Shane Idleman addresses the recent legislation in New York regarding late-term abortion, expressing deep concern for future generations. He emphasizes the power of prayer and fasting as essential tools for Christians to combat societal issues and grow spiritually. Shane shares personal experiences and testimonies from a 21-day fast, highlighting the importance of self-control and spiritual discipline in overcoming fleshly desires. He encourages the congregation to engage in fasting as a means to deepen their relationship with God and to seek clarity and strength in their spiritual lives. Ultimately, Shane calls for a collective movement among Christians to contend for righteousness through prayer and fasting.

Before I get into the two chairs up here and what they're here for, a lot of you came in a little bit after I announced or welcomed everyone, but we received some news, many of you have received it as well too, about the vote that happened in New York, where they passed legislation that you can abort a child up to nine months in the womb. If it's born, it's murder. If it's still in the womb, the day before, I guess it's not. And my wife and I just kind of sat in silence last night and, you know, not much to talk about and ponder, and it's difficult. It's difficult to try to process all this, to see what we're leaving for our kids and for our grandkids. And out of that came the article that I think most of you have. I think they passed them out at the front there. If you didn't, they have them on your way out. And I don't remember exactly the title, but you can see there by the title. Anyway, obviously, as they normally do, a Christian organization picked it up. It's usually picked up by about five or six of the big Christian news organizations. And the one today on Christian headlines, I think, is over 115,000 shares just today. And so that means I'm probably going to get some emails and some nasty responses. As it stands now, I'm supposed to do a Skype with Fox News tomorrow with Lauren Green on her podcast and talk about this issue and some other issues as well. And I'll just kind of, you know, shoot you straight. It's Wednesday night. But sometimes it just feels like you're just motivating the cheerleaders. You know, what's this going to accomplish? I mean, you know, people have driven in their heels on each side and nobody's really going to budge. However, there are a lot of people in the middle, number one. Number two is if God is opening these doors and God is moving by his spirit and God is wanting us to be bold and contend, then that's where I think we can really make a difference. The reason I'm saying that is because what we're going to talk about tonight is vitally important. I think what God has done in my life, the life of this church, and the life of many of you is done because of prayer and fasting, prayer and fasting and worship. And I actually received an email from the lady who's interviewing me on Fox News and she's in New York and she said, Shane, we're so broken over this. What are we supposed to do? How can we stop this? You know, like there's an answer out there and there is an answer. It's prayer and fasting and seeking God and getting back to holiness and righteousness and being filled with his spirit. Because when you're filled with his spirit, you're an arrow in the hands of the living God. That's how we make a difference. And so on one hand, it's disheartening, but on the other hand, it makes a lot of sense because the pulpits are silent, the churches are down to an hour service, they're more interested in football. So we're hoping that this will spark some type of motivation in Christians to get on their face before God and start contending for what is right. And part of that is fasting. It's a discipline that has been going on for thousands of years. It really kind of was hidden for the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years, at least based on the books I read, the research I do. Because when I would read early church fathers, they would talk about fasting often. John Wesley talked about it in his journals before ordaining men to the ministry. He would make sure that they were fasting. And also you look at Jesus when he said, when you give, when you pray and when you fast. Why this is so important is fasting is starving the flesh. It's the only mechanism I know of where you can actually starve the fuel source that causes us to sin. Starves the fuel source that causes us to want to walk away from God or to drift or say things like worship music is boring. I want to watch football. I want to do all the things of the world. I don't want the things of God. Fasting arrests the appetite. It suppresses those fleshly desires. And we're not talking about monks where they kind of got carried away with beating themselves with whips and everything in the natural is evil and we've got to starve the flesh in that sense. It's not that. What fasting does is it allows you to remove the desires of the flesh. The flesh is always calling and you begin to starve that. And as you begin to pray and seek God, praying and fasting, it's a powerful one-two punch. I don't know about you, but after a full meal, big meal, I can't fast. I'm sorry. I can't pray very well. And that's one reason why I don't eat in the morning. I try not to eat in the morning and just fast as much as long as I can throughout the day until later on. And again, we don't want to turn this into legalism or works, but there's an aspect there of self-control and controlling the body. And when we start to give into things, I have to give into Starbucks, I have to give, get my diet Pepsi on the way home or my Snickers bar. I have to get this. I have to get this. We begin to listen to the flesh and you will begin to lose that spiritual edge. You'll begin to, uh, that sword will no longer become a sharp and we start to become dull because the flesh is leading and guiding us in many areas. So we started a 21 day fast at the beginning of January. I'm also not naive. I know that majority of the people at this church did not take me up on that. And I, because I know it's difficult, it's challenging. Um, but I want to give you another opportunity. I want to, uh, maybe have this be the motivation or catalyst that sparks us to get into a season of fasting in this church. I believe it's vitally important, but I also know not everyone can do it for timing and different things. And then maybe someone else can start at this time. And then some, when somebody else is stopping, somebody else's is starting their fast. A lot of it depends on work. A lot of it depends on weaning off of caffeine, sugar, nicotine, alcohol, and processed foods. And it's a process there. Now I'm going to have somebody come up who's actually made it 