I said this a few weeks ago, but I want to repeat. Can you pray and seek God better with a headache, tight pants, and sluggish, lethargic body strug out on your favorite addictive substance? Oh, that wasn't very encouraging. Let me ask that. Can you seek God better, right, when your pants are tight and you're sluggish, hungover? Oh, there we go now. Well, I guess we got the right crowd in here. But you can't. You can't. I remember, I don't have a problem with pain meds, but a couple years ago, the dentist I've told you a story, gave me a month's supply of Vicodin for a root canal. I still have it. It's expired. I need to throw it away somehow. But I've told you, you're not supposed to just throw it in the trash because it gets in the water supply and all that. But anyway, that's a rabbit trail. I took it, right, and it got me to sleep because it was a bad one. The whole next day, I was trashed. Like, why am I so tired and grumpy? This stinks. I'm depressed. I don't ever want to touch that again. See, it affected my whole day. I didn't read the Word. I didn't worship. I wasn't nice to people. Oh, side effects. Oh, well, there you go. And so you see how the physical will affect us spiritually many times. So that's what I'm truly trying to get at. That's what I believe God has put on my heart. Granted, this is a unique calling because not many pastors focus on the physical. Or you have the people who focus on the physical like Dr. Colbert and Jordan Rubin, Dr. Axe. Maybe those sound familiar. And they focus on that. But there's not too many trying to see the correlation or bring it together. Or maybe it's not their calling. And different things. God will call us to certain things. The Maker's Diet, I've told you that before, about 15 years ago. I presented my book to a publisher. And I backed out of it and just did it on my own. And then they took Jordan Rubin's book, The Maker's Diet, which 2 million copies now sold, right? But people are like, oh, don't you regret that? I'm like, not at all. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be selling products and doing organic farming. And I'm called to preach. So God knows what He's doing. But I see the health benefits. And people are set free when the health is in alignment. When they're taking care of their gift that God has given them. For example, next door, I pray for heart trouble. But the same person stops by McDonald's and Colston's on the way home. We'll pray for MS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. But can those be caused by neglect? They often can be. There's fasting retreats where they'll deal specifically with multiple sclerosis and put somebody on water only for a month. And the results are amazing. Why? Because the body is repairing. The body has time now to repair instead of it's constantly getting rid of the toxins. Now it has time to repair. We pray for cancer, but are we consuming the things that are fueling it? Now, I have two or three people right now that are friends of mine that I'm praying for them in regard to cancer every morning. So I'm not just saying, well, you need to eat carrots. I mean, I'm not naive. I know that sometimes we just don't have answers. Sometimes this isn't bulletproof. This isn't something that always works like a magic wand because God wants us to seek Him. God wants us to put Him first. We just don't have answers many times. But we do know, just like they know smoking causes... We all know that now. How do we know that? Well, a hundred years ago, they thought it was great. They thought tobacco was wonderful. Get some tobacco. Really get your lungs going. Well, now what do we know? Same thing with this era. We know that cancer and disease often is fueled by neglect of the body. And fueled like cancer needs oxygen to survive. It needs sugar. It needs a fuel source. So if you starve that fuel source, usually primarily sugar or toxins, then that will begin to starve that disease. Now, there's a YouTube video I want to recommend. I normally don't. Just listen to the audio because I wasn't able to look at the pictures. That's why I didn't share it. I don't know if they're bad pictures. Anybody ever recommend something to you and you go, oh, what were you thinking? But anyway, it was just called this. What if you stop eating sugar for one week? And I could not believe that everything from heart issues to eyesight to bad breath to skin to cancer and the research that backs it, it's amazing. So this is why fasting is so important because it begins to change even the health of our body. Now, let me just interject. Fasting does not heal the body. It gives the body the optimal environment for healing. See, people think, well, fasting heals me. No, fasting doesn't heal you. Fasting to me is giving your body a Sabbath. Isn't it interesting that we're supposed to take one day to rest, but why not rest the body, the digestive tract? So that's all fasting does. It gives the body optimal environment for healing. This might be as a shocker, but I think most of you know this. We all have cancer. You know that. All of us have cancer. We get cancer. Cancer, they are cells that send the wrong signal. You have leukemia in the blood or you have it in the tissue. The cell no longer understands the signal and then a mutation forms. So a cancer cell begins to form. My immune system destroys it. The mitochondria in the center of the cell there with the adamant protons, and we can get real technical, but I'm not going to go there. Just suffice it to say is your body is designed to go and, like Pac-Man, get those cells and those damaged disease. But if we feed our body with toxins, we're overweight and stressing it out. Then we're taking all these stimulants and throwing in tons of sugar, the body's barely, can't even, let alone the immune system is shot, let alone trying to go and kill disease because it is just taxed. It's overburdened. So fasting allows all that to heal itself. Interesting statistic. I don't know if I have it in here or not. But one pound of fat requires an extra mile of blood vessels. So for every pound, so when I was 45, 50 pounds heavier, I had 50 miles. I still can't get over that. 50 miles of, and the blood vessels, right, you know, are so small and they're running in different veins, but you stretch those out, so you wonder if the heart's working harder, the body's working harder, there's more toxins to remove, so it's all connected. Now let me show you, well, let me throw this out there. If our body could not fight disease, we would die at birth. Right? A child, dead, dead, dead. But our body is so efficient on going and destroying the immune, the immune system is so efficient going and destroying the toxins and the free radicals, the oxidation, and all these big words you hear. Our body is so designed to do that. Now as we get older, though, more toxins come in, it gets harder, we get overweight, myself included, and the body gets sluggish and run down, so we get sicker much easier because the body's not allowed to go back and restore and replenish. Let me see, do we have that clip up there, the first one of the, I think it's the Adams, Adams, Jason? Oh, there we go. Okay, let me show you this real quick. Atoms are surrounded by electrons. Okay, this is gonna go somewhere, don't worry, this isn't a boring chemistry class. Now these atoms are surrounded by electrons, right, they keep circling the atom. Now here's what happens, I'm gonna show you. Each shell needs to be filled with a select number of atoms. Okay, you got it? So atoms, they need this, each shell around it needs to be filled in order to be healthy. So this full outer shell, right, is stable, it's a stable atom. Now you heard the word free radical before? Let me show you what happens. But if an atom has a shell that is not full, let's say it's missing one, let's go to the next screen. See, this is a nice happy atom, this free radical goes and begins to cause trouble. He starts pulling off of the atoms, this one, I need that, I need that, I need that, or they start grabbing from the DNA, they start grabbing from your protein, they start grabbing from your fat. And now this is a free radical, it's dangerous. So here's the antioxidant, right, like you've heard that, berries, all God-given food. I'm just gonna tell you a tip right here. The top three antioxidant foods are Captain Crunch, Krispy Kreme, and McDonald's. Now this opposite, right? Isn't it interesting? Berries, God-given food, are antioxidants. They'll go, hey free radical, don't bother this good atom, let me give you, let me give you what I have, I'm antioxidant, I'm gonna stop the free radical, I'm gonna give you this good thing I have, and then we can all be healthy atoms. But if you've got too many free radicals running around, and not enough antioxidants, the body starts to break down. And then we can get in deeper to where the microchondria, that's actually the fueling system of the cell, that gets distorted, and cancer starts to mutate, it forms another cell, another cell divides, another cell divides, and it keeps growing, and you have a tumor. So fasting though, you might say, because here's what the free radical is also doing, it's stealing electrons, these things right here, it's stealing those things from the DNA. He's taking from DNA, he's taking from proteins, he's taking from fats, now free radicals are somewhat important because they can help kill bacteria. So we need them, but in abundance they will start to destroy the body. So fasting repairs, we can take all that off now and put it on the fasting screen, fasting repairs, here's how, it helps the body get back to a healing state. So although it's not an antioxidant per se, it gives the body the ability, so when you fast, your cells go, uh-oh, emergency mode, and they begin to consume then, the free radicals and the bad things, it begins to clean house. But if it's always digesting, always cleaning house, always trying to fight toxins, always fighting disease, it just gets run down. So fasting begins, it's actually how we were created. We were created to feast and famine. 