I had an eating disorder, Christian, from the time I was
15 until the time I was 22 and I was all about dieting.
And I heard your weight is an idol to you, Lisa.
So I was like, all right, God, I repent of idolatry.
And he said, now stop dieting and I want you to fast.
And I was like, why wait? You just told me not to diet and
now you're telling me to fast. And right away I heard the Holy
Spirit say in Psalm 6910, David said.
I chastened my soul with fasting and so many times I've watched a
fast in my life. Hey, I want to thank you for
watching the Lisa Vivira Podcast by actually sharing a gift with
you. It is a free ebook called Fast
forward. See, I don't know if you
understand the power of a fast. Most people when they hear the
story of Jonah, they think about a whale.
But there is a moment that I want to highlight in that story.
God had sent the prophet to decry against the city of
Nineveh. It was filled with wickedness
and he prophesied pending judgement.
But listen to this. The people of Nineveh, this is
crazy. Believe God and proclaim the
fast put on sackcloth from the greatest to even the least of
them. And God said, I've heard their
cry, I've seen them humble themselves, and he deferred the
judgement. I believe our nation is on the
threshold and I am inviting you to declare a fast.
We're coming out of the holidays, or maybe you're just
seeing this right now and you know that you have a hunger for
something more. I believe the fast creates a
greater hunger for the things of God.
And so I'm excited for you to dive into this conversation
around fasting. Welcome to the least of your
podcast. And I am really excited about
today's message. This has been something that has
been very transformative in my life.
And that is the difference between dieting and fasting.
I believe that God has fasting as one of our spiritual
disciplines. And so many people don't know
how to start a fast, don't know how to maintain a fast.
They have questions about it. But I believe that fasting is a
time of breakthrough, not that we change God's mind, but it
changes us. And so I'm super excited.
I've got my daughter, Law Christian joining me today and
we're going to be taking in some of the questions you guys ask
us, answering them and discussing fasting.
Yes, thank you so much for sharing.
You have a whole book on this and there's this approach that
we do have questions on because people want to know the
difference in diet and fasting. But I think before we even go
there, can you share what is fasting?
Why do people do it? Does God call to do it?
Give us give us a runway for this topic.
How about I tell you my personal entry into the world of fasting?
So I had an eating disorder, Christian, from the time I was
15 until the time I was 22, and I was all about dieting.
I had come in from school one day, my dad told me that I was
fat. He told me I needed to take care
of it. I restricted my food intake, ran
outside through the snow drifts in Indiana, and I watched my dad
approve of me when I lost weight and I began to associate.
Thin means you're worthy of love.
Thin means your discipline. Thin means you're in control.
And so I carried that on into college and it, it morphed into
a eating disorder and then I became a Christian.
And now Christians, it's interesting, they don't drink,
which I had excessive drinking, excessive dieting, diuretics,
laxatives, all that mess. But they eat at everything.
And so now I took my excessive personality and I put it on into
my Christian world and it translated to overeating.
And so I went from being too thin to overweight.
And it wasn't healthy weight. It was, it was overweight.
And I remember just being angry at God, like it was his fault
that I'd somehow given him my life and he made me fat.
And even though it wasn't him, it was me.
And the turning point was when I couldn't fit into my wedding
gown. And I had gone to try a slip on,
try my wedding gown. And they're like, Are you sure
this is yours? And I'm like, yes, this is mine.
And they're like, we cannot even close this.
We can't even begin to close this.
And I came home mad at God, mad at myself, mad at everything.
I just could see my dad's mind that my dad was like, he was
already furious about what he had to pay for my wedding gown.
He was. And I thought.
You have to alter it. Well, there was no altering it.
We're like 2 weeks away from my wedding and and maybe 4, I don't
know. It was very close.
And I, I just started crying and I was just like, God, you know,
I give you my life and I get fat now.
And I heard your weight is an idol to you, Lisa.
And I was like, idol golden calf.
I mean, I'm a brand new baby Christian.
I've been saved for about a year.
And he said it's what you draw your strength from and what you
give your strength to. And he said, if you'll repent of
this idolatry, I'll heal you. And I'll tell you should weigh,
not shape, not glamour, not vogue.
And I was like, what? God wants to be involved in my
life. And so I was like, all right,
all right, God, I, I'm messing up.
I'm really destructive. And it was the pattern is my
mom's life, my grandmother's life.