21 days water only. I'm going to have somebody to show you you're not going to die. And believe it or not, she, I hope it's okay that I'm saying this, but Anna in our nursery actually went 21 days or 20 days with just water only seeking God and talking about the clarity that these people are getting. Um, and I feel a little, you know, bad. I haven't went 21 days water only because you start to think that is ridiculous. I can't do that. Uh, I'm going to die. And, and you really don't. After a couple of days, your, your hunger fades. So what also what I'm going to do is if you can think of any questions that you could ask just a real quick question, uh, since there's not an extra mic, I'm just going to, I'll repeat the question so people know. And if they're filming this, uh, they'll know what the question is, but you can kind of think of a few questions that you might want to ask, uh, because you have to prepare yourself mentally, physically, emotionally. And if you just want to just go cold Turkey, that's fine. I think that the Bible advocates that, you know, you just give up something you start, but also using wisdom because if you're going to, if you're just going to stop a 400 milligrams of caffeine, your nicotine, alcohol, processed foods, and, and, and, and think you're not going to experience withdrawals, then you got another thing coming, but you can pray. I have seen people say, Shane, I didn't experience any of that. Praise God. I wish I was you, but, uh, the body sometimes reacts to these things. So I'm going to go ahead and have a Rick come up and take this mic and we'll test it as well. You lost some weight too. I think about a pound a day is what happened. So you can, you can sit at this one. Is it working? Yeah. Okay, great. Well, uh, I don't even know where to start because this is such a big topic. Um, but I think the main question would be, what was the motivation? Cause I think you need some motivation to, to go 21 days, uh, in fast. Honestly, I didn't want to do it. You didn't want to do it. I had done it. I did the fast a couple of months ago, seven days. And, and it was amazing because I woke up that morning and God just put it on my heart. He said, do not eat. And I didn't know how long that was going for. And it went for seven days and it happened to be during the revival conference that you had here. And, and it tore me up. I mean, I could hear a worship song and I just, I'd break down and cry. It was awesome. And I knew I was going to do it again, but I didn't know when. And then Shane called the fast and I'm like, no, it's not time. It's not time. Your flesh will always tell you that. Your flesh will always say it's not time. So I considered, you know what, maybe I'll give up dinner. Maybe I'll do this. And, and, but the closer I got to it, it was like, no, you're going to give up food and you're going to go as long as you can. I don't know how long that's going to be. But if, if I, I just made up my mind, if I start to feel sick, if I don't feel right, if I'm too weak, I'm just going to eat. I'm not going to put myself in danger. And, uh, but I did it because this was a corporate fast and it's not for me. It was for you. I did it for this church and for the people in this church praying for you guys. That's why I committed to it because this was a corporate fast and I knew that other people would be participating in whatever way that is. You know, it doesn't have to be complete, no food. It's whatever you decide to give up that, that your body says, no, I want, and you say, no, you can't have it. And, and God honors that. Oh, he sure does. And I think a lot of people, um, think that hunger gets stronger and stronger and stronger. It actually doesn't. It starts to subside. And if you've ever just stopped, you know, say, let's say coffee and donuts, for example, that impulse or that desire is actually just as hard as, as food. And there's, there's addictions out there and there's different things. And I think God will honor you wherever you're at. I know I'm a little convicted tonight as far as praying for the church and doing a corporate fast for the, for the church. Um, but how many days did it take before the physical hunger stopped, but also the spiritual when you could tell, because sometimes the first couple of days, you're not in a good mood spiritually either, you know, at least I'm not. It got confusing. And honestly, during the whole 21 days, there was many times when I just said, you know, God, where are you? I'm praying. I'm seeking you. I'm being obedient and, and I have to question myself. Am I doing this for myself or am I doing this for you? Trying to stay on point, but it, three days, the first three days is the toughest. And, and for about a week, I would wake up in the middle of the night and be thinking of food and I wasn't necessarily thinking, Hey, I got to get up and eat, but I'm thinking of, Oh, that looks good. And that looks good. And, um, and then in the middle of this whole thing, which made it even tougher was we, we had committed to feeding the homeless on Sunday night. So I have now fed three times on Sunday night and made the food without even be able to taste it to see if it's good. My wife's been my taste tester, but, um, so at about a week, no more thinking about it at night. It wasn't something I was meditating on. I just, I really didn't think about food. I could look at food and say, Oh, that looks good. It probably tastes good, but I could turn around and walk away from it. And I went to many breakfasts, lunches, people eating around me, going to a restaurant and not eating. It was no problem. Just give me water. Wow. That's amazing. What about the, the spiritual? Cause that, I think that's something people need to understand. I've never done a fast where, um, I think the longest I've went is nine days where it's, you're walking on clouds every day and, and worship's just ascending from heaven and you're just filled with the spirit of God all day. It's an amazing experience. There are times where, um, your flesh will fight against you. There are times where you won't feel like continuing. And I think some of that sometimes is part of that test of perseverance of commitment. How are we? If it's, if it's so easy, we would all, it would be no problem. It would be not a problem at all. And I've talked about this, I think a few months ago, I don't remember exactly. I've talked about so many different things, but the first time I tried two days of water only, I went up into a cabin, brought water with me and it was not easy. But by the time the second day there's something, sometimes something happens and worship just comes alive. And I, I found myself on my face worshiping and crying and just because of God, just pouring in and the flesh being submitted