2,000 years ago, you show me Taco Bell in the Bible. Or anything on the corner. And I know this gets convicting, I know most of you are excited about this, but not everybody is. They don't like what I'm talking about right now. You know, leave my food alone. Oh, okay. I'm just telling you how it affects your body. So free radicals can be created by poorly functioning microchondria, the powerhouse of the cell. Fasting tells the cells to remove the unhealthy cells and replace them with healthy ones. So fasting plus stewardship is what we're looking at. Here's the thing, if the underlying problem, poor health, isn't dealt with, illness will return with vengeance. See, many people, here's the mistake we make, getting sick, give me that antibiotic, okay? I'm getting sick. Okay, well that doesn't cure the underlying problem of what's getting you sick. So why does it return again? I mean, I must have had strep throat 12 times 15 years ago. Amoxicillin, amoxicillin. What is going on? Now fasting, and I hate to say this, but in the last year and a half, I haven't had any nasal issues, congestions, cold, flu, nothing. At all. Because the body's able, now when I get sick, I'm sure I'll hear from everybody, right? And then the charismatics will go, don't speak death into yourself. Words have power. But I'm just saying, as of now, it's been very beneficial in regard to how I used to get very sick. Sore throats, nasal congestion, sneezing, coughing. In fact, you probably remember four or five years ago in Saturday services, I was always coughing a lot. And it became, you know, it was just always sick sometimes. So keep that in mind as well. So if the underlying problem, which is poor health, isn't dealt with, illness will return with vengeance. This is why many people are chronically sick. They are always medicating and never healing. Now this isn't just pie in the sky Christian stuff. I actually have, this is a DNA book from the college, Understanding DNA. I read it. I study it. I want to see what atheists and PhDs say about the body, but also how it corresponds with what God has created. So this isn't just, you will not, you will look at any serious study on fasting and you will see many advocates from cardiologists to neurologists to different areas. If they truly understand it, they will promote it. There's actually something, The Miracle of Fasting, I don't know exactly if that's the correct title, on Amazon Prime. And you can watch how they've cured a lot of things through water fasting. So I'm going to get to a few things here. Here's the takeaways. Pray for direction and strength. Seek God first. So I'm sure most people are like, okay, what do I do? I'm excited about this. I want to do this. You have to pray for direction and strength. You seek God first. Because seek Him, and everything else will fall in place. If you don't, then all you are on is a diet. That's what's happened. When we put the spiritual on the back burner, and it's all about losing weight, it's all about numbers, it's all about measuring my ketones and the sticks, you know, you measure things. It's all about numbers and losing weight. We put God out of the equation, then that's all it's going to be. So Lord, I want to seek you. Would you direct me? There are so many different variations. I know people, I've got a book right now, I think it's called Hal Reese. He was a wonderful intercessor, prayer warrior during World War II. And God spoke to him. He says he felt plainly that he was just supposed to eat dinner. Only. For two years. Yeah, I put the book down. Oh God, don't call me to that. No, don't call me to that. Right? But then you'll see other people that God's put on their heart to avoid all this, especially if you have an addictive personality, get rid of sugar, get rid of caffeine, get rid of alcohol. God was impressed to get rid of everything that is addictive and just feed the body what it needs, not what it wants. So you seek God and see what he, and that's why I didn't know, and that's why the fast was hard for me because I didn't know, is this going to be a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks? I'm going to get to that in a little bit. But again, fasting is challenging because the flesh always wants to negotiate. I mean, any time I set out, like Wednesdays, I usually set out, okay, I don't want to eat today, and I did. Right? Because you'll get through it like, yeah, you're right, flesh. That's right. It's not going to hurt anything. I'll eat something healthy. You're right, flesh. Thanks for negotiating with me. And you have to make up your mind and say, okay, Lord, you want me to do this, and you set your sights on God's goal. The second thing is begin cleansing your diet and your lifestyle first. I just had a guy email us this week. He said, oh, I really blew it. I went out and had, I don't remember what it was, pizza, fast food, alcohol, Starbucks, and a huge thing of ice cream or something. The day before he starts his water-only fast. And that's the worst thing you can do. Because you want to actually have the body going into this. The best thing is to get on just plant-based initially or start to wean off, get off, take a week. Just take a week and get off sugar and caffeine and you're going to be a monster for that week. So prepare your family, prepare your people. But doesn't that show you how addictive it is? See, the withdrawals alone will show you the power of the drug. If you want to know how strong something is, try going off. So take a week, take 10 days, and say, okay, I'm going to use this time to wean off of these things. I'm going to get my body in a healthy state to fast. That's very helpful. Because usually, here's my thought, fasting usually isn't as hard as people think. It's because they're withdrawing from things that makes it hard. They're withdrawing from caffeine, they're withdrawing from nicotine, they're withdrawing from sugar. If you don't think sugar is hard to withdraw from or you don't think there's withdrawals, try having no sugar for the entire day. You will want to beat somebody up when that day's over. Because it's the body wanting that stimulant. And I don't have the numbers, I wish I would write them down. They'll be in the book, but I think it was in the 1800s. People had five, was it five teaspoons? Five teaspoons of sugar a day. Now we're up to 56 teaspoons per person. 56! And McDonald's just came out with their big, I don't know what it is, it's colored, it's this big and it has foam and stuff. I'm not even going to touch that. It has 93 grams of sugar. 24 teaspoons. So we drive through there and then we say, well Shane, I can't have too much fruit, I'm a diabetic. Well, hold on, hold on, there's a problem here with that thinking. And I saw it all the time in the gym, all the time. Shane, I can't eat that clean, I've got to watch this, I can't have fruit and this and honey, which is true, you have to be careful. But then they would go to, what's that place that has the big gulp? Yeah, and they would go and buy a big gulp, but it's Diet Pepsi. But it has aspartame, your body still thinks it's sugar, it starts assimilating it the same way and it's not only that, it's a toxin, I believe a neurotoxin. A neurotoxin is something toxic to the brain. The brain is something interesting with the brain, it's called the blood-brain barrier. Most things go in the blood that are okay, but once they get to the brain, you're in trouble. So there's a blood-brain barrier there. And that's why you have to watch things like that. Actually, that's why there's a big debate over vaccines, right? You've got formaldehyde, you've got aluminum, you've got mercury in vaccines. And again, I'm not just reading websites. I actually got a book on vaccines. What does the Center for Disease Control say about them? What's the results from polio all the way till now? What does the FDA, what does the Disease Center for, you know what it is, CDR, whatever that thing is. Those guys, yeah. What do their own studies say? What do their own research say? How do these things really affecting us? So it's not Christians checking their brains at the door. It's Christians doing research. So that's where you have a lot of problems. Number one, while I'm on this rabbit trail, the body's not designed to take a virus or a bacteria and inject it into your actual bloodstream. That's a full frontal assault, right? That's what it is. You're meant to get it in your body, in your lungs, or in your, you breathe it in, and your digestive system begins to break down that bacteria and kill it. But to actually take a virus and inject it into your bloodstream, you might want to do a little research on. Okay? I mean, I could really upset people here, so I'm going to stay calm. I've had people on Facebook me because of this topic. And all I say is do the research. That's all I say. Just look it, understand it, read it. What's it doing? And the person says, well, but there's also formaldehyde in an apple. Well, then you haven't done your homework because that formaldehyde that occurs naturally is a lot different than that. You're also not putting the formaldehyde, the mercury, the tissue of fetuses, and all these things into your blood. So it's just, just use wisdom. That's all I'm talking about. I'm going to stay away from that one. So also, if I'm abusing the temple, it will affect worship. Won't it? And I've had my struggles on all different things. You name it. But can an alcoholic truly worship? If I'm high on Vicodin and I grab a Xanax or two, can I truly worship? And again, I'm sympathetic, but I'm saying it does affect us. It does affect how we worship. So if we're taking in, I tell you what. Ask my wife. True story. If I've had donuts and coffee, she'll say, would you leave for a few hours? Why? Because you're, it's a jerk. I'm a jerk. I can't worship. I don't want to worship. I want to throw my phone. So see how it affects. The physical effects of spiritual. But in America, we want our guns, our big steak and potatoes, right, and everything else that we don't want to talk about, things like this. So number three, consume God-given food the way He created it. Okay? Consume God-given food the way He created it. That would really limit things. And I'm going to, I actually have something available in my health plan. We have copies of it if you