So I was like, all right, God, I repent of idolatry.
And he said, now stop dieting. And I want you to fast.
And I was like, why wait? You just told me not to diet,
and now you're telling me to fast.
And right away I heard the Holy Spirit say a diet changes the
way you look, but a fast changes the way you see.
And Lisa, I need you to change the way you see everything.
So Christian, I opened up my Bible and I I looked in the back
and I found all the scriptures on fasting and I just drank
water and juice for like 3 days. And instead of going to the
refrigerator, I went to worship. Instead of going to the
refrigerator, I went for a walk. And I just, every time I would
get worried to be like, you're not, you're probably, you know,
you need to eat your this, you need to do that anyway, 3 days.
And then God had to teach me how to live a fasted life because
apparently this is crazy, but it's true.
Apparently I have this gene that doesn't tell you when you're
done eating. Tell them what it's called.
It's. Hilarious the death pipe buffet
you just I can't go on cruises. I can't no, they say you'll just
keep eating and so I had to be like God, you have to teach me.
And so you know, I found so many people they think a fast is just
a quick diet, but a fast is not a quick diet.
A diet is a physical change and reset.
A fast is a spiritual 1. And so I, I love that David said
in Psalm 6910, I chastened my soul with fasting.
And I think sometimes we don't understand that our soul gets a
little preeminent in our lives and we need to actually put a
little lock down and say, all right, enough.
I'm, I've been, you know, I want to turn to some of the questions
that we have now because I know I saw a couple of them.
And these are things I always get asked.
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means to discipline, purify, refine, clarify.
So get back clarity and to improve discipline is training.
And so many times I've watched a fast in my life, be that reset
the reprogram or the clarity or the clarifying agent in my life.
OK, I have to ask this coming from your background, which I'm
sure you're not alone. Maybe women listening to this,
coming from your background, I'm an eating disorder.
That's a different type of discipline in your body.
So how did you right? That's punishment, yes, not
purifying. How did you learn to reshape
your mind and even your body's response to because they're both
restrictive, right? Right.
But for different purposes. How did you reshape your mind
and heart to even welcome the benefit of fasting without
keeping that punishment mentality going?
Yeah. So, you know, I saw food as
something that hurt me, something that was in like, OK,
I'll either take it away and it's a punishment or I, I can, I
can eat everything in the refrigerator or nothing.
I couldn't be normal. And so for me, having a pause,
having a fast, you know, was kind of this reset and then a
reframe that food was something to be thankful for, that it was
something to celebrate. But I didn't live to eat.
I ate to live. And I think too many people,
they're eating their emotions. I watched my mom do that.
I watched my grandmother do that.
And I had to say, all right, God, I have had this in the
wrong place. Fasting was a way for getting it
into the right place. And so many Christians, you
know, they come out of they come out of a hard season.
Maybe they come out of the holidays, or maybe they just
really need to hear from God and they think the fast is like a
hunger strike. They're like, all right, God, I
need to hear from you. I'm going to fast and you're
going to talk. But really a fast is more about
our receptivity than God speaking.
And, and I love how our nation, I mean, we're, we're in a
situation right now where our nation needs women to fast.
I really believe that, you know, I love how Esther hidden away it
in a in a Kingdom born for such a time as this.
And I have to believe that each and every one of us.
It's just not a nice little phrase for Esther, but it is
something that is a mandate for every daughter of God.
If you're alive right now, whether you're a grandmother
like me or whether you're a young girl, you are alive at
such a time for this. And God has brought you into to
the Kingdom for such time as this.
And so for me, I wanted to know that purpose.
What is the purpose behind that? And for Esther, hers was a
position of influence and rescue for her people.
And when Mordecai, who was her uncle, came to her and said, OK,
listen, you know you're not going to escape.
You think you're in the palace, you think you're going to
escape. She immediately goes, all right,
this is bigger than me. You ask the Jews and Sousas to
fast. I'm going to ask my handmaidens
to fast. And if I die, I die.
But she got to the place where she's like, all right, I'm going
to fast. And I'm going to, while I'm
fasting, prepare a banquet for the king, which is interesting.
Like I'm always like if I'm fasting, everybody's evening.
What I don't like in my household, but it shows the
principle of the fast, that the fast isn't just denial of self,
but indulging the king. And so when I fast, I'm actually
setting aside time for my king. I'm preparing A banquet.