to what God wanted to do and rewarding that he's a, he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And it's sometimes it's difficult in that diligence and that, in that continuing, uh, in that steadfastness, but there is a reward after that commitment, but that I'll never forget that day because it's like a switch turns on where, you know, you, you hear music and you sound, that's pretty, that sounds really good. But then there's a time where it hits your soul deep in your spirit, where it's just, it's ministering to you and the worship, the Bible just comes alive. And, uh, but it took a while because the flesh doesn't go easily. It, it, it fights and it kicks and it screams just like a two-year-old not wanting to go somewhere. And, uh, maybe my encouragement would be try a meal tomorrow. Just say, I'm not going to have breakfast. I'm not going to have lunch. And what kept me away from fasting for many years was the lie that I was borderline hypoglycemic. I was told that I was told I need to eat every two and a half to three hours because your dad is this. And I was told that in my twenties and come to find out I was addicted to sugar. That's why I would need that, that sugar high every, every few hours. But you do need to be smart. You need to be strategic. You don't want to be naive. If your body is telling you something different and you do have health issues, obviously diabetes would be something you'd have to keep an eye on. Um, and there's a good book on a lot of studies on fasting and diabetes and getting people off of their medication. And actually diabetes is a diet related disease type two diabetes, not type one. And it can be often, um, you know, cured through fasting and eating correctly. Often. Did you experience any physical, like I know my eyesight improved. I know my mental clarity, uh, just everything. Yeah. My, my eyesight seemed to get a little better. It wasn't where I would like it to be. Um, but, uh, there was clarity about day eight. I found myself mentally sharper than I normally am. And, and functioning at work was, was easy. It felt like I could get more done, even though I didn't have a ton of energy. Um, I could make decisions very quick. I could look at a problem, I could solve it and everything was coming very easy. I felt like I was getting a lot done during the day that I normally wouldn't. Some stuff, you know, it's not important. We'll put that to the side. And I wasn't putting anything to the side. I was just, just get it done. And, and I expressed that to you after about a week. And it was, and it was very clear. It was, it was very crisp in my mind that that was what was going on, that it was clear. And they, the thing for believers is we go into this primarily for the spiritual benefits. Obviously that's the goal is you're, you're starving the flesh to be filled with the spirit. If I could sum it up, but God always honors a spiritual discipline. You'll never see where a spiritual discipline will hurt you physically. It always helps the physical calming of anger. Uh, I know, uh, in my own life, even a desire for sugar and sweets and caffeine and different things subsided. Uh, it takes a little while. There's a struggle there and you don't want to beat yourself up because you know, there, I remember a couple of days into it, I just, I'm like, I can't take this. I grabbed a handful of nuts and then kind of felt bad and convicted, but got back on track. And it's still, you know, it's still, I believe, I don't think God's, you know, watching every little crumb. It's about where's the heart at. This is a time of, of seeking him. And you look at even Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, David, Elisha. I mean, throughout the Old Testament, there's, there's a lot of fasting. Jesus fasted 40 days and it's ironic that he didn't, he, he, he didn't begin his ministry until after he fasted. The Holy Spirit came upon him in the baptism that he had. He went, it was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit where he subdued the flesh and the, and the devil came at him and said, you can turn these stones into bread. And Jesus said, man does not live, but by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And he was strengthened, I believe spiritually. We see Paul fasting. Many times we see Peter fasting. We see it's just a, it's a spiritual discipline because your flesh is either growing stronger or it's growing weaker. It's very hard to keep it at a very even keel. That's why you'll see people just giving themselves over to food and to sugar and to these things. And then they just keep falling and just can't seem to seem to get back on track. And, and they just, if they have this for breakfast, then they all forget it. I might as well have this for lunch. And the day's halfway over. I might as well just blow it at dinner. And then they get up in the morning, they're depressed because they had a bad day and they start that cycle of defeat all over again. So it's, it's really about subduing the flesh. And the more you subdue the flesh, the more you'll be filled with the spirit. So how did it just week by week it got, it got harder. No, it got easier. And what made you decide to stop at 21? Then that was the goal. That was the goal. That was the number you set. But honestly, I could have kept going. I mean, ask my wife. I wasn't, it wasn't like, Oh, you know, it wasn't like planning my first meal a week ahead of time thinking, what am I going to have? That's what I did. That was my mistake. And I, and I, and I eased back into it very simply, you know, bone broth, then a green juice, kale, blueberries, keep it simple salad. But I've had no issues, but the spiritual side that you're talking about, God was moving. I was saying, God, where are you? But every day I'd look and say, man, look, look at what he's happening. Some of you have come to feed the homeless with us on Sunday. And what is happening there is unbelievable. This is not just us walking in and serving a meal. We are getting to know these people. We are loving these people and they are responding back. They are praying with us. They are, they're looking for help and, and some miracles have happened there already. Every time we go, something happens. And my wife and I just look at each other when we leave going, I think we were blessed more than them tonight. You know, just an example, last week we went in, we prayed for a lot of people. There's a very old guy there who can't, he can't walk. He has a little walker, but he gets there and he sits in his bed and he doesn't move. And you have to bring him his food because he can't get up and walk. And he sits in a certain position because he can't even lay flat. And I've been talking to him, his name's Steve, and, and he's broken. And he's