want it as you're leaving. I don't want to give it to everybody. And then number four, lead by example. Lead by example. Do you realize most of you in this room are influencers? Right? Lead by example. And I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm trying not, on this point right now, to step on toes. It's, it's, it's, it's something I want to be careful with. But I think as parents, we really need to look at what we're allowing in our homes and having our children take. And what, what, they should not be consuming a lot of what, and I'm not going to get technical, but they should not be consuming a lot of the things that we know we shouldn't be consuming as well. Because it damages their little bodies. What you're seeing in attention deficit disorders, I've never seen more cavities in all my life. A six year old has 14 cavities? What, what's going on here? Attention deficit disorders, illnesses, all these things are related to the toxic body of these little children. So as parents, we should, and trust me, it's hard, right? It's hard. But if all you have in the pantry is good stuff, and when they open the refrigerator, why more carrots? Why more broccoli? Why apples? Guess what they'll be wanting in an hour when they're really hungry? Daddy, would you cut up some apples? I can, I'll now give my daughters carrots. And they'll eat it. Yesterday they had Krispy Kreme, right? So, but you can, you should, we have to, we should be the influencers. We should be able to, because they're going to eat bad at friends' houses or different places, and it's not about perfection, but we should be able to help our children in this area and make a difference. Yes, it's a struggle. It's a lifetime struggle. Something that's always stuck in the back of my mind as I'm working on all this, is the fact that in Jesus' time or in the Bible times, they didn't have to encounter a lot of this. The only food was, the only restrictions was gluttony and not eating like the king's meats, the king's pastries. We didn't have all this aspartame, monosodium glutamate, GMOs, additives, coloring, toxins. We've got so many different chemicals out there, and I think now in a cup of coffee that's not organic, they'll say there's up to 200 chemicals in that cup of coffee. Just Google it. Don't take my word for it. Harmful things. And so the body is so fearfully and wonderfully made that it's amazing how we can actually keep going the way we do. And the reason I want to talk about this topic is because of, thanks Mel, is to let you know that there is hope, that you can feel better, that you can do better spiritually, you can overcome more disease and different things. Here's the first question. What is fasting? Hello, right? But that question comes up, okay, what is fasting? Fasting, in the truest sense of the word, biblically speaking, when you hear of intermittent fasting, when you hear of fasting online, different things, it's the body going without any type of nourishment via food or drink. It's primarily just water. That's the type of fasting they primarily did in the Bible, except for Daniel. Daniel, he was the exception. So that's really what fasting is. Now, we like to add our little tricks in there, right? But what about juice and smoothie fasting? Well, just call it your juice feasting, it's not fasting. What about the Daniel fast? It's not the Daniel fast, it's the Daniel health care program, right? Or the Daniel healthy eating program, which, good, I recommend it. But fasting is abstaining from food and from juice, from any type of nourishment. I'm going to get into the juicing in a minute. If you have questions, again, write them down. So, here's the main question that comes up, too. Where do I start? Well, don't focus on length just yet. You're not going to start a seven-day fast tomorrow. Probably. Now, maybe people have. Maybe I should be more careful when I say that. But most people, you step out in faith, you don't focus on length just yet. You say, Lord, what do you want to do? Begin what I do with a meal or two. Have you ever tried to miss a whole meal and instead pray and read the Bible? I should throw that in there. When you miss a meal, you should spend the time with God. Miss a meal, that's when I'm going to pray. I had a whole list of things I wrote down. When I would miss a meal, when I'd feel hungry, I'd pray over all those things. And some are coming to pass, I hopefully can share later when they do. And so, just step out in faith. Don't focus on length. Try to miss a meal. Try to miss two meals. Try to go a whole day, if you can. And, of course, the question comes up, medication. What about medication? Well, that's when I also recommend medical supervision. Talk to your doctor. There are some medications that people can't stop. But most fasting experts, they actually have retreats. There's one in Santa Barbara. There's one in Puerto Rico. I've watched these things. And people, they'll actually get people off of medication and on water only. Because if you're taking medication, most people can't just do water only. They have to stay on some type of juice or something. And that's a broad term. Medication for what? Medication for high blood pressure? Well, the fasting is going to lower high blood pressure, so I wouldn't do it in conjunction with fasting. That one can be weaned off eventually probably. Statin drugs that are not healthy, not good for you, can those be weaned off of as well? Yes, they can. So it depends. But if it's type 1 diabetes, no, you can't wean off insulin because that's keeping you alive. So it depends on what it is and what the illness is and what the situation is. That's why medical advice is very important. Let me just throw that out there because people are curious. I have many doctors that are friends. I highly respect them. They are trained very well on not a prevention though. They're trained on fixing the problem. I have a toothache, root canal. I have a sore throat, give me amoxicillin. I have the tonsils and the adenoids are inflamed in a child, remove them. So they look at prescribing something to take away the pain or ease it. But health actually goes at a deeper level at what's causing it. So you fix the cause of the problem. You don't just put a band-aid on it. And a lot of physicians are not, they'll tell you they're not well trained in health and area. My physician locally that I love, we go to my, I think you're taking my daughter tomorrow. A lot of them are overweight. They don't eat well. A cardiologist, I've had to start going to a cardiologist from when I was 24 because I had something called myopericarditis. It's an inflammation of the heart muscle because of strep throat. So strep throat went from here to here. It wasn't good. Almost, I wouldn't be up here. And I didn't even know if I was good with the Lord. So that was a scary time. So I still see them once in a while. But they are, they're overweight. They don't know really much. And when it comes to health and nutrition, and I want to ask him, hey over your coffee pot there in the waiting room, why does it say do not have before a stress test? Hello? I mean, well Shane, they can't have it before a stress test because it elevates their, it's a central nervous stimulant. They'll get their heart rate up. It's not good for them when they're under stress. Isn't life stressful? I'm in a stress test every day. But it just tells you. They don't understand. And I don't want to be too repetitive here, but many of you remember I went to see my doctor two years ago. I told you this. And he started pulling out high blood pressure medication. He said, here Shane, you got to take this and you got to take this. And I said, hold on a minute. Did she use the big cuff for men when she measured my blood pressure? And he goes, oh, I don't know. Maybe not. So he did it. He goes, oh, you're fine. You're fine. You don't need it. Oh, okay. Thank you for telling me that. And so you just have to use wisdom because we love the medical industry, but they are not health conscious. Their focus is on fixing and relieving the issue right now. How many times do type two diabetes patients are prescribed more insulin instead of what really would help get them in shape and take that? I've seen many people get off medication. There's a good book, the complete book on fasting by Dr. Fung, I think is the complete guide on fasting. He's not a Christian. He talks about atheism and he recommends coffee. So I have those three things against him. But it's very, well, let me just, another rabbit trail. The reason people recommend coffee even during fasting is because they themselves are addicted and they don't want to stop it. That's what I've come to find out. So anyway, that's a good book. It talks about how fasting can get rid of these things. High blood pressure medication. They're given all these medications. Why not lose the weight that's causing it? Why not stop eating the food and the fuel that's causing it? Why don't we look at the underlying, because all we're doing is we're getting fatter and sicker and there's more illness. Nobody has answers. Now kids are getting sicker. Now kids are, who has the answers? Not the medical industry often. Now again, we go to them. We look to them sometimes. We're not, you don't check our brains at the door, but you have to compare. What is wisdom? I told you last, I think a while back, that my daughter was having a very time sleeping. It was hard. She'd wake up almost not breathing. I'm like, oh, this is terrible. So we took her to an ears, nose, and throat specialist. They said, oh, her adenoids and her tonsils are huge. They've got to come out. And he, this guy scared the, you know what out of me. He said, you see this? He's looking. He goes, if one to 10, 10 is worse, she's like a 12. He goes, you need to schedule. We need to schedule surgery. I think it was in LA. And I'm like, okay, hold on. Wait a minute. Adenoids and tonsils. I mean, knowing with the health background that those actually help in immunization and the body's immune system. The God has given us those for that reason. But of course her, her health's on the line. I mean, I'm not going to jeopardize that. So I went home and prayed about