I'm saying, God, I'm giving this time to you.
I want you more than my daily bread.
I want you more than than whatever I would try to satiate
myself with. So a fast is really about
reframing who God is to us and who we are to him.
And then, you know, of course we know this story.
She makes 1 banquet and then she's fasting.
So and then she makes another banquet and then she cries out
for the head of her enemies and the rescue of her people.
And I feel like right now we need some people who understand
that when we fast, we actually have this greater opportunity to
petition. That leads into one of the
questions we have is how do you know it's time to fast?
Is it something that God tells you to do, or something you do
to even just make that invitation to His voice
available? Well, I think it can be both.
I think it can be like, Hey, I've come through a season where
maybe I'm a little over indulgent, you know, and, and I
think, you know, that can even go to what we do fast because I
think some people say, well, I, you know, I'm, I'm breastfeeding
a baby. I can't fast.
Yeah, yeah. So 24 hour water fast while
breastfeeding, let me tell you. That would be hard, easy.
That would be hard. But but there's always something
you can fast. And what I used to tell people
is fast. What is holding you back?
Fast where you're going to those different places.
So entertainment, Oh my gosh, fasting entertainment is one of
those things that everybody can do.
And if they're like, I can't, I, I because of health reasons, I
can't fast because of, you know, I'm diabetic, whatever.
You can always fast something that is taking you away from the
presence of God. You can fast to the distractions
that are in your life. And so we want to just say, God,
I'm going to separate myself self to you.
And I actually like to start a fast with communion and say, all
right, God, I'm I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to break bread.
I'm going to honor Jesus's death, burial and resurrection
in my life. And I'm going to begin and I'm
I'm going to fast. But I also don't think there's
anything wrong with just saying, hey, this is a Holy Week.
I'm going to we're going to fast during this week or we're going
to fast at the beginning of the year and just do a Daniel fast
or a juice fast or whatever. I think that we don't.
I think we look for more excuses not to fast and reasons to fast
in our culture. Going off of those times of I, I
just want to present this fast. Where do we see in the Bible of
when people fasted or the purposes they were fasting for?
I mean, you mentioned Daniel. Right, Ezra is another one I
love. Ezra 821 says I proclaimed a
fast. He didn't say God proclaimed.
He said, I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves
again like David did, humble ourselves before our God and ask
him for a safe journey for us and our children and with all
our possessions. And when I read this, I think
that so many people think, well, he was going on a journey.
No, I think we're all wanting to transition from where we are to
where we could be and got it. He's saying, I'm not just
fasting for myself. I'm fasting for myself, my
children and our possessions. And when we just proclaim, say
God, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to declare a fast
because I want to humble myself before God and ask for safety,
direction, protection, provision.
He wanted got to take him from one place to another place.
And so many people are in a season of transition.
I'm hearing so much about job. You know, people are so
concerned about AI causing them to lose their job.
All these different things, transitional things, people
coming out of school feel like they have no jobs available to
them or people are in a season of singleness and they're hoping
to get married. For me, Christian, when the
first time I fast, I was single and getting ready to get married
and I knew that God was taking me on a journey from where
everything was about me to everything would be about us.
That's great awareness. Yeah, it's totally.
And I was, I was leaving my father's house and building a
house with my husband. And so I feel like I needed to
fast. And you know, again, I did not
have an example of how to do that well.
I knew certain things I didn't want to do, but I had never seen
a family begin with God as the center of the household.
So. Seeking that wisdom.
So I was like, God, I'm fasting. And I really felt like I kept a
journal during that time because we don't want to just do a
hunger strike, like I said, and just be quiet and, and not, you
know, like write things in our journal.
We want to listen and then record what God might whisper to
us. And that might just be a passage
of Scripture he tells you to go to.
It might just be, you know, Lisa, I'm so proud of you,
Christian. I'm so proud you set it aside
this time. But I really believe that
fasting is about retuning the voice of God in our lives.
It's like my husband always says that God is always speaking.
It's like a radio broadcast, but you have to get on the right
channel. And fasting actually helps us
get on the right channel. Yeah.
I love that you encourage us and anyone listening that we don't
do this simply for our benefit. But as you've shared, there are
actual benefits to fasting. Can you share some of those and
yes, maybe even how to how do you keep your heart in that
posture of making sure you're not fasting for the wrong
reasons? Well.
