Welcome to day two of our Fast Forward Challenge! Five things to do after you start your fast. If you want to learn about fasting, as I've mentioned, I have a beginner's guide to fasting, a Fast Forward 21-day fasting challenge, where you can read every day, and it gives you kind of what's happening in your body, prayer points, scriptures.
But today, I'm going to speak to you about five things you need to start doing after you start your fast. The first one is: replace your eating with reading of God's word. Now, drop this in the chat: "Replace your eating with reading of God's word.
" It is normal to feel, when you read the word of God, in the beginning stage of your fasting, to feel distracted, to feel lack of focus, to feel tired, to feel even nauseous, dizzy, and many people, what they do is, they're like, "Well, I'm not going to read the word because I don't feel really good. " So, what you can do is, you can actually listen to the word; you can turn on a Bible and have it read to you. You can still read the word, because you must understand that, as you're pushing through this, your spirit is getting stronger; it is your body and your flesh that is weak, and the feelings you're feeling are really normal.
What's happening is because your body is going through detoxing, and all of this stuff, so it is not necessarily like a demonic spiritual attack; it is just a normal process of your body switching from eating regularly, the foods that you were eating, to it being switched to a different food source. And secondly, you're also detoxing, and the enemy uses that to really fill your mind with negative thoughts, fill your emotions with very negative emotions, and to cause you to say, "You know what, I'm just going to quit. Why am I doing this?
You know, I don't feel like reading the Bible, and you know, I'm fasting; I should, like, I have a stronger desire to read the Bible. " But I want you to know what Jesus told the devil during a fast, when the devil told Him to turn stones into bread; He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. " So, this is my encouragement: May the hunger that you feel remind you to pause and pray, strengthening your connection to God.
As you fast, create a spiritual environment in your world by turning on worship music, praise music, in every room you are in, even at work, if you are allowed to turn on some soaking tracks, and we have them on our YouTube channel, just so that the atmosphere that you are in is going to be conducive to the hunger that you're feeling, so that this hunger becomes a hunger for God. Another good practical thing on how to consume God's word, not only creating an atmosphere of presence of God, and not only force-feeding yourself with the word of God when you don't feel like reading the scriptures, or if you're really, really tired, just turn on your audio Bible, but another way is to meditate on the scriptures. Take one scripture or two scriptures, write it down, and meditate on it, or you can memorize that verse.
The specific verses that deal with the season that you are in right now, for the reasons you're fasting. So, there's many ways to consume God's word than just reading, writing it, meditating on it, memorizing that verse. When you feel the hunger come, and you feel tired, this is a moment to pause and say, "Lord, I'm hungry for you.
" So, turn your physical hunger into a cry of a spiritual hunger for God. Drp this in the chat: "Turn your physical hunger into a cry of spiritual hunger for God. " So, replace eating with reading of God's word.
Again, I'm just going to tell you right away, that sometimes you might need to force-feed yourself with God's word. Drp this in the chat: "Force-feed yourself with God's word. " Remember, you are not forcing yourself; it's that your flesh is putting up a resistance.
Your spirit is hungry; your soul is kind of confused, because it used to get all the directions probably from the body, and now the body is not in control, and so your soul is adjusting, because its directions are going to be coming from the spirit. But during that transition, of the first few days, it is very normal to feel fatigued, to feel tired, to feel confused, to feel even, honestly, like just kind of disconnected from everything. And so, it is normal, but don't yield to that; press through that.
Force-feed yourself with God's word. Create a worshipful environment with praise and worship music, and meditate on scriptures, and even memorize them. And if you want to learn how we memorize the Bible with our group, we have a whole app where we memorize the scriptures; you can do so by going to pastorvlad.
org/memory. I'll probably have a whole stream about memorizing the Bible during fasting sometime later. Now, the second thing that I want you to do, the second thing that you can do, after you have started your fast, and that is, overcome physical challenges with wisdom and rest.