it and a little research. And wouldn't you know it? When we say no to sugar, no to all that junk, no to this. No, I mean, no, no, no. You're going to a friend's house, you're eating carrots, right? And just got their body completely healthy. Also read the power of sleep, right? The deep sleep. So I would take her on drives around one o'clock. She'd take a nap and let the body. And within a week, she's breathing quietly. Everything's fine. But I almost scheduled that week's major surgery. Now, but see, there's a time and place for that. Because I don't want the emails going, you shouldn't do. Use wisdom. There's a time and place for surgery, right? There's a time and a place. But it's not the first resort. It's the last resort. And I hate to tell you this, but the more you get on antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, amoxicillin, your body will then become resistant. And you're eating beef that has full of antibiotics. Your body's getting resistant. That's why they're, you see these on WebMD and these different things. All these strains, we don't know how to stop it. This is going crazy. Antibiotics aren't working anymore. We need to, I think, is it Cipro, Tony? C-I-P-R, Cipro? A very, a very strong antibiotic that's out there that has a lot of side effects. So just do research. It's wisdom. And we have to use wisdom in this area. So what is fasting? Where do I start? Why should I fast? One lady asked me, why should I fast? How is starving beneficial? That's a good question though, right? Here's what you have to remember about starving. God created us. You're actually not starving for a long time. Your body actually switches from burning glycogen, which is glucose from carbohydrates. It's stored in your liver and it's stored in your, yeah, your liver and your muscle. It's about, I don't know, 400 grams, let's say, of carbohydrates. So that's stored and you burn it throughout the day. You eat more, right? You burn it, you eat more. But if you're not burning it, where's it going? Right, it's being stored and stored and stored. So fasting stops that fuel source and the body begins to now switch and begin to burn, it's called adipose tissue, begin to burn your fat as fuel. And if you take samples in your urine, I know it's weird, but you could do it. There's stuff you buy at the drugstore. It'll tell you what your ketone level is. If it's small, if it's medium, and ketones are fats being burned and utilized as fuel and you can measure that. Okay, now my body's in fat burning fuel mode and it can stay there for a while. There was a guy, I think he weighed 450 pounds. He fasted 382 days water only. YouTube, they've got the, I think it was the Scotland University. Can you imagine going, and he got down to 180, I think, and then came back up to 195 and died at 90 years old, if I remember correctly. A year. I think they gave him supplementation though. Just vitamins, minerals, different things. But the body, that's what we're doing. Fasting is not starving. You're actually not starving. You're burning the stored fuel like we were designed. But it's so hard because we've been conditioned for the glucose and the glucose is often the addictive stuff, right? Give me the Captain Crunch. Give me the vegan cookie with 60 grams of sugar. Give me the chocolate with peanut butter. Give me the pasta and you're full of the carbohydrates. So it's not starving. So why is it beneficial? Well, spiritually it's very beneficial because you are starving the fleshly appetites. Your appetites, your lust for certain things will diminish during fasting. Every type of lust you can think of is minimized. That's why it's so difficult because the flesh is literally screaming and we go into it detoxing and withdrawing from harmful chemicals thinking it's the fasting that's killing me. No, it's usually detox from the harmful things. Now, also though you should remember that it is a process. The first two or three days it's hard. I'm just telling you the truth. And you have to be busy. I kept a little bit busy. I would pray. I would do things. But you're not always on a spiritual high. You're actually... I wasn't on it the first week. Nope. Why? Because bad moods come in, right? I'm jonesing. I'm getting angry. I'm getting upset. I'm wanting my high. I'm wanting my sugar. And you're moody. You're upset. You're lethargic. You're tired. Why would I do that? Because of the end result not the beginning. But once you get through about three or four days believe it or not I would cook beef for them and pasta and make dinner for them and go to my office. I could eat. Don't get me wrong. But it's not like you get hungrier and hungrier and hungrier and you just explode by day four. Usually by day four your hunger has subsided. Because now your body is burning a clean energy source. And actually your body your brain your fat is a very clean energy source. Have you ever heard of essential fatty acids? Essential amino acids? Have you ever heard of essential carbohydrates? There's no such thing. Right Tony? He told me this yesterday too. There's no such thing. Because your body was designed to burn that stored energy that fat. It's ketones. The fat breaks down. So it's not starving. You actually don't starve for quite a while. Most people you will probably will never feel real hunger return. I've read that it takes sometimes 30 days, 40 days. And then real hunger returns. And when you know it returns your body knows and it's time to eat. Because now it's gonna start burning your muscle and your vital organs for fuel. And that's when you get into starvation mode. You see the kids on TV in Africa and these things just makes me just breaks my heart that they are literally starving. But we don't reach that usually in America. See the thing about food is interesting. Food first and foremost is for fuel and to steward it wisely and then enjoyment comes later. But what do we do in America? It's the enjoyment and the other things are on the back burner. You show me in the Bible where food the primary reason for fuel or for food is for fellowship and eating around the table and coming together all the time. The whole reason initially was to fuel the body. And then to be good stewards of it not to be gluttonous and different things and then also have it to be an enjoyment to give thanks for the things that God has made. So how long should I fast? I'm gonna have to go pretty quickly or this is gonna be a while. How long should I fast? Well if we're talking about for health reasons ideally one should fast as long as it takes to heal or detox. The goal determines the length. So if I'm fasting for something if there's a disease or an illness there's medical supervision most fasting retreats that I look at online different things there are at least three weeks to a month. Can you believe that? Staying there for three weeks to a month with water only? But see the ailment determined the length. How sick they were. I mean if you've got multiple sclerosis or cancer it's going to probably be a longer time. Now for spiritual reasons that's why you take it to the Lord. You pray and you ask for direction and you follow through. And now also in this area of how long you should fast I'm not gonna tell you what two days or three days. Take it to the Lord. Start with something small and work up to bigger things. But also for those who are going to go long you have to remember the refeeding phase. Oh, oh. This is bad news if you're not ready. Refeeding will mess you up if you're not prepared. Because everybody's okay it's been a week it's been a week I'm going to In-N-Out Burger that's the worst thing you can do because you will get sick. People have died from refeeding the wrong way. They just and I tried I was pretty good I had a lot of vegetables and then I went okay I need to leave the kitchen because this is not gonna be good. Because once you stimulate that desire again after nine, ten days of water and I start to eat again oh, mamacita. Right? That's what they say in Mexico. And it's oh it's just like what is this? I'm going to attack everything in the kitchen. But it's a good picture of how appetite works. See it's suppressed. It's suppressed. Everything all types of appetites I don't want coffee anymore I don't want sugar. Suppressed. But once you feel it again I had to leave the house honestly. And I came back had some more had some more oh this is and I got an upset stomach on fruit and vegetables and nuts. How is that possible? Because too much. Too much. It's actually been said and I believe it now that refeeding for a few days is actually harder than the fasting itself. Because how do you eat a couple oranges and then you stop for three hours? Have a papaya and stop for three more hours. You're using wisdom there. Now I've talked about this before I mean I've prayed about this and I don't know the answer I don't know how they broke fast back then. How did Moses break a 40 day fast? Or Elisha? We don't know because it doesn't tell us how they did it. But now we know to use wisdom. I'm sure they knew but their diets were much more cleaner in my opinion back then so maybe it wasn't as hard. How do I get back on track if I fall? Well just like children we are growing in our walk with the Lord. Infants learning to walk don't quit. When they fall they get back up. Eventually you will walk where you used to fall. So how do I get back on track? I've blown it. You get back up and you start walking forward. All my fasts just about I've blown it. I mean this one this 21 day this 22 day I started three days right? Three days 1,200 calories got my diet real clean and then I went four days water I was doing great and then wouldn't you know it the tooth ache from hell hit right there upper one. I remember oh my so am I going to cave in get on amoxicillin get a root canal and start eating again. It was a very hard time. So I had for a few days I had a little bit of food until I figured out what I was going to do so am I going to blow it? No I'm not going to blow it. So I got back on track started fasting again water only as of now the pain's gone everything's gone I have a dentist appointment tomorrow see I go to the doctor and and and I think they're just doing