First of all, again, going back to fast, it's not about food,
it's about separation. You know, it's, it's not about
food, it's about consecration. It's not about losing weight.
It's about being loosed from every weight and sin and a guilt
consciousness and a shame consciousness.
So, you know, we go into a fast and if you go into a fast just
to lose weight, that's what you're going to get.
But if you go into the fast and you say, God, you are my reward.
And so I love Isaiah 58 and I'm going to start with first time
it says, is this the kind of fast I have chosen?
Only a day for a man to humble himself.
Is it only for bowing 1's head like a Reed or for lying on
sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast?
A day acceptable to the Lord? I mean, man, these people are
going way further than we do nowadays.
It's like what I for one day turned off my TV.
Well, listen, I believe that the American Christians, we need to
fast and Christian, here's here's the thing.
I remember being in a season that was full.
I was a mother and I was, you know, busy and and I was like,
God, I'm not hungry for your word.
I'm just surviving right now. And he said, Lisa, in a nation
like America filled with abundance, if you want to
develop a hunger for me, you're going to have to fast some of
these other things because maybe I wasn't doing anything bad, but
I was putting in things that just filled my time and I was
avoiding some other things. I knew at that time, Christian,
I'd had two children and I just, I knew that God was calling me
deeper and I was scared. So I was I was doing things that
kept me busy, but not sacred, not focused.
And and he was like, come on, Lisa is this is what?
And then the Israelites, they had reduced the fast to
religious motions, sackcloth, ashes, and God was like, hey,
that's not what I'm really looking for.
They lost contact of the heart of the matter behind the fast.
And then he goes, he asks the question, is not this the kind
of fast I've chosen to lose the chains of injustice, to untie
the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break
every yoke. Is it not to share your food
with the hungry and to provide the poor wander with shelter
when you see the naked, to clothe them and not turn away
from your own flesh and blood. So God is actually saying, well,
you're not busy with just yourself.
It frees you to have an awareness of others.
Also I believe when he's talking about break every yoke for me.
It broke the yoke of an eating disorder going on a fast.
It breaks the yoke of distraction.
It breaks the yoke of self focus, self-centered self
consciousness. I believe almost everybody could
easily go on a social media fast and it would be really healthy,
healthy and helpful for them. And then God goes through the
whole thing and said, he says, if you do these things, if you
honor the kind of fast I honor, and then verse 8 it says, then
your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will
quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go
before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call and the Lord will answer.
You will cry for help and he will say, here I am and I mean,
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bavier. Healing, proximity,
Righteousness, we've even seen which this kind of goes back to
that, that line, that very fine line of, you know, why am I
doing this? But a rise in the health
industry of fasting for health benefits.
And, you know, sidebar, we had an amazing episode with both
Jordan Rubin and Dr. Axe around the health benefits.
But you know, is there a spiritual closeness that that
even comes from that of, you know, as we're talking about the
healing, where's the little? Right.
Well, I mean, here's the thing, when your body isn't digesting
food, it has an opportunity to heal.
But again, we, we know that God is the ultimate healer, not
fasting. We know that God.
So what we're doing is we're positioning ourselves to receive
a healing from him. So we already talked about the
first one disciplining the chest and our soul, then the next one
changing our appetites. You know when you fast sugar,
you come off if you're fast. Yeah.
And you're like, oh, sugar doesn't taste quite as good as
it did beforehand. And you know when you when you
actually have a fast, what's happening is you're setting
yourself apart for certain things that just said, wait, I'm
looking at Acts 13. Two.
It says set apart for me. Barnes and Saul for the work.
I have called them too. So when we actually have a
setting apart, then the things that we used to enjoy previous
fast we don't enjoy so much. So social media, whether it's
entertainment, whether it's unhealthy food, again, the food,
the food is the emphasis. That's your reward and that's
not a bad thing. But if you're like God, my body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
This body is an entrustment. I am supposed to worship you
with my God presented a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.
So we don't have the right to mistreat our body when it is
something that God gave the death of his son to purchase
from me to be a good stir with. And then fasting increases
capacity. I love that.
You know, Esther again had capacity by fasting.
I've also got fasting brings answers to prayers when that
whole idea of we call, he answers no, we know Jeremiah
says even before we call, he's already answering and he wants
to show his great and money things we know not of.