Drp this in the chat for somebody: "Overcome physical challenges with wisdom and rest. " For those of you that are just tuning in, day two of fast, what's going on? Or, if you are brand new to our community, we are doing a 21-day Fast Forward Challenge.
We also have a devotional that goes along with it; you can get it on my website or YouTube. And for those of you who are brand new to the whole topic of fasting, a beginner's guide to fasting can be found on my website or Amazon. Overcome physical challenges.
Now, there's a few practical things. One of them is, you want to stay hydrated with water and light electrolytes. Avoid dehydration, so the hunger pains will subside as you stay hydrated.
Okay. So, drink water, especially if you can get water that has electrolytes, or add electrolytes to your water. It will really help you with the physical challenge, especially the first few days of the fast.
The other part of how you overcome these physical challenges is, you have to be patient. Drp this in the chat: "Be patient with detox symptoms. " So, drop this in the chat: "Be patient with detox symptoms, like headaches, fatigue, and rest when needed.
" Many people, what fasting does, is it develops your discipline, and what fasting does, is it develops your persistence muscle, self-control muscle, and one of those things that get developed in the process of fasting is patience. We get extremely impatient when the detox symptoms of our body begin to surface. You know, we get cranky, sometimes we get a headache, we get fatigue, and all of that.
We can fall into impulsiveness, and we can fall into impatience, and we're like, we start snapping, we start using our language to be very negative. We can use even our behavior to be very ungodly, and all of these impatience begins to show up. And so, what you're doing during a fast is, stay hydrated with water, but also really allow the Holy Spirit to develop self-control and patience, especially when you deal with symptoms of detox.
It is normal. And another tip that I'm going to give you, as part of overcoming physical challenges, is, use light activity, such as a prayer walk, to stay engaged without overexertion. Use light activity, like a prayer walk, to stay active without overexertion.
Around the second day, the third day, you could be so tired that you don't want to walk at all, just want to lay in bed. Don't lay in bed, go for a prayer walk. You might not be able to do your normal exercises, and that is fine, that is okay.
Especially if you sacrifice some of your exercises, and yes, you might lose some of the muscles, but listen, when you're fasting, your goal is not to keep all of your muscles. Your goal is to get closer to God. And for those of you who are like gym rats, I'm sorry, but like, you're 24/7 in the gym, and you're like, this is your idol.
Well, honestly, this might be a good opportunity to lay that idol on the altar and say, "Lord, for this time, for this season of my day, for this season of my year, I want to really draw closer to you, and the only exercise I'm going to do is, I'm going to go for a prayer walk. " Because you don't want to overexert yourself and go into this fatigue mode. But if you can still do some kind of an exercise, hey, do it!
God bless you! But for most of us, we're going to do some light activities, like go for a prayer walk, talk to God, meditate on the scriptures, be silent before God, just connect to Him, go through repentance in your heart as you're doing that. So, overcome physical challenges with wisdom, water, and rest.
Amen! Somebody, drop a fire emoji if you're receiving this, if this is helping, somebody, as you're tuning in, don't forget to hit like to this stream. Even if you are rewatching, you can drop in the chat, "Hey, I'm rewatching.
" You're still welcome! A lot of people just watch these on rewatches, or if you're just listening on the audio, you know, hey, God bless you! Don't forget to drop a review there, where you are consuming audio.
Let's go to number three. Number three: what do you do when you just started fasting? Remove distractions, like excessive entertainment, to focus on God's voice.
Drp this in the chat: Remove distractions (like excessive entertainment) to focus on God's voice. I really think nothing can hurt your fasting more than when you obsessively consume entertainment while you're fasting. Consuming movies, TV shows, and just really consuming all of that stuff, what that does to you is this: it distracts you, because yes, it can numb you for a second from the hunger pains, but you didn't go into a fast to get numb; you went into a fast to really nurture your relationship with God.
Don't let the entertainment be the numbing mechanism, so that you just kind of disconnect completely from everything and just glue yourself to a television or glue yourself to a computer screen or a phone screen. A lot of times, we don't hear the voice of God because we're not near the Spirit of God, but sometimes we don't hear the voice of God because there's too much noise in our life. And the purpose of a fast is to help tone down that noise, to help lower that noise in our life.