a checkup or something but I'm not going to do anything until I need to but I'm not naive I know cavities I've seen cavities definitely repair themselves because the enamel that has been ripped away because of bad diet can be rebuilt again the vitamins and the minerals the tooth can be restored just like a bone when you break your bone how does your bone repair itself? Why is the tooth any different? Now root canals are a different monster though they're deeper there's more damage done but I'm just in a holding pattern for now trying to to just wait on God many of you know the dangers of root canals right you have a dead tooth stuck in your mouth and it can bring in a lot of toxic things I have two so there's not much I'm doing about it I'm not going to pull them out but all the more reason to fast and eat healthy right I mean I've got I've got I know people they're like they think that the chemtrails over over California all these chemicals are falling right chemtrails root canals all I'm just like well all the more reason to fast and take care of your body then but that's just an excuse for them to go to a burger a Burger King but why we should be proactive not reactive so here's the biggie I'm not going to stay too long here you guys heard me talk about this can I drink coffee tea or soft drinks when fasting you want me to say yes really bad don't you right now you know the answer come on no if you want two good books they're both they're not Christian books the truth about caffeine and then another one is caffeine blues wake up to the hidden danger of America's number one drug so read those if you want more information but in a nutshell those who are addicted to coffee recommend coffee during a fast I think that's a bad idea because not only you letting in all these chemicals all these things into your body into your heart into your blood stream you're fasting it's actually pretty dangerous to fast on water only and stick with caffeine not only that it's a central nervous stimulant so your heart's working harder and harder and harder so you're going to fast from nothing just have water and then have a lot of caffeine caffeine coffee right so it just doesn't work the whole point is detox and to rest and to slow down and to give your digestive tract a break and to calm your heart and to remove toxins why are you putting in something that is going to actually counteract all of that and there are people who they just can't give that up so I and here's here's my struggle this is actually funny for the first I think couple weeks was it two weeks first two weeks of the fast guess what I kept having coffee yeah I thought God was going to bless my fast even though yeah I know I know you want me off of this addictive thing but I'm going to stick with it and you're still going to honor my prayers because I'm fasting no you have to start with what you know to be the first thing God wants you to work on that's usually the addictions that's usually the addictions because how are we going to fast and hold on to our addiction right does that doesn't make a lot of sense because that's the whole point of fasting is to get rid of the addiction and to get rid of the flesh having the final say also water is so crucial to health from removing toxins to hydrating every cell it's a vital resource and coffee is a diuretic you know what that is right it actually pulls out the water from the cells so always just remember that about about water and coffee and try to substitute one for the other that's why I said take a week or two to wean off can you imagine okay I'm stopping everything tomorrow you would be a mess we'd have to check you in somewhere throw away the key I'm going to read you know what the diagnostic and statistical manual is it's a big manual that lists all the mental disorders well it lists caffeine related disorders in it anything over 500 milligrams is is is is they believe causes mental disorders so they talk about caffeine intoxication caffeine induced anxiety disorder caffeine induced sleep disorder all of these lead to angry outbursts severe anxiety and extreme irritability even psychologists know who aren't Christians that's why we call it the Christian crack right it's the Christian crack so anyway since caffeine runs I know everybody's getting convicted right now it's okay since caffeine runs along the same biochemical pathways in the brain as cocaine opium opium and amphetamines quitting can be a nightmare what they mean by the same biochemical pathways is there's something it's serotonin it it it it sends this ah right I can just smell it in the morning it was so bad for me I would start at night start being getting ready for the morning cup like is it 4 a.m. yet is it 4 a.m. yet I could smell it before it's even brewing my mind the day before is ready for the morning addiction it was and it was really hard getting off so I would just encourage you to do what you can in that area what about health drinks when I'm taking fasting well again what is fasting water only many people like to drink 2 or 3 kibuchas a day kibucha has a slight alcohol content I can feel it on an empty stomach when I used to have those it's got sugar it's got caffeine so you can but fasting is really fasting from all those things what about the great La Croix drinks no calories right no calories and natural flavoring well number 1 we don't know where they got their water number 2 you don't know if the aluminum is seeping in and you don't know where they got their natural flavor so that's just my 2 cents I told you it would be a really convicting message so stick with water water now those drinks La Croix I probably had 3 or 4 in a fast because I'm like ok it's either this or I'm going to Tutti Frutti yogurt right so it takes the edge off a little bit so I'm not giving you permission to indulge I'm just telling you that you're truly up there to not master this perfectly just water only yeah for 21 days why can't you do it I didn't even smell food I wasn't tempted what's wrong with you but see it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's and tons of sugar, the benefit is many people lose weight, they look healthier, they do better, so it's definitely work sometimes, but often when they come off, there's a sugar problem. They've overworked the pancreas and the insulin releases, that's a whole nother topic, but there's just too much sugar. What about orange juice? Well, if you get orange juice at a store, you are basically drinking sugar water. How can you say that? Well, let me tell you I can say that. It's pasteurized, you know what that means? It's heated up so everything's killed, that means even the good stuff's killed, number one. Number two is when you juice, you remove what they call cofactors. You remove enzymes, you remove very important fiber, the fiber that helps with the digestion. Did God create an orange so we could just squish it out and drink the juice? Or did he create it so you take the pectin from an apple, you take the fiber, you take the enzymes, you take all the cofactors in the whole fruit? So personally, I don't juice too much. I'm a fan of the whole orange, not the juice from 50 oranges because we weren't designed that way and that's a lot of juice. There's so many rabbit trails, just tell me if I'm going too long. You've all heard of the glycemic index probably, many of you, some of you. If I take an orange, when I eat that orange, that juice of that orange along with the fiber and the pulp and all the things makes the release of sugar, insulin, the glycogen, it slows it down because it's got all of that to help in the digestion of the juice. So it's a low on the glycemic index compared to full-on juice. In other words, if I take a drink of juice, pancreas, insulin, boom, sugar levels, everything goes sporadic because it's just too much. But if you take an apple, the fiber, the pectin slows down the absorption rate of the juice and it enters the bloodstream at a much more natural level. That's why I would rather have an apple than a whole bunch of apple juice. And I know it's, I'd rather have an orange juice at the store than a Dr. Pepper, don't get me wrong, but if you're grabbing the orange juice, you're not gonna get a lot of the vitamins and different things. Now, I won't get on another rabbit trail here, but sugar, I forgot to say this about sugar. Sugar actually competes with your cells for the uptake of vitamin C. So when your cell wants the vitamin C, your sugar will come in there and bind to the cell instead and you won't have that vitamin C. So if we're getting a lot of sugar, a lot of the orange juice, but the vitamin C, but if that sugar, that fructose is causing a problem there and not allowing the cell to bind to the vitamin C, there could be an issue there. So I know it's maybe frustrating for some people, but that's just my take on it. I wouldn't juice too much. The benefits are good if you wanna start out, if you're on medication. I still encourage it, but it's not fasting. Because these guys I watch, they're like, and you make sure when you're juice fasting, you drink as much juice as you can. I'm like, that's not fasting. That's keeping the body in a constant state of sugar. Right, unless you can drink all vegetables. Have you ever tried that? Bad, bad stuff. But it's good, it's healthy. So eat the whole, the whole beet. Eat the whole celery when you can, versus juicing. But if you need to juice fast, you want to do one, go for it, it is hard and there's benefits of course, but it's not fasting. So what do I eat when I stop fasting? Well, the longer the fast, the more careful one must be when refeeding. If somebody goes three weeks or four weeks, they're gonna take about a week just to refeed correctly. Did you catch that? You can't just have some fruit one day and then go pay a pizza the next. You'll do some damage. So you have to factor into your fasting and refeeding. And my thought is, fasting is a wonderful opportunity to begin a new beginning. Why go back to the same stuff that caused the problem? So many people go, oh, I can finally start having coffee now and my favorite donut and I can stop by Carl's Jr. and make, what was the point of fasting? See, fasting