So I have to believe that when we call, we heard the answer.
Almost like a Q-tip, a spiritual.
Q-tip opens up our ears. Able to.
Hear and then the the healing one.
Fasting leads to quick healing. Then your light will break forth
like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear.
I also believe we, we know now, it's not like your body's over
here and your brains over here and your spirits over here and
your souls over here. When you have bitterness and
unforgiveness and things like that, it affects your body.
And so when you're fast, God deals with very root issues that
when you can go to the root of something, then the healing can
spring forth because you've you've uprooted that thing that
has been defiling to you because this is a bitter root defiling
many. And right now we have a we have
quite a bit of bitterness and definement in the body of
Christ. Fasting opens doors to God's
protection is provision. Fasting looses the chains of
injustice. I know there's a lot of people
that would probably see more results if they'd go off of
social media decrying injustice and went into a prayer closet, a
fasting and prayer for a returning of injustice.
He frees the oppressed, breaks every yoke.
And when we take our eyes off our self and look around at
others, you know, one of my favorite quotes is when you set
people in motion, they heal themselves.
And so we want to set, we need to set ourselves in motion so
that healing happens and not just sit and study ourselves,
but get up out of the dust of self reflection and, and look
out and see what's going on be get into motion to actually
reach out to other people and just look at us.
And then fasting motivates us to provide food for the hungry.
I mean, there's when you're not, you're not using it, you can
give it to somebody else. And I do think there's a
hoarding spirit that fasting deals with.
Well, I love that you're connecting the, you know, the
spiritual, the physical, the emotional and you know, even we
see Jesus, he took times of fasting and he took time to
break bread with strangers and friends alike.
So that that heart posture you're saying is really like,
how is that driving us? Why are we eating?
How are we eating? How are we commuting?
I do think there's this factor of we're talking about the
benefits. There are some people that might
say, Lisa, I've tried fasting. I feel like I'm no good at it or
like you, I've never seen some of these examples modeled.
I'm a new Christian. I love that you and Addison on
the last episode talked about the guilt with prayer and even
we want to enter prayer with grace, not guilt.
So how do we enter fasting with grace, not guilt?
Because we've had some questions come in of I feel guilty.
I can't even complete a 24 hour fast, whether that's food or
social media. Where would you encourage those
people to start? I think first of all, if, if I
was in a position where I where I felt like, Oh my gosh, I can't
even turn off my phone social media wise for 24 hours, I would
have to answer the question, why?
Why? But what is it that?
What is the root of that? Because it sounds like they're
trying to do the thing without dealing with the thing.
They're trying to do the fast without dealing with the root
of. Why is that so necessary for
them to feel like they have to be on social media?
You know, they can't step away. And I'm not saying that to guilt
them. I'm saying I think a fast is an
opportunity to answer a bigger question about do they feel left
out? Are they feeling insecure?
Are they, you know, are they trapped in comparison?
You know, do they feel lonely? What is going on?
Is, is social media idle to them?
Do they need to have positive affirmation from outside
sources? And if they don't get that,
they're like, they feel like they're going to be left behind
or lost. They need to answer those
questions. And again, I think that if you
say, all right, God, I'm going to start small and believe big.
Well, how to work with you on that?
You know, I did a three day fast was my very first fast was three
days. But he, he asked me to do that.
And I know this is going to sound really silly, but I
literally this was back in 19808282.
I walked into the grocery store and I was like, Holy Spirit, I
don't know what to do. I don't know how to fast.
And I walked up and down the aisles and I got distilled water
and unfiltered apple juice. And I found out later that those
are two really great things to fast with because they're non
acidic and it was healthy. I'm not giving medical advice,
but that's what I did. It was like an apple Berry and I
drank water and I mixed it with juice for three days and it got
rid of the cravings. But that didn't mean that there
weren't times where I thought, oh, I don't know, it's 24 hours
and I, I don't know if this is working and I don't know, I
think I need to eat. What if my muscles, I mean, all
those things fight your brain, but you just that's why I would
go for a walk. That's why I would worship.
That's why I would read my Bible.
I would do something that would move me outside of it.
And then again, you know, if you're fasting and God is your
focus, ask him. He might say, I just want you to
fast dinner, or he might say, you know, whatever.
And then just do it. But one of the things that we
all need to be clear about is we, we can enter a fast, but we
can't. We don't want to make vows that
we break. We don't want to say I'm going
to do 2 days and then break it at one.