telling me, he believes that he's close to death, but he says, you know, I need two things. He goes, I'm too old for this. I can't, I can't live out here anymore. I need to be inside and I need a wheelchair. So I was going to send a email to Susie when she got in and say, Hey, anybody got a wheelchair? And I told my wife first thing in the morning, I said, you know, just post it on Facebook. We need a wheelchair. For sure. Within an hour, she gets a call from somebody, the VFW brought over a brand new wheelchair. I've got to put it together in the garage. I'm taking it over to them Friday night. But it's, it's actions like that. But I think that that because that whole time it was a, it was a God, where are you? I know you're there. I'm doing this for you. I'm being obedient. And there is that, that, you know, taking control of the flesh. And that, that was, that was huge. And I even have something that I wrote that just downloaded on me because through it all between yesterday and today, yesterday, I broke the fast and today is the second day. And God has done some, some things that can only be defined by him that I would like to share that, that I couldn't, what has happened today was unbelievable. It happened yesterday. A lot of you guys know we do a men's group every other Tuesday night and this thing's been growing, growing to the point that we have to bring it to the church. It's a wonderful thing, but I rely on God every time to put on my heart what we're going to talk about. And I, we originally started with books and we decided to throw them out because it's been so powerful. So sometimes I get it right the day after the next meeting. So I'm preparing for two weeks and sometimes I don't. And this time God was giving me nothing. He was not there, but I trusted and I knew that you will give me something before Tuesday night and I'm not going to worry about it and I'm not going to sit down and stress. I'm just going to trust that you're going to bring it. Well, he waited till Tuesday morning. Talk about the final hour. I have it in my pocket. I read. And this is what we went over last night in the men's group. And that came to me and I wrote it all down in probably 20 minutes. And, and that's what we went over. And, and it's exactly what you're talking about. It's talking about that if we don't deny our flesh, the spirit can't take over. We're not allowing God to have control of us if we say, I know what's best for me. And, and it, that's part of it. That fasting, there's other ways that you can do that. You can deny your flesh in many ways, but fasting is certainly one of them. But this morning I, I, this is the miracle I want to share with you. Um, I have an employee at work that I needed to write up. Really he needed to be terminated and it wasn't a, uh, it was inappropriate behavior towards a female employee. Um, and I knew that I had to come in this morning and deal with it, but something in my heart said, no, you're just going to write him up. You're going to give him a warning. And I, and I do that often. If I'm accused of anything, it's being too lenient, but, but I knew that that's what I was going to do, that I was going to write him up. And, uh, um, so I'm leaving this morning and I grabbed my work bag and I'm taking it to work and I just felt in my heart, I'm like, no, you need to grab the bag from last night, from the men's group with what I had written on it and all our notes. So, okay, I'll take it. Thought maybe he's going to have me work on it during lunch or something. So the Lord just convicts me as I'm talking to this man that I need to tell him that he's a sex addict. So there's a lady with me when we're doing the write up and then I asked her to leave and she leaves and it's just him and I right there. And I tell him, I said, look, you're a sex addict. And I said, I know cause I used to be one. And I said, this isn't something that is going to easily go away. And he just looks at me and I said, it can go away, but you have to work at it and it's going to ruin your life if you don't. And I could see a tear welling up in his eye and he says, I am a sex addict. And I said, it gets better. He said, I cried about this last night and I prayed to God this morning to take this away. And now you are talking to me about it. And I said, yes. And I spent 30 minutes with him and I went over everything that we went into men's group last night about how it is that we need to take control over ourselves. He is saved. He does believe in Jesus. He doesn't go to church. He's not currently trying. And this guy is, this is a grown man and he's in tears as we're, as we're talking, he is crying and, and I just keep pouring into him and pouring into him. And then I say, you know what? I have a group and we can help you. You know, this is not specifically for this, but it's for anything that you're struggling with. We, we come alongside each other and we help each other. And I said, I'm going to invite you. I said, you know where I'm at. You know how to get ahold of me. You tell me you want to come and I'll tell you where it's at, but I'm not going to force you to come. And he's, and he looked right at me and he said, he said, look, if I don't come, I'm turning away from God because I asked him for this. He brought it to me. It's right here in front of me and I have to come. Yeah. And that, that wasn't me. Wow. That's awesome. It's, uh, it's on Tuesdays. So we're starting here February 5th and it's not just a pure desire class. It's, it's men mentoring men. It's a men's men's study here next door in this room, uh, every other Tuesday starting on the fifth. So that was kind of a good plug for that. But that's a great point because I know, I know most of you are feeling you want to do more for God. God's not moving in you. You're not seeing maybe healings. You're not seeing things like this, your family, you just nothing. I would encourage you to consider fasting. Even if it's just a meal or for the day, you don't have to go 21 days and 10 days and you, you do whatever God puts on your heart, but there's gotta be a fighting against the flesh, a desire to want to be filled with the spirit. There's two conflicting forces or the Holy Spirit's not a force. It's a, it's a person part of the triune nature of God, but there's that, that confliction that the spirit wants you to do this and be full of the spirit and go out and do things like this letter, the spirit, but the flesh wants to pull you back to the things of the flesh. So fasting is they, one big thing in our arsenal that we have, they can actually starve the flesh. It will actually, it will, it will starve and be filled the spirit. Um, and this isn't new to Christianity, fasting and prayer and fasting were practiced and were disciplines for, for