And so, the way you do that is, you really remove excessive entertainment. I am not saying that you remove all of your entertainment and log off of your phone; I'm not saying that. If that is the path you're going to choose, that's fine.
But if you're choosing the path where the same level of entertainment is allowed through your eye gate and through your ear gate as it was before the fast, you really could miss the most benefits that you could receive from a fast. If you were to just simply cut back on the excessive entertainment, pay attention to the Holy Spirit's promptings, write them down in a journal, capture these revelations and insights from the Holy Spirit, and write them down. May the hunger, again, I'm going to say it again and again, may the hunger in your body remind you of your hunger for God.
May it remind you of your dependence on God. Don't just kind of try to silence that hunger; get rid of that hunger by drinking something. People just, like, you know, sometimes want to, like, "Hey, I'm just going to go drink juice, I don't feel hungry.
" "I'm going to go drink coffee, so I don't feel hungry. " "I'm going to go get a smoothie, so I don't feel hungry. " And I'm not being legalistic about this; I'm not saying, "Don't drink anything except water.
" You can drink some liquids, but the hunger that you feel, let it remind you of your spirit's hunger for God, because your spirit is hungry for God like that every single day, as your body is hungry right now. And so, lower the distractions, minimize the engagement that you have with media, with television, even with news. Minimize the engagement you have with music that is not holy; well, that you should probably remove completely.
But sometimes, some music is just, you know, it's really good for our soul; it's not good for our spirit. You know, there's music that's really anointed; it kind of really draws you into that place with the Lord. So, minimize that, and then you'll be able to recognize how you're more sensitive to the Spirit, and you discern His voice way better.
Number four thing that you must do after you start your fast. So, let's review: the first thing that we mentioned is, replace eating with the reading of God's word; sometimes you have to force-feed yourself with God's word. The second thing that we mentioned is, overcome physical challenges with wisdom, water, and rest.
The third thing that we've highlighted during this time. . .
give me just one second. So, the second thing that we've highlighted is that you have to overcome the physical challenges with fasting, that come with fasting, with wisdom and rest. And the third thing we mentioned is that lower down the distractions, like excessive media entertainment.
And then the fourth thing is this: fast in humility, not for recognition. Drp this in the chat: "Fast in humility, not for full recognition. " It's very important that you keep your fasting private, unless accountability is needed.
Also, fasting with a sincere heart to draw near to God brings a reward. The moment fasting is done for external approval, you forfeit the reward. Drp this in the chat: "When fasting is done for external approval, we forfeit the reward.
" This doesn't mean you don't notify your friends or relatives for the sake of accountability, but the moment you do it to show off, the moment you do it so that you can be perceived as more spiritual, so that people can view you in a different light, and you're trying to get approval from people, what begins to happen is that your reward is really going to be physical, and your reward is really going to be what people think of you. Opinions of people is your best reward. But if you fast so that you can get an approval from God, so you can get a reward from God, you have to do that with the motive that honors God.
And the last thing is, push through challenges and rely on God's grace to complete the fast. The fifth thing that you need to do after you start fasting. Drp this in the chat: "Push through challenges and rely on God's grace to help you complete the fast.
" You are not going to finish this fast in your strength. I'm going to say that again: you finish the fast by the grace of God. Everything we do is through the grace of God, through the strength of God.
While perseverance and pushing through is required, you must come to the end of yourself and say, "Lord, I am going to give my best, but I lean on your grace. " It's very important that you stay committed to the fast. There's a discipline that will bring a reward, but you must understand that you have to lean on the grace of God.
For many people who started the fast and they quit the fast, what they must understand is that you are not going to finish the fast in your strength. Now, some of you are very disciplined, but most of us are okay, disciplined. The flesh is strong, and to complete the fast, you have to lean on the grace of God.