Just just start. If you feel like God is saying
it, just start and just say I, I, I think it's good to set
something, but not vow, if that makes any sense.
Like I'm going to be like, OK, you know, barring none of my
children get sick, barring that, I don't, you know, I'm going to
fast for the next three days. And what I'm going to do is it's
going to look like I'm fasting lunch for the next three days,
or I'm fasting everything or, and only drinking water, or I'm
only doing herbal, you know, whatever that is.
But you can do it. But you need God's grace even to
go on to fast. So just ask him to partner with
you. And I think that you can start
small. I think you can say I'm going to
just not have dinner tonight and I'm not eating again till I get
up in the morning. I just think people, they, they
start really big and then they're disappointed with
themselves. And this isn't about, this isn't
about you. This is about him, right?
What is the verse around Jesus once obedience over sacrifice
mean and you know, as you're saying, not make vows, but make
these gifts. And even if God's calling you to
fast, like how does that work into our discipline and our
diligence when it comes to fasting, whether it's food or
social media? Because as a as a young mom, I
hear some things and I think it's easy.
Like the, there's the flesh and the spiritual side of me is OK,
I have two children probably cannot go that long on low
energy. But then there's the other side
of, you know, the can you not tarry with me?
Like how much limits do you think we're giving ourselves out
of ease versus grace? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I
mean, going back to motive, this is not something that you're
doing to make God do something. This is so it's like God knows
if you're breastfeeding a baby, he's not going to want your baby
to starve. He's not going to be like, well,
I, I want you to stop breastfeeding your baby or I
want you not have enough milk. So I think that you can, we can
use common sense and wisdom and say, in this case, what do I do?
What do I do? And, and I believe he'll speak
to you. But again, if, if it's about a
guilt offering, God's like, no, I, I'm not, you know, Jesus was
your guilt offering. Let's not, let's not do that all
over again. This is not about a guilt
offering, but again, it's about a sensitivity to the spirit.
So for me, fasting means I'm going to be uncomfortable
because I'm used to being distracted.
It it means I'm putting my phone down.
I mean, it'd be very stupid to not eat and then have your phone
in your hand. That's just that.
That's not a fast. That's just you getting hungry.
So we want to be people that when you actually are fasting,
you've created capacity and room for you to hear from God.
You notice I would have worship music ready.
I would make sure I've set a part time where I can rest
during a fast. You should actually rest.
I love how Addison talked about when you first wake up.
I even find God whispers to me a lot when I'm falling asleep.
Keep a journal, have the time. It's, it's hard for young moms
to do that, but you know what they they don't have to be on
social media. There's there's absolutely no
reason why breastfeeding mothers or pregnant women need to be on
social media for a day or two days or whatever it is they they
can do that. So I don't, I know there's other
people that would disagree with me.
They say a fast is always about food.
I don't believe that. I believe it's about anything
that is an obstacle between you and God.
That was one question a lot of people had.
So thank you for for answering that.
I have one more practical and then one a little bit more
hopefully ending encouraging and inspiring for the people
listening for the practical sense.
You know, I love that the Holy Spirit told you water distilled
apple juice like that is really practical, but LED in the
spiritual way. Do you have any practical advice
for people coming off a fast of how to not just get back in the
throes of things or even if you are going in a time without
food, how to help your body? He's back into food.
Well, I know that nowadays there's so much information
online, healthy ways to come off the fast.
You do not want to go out and get a hamburger.
You do not want to go out and get a piece of pizza.
I mean, you can, but you're going to have a rough re entry
process. And so I know there's ways to
tell you how to like come back in on fruit or different things
that are much easier on the digestive system.
So I don't want to give that advice, but I, I would really
encourage you if you're doing a food fast to do that.
And then, hey, if you're doing a social media or entertainment
fast, why not temper that too? Why not say I've been full off
of social media? I'm going to only check social
media once a day or I'm going to check it twice a day and and you
can bring it back because when you've when you've done a fast,
you've increased your capacity for God and decreased an
appetite for constant affirmation from complete
strangers. So you want to entertainment.
I'm not going to watch something every single night.
I'm going to read. I'm going to do something that
is beneficial. I'm going to go outside and go
for a walk. I'm going to work in my yard.