centuries. It's just in our American culture, we kind of want to get away from, you know, all those things that are difficult. So it's been, it's been ingrained in biblical theology for many years. Um, and do you guys have any questions out there? So how was his, how did it change your private devotional time? What it, what it looked like to you? Okay. Cause I know when you don't eat, you have some extra time on your hands. Yeah, I sure did. But, um, actually I felt like it was worse. We have a very good discipline. We get up very early in the morning and we read the word and we pray and we just spend a lot of time every day. We know how important that is. But, um, my sleep got really funky when, when you're not eating, your body doesn't require as much sleep. So I'm sleeping three and four hours a night, awake, wide awake. I don't want to be awake. Um, but I can't go to sleep. Um, so we get up, we, you know, it's not unusual for us to spend at least two hours every day in prayer and worship. And we continued to do that. Um, but it wasn't, you know, the first time when I did it for a week, you're right, it was like I was immersed in that Holy Spirit and he was with me always, all day. It was, it was unbelievable. This time it wasn't that way, but, but I could easily just look around me and see what he was doing, that he was using me in that. And that was my prayer the whole time, every day. It's only that, you know what, do whatever you have to do to break me, to humble me, to have no pride that if I can't say what you want me to say and do what you want me to do, why go out? And, and that's my prayer every day. And, and he just, he just keeps doing it. He keeps using me and ways that just astonished me. And I think sometimes possibly God maybe withdraws a little bit, like how bad do you want it? Are you still going to seek me even when you don't feel a tremendous move of my spirit? Are you still going to, you know, discipline yourself? And, uh, the reason sleep is hard is your body, uh, growth hormone levels are, um, are raised quite substantially. And that's actually good. Growth hormone is great for anti-aging. Anybody want to slow that down? So growth hormone is very important as, as we get older because it begins to diminish. So in fasting, growth hormone levels are elevated. Also a couple other hormones are elevated as, as well. Uh, I remember same thing. I'm looking at the clock, it's 11 o'clock and I can't go to bed till one in the morning. And then you get up three hours later and, um, but your body eventually adjust to that. It's just a matter of the, the, the increase in hormones and, um, and your body's adjusting while you're doing that. So don't plan on getting a lot of sleep. Uh, but it does come a little bit later sometimes, maybe in your case it didn't, but, but after about, I don't know, five, six days, I just started having deep sleep. Like I've never felt before. So deep, like, like you're a baby again and you're just conked out and you wake up and you have a lot more energy. You don't have to get your cup of coffee and barely pull yourself out of bed, drag yourself out of bed. I mean, you're, you're feel good because your body was rested. That's why many people have to drag themselves out of bed and have a strong cup of coffee because their sleep did not do what it was intended to do. And that is heal the body. A person should get a good solid seven, eight hour night's sleep. Maybe wake up once and get up feeling a little tired, but somewhat refreshed and, and ready for the day. Not, not like they just got hit by a semi-truck. Are we going to add to that? No, but I never, I never got that. And I read that. I looked up on it and I thought, Oh, after about a week, I'm going to be able to get some good sleep. And it never came. Last night was my first good night's sleep. Okay. And it comes, it's so refreshing. It really is. Any questions on this side? How much water, what type of water? Um, it was more in the beginning. Um, I hope I, maybe I was getting sick of water, but that's all I drink. It's all I ever drink is water. But, um, when I started the first, almost the first week I was drinking almost 200 ounces a day, which is a lot. Um, and I was, that's, that's how I curb that appetite the first few days. Cause I just flooded myself with water so that it was full. Um, the, the water that I do drink, I drink regular filtered water, but I try to drink at least one tall, if not two tall bottles of pH water because I found that the minerals in the pH water help my energy levels. And then, uh, and then I took that even one step further because it's, it's the potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium. Those are the minerals that your body's missing when you're drinking a purified water. Because if I were fasting in the mountains and I'm drinking water of a stream, it's coming through the rocks. It's got those minerals in it. But I wasn't getting those minerals and you can feel it. That's, that's, you just feel lethargic. You feel tired and, and, but if you put a little bit of salt, like a quarter of a teaspoon of salt and take a 90 or 200 milligrams of potassium, it's like drinking an energy drink. You just boom, I'm ready to go. And I, and it just sustains me for a while. And I would only do that once a day. And that was in the morning getting up. All right, I'm going to work. I got to be ready. And, and I would just do that potassium and sodium made a big difference. Um, yeah. And a lot of people don't realize when they're actually eating, they are taking in a lot of water, bananas, oranges, fruit, lettuce, vegetables, even a hamburger, you know, with your bread and different than lettuce. And you're getting a lot of water in. So when you just stop all food, your body is craving more water. And that's a good point. Like in biblical times, they would eat, they would drink the fresh water that was full of the electrolytes and the minerals. And nowadays, if you get distilled water, especially that's dead water. Um, and then purified water sometimes can remove a lot of the, the essential, you know, minerals and things, but there are little drops you can buy at a health food store that will give you a very good balance of all the minerals from, from, you know, potassium to calcium to zinc and iron and, and all the things you're sodium that your body needs. So, um, I would encourage people to drink as much water as they feel they need, but not to go overboard too, cause you can over hydrate the body. Uh, and you don't need, you don't need to just consume so much water where your stomach's hurting and you're in your, you just, just do what your body needs. Also, the body has a wonderful ability to break down vitamins and minerals that have been stored in, uh, in other areas of your body