complements a healthy lifestyle. It doesn't take the place of it. Just like the person who thinks they can take a pill to fix their diet problems. So fasting should encourage healthy eating after that because we're taking care of this gift God has given us. So who shouldn't fast? Well, of course, pregnant women, nursing moms, and those who are very sick and ill and kind of wet. You think of this person who already look like they're very skinny because of maybe a debilitating disease. You think of the people who are in the concentration camp. You look at that kind of image. That kind of fasting is not good for those type of people. That's why, again, medical supervision is important. Somebody came up to me recently and said, kids shouldn't fast either. And I said, well, it's true, but if a child, I mean, my daughter, 12 years old, wanted to fast for a day, so I let her. I mean, she's not gonna die. Zachary probably benefits to that. And the problem is, kids aren't underfed today. Come on, they're overfed. And if they're not overfed, then they're malnourished because they're not getting all the vitamins and minerals and different things. How many kids truly get a couple carrots, a couple apples versus Skittles, Pop-Tarts, and Dr. Pepper? I mean, that's normally what is being given to children. So I don't think kids should fast, but I don't think we have to force feed them. When my kids, it's funny, I don't know if I should tell them this, but I will. When we had our arguments in the past, right? Well, the kids are hungry and they need to eat. They don't need to eat. They don't need to eat. They're not gonna die. They can go a couple hours without food, right? And when they're ready to eat, they'll finally have that apple. Or they'll finally have that carrot, right? So I'm not quick on kids gotta eat every three hours. Let them eat when there's genuine hunger, when they need to eat. I think we're sometimes feeding too much. The three square meals a day, where did that come from? I mean, have you ever heard of Herschel Walker, the football player? He eats one big meal at night. Big, stocky guy. I know athletes that'll eat two meals, two o'clock and six o'clock. Top gymnast in the country, that's it. We can run on a lot less fuel than we're giving our body. A lot less fuel. We don't need to keep feeding it as much as we are. So the next question, can I tell others I'm fasting? Well, Matthew 6.18 says we should not appear to be fasting. But I think you can tell people if the heart's right, hey, by the way, spouse, I'm not gonna be eating or different things. Because how would we know that Jesus fasted if he didn't tell us? But it's a heart issue. If we're going around, hey, I'm fasting 10 days, look at me, look at me, look at me, you just had your reward right there. So we should, I usually don't tell people unless it's a corporate fast with the church. Most of you don't know when I am for that very reason. And when people tell you, you look skinny, are you sick? Why are you starving yourself? Here's what you say, I'm not starving myself, I'm feeding my spirit, I'm recapturing my health, and I'm feeling good in the process. At least a half dozen people in the last month said, you're looking skinny. You need to gain some weight back. What's wrong with you? I'm like, 195 pounds is not skinny. How is that skinny? But see, it's our concept of what we think is healthy. The big Oklahoma Schooners football player, that's healthy, but not the guy who can run 10 miles, that's not, he's not, he must be dying shortly. And we know, research shows that carrying around too much extra weight is detrimental to your health. Not only that, do you know where majority of the toxins reside? Oh, it's out there, you all know, huh? We know, fat cells, that's where they reside. So for example, you say somebody gets a vaccine shot of the influenza, depending on what the strain is or the bacteria, what they use, it's minute little things, it can go actually go into your fat and hang out there for a while, a month, a year, and then something could trigger that, it's released and you get sick and you can't, you don't correlate it back to the shot. Now I'm not saying don't do that, I'm saying do your research, look into it. The kids today are giving way too many shots. I mean, when I was growing up, it was like four, five, six, whatever, now it's like 39, by the time they're 12. Are you kidding me? They need shots for everything they might not ever be exposed to. So just be careful, do your research, that's all I'm saying, people shouldn't get mad at this, they should do their research and look at how the body works. So the next question, can I tell others I'm fasting? We answered that. Oh, it's often those who stop by McDonald's, Starbucks, and other places who feel the need to lecture us on fasting. You'll see that, right? Those who fast don't lecture you, it's those who, and that's why you don't tell people, because you're not gonna get a lot of positive feedback. So when should I fast, Shane? Okay, I want to, when should I? Well, when the Lord leads you, there will be conviction. Number two, when you're feeling spiritually drained. Jesus said when you fast, so it tells us we are to fast. Before taking on a huge task or when making an important decision. Number four, when feeling sick, tired, or sluggish, or if you need to lose weight, it's a wonderful way to do that. Number five, I think a person should fast one day a week. I think if you just, hey, today I'm just gonna rest, just drink water. If you get into a pattern of that, it's not hard. Now I can go 24 hours and it doesn't really, I mean, yeah, it'd be nice to eat, but it's not like five years ago I was gonna hit somebody. Right, I was gonna, I had to stop anywhere. But the body can get conditioned, and I think it's good for the body to rest. So that's when you should do it. Let me see how I'm doing here. Let's see, it's M30, uh-oh. How you fast is just as important as when you fast, so read Isaiah 58. You can't fast from food and still feed sin and expect spiritual growth. The funny thing is people think I used to, I've always been healthy, I've always focused on health. Actually, I didn't. My mother did a great job of promoting health, but once I left the home, what was it? Alcohol and fast food. Right, cinnamon roll and coffee was breakfast, and Taco Bell was lunch. So my past may someday catch up with me, okay? So I don't wanna ever have something, and people say, oh, see, see, health doesn't pay off. No, my 30 years of hell, living like hell, is probably what caught up to me. And we all die at some point. So it's not about utopia, it's not about perfect health. It's not trying to live 180 years old. It's about glorifying God in what we do. So let me talk about this. This is my 22-day fast that happened. Let me tell you about an analogy first that you might remember from some time ago. If you ever to lose a child in the mall, right? You're gonna lose a child in the mall, and you're, but actually, let me back up. You're going to eat, now it sets the stage. You're going to eat, and then you have your three-year-old, and you're going to eat, and you realize the three-year-old isn't with you. Are you still gonna go eat? No, but some of you are saying yes. What's wrong with you? No, of course you're not, because why? The hunger to find your child, the desire to find your child is greater than your desire for food. That's all fasting is. So the first week, I already explained this to you. I ate a very clean diet the first few days, went into water only, and then had the toothache, dealt with that. And then by week two, my weight had dropped to about six pounds, and the toothache hit. But I found that worship was, I started crying during worship. The word of God came alive. Prayer requests, I wanted to pray with boldness, and I could change, I could feel the spiritual results of fasting and starving the body. But again, many Christians are surprised that they are not on a constant spiritual high when fasting. If somebody's just gonna fast forward to this last message, I would encourage you to listen to both of them if you share this with others, because there's so much other stuff prior to this. So you're not gonna be on a constant spiritual high, and that's why we quit, many people quit. Shane, I don't feel good, this isn't working, that's not what you told me about. This doesn't feel beneficial, I feel like I'm sick, I'm not closer to God, I'm farther away from God. Guess what, that's normal. That's called feelings. I feel moody, I feel hungry, I feel grumpy. I don't wanna be around God, that is normal to go through, and I felt that up until the second week. Then week three, by week three, I had dropped eight more pounds, I think I dropped 15 pounds over the whole 22-day process, and I'm not focusing on weight, I don't think people should focus on weight, I'm only listing it so people can see the effects of fasting and the question comes up on this, what about, I'm skinny, I can't fast. I've seen, there's tons of studies of people fasting, yeah, they lost weight, but after the fast, they actually gained back more weight and a healthy weight because the body cleaned itself and detoxed. Because being skinny and malnourished can be a sign of toxic burden as well. So yeah, you might fast, lose some weight, you don't want to, but in the end result, you will gain some back and even more. So this is when I, week three was when I finally got off coffee, I dropped another eight pounds, I was going into nine days, water only. It's when I was given the antibiotics to take, but I opted not to take those, and again, I don't wanna explain all that, but by the end of this week, the pain was gone in my tooth, and although I don't know what the future holds, at least everything was starting to feel better. And by this third week, water only, I wasn't that hungry, I could've definitely eaten, but I was strong, I felt satisfied, I was preaching, many of you didn't know it, but I was preaching on this ninth day, about two weeks ago, three weeks ago or so, and when you eat, oh, I'm sorry, I should've said this, after you start eating again, you will gain weight back, don't freak out, that's the