I'm going to do something that takes me outside of my normal
pattern because I've done a reset on my, you know, what was
holding me back? And again, I think that those
are very practical ways. You don't want to just go into a
fast one way fast for three days, come out of the fast and
go right back into the same place.
You should be able to have done some resets and hopefully the
Holy Spirit has talked to you. And whenever God says I want you
to spend less time on social media, it's not because he's
trying to punish you. It's because he's saying I want
more time speaking to you. I want more time with you.
I want you to have more time with your family, with your
husband, with constructive things, more things outside.
This is not healthy or helpful. So he's, he's never being
punitive. He's redirecting you so that you
can have a healthier path forward.
OK, I did lie to you. I have two more questions.
One just came up. We're in Western society where I
feel like some people may actually need to have a fast
within a working capacity. I think we've understood now
like Sabbaths and, you know, the beautiful necessity of a Sabbath
even and time away or your Sunday routine extended time
away. What does that look like without
dodging obligations but also not making your work, your strength,
or your God? So like if someone's at work
9:00 to 5:00. Sure, like maybe they've done a
nine to five, five days a week for years and they're just
either saying, hey, I'm, I'm kind of burnt out or I
prioritize my work. I check my emails before I spend
time with God. My work's just really demanding
and I have this tension with my family dynamic.
Like how can a family approach that with, you know, honoring
their workplace and their families need for income?
But also, if God's saying, hey, this really has become an idol
in your source of strength, that I need that to be me.
Yeah, I mean, I do think you could do it after work or
lunchtime or before work. And I again, you have the
capacity to not check your emails until a certain windows.
You could, you could you could have specific windows where you
do things. I mean, I don't think people I
always fast on the weekend though.
I mean because if it's if I've got to be responsible during the
week to be a provider for my family, then during the weekend
I have the chance to do that. And again, just make different
choices after work, work and then talk, talk about the things
of God with your family. Don't talk about just things
that you would normally talk about, but just say, guys, I
really, I really feel like I want a greater hunger for God.
And I realize I've gotten really complacent.
I realized that I just go to church on Sunday and I listen
and I do nothing during the week.
And I'm, I'm sad about that and I want more.
And so I'm going to be reading through, you know, these
passages. Do you want to do that with me?
Or I'm going to watch instead of watching a show, I'm going to
watch, you know, something that's a scriptural teaching
where I'm going to feed my soul instead of distract my soul.
And I think there's just ways around it.
I, I mean, I know, I know that, you know, work shouldn't be the
problem. I do find that there's there's a
shocking amount of time that people spend on their phone at
the end of the day that have absolutely nothing to do with
work. And then I would also love to
hear for those listening that you know, are might make getting
their feet wet for the first time with fasting.
Do you have any stories of when you experience true breakthrough
or clarity? You know, I love that you shared
about your wedding and then like the healing and.
Yeah, I did get thin enough to wear my dress.
I didn't ever. See that?
So we're here dressed on the aisle, but is there times as a
mother or a wife or a leader that you know you, you
interceded even not just for your own behalf, but for
something greater that can leave us with this inspiration of the
beauty and. Benefit It was really important
for me to know the voice of God and I I was really tired of
hearing everybody else say that Oh, God said this to me and I
was like, what was he talking to everybody?
I mean, I was reading scriptures and I would be touched during
songs, but I was like, what? I don't, I'm not, I'm not
hearing the way it seems like all these other people are
hearing now. I will say when I first became a
Christian, I do feel like God whispered into my heart a lot.
And then it felt like I went through kind of a season of
famine and, you know, I was busy and I knew he loved me and I
went to church and I served in the local church, but I knew
that there was something missing.
And so I, I had to say, I'm going to set aside some things
and, and it was in my journal where I wrote things out and I
said, like, all right, God, I, I want to know you.
I want to know your will from my life.
I, I feel like I hear about you, but I don't hear from you.
And so tell me. And that's when he said, you're
going to need to fast. No, this wasn't for my wedding
dress. This was to hear again.
And he was like, put away. The, the only distraction we had
back then was magazines. Put away the magazines, limit
your phone conversations, let things go to the answering
machine or you guys don't even have answering machines, but
limit your intake, Lisa so that I can be the focus.
And I had young kids, but you know you can get your kids to
bed early and you can play worship music and you can read
the word I To be honest with you, I very, very infrequently
turned on television. I very rarely watched it when my
kids were little. We might do like some children's
programming in the morning and that would be about it.