through, through times of fasting. I need to monitor your blood sugar level. Yeah. It depends on if, if a person's like type two diabetes, of course, type one, I wouldn't recommend. Yeah. I mean, if you have the, uh, the little, you know, the, the pinprick or the, uh, the testers, you could keep your talk with your physician, see what level he wants to keep you at, um, and kind of measure it to see, make sure you're not dropping too low. Uh, but also measure it like after a person has a lot of sugar intake, it can really skyrocket it as well. Um, so I would, I would measure it if you think it's a problem, you know, and, and see kind of play around with a little bit and see what your readings are. I think what is it? 60 is where they want it. Don't quote me on that. Um, but if you have an issue with that, um, I would talk with a physician and make sure you get the right testing, uh, material. Anyone else? I did. And I, I was, I should have had a blood test before I went just to see what difference that it made. I did go get one yesterday. I'm waiting for the results just to see how my blood looks. I'm sure my blood's always been very, very good, very healthy. So I'm not expecting any surprises, but I just wanted to check. It's hard with blood sugar cause that can go like this every hour, you know, depending on, on your activity and the food intake and things. Um, also for men, testosterone is really increased during fasting. It's a, it's a, it's a testosterone booster that that male hormone, uh, is boosted in, in fasting. So back here at a question. I did not. And I take vitamins, but I, I cut them all out and I was just, I, and I knew I just, I, the minerals you need, the vitamins, um, I just cut them all out. Yeah. On that one, there's, there are two different, uh, schools of thought. I mean, the, the one gentleman I talked about who fasted over a year on water only over a year, water only look it up. I think it was in Scotland in the hospital, 400 and some pounds dropped to 180. He only gained about 10, 15 of that back. Uh, they kept him obviously going on supplementation. I think in that case, you know, vitamins would be, uh, would be a good idea. But if you're going short term, your body has enough stored vitamins, uh, to, to help you, you know, get through that. And also, um, when you take the vitamins, see part of, at least I look at fasting also as detox. So that's why you're watching what kind of water you take in. Um, some people out there say, yeah, you can still have black coffee. There's no calories, but the amount of chemicals and the central nervous stimulant of caffeine. And I would just focus on water only because you're, you're cleaning out the body. Uh, and vitamins, many vitamins, I don't know where you get them, but you know, just normal ones at Costco have fillers, binders, uh, they're heated. Uh, the nutrient content is really low. The density there, there's not a lot of nutritional value and you're, you're taking in, um, even the capsules, you know, they, they're made of, uh, I don't know exactly what they're made of. It escapes my mind right now, but you are, it just, it's just good to avoid taking vitamins if you're not going on a long-term fast. Tito, Abram, no, the, uh, there are a couple other things that came in and it, it, the, I monitor my, my body fat. I have a body fat monitor and I normally am running about 20%. Um, at my age, that's not bad, but I've had it lower, but you've really got to work hard to keep it lower. And, and, and Shane mentioned that I'd lost 21 pounds. It was, it was like exactly a pound a day and it didn't necessarily come off like that, but it worked out. That's a good weight loss program. That's a, that's a pound a day. And, uh, but I wanted to know how much of that was fat. How much did I lose from fat? And we went, I went down to 11.2%, which is starting to get extremely low for my age. And I had kind of told myself, if I go under 10, I'm eating because that's, that's too low for me. Um, but if you do the math on that, that calculates to a little over 18 pounds of what I lost was just fat. And there are a lot of studies on that because the, the, the reason many people don't fast, especially in the fitness world, is they think they're going to lose fat. I mean, sorry, they're going to lose muscle, but your body actually goes into protein sparing. The body is so smart. It knows it needs to protect muscle. It protects your vital organs. Your, I mean, your body could break down your, your kidneys, your liver, your any, it could use that as fuel, but it's so smart. It's strategic. It says, okay, protein is important. Muscle's important. I'm going to go into protein sparing mode. It spares the protein as fuel. It will utilize a little bit of muscle for fuel. There's no way around that, but it primarily then dips into your fat storage as fuel. That's the main reason we have fat. That's the main reason it's to be that extra source of fuel during times of famine. For thousands of years, there was not a Del Taco on the corner. I mean, think about it. It was Taco Bell. You had your, you had a bag of figs and some nuts and you ate those and you didn't have anything for a couple of days. Your body would go into your fat as your fuel. It's called ketosis. That's where they get the word ketogenic diet. Ketone bodies are broken down and converted to energy. It's interesting. You, you, you take in glycogen, glucose turns into glycogen. Too much of the glycogen, what does it turn into? Turns into fat. They call it de novo lipogenesis or something. And then when the fat is needed, it breaks down and converted back into energy. So it's just a, when I look at how the body's made, I mean, talk about a creator. There is no way you could have all these things happening, uh, without just with evolution and chance occurring. What about working out and exercising? I did stop. Cause I, when I did my seven day fast, I still worked out, but I noticed after about day three that I just had no energy. And as soon as I was finished working out, I was, I was exhausted. So this time I knew that. And I said, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to hit the gym at all. And, uh, and I needed to, because I needed that energy and nor did I feel like going to, but two days later I was in the gym today. And that's a good point about working out, uh, for those who walk or run. I try to go by how the body feels. Uh, for example, I think February is coming up. There'll be a year. I went up to the Oaks and did four day water fast. I was working on a fasting book. Um, and on that fourth day I stopped at the aqueduct and I've never just ran a mile as quickly as I did ever. And it was just so much energy. Uh, and also, um, on a fast, I think it was that day six, I cleaned the backyard, I