You have to lean on the grace of God. Somebody, drop this in the chat: "Lean on the grace of God. " Remind yourself that sometimes spiritual breakthroughs come after your hardest moments.
So, just because you're experiencing hardship, a warfare, this does not mean that you're on the wrong track. Sometimes, this simply means that you're doing the right thing. So, don't let that discourage you.
Push through the challenges, but rely on the grace of God. Amen, Amen. Now, let's review these.
Five things to do after you start the fast. One is, replace eating with reading of God's word. Sometimes you have to force yourself to read God's word, or listen to God's word, meditate, memorize it.
Secondly, overcome physical challenges with wisdom and rest. You will experience detox symptoms, so be patient, stay hydrated with water, use light activity, like a prayer walk. Thirdly, is remove distractions of excessive entertainment.
If you want to hear the voice of God, you got to lower the noise. If you want to hear His voice. Fourthly, is fast in humility, not for recognition.
When you go for recognition as a form of fasting, you forfeit reward from God. And lastly, is you got to push through challenges, but rely on God's grace to complete the fast. Yes, you got to make up your mind to complete the fast, but it's the grace of God that will get you to the end, not your own strength.
So, while you push through, you lean on the grace of God. Anytime the hunger comes up, let it fuel your hunger for God. Choose to use that physical hunger to say, "Lord, I'm hungry more for you.
I'm hungry for your presence. I'm hungry for your spirit. " Amen.
And I can already hear my stomach growling, agreeing with whatever we are saying today. Amen. And if you agree with this message, I want you to drop a fire emoji in the chat right now.
And we're gonna take a moment to pray. We're gonna pray that the Lord is gonna bless this fast, give you the strength to continue. But for those of you that are just tuning in, and you're new to this, we want to remind you that we do have some resources available.
And one of them is our "Fast Forward" book. It's our fasting devotional that has prayers and fasting tips, as well as we have our "Beginner's Guide to Fasting". And then, "Built Fire.
" So, all these resources could be very helpful as you are fasting, as you are pressing into the Lord. And if you already have these sources, and you're enjoying them, do pastor a favor, drop a review on Amazon. It will mean a lot.
Let's pray right now. Lord, I thank you for each brother and sister that is watching this, re-watching this, listening to this. Lord, and they have decided to pursue you through this discipline of prayer and fasting.
Lord, they've decided to set time aside, to set food aside, they've decided to subject their body to a temporary discomfort, so that they could press in to the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray for those that are feeling tired right now. I pray for those that are feeling a bit discouraged, even though it's the second day.
Lord, give them the strength to persevere. Lord, may you supply the grace that is needed. Lord, it's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by your Spirit.
Lord, it's the grace of God that sustains us, it's the grace of God that fuels us. Let Your grace come right now, let your strength come right now Lord. I pray, as we lower the noise, may we hear your voice.
Lord, I pray, as we lower the noise, may we discern your voice in our life, and we discern your direction in our life. In Jesus' name, we love you, Lord. We press in to you today.
May healing happen to our body, as well. May deliverance happen in our life. Lord, may breaking of strongholds happen in our life Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.
I want to invite you right now, as we are pressing in, I want to invite you to partner with our ministry. If you are brand new to our ministry, starting this year, not only is it a good time to start with a fast, it's also a good thing to start by putting God first in your finances. And one of those things, one of the ways we can do that, is when we finance, sponsor, and partner with ministries that are doing God's work.
Our ministry is one of them. There's many ministries, but our ministry gives books for free. We do charity work.
We provide e-courses, as well as translate our content into Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Russian, and currently working to translate books to Middle Eastern languages, and distribute physical copies, free of charge, to those leaders there. So, consider partnering. If you've never partnered with the ministry before, prayerfully consider partnering.
Whether it's something small, or something big, all of it will to help fuel this mission to reach millions globally, and thousands locally. And if you're one of those people who maybe don't feel like partnering, you can give your best gift, and it will help us to advance this mission. Thank you so much for doing that.
Thank you so much for keeping us in prayer. Thank you so much for keeping our ministry in prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.