But that would be times where I would seize those moments.
And I kept a journal where I would write in it and say, God,
you can be anything but but silent.
I need to hear from you. And, and I am, I'm sorry.
I've filled myself with other things.
Because that was easier and that was immediate.
And, and I've always found that when I really set my heart, he
whispers to me and then the word becomes alive when I'm reading
and all sudden it'll quicken something in my spirit.
And I can write that down. And it feels like as soon as I'm
writing things down, it's just alive.
But again, it takes intentionality and fasting in
this time period of overt distraction.
And, and to be honest with you, everybody's given over to, to
their appetites. I think it had to has to begin
with repentance. You know, God forgive me for
being mastered by my appetites and distraction.
I want you to be the Lord of every area of my life.
And that that's how it begins. And like I said, it can start
small and they can believe big. And I don't want people to set
up to be like, oh, I'm going to do a 40 day fast.
And then they're like, Oh my gosh, I'll ask you 45 minutes.
Right? Exactly.
And, you know, I know there's people that are way more godly
than me that do those kind of things, but I don't think
anybody starts there. Yeah.
Well, you created resources, you have a book and other things
around this. So where would you point people
if they want some more help as they begin this or more
direction getting started? Yeah, well, I mean, I first of
all, I I want you to know that fasting is a spiritual
discipline. It is not a punishment.
It is a time to draw closer to God.
It is not. It is about you separating.
It is about you pursuing him. It is not about him being
disappointed with you, but it is about you humbling yourself.
All spiritual warfare begins with humility.
So if you find yourself in a battle, you're saying I don't, I
don't. Maybe.
Yeah. I think a fast can actually set
you up with a breakthrough where you can actually see what's
going on instead of just being distracted.
So again, I keep talking about distraction.
I keep talking about appetite, I keep talking about sanctifying A
consecrating a time to God. What would be wrong about this?
What would be wrong about resetting these things?
And I know when my boys were little, as a family, we would do
for this month. We're not going to watch any
television. My children were like, no, why?
We're not. We don't need this.
It's you guys that need it. But we would always find when we
would come out of that, there would be a greater discernment
and guess what? We were talking with one another
more. There's so many conversations
that need to be had, but they're avoided.
Whether it's our conversations with God or our conversations
with one another, that when we push aside those things that are
separating us, we're going to actually find this freedom and
that. And then it talks about breaking
the yoke of bondage. I believe fasting can break the
yoke of bondage of pornography. I believe that fasting can break
the yoke of bondage of eating disorders.
I believe fasting can break the yoke of gossip.
It can break the yoke of having a constant need for man's
affirmation, people approval, that fear of man, people
pleasing. I believe that gets broken by
fasting. So I believe if you bring it to
God and you say God, I've wrestled with this for so long
and I am not getting free, I believe that you can put it on
the altar before the Lord and say, God, I'm humbling myself.
I've tried to get free on my own.
I've tried to do it in my own strength.
I've tried to do it in my mind. I can't do it.
You put it on the altar and I believe God will meet you there
and he'll tell you. He'll say, hey, baby girl, this
is what you need to do. This is what you can't.
You know, if you've got baby girls, you've got kids.
Don't worry about not eating, but you know where you've got
room. Or you can have greater capacity
for me. You can put this aside or that
aside. And again, it's not God.
We're not earning something from God.
It's actually about creating a sensitivity to His voice.
I want you to know that I believe that God's grace is on
you when you prepare your heart and say God, I'm willing.
So I'm just going to believe that God will grace you to fast,
that God will speak to you and that you'll know how to fast,
how long to fast, and what you're actually fasting for.
I believe that you'll go into this fast with purity of heart
and that God will astound you with the answers.
And you've been some of you've been waiting a long time and
you're afraid to pray and you're afraid to fast because you're
afraid that God's not going to tell you what you want to hear.
I just want you to know God is a good God and he wants to speak
to you. And even if it is correction,
don't be afraid. He's redirecting you.
He's never taking anything from you to punish you.
He's taking things from you to actually strengthen you.
So I believe in this time of fasting, God wants to actually
heal you. I believe he wants to break
yokes of bondage. And so I'm thanking Father in
advance for you touching and meeting all those that reach out
to you with the since our sincere heart in Jesus name.