cleaned the house and then I went and went on a jog up in the mountains. What does that have? It's cause how the body was made. But then there's other times where I'm just going to find a good movie series for the whole day. Cause I'm not moving from this couch. I'm, I'm, I'm not feeling, I'm tired. So you kind of go by how your body feels. So I would plan on if you can go out and walk and take in fresh air and breathe and just go on a long walk, it's very good while you're fasting, but you don't want to exert a lot of energy. And, uh, that's where you kind of get into trouble. If, if you have a very physically active job, I would recommend taking some vacation time. The, you, I, I, Lori, my wife and I are familiar with fasting. We were fasting 30 plus years ago, um, for spiritual reasons that we've experienced that we know not long term, but 24 hours without food on a very regular basis. Um, and at that time I was working in construction, demanding job with a 50 pound tool belt on your waist. Um, and I could do it. I could go 24 hours. Um, I, I went 24 hours with no water and doing that job and no food. Um, but, but I don't recommend it, especially as we get older right now. I knew my, what my capabilities were. And if, and I would tell anybody, if you're not, if, if you're not ready for it, don't do it. 24 hours, piece of cake. Don't do a long-term fast. If you have a physically strenuous job, you're, it's gonna, you're not going to perform well at work. And you're actually under more stress too. You just, you'll snap quicker, right? You know, snapping is right. Come on guys. I'm just going to snap. So they recommend when you fast that you, you are in vacation mode. You've got a couple of days where, um, you know, you're just going to take it easy and relax. Let the body heal itself. You're going to go through some very interesting mood swings from extremely emotional to extremely angry, to extremely moody to irritable. It's, it's a body somehow just adjusting, uh, to this new found, um, lifestyle. That's, that's a good point. We should, you should tailor it to your own lifestyle. The reason like a hard job or excessive, you know, work, uh, the reason why that's hard, right? The beginning is because your body has about 1500 to 2000 calories stored as glycogen in your muscle. Uh, and, and I believe it's your, your liver muscle and liver. Um, so the, the glycogen is stored there. So it's going to start burning that first. So you'll burn that without doing anything, just laying on a couch, you'll start to burn that. But now if you throw into that, walking 10 miles a day and exertion, you're going to blow through that, that stored glycogen much quicker. And it's going to be much harder on your body than it's going to, you know, that's why it's harder to, uh, to keep working because all that glycogen is being depleted. And that's a big thing right now. People are against carbohydrates and all these diets, but carbohydrates are actually good and God given in the right form. That's immediate quick energy. It's good for you. It's good. It's good to have carbohydrates in the right form and not in excessive amounts, uh, because that's a quick source of energy. Glycogen is, is what God has used to be that, that quick source of energy. So a lot of the books I've read studying different things is they actually recommend even doctors who are well-versed in fasting recommend 24 hour fast once a week. Right? So every Friday, that's what Wesley did. That's what, um, uh, Joel Furman, if you recommend, uh, watch any of his material, uh, uh, they'll, they'll recommend a 24 hour day fast once a week. And then even every quarter, every six months is, you know, five, six, seven, eight, 10 day fast. The reason they say that is what I talked about in this health seminar with the autophagy, your body actually begins to break down, uh, like cancer cells and tumors and the things that are foreign and not good for the body. When you go into fasting, your body begins to use that dead tissue, that disease tissue, that sick tissue as fuel, it begins to get rid of all of that first. So that's why the longer the fast in many cases, the better how much healing people say, well, how long should I fast? Well, what are you trying to accomplish? You know, if you've got some serious disease issues, um, and, or, or, uh, overweight and maybe type two diabetes is knocking at your door and gout and inflammation, then you might, you might easily want to consider preparing for a 21 day fast. Uh, there's retreat centers. They're all over, uh, up, up the coast and in Costa Rica where people actually go for three weeks to a month to 40 days. And it's all, it's, I mean, that would be nice. I'll probably never get a chance to do that, but you know, they'll just, they'll let the body heal itself. And the testimonies are incredible because your fasting doesn't do anything. It's not a cure. It actually puts your body in a state of healing because the problem we're seeing in America is overfeeding. Overfeeding is causing a lot of disease, a lot of issues in our children, the wrong foods. So by removing that the body now is in a state to heal itself and you spend 50% of your energy digesting food. So when you stop the body stops that now it can utilize that energy for recovery and repair and renewal of the cells of the body at a very deep level. The healing takes place. The other thing I would want to mention is, um, if you aren't currently eating healthy and making good food choices, don't try a longterm fast. You won't make it. Your first fast should be a detox. Absolutely. And maybe that's what you need to give up first. Maybe change that diet in some way, but we have been eating very healthy, very clean, organic. We've been plant-based now mostly for about a year and it, it does make it easier. Um, maybe not eating burgers and pizzas. If I don't eat them regularly, I don't crave them, but. Well, what happens, it's a good point because in a lot of the food now is chemicals. So you're withdrawing from chemicals, aspartame, model, sodium glutamate, partially hydrogenated oils, all these things. And the chemicals are putting into the food to me when you can't read 20 things that are in a bag of Doritos. So your body's actually craving those things. And you can research this. They spend millions of dollars on marketing and testing taste buds and designing chemicals that will give the body such an addictive type of, of response that you crave those foods. They're very slick. So if you're trying to come off Starbucks and donuts and fast food, you're, that's going to be a challenge in and of itself. So my encouragement would be to get off that first to really get the body into a Daniel type eating program, where it's just healthy, God-given. And that is difficult