whole idea. So I've lost 15, right, in this whole thing, I've gained back about eight of that, from about right in the middle. That's kind of what the goal should be, and again, it's not about weight, I'm just telling you how the body works. Now remember, fasting is not starving, hunger does not keep increasing every day. And some people say that you should stay busy, others say rest, I'm a proponent of rest, so I had a lot of rest, as much as I could, but I also tried to stay busy. If it was a matter of caving in, like I come home and whoo, there's that organic beef from Costco, thank you, Morgan, I'm leaving for a couple hours. Right, so I would stay busy, because that was going to knock me off course. So I did that, I stayed busy, but I rested as much as I could. At one point in the fast, I heard that magnesium citrate was good for cleaning the intestinal tract, thank you, Tony, but I ended up getting sick on it, like I felt really sick, it wasn't good, so I ate, I had a cup of raw, a cup of milk, of almond milk and a few nuts, and I felt better right after that. And again, a perfectionist would say, see, see, you messed up? Well, I'm not gonna let that little 300 calories mess me up, and I'd actually preach in the morning as well, because we had a luncheon, or the afternoon. So by then, it's coming to the end of the fast, let me see where the point was, oh yeah, and then I finally broke the fast on the 22nd day, here's how I knew, as I was driving right over that hill, I had tremendous peace, that it's over. It's over, I felt great, I'm like, God, I can start eating again, oh my Lord. I texted Morgan, I was so happy. I was so happy looking forward to vegetables and hummus, that's how happy I was. But I felt a sense of accomplishment, there was great peace, I'm done. And I think that God will show you when you're done with the fast, you don't have to push and push and push. So again, I went 14 days of water, out of 22 days, nine of those were in a row, I dropped about 15 pounds. And I thought of Herbert Shelton's quote at this point. He said, when a man learns his limitations in food consumption, and he respects these, he will remain well. If he returns to coffee, tobacco, alcohol, poison soft drinks, and overworks, and has late hours, unventilated bedrooms, and slothful living, and overeating, he will cause the disease to return. He's wrote an incredible book, Herbert Shelton, it was one of the most recognized fasting books, and I can get the title for you, I don't have it on hand. I think even 50 years ago, it was a very good, it's a medical book, see, medical books. It's not pie in the sky stuff, this is doctors and different people. So here's what I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna leave you with these seven points that I learned from this, what I do now. The less we eat, the better. The less we eat, the better. Try to stop when satisfied rather than full, amen? That's a hard one though, right? Because we want more and more, so just stop when satisfied. Number two, I personally lean toward a plant-based, whole foods approach because of the effects on the body. But I will have a little bit of raw dairy or organic meat, or eggs, organic eggs now and then. I'm not an advocate of one way or the other. But I do know this, that the cost of, have you ever priced raw dairy or organic meat? I mean, not everybody can afford that every day. So I would rather err on the side of a lot of vegetables and plant-based foods and organic in that area because it's still cheaper than meat. But I don't, I'm not against meat. Here's why, in 1 Timothy 4, 3, 4, Paul said, in the last days deceiving spirits will command people to abstain from certain foods, foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving. So if God in Genesis says, now I've given you all the things to eat, including meat, that I believe in moderation, I believe it has to be clean. You see people in the Himalayas eating raw dairy and meat and living to be long. You see people in other villages and tribes that are all plant-based, no cavities in their teeth, live to be 120, working still at 100 years old. So you have both. The key is, I think, with forks over knives, paleo, ketogenic diet, all these different things is they get people on clean, God-given food. That's why they succeed. But I don't believe, because if I say, yeah, you should eat meat, well then here comes sausage in the morning, here comes bacon on my BLT, here comes a whole bunch of chicken and a steak later. That's way too much. I'm talking about four ounces of meat a day is what I would have the size of a fist, or fish, or some eggs. So it's moderation, be careful in this area. But the ketogenic diet that's really popular has benefits as well. It's high meat, high dairy, high fats, and low carbohydrates to get the body in that fat-burning state. I would just encourage you to research that. People say it's too expensive, right? Well, so is addiction, poor health, and illness. And this cracks me up, because I see people spend at least $200 a month on Starbucks, right? Or this. I can save you all your money right there in your addiction. You stop your addiction, you'll have money for good food. Think about it. Starbucks, and we stop to get our candy bar. There's five, six bucks right there. And then Burger King, McDonald's, so we spend $20, $30 a day, we have the money. It's just about prioritizing. So I've got all this written down if you want. It's a lot more, there's a lot more to it, like what I would eat for lunch or dinner, different things, so Susie has that. If you want it, I'm just giving it to you to help. I don't want to get obsessive about it, but if people want, well, what about this, what about this? So I'm just doing it to help. Of course, number three, I avoid sugar if possible, except for yesterday, I didn't. Today, I don't think I did either, maybe. So, but you avoid it when possible. You consume more good fats. Remember, essential fatty acids, omega-3s, omega-6s, the reason they're called essential is your body actually needs them. So these low-fat diets, you gotta be careful because your body needs good avocados, nuts, certain types of oils, coconut, and different things. Consider intermittent fasting when possible. That's going maybe 16 hours without eating, letting the body cleanse itself. But number five, spiritual health is the priority. It sets the stage for the rest of the day. Begin with spiritual health and end with spiritual health. They are the bookmarks, and then the eating goes in between. And then have the right perspective. It's not about a perfect physique. It's about what goes on in the inside. Listen, I gave up my goal for having abs a long time ago. Everything that was up here is now down here. It's just, but the goal is, the goal is what's going on in the inside of the body is more important than the outside. I used to supervise 150 personal trainers, and most of them stopped by Taco Bell, they shot up steroids, and they got drunk on the weekends. But they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? A lot of genetics, I think, played a lot in that as well. So did testosterone, propionate, ethanate, and ciponate, right there. They're injecting a lot of things. So it's really about what's going on inside. As you move forward, number seven, the final thing, don't allow a step back to become a setback. Very few people eat perfectly. However, they learn to make more right decisions than wrong ones, and they eventually develop a healthier, more energetic lifestyle. The only difference, I heard this this week, did you know the only difference between a white belt and karate and a black belt? The only difference is the black belt never gave up. Isn't that true? That's the only difference. Only difference. So that was the main gist of that final message, it was the shortest one. I would encourage you to go back and listen to the other two, but I'm gonna see if there's any, Susie, you wanna text any messages? If there's any questions. If not, if there's a quick question, I can answer it. You know, if you ask me it, I can answer it, I just have to repeat it because there's no microphone, it has to be a very quick, a very quick question, kind of in a nutshell. Anyone have a quick one, based on everything we just talked about? Throw up your hand and I will answer it. No questions? I did a good job then. Rick Carr. Normal diet. That's a good question. Normal diet, how much protein do I eat? It's so hard because a person, it depends on, and I hate to throw out things because a person does that. Like for example, if I don't eat a lot of carbohydrates, when I was in construction, I had to eat a lot of carbohydrates because I was burning that fuel. And if you're exercising, you're working out, the protein needs are gonna be higher. If you're a man, what's your weight, what are you trying to accomplish? But personally, I'll probably try to take in 30, 40% protein and 30% fat, 30% carbohydrates. I know people don't always agree. But I don't weigh things on a scale, I don't look at the percentage. I just try to eat what's God given, how God made it, and that usually doesn't involve chips and crackers. But I have chips and crackers. But it's about making more right choices than wrong choices. So, does that answer your question? Okay, anybody else? Okay, you first. Sugar, yes, good point. Well, that's a good point on giving it, what do you do with sugar? What I'm talking about sugar is, what I'm talking about is refined sugar. Something like honey, God created, you have all the enzymes, you have the perfect, actually, they say that milk, raw milk and honey are the perfect foods. Funny, we read in the Bible, I'm gonna give you a land flowing with milk and honey. So, I'm not against honey in the right forms. I mean, in the right forms. But, I mean, you can research honey, sometimes they cut it. I don't know if you know what cut it means. It means they put a whole bunch of junk in it that's not good. If you have to go for dark, organic, maybe local. But I would do honey and also fruit. I'll eat a pound of fruit easily. Papayas, strawberries, berries. Unless I'm doing like a ketogenic approach. And if you guys have questions, Tony's gonna be available too. He knows a lot more actually on this than I do. It's more of a ketogenic approach where you limit fruit, you limit carbohydrates because you want your body to be in a fat burning mode. So, if I'm taking a lot of fruit, that's gonna be fructose, that's gonna be my energy. It's not gonna go to the fat as fuel. But sometimes I don't think Christians need to worry too much about, this is more fun for the numbers guys. But as Christians, I think we just need to eat what God has given us. And moderation is really a biblical principle. Do things moderately. So, if a person's having tons of strawberries, a whole bunch of orange juice, and tons of papaya, watermelon, pineapple, they might be taking in a lot more sugar than they should. So, refined sugar is where all the good things are stripped away from it. And it's refined and processed in a factory. And then it's, I think there's as of, I don't want to misquote, but there's about 80 different names right now for sugar. 