in and of itself, but you start to cleanse the body, start to repair the body. And then it's much easier to go into a normal fast. Back in the Bible times, they just had to stop eating honey and blueberries and fish and, you know, some grains. And it was, it was, they didn't have the withdrawal type of symptoms that we see today. Yeah, you can put, you can put lemon in the water. I mean, hardcore fasting advocates will say that the, the lemon juice triggers, you know, that, that, that the palate and triggers the body and like, okay, here's some, here's one gram of fructose, you know, and you know, it's not really fasting. You want to do water only, but I put lemon in mine. I'll have a broth, a little bone broth sometimes to get some minerals in there. It's about 10 calories in that. So it's just being smart and strategic and trying to go water only. If you can, believe it or not, the best time to do water only is when you're sick. The day we started the 21 day fast, a week after I said, I haven't been sick in years, guess what happened? The day. So it was actually the fast wasn't too hard because I was sick with the cold and flu. So I just went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, water only didn't even, I was sick. It didn't make a difference at all, really. But then knowing I had to speak for two and a half hours on Saturday and give two messages on Sunday, I had a very healthy bone broth soup and chicken in it and it really felt good. I felt great on Saturday and Sunday. Then I resumed the fast and got the flu and sick, my stomach and throwing up. And so that wasn't too hard to fast for what, two or three days. I fasted water again only. And then I just started, now I started saying, okay, Lord, what do you want? Because this isn't working. So now I'm trying to go throughout the whole day, intermittent fasting and just eat in the evening. But for me, again, it's not about rules, it's about disciplining the body. So I tell my flesh, be quiet at 8am, 11am, be quiet, two o'clock. You know, it's just for me, it's that matter of just having the flesh kind of just be silenced. And also it's good for cleansing, letting the body recuperate during intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is about 14 to 18 hours. You're not eating every day. And I personally believe that is not a fad, it's a biblical approach. Again, in my opinion, I don't think people had to get up and eat a huge breakfast, grab some snacks three hours later, go eat a big lunch, grab some snacks later, go eat a dinner. We were designed to eat and to go a while without eating again. But why do many of us eat? You'd be amazed at how soon your sugar cravings will end, your caffeine cravings will end when you start to eat right. You actually desire bell peppers and hummus and broccoli. I mean, that's what I'm desiring right now. I've got a salad right now, I'm desiring cabbage, cut up cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, homemade dressing, mushrooms. I mean, I'm ready to go home and eat that. I'm not craving the fast food that's down the street because your body will begin to change. It will want those things that are more healthy. Wouldn't it be better to eat breakfast and no lunch, no dinner? It actually depends on what you're trying to do, what your goal is. If that's easier for you, then that's not a bad idea. The thought behind it is this. Let's say your last meal is at 7 p.m. You sleep, you get up, you do some studying, whatever, and it's already 7 a.m. You've already went 12 hours of fasting. Now you keep that going, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, now you're at 15, 16 hours. That's why it's called breakfast. You're breaking your fast. So if you cannot have breakfast and just keep going, you stay in that. So actually, you're putting that in your favor. But I don't always do that. I get up sometimes in the morning and I just, yesterday I made some incredible, you know, homemade cookies with oatmeal, manuka honey, mashed up bananas, a little bit of flaxseed, and it's really good. And, you know, I might, you know, if I have that in the morning, you know. So it's, again, it's not about perfection. It's not about being rigid. It's about just, I think, sometimes, too, God will tell me like he told you. You know, it's, you know, don't eat today. Seek me, worship, and kind of being open to that leading. You know, what you're saying is because if you get up in the morning, scrambled eggs, and bacon, and toast for most people, and TV's on, and then you go try sit down with your Bible, you can't hear from God. So if you're already in that fasted state, you just take, it's a little, it's difficult. Trust me. My body's screaming Starbucks and Krispy Kreme sometimes at five in the morning. And anytime, you know, you cave in, or if I cave into coffee, I cannot sit there and study God's word. My mind's going 100 miles an hour. I want to turn on the radio. I want to turn on this, you know, look at the phone. And so that's a great idea. Just get right into the word and prayer. And if you fall asleep praying, that's okay. That's a good step in the right direction. Was that fruitful? Did you guys get something from that? I wanted you to see that you won't die after 21 days. And also, it's a battle. You need to, people need to be encouraged because sometimes you think, oh, fasting, and we're just we're going to wear white robes and sing Kumbaya and just be on this spiritual high. You know, I've noticed, I think it's, sometimes it's more difficult when you're fasting. It did feel that way this time. And I don't know why I struggled, but God delivers. He was still there and he's still faithful. And maybe that was the test, like you said. And you know what, maybe it was a matter of, okay, I'm not here. I'm backed off. Are you going to keep doing it? Are you going to keep doing it? And I did. I kept pressing in. And he showed me a lot over the years where you think, you know, you can't have this formula. No. Okay. God's going to move. God's going to move. God's going to move. God's going to move. I mean, for most of, you know, for many years, I would fast 24 hours, just about on weekends, every time I preached. And it was dynamic. I felt better. I just, and then in August, I just stopped. I felt, you know what, this is becoming too much of a, you know, okay, I got to fast. And I haven't, I haven't since August. I want to get back to that. But still, I still feel on Sundays of sermon. Now, granted, I don't get up and eat a lot. I just eat a very small amount, if anything, and then I wait until Sunday night. But, you know, kind of, and God still moves in a similar way. So I think sometimes he gets us away from that formula. If I do 10 days, it's going to happen. If I do this, it's going to happen.