80 different names. If you look at the syrups, this, the syrups, that. So, I would stick with honey, organic honey, and fruit, even fructose. You know, and it can be altered though too. So, it's just being careful. But yeah, you can enjoy those things God's given to us for enjoyment. Go ahead. How do I feel about decaf coffee and tea? That's a good question. Well, it depends on how they are decaffeinated. Some of the times decaffeination occurs through chemical processing. So, you have to make sure that it's done through water decaffeination. But if you can get decaf, organic coffee, then they remove a lot of the chemicals if it's done through water processing. Because see, they use chemicals to make it decaffeinate, and then you have the chemicals in the coffee. And coffee and tea are sprayed with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, sometimes seven different types of pesticides that leave from the tea or those coffee beans go directly into your cup. They're not washed. So, we're taking a lot of those in. So, personally, me having a decaf coffee is like me having an old duels beer. It'll stimulate that desire for it. But I think that's a much wiser choice. If you could get organic decaf coffee, I actually have organic decaf green tea. I mean, I don't want to make life miserable. Come on, guys, you know. Organic black tea as well, but I would look at how they make the, how they decaffeinate it, make sure it's, I forget what it's called, water cooled or water something, water filtered, and then make sure it's organic because you're avoiding all the chemicals. I think the last I read, blueberries, blueberries from wherever you get them have seven different types of pesticides sprayed on them. So, washing them over water isn't always gonna do it. Personally, I know this might be gross, but I'd rather just flick a little worm off my apple, right, from the tree, than have tons of chemicals sprayed on it, a wax where you can't even get to it, and all the apples look exactly the same. What does that mean? That's GMO, that's genetically modified organisms where these things have been modified. Your carrots should look funny. A tomato should be out of shape. I mean, that's how God creates. Have you ever had organic fruit from a tree? Oh, cherry trees, I mean, that's how God created it. So, it's good, it should be enjoyed, but I think we just have to start using a lot more wisdom. Let me see if, oh, I got a text here for a question. Oh, gosh, there's a lot here. You guys are putting, if you need to leave, I understand. I'm just gonna let the camera roll. 15-year-old suffers from migraines when missing a meal. She is conflicted about fasting message. What should you tell her? You know what, that's a really good question because I would have to, or she could actually talk to Tony. You have to look at what the current diet consists of because are the migraine, are the headaches being caused because when you stop food, you're stopping also the chemicals that your body's addicted to, the caffeine, the sugar, so when you stop that, you're gonna get tremendous amounts of headaches, especially if you go off caffeine, your head's gonna be pounding. So, I would have to look at her diet and see why the diet is maybe causing the migraines. So, it might not be the fasting, it might be the detoxing that's causing that. So, you can talk to me or Tony afterwards. That's what I would tell her. Test for low electrolytes, salt, how do you prevent this from happening during an extended fast? Believe it or not, the body has actually stored vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes into the cells of the body. So, as you're fasting, these reserves are pulled from the body and allowed to be used during the fast. However, I do recommend if you wanna take vitamins or minerals or electrolytes, there's some water out there that has that in there. You can take some in tablet form. I would say a short fast of a week or two. You know, I wouldn't worry too much about that, but if you're going three or four weeks, maybe have, I recommend medical supervision at that point. But I can get my blood work done now. I can read my blood work, I can test my own vitals and kind of learn through all that. But your body can store, it's not like two days later, out of electrolytes. It's actually stored in the cells for future use. Suggested research on homemade bone broth. Yes, that's really good, but you don't have time to prepare it. Suggest alternatives. Yes, Dr. Axe has good bone broth as well, or there's organic bone broth you can buy in the whole eatery or Trader Joe's. It's organic bone broth. Bone broth is from the bone. They allow bones and the animals and different things to soak and it becomes this fluid that is very high in electrolytes and very beneficial for you in regard to vitamins and minerals. So you can find organic bone broth. I think it's about $3 for a little four cup serving of it. Would you suggest fasting from a certain food first to start or all food? I would suggest getting off of the addictions first because here's why fasting is so hard for me sometimes. Okay, I'm gonna start, right? That means I'm going off of sugar, I'm going off of coffee, I'm going off of meat, I'm going off of processed foods, I'm going off of Krispy Kreme all at the same time. There's gonna be hell to pay for that. So you wean off of those things. But you could, okay, this week, I'm gonna wean off of meat and dairy and sugar. I'm gonna get just clean eating for this week. And you'll see that's hard, but your body starts to adjust. If you can go from getting off of all the addictions into clean eating, limited eating, eating maybe just after lunch and dinner, and then go right into fasting, it's 10 times easier. I think we make it much more harder than it should be because of the addictions. Trouble staying in a spiritual state of mind during work days. Me too. How do we continue fasting when we continue to work? How do we continue fasting when we continue to work? Well, it's hard to stay in a, I think what this person means, it's hard to stay in a spiritual state, right? In the word of God, worshiping, you have to go and you have to work. And moods come into play. You get moody, you get stressful. So I focus on the end result, not what I'm going through. Focus on the reward, not the challenge. And knowing that when Jesus came out of the wilderness after 40 days of power, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we don't know how he felt some of that time. We don't know how people felt because it's not recorded in the Bible. So try not to trust feelings because God honors the fast. Even when I stopped that seven, when I did the seven-day fast in August, right then is when Fox News called. Why is Fox News gonna call me to fly to New York? I didn't feel spiritually high that seven days. It was miserable, actually, a couple of those days. There's valleys and there's mountaintop experience. You feel tremendous love. Lord, I could fast for the rest of my life, right? I could keep fasting and then six hours later, like, I hate this. This stinks. And you go through these highs and lows. So you just, I think God blesses the heart that stays obedient and you still work and you still go there knowing you're not on a spiritual high, knowing you're actually detoxing the body and in time I feel this way, I'd say, Lord, you know the prayer request. I pray for this, I pray for that. I pray for a lot of you at the church for health, for illnesses, for your marriages, for your children and you just take the time and you pray and it begins to become a time of prayer. Should blood pressure meds be taken while fasting? That's why I recommend medical supervision when you can. The problem with that is blood pressure medication, it goes into your blood and actually causes, whether it's statin drugs or whether it's blood thinners or whether it slows down the heart rate a little bit, the medication does that, but guess what fasting also does? Fasting lowers your blood pressure quite a bit. I've seen numbers, the diastolic and the bottom and the top number drop like, a person was 180 to 120, over 120, and then they dropped, then they were 120 over 75 in a month. But you have to be careful because your blood pressure medication is lowering your blood pressure and fasting is lowering it so you could be over-medicating. So that's why it'd be good to go to a doctor, maybe get a blood pressure machine, they could monitor you and they could tell you, okay, here's a number and you kind of monitor, you wean off and let the medical supervision take place. But I wouldn't just have anybody just stop it. You know, you have to use wisdom. Check with your doctor, have medical supervision say, and here's what you have to tell them. You say, I am fasting, would you do this? Don't say, I'm thinking of fasting, what do you think? Say, oh no, you'll die. They'll say, no, you'll die, there's no research supporting that, that's not good for you. Here, take these drugs, that's good for you. All drugs are toxic, you have to realize that. Now, some are needed, some are needed. All drugs are toxic though. So, and that's the answer versus looking at how the body is healed on its own.