Why Prayer and Fasting Still Matter Today

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua talks about prayer and fasting and why both are still an important part of the Christian life.

This message focuses on staying close to God, humbling the flesh, growing in spiritual authority, and pressing through situations that do not seem to move through prayer alone. It also highlights how prayer and fasting work together, why Jesus expected His followers to fast, and how this practice helps keep believers rooted, focused, and spiritually awake.

This episode is a reminder that prayer and fasting are not just for a select few. They are a biblical part of walking closely with God and seeking breakthrough, direction, and deeper surrender. 

Join The Morning Charge LIVE Monday-Friday at 7:30 AM CT on TikTok.

Want to go deeper?

Join the Branjo Circle for teaching notes, discipleship resources, live classes, and community.

Learn more at branjocollective.com

Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated. It was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. This is the morning charge. Let's pray and jump into the word this morning. We're going to talk about something that's uh it's not talked about as much as it used to be. And so, Father, I just thank you, Lord. I thank you for your word. I thank you, Father, for putting this back on my heart, Lord. Lord, I thank you for helping keep priorities in order, Lord, in our lives. Jesus, we just we just honor you here on this live, in this room today. Father, as we go through your word, Lord, let it just illuminate to us, Father. Let it be etched upon our hearts, God, so that we don't just hear it and it stays here, Lord, but it moves to here. And then this right here begins to send action down to our feet, God. Lord, we give you a permission to move in our lives so that we can begin to walk this life out with you. We don't ever want to be the same. And we just love you right now. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Amen. All right, y'all. This morning I'm going to talk about, we know we've been talking about adopting the lifestyles of Jesus in 2026. This morning, what I want to talk about is adopting the lifestyle of prayer and fasting. See, that we we have dropped off the last part over the past few years, actually over the last few decades. All right. Fasting is not something that's talked about very much. I mean, nobody really wants to do that. I mean, I mean, let's just be look, this is real talk, real Jesus, real life. But there's a lot of churches who have completely dropped off the fasting and the corporate fasting together as the body of believers that God has called in this place. And but this is very true. Nobody wants to talk about this. All right, prayer and fasting is not just a it's not just some sort of a spiritual add-on, all right, to for these extreme believers. Oh, these guys are really out there, you know, for Jesus. So they're the ones that are praying and fasting. They're the crazy ones. No, praying and fasting is a lifestyle that should be here for every single one of us. All right. This is a lifestyle for people who want to stay close to God. If you're praying and fasting, you are somebody who is serious about staying close to God. All right. Praying and fasting also keeps you rooted and grounded. Okay. And it keeps your spiritual authority on the inside of you rooted and grounded even further in Him. All right. And there are places that we're going to talk about and we're going to go to some scripture where breakthrough can only come through prayer and fasting, where deliverance can only come in certain situations. Jesus told the disciples, hey, that can only come through prayer and fasting. That's the only way that thing is going to come out. And do you know there's been some, there's been some translations that have actually removed that key scripture. And that let's see. Let's just, I'm already there, so let's let's go there. If you go to Matthew, Matthew 17 and 21. Matthew 17 and 21 says, however, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. What are we talking about? Well, uh, it's let's back up a little bit. If you go to Matthew 17 and 13, there's an instance where I was going to get to this later, but we just we're just gonna go ahead and go. We're going there now. And when they had come to the multitude, this is Matthew 17, 14, by the way. I'm in the New King James. And when the and the passion did not remove this either. Hello, for all those that knock on me about the Passion Translation. It's still in here as well. So all right. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured for that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast it out? Well, what's wrong with that? Why could we not cast it out? Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it'll be moved, and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Like I said, there there are some translations, many modern translations, who have either they've either omitted that from the main text or they have placed it in like a footnote down at the bottom, like it just like it, like it just doesn't matter. But this matters. This is huge. They couldn't cast out the the the disciples could not cast out this demon. So Jesus had to do several things here. He had to number one, he address their unbelief, and he had to address their their issue of spiritual authority. Alright, if we break it down, well forgotten, I gotta go here. If we look at Matthew 17, I should have had this marked. Matthew 17. I'm going a little deeper than I thought. And you read it from here, where Jesus rebuked the demon, it came out of him and the boy was healed. Later the disciples came and said, Hey, why couldn't we do that? He told them it was because of your lack of faith, your unbelief, your lack of faith. I promise you, if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the size of a small mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, see, if you got faith on the inside of you, even if it's just a tiny little bit of faith, you're giving God something to work with. But if you don't, if you go with no faith and you ain't been praying and you ain't been fasting, like you said, there's nothing. If you go with that little bit of faith, move from the mountain, move, get out of here, and you're gonna see that mountain move and crumble, there is nothing you couldn't do. But this particular demon that was found in the boy that needed healing, this kind of demon is cast out only through prayer and fasting. That is translated from the the Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Greek manuscripts. But even the footnotes in the Passion say many reliable Greek manuscripts don't have that. The Greek, some of the Greek manuscripts took it out, and it's not included in in many of the modern translations for today. So what in the world, why would we take that out? I mean, that seems like a key piece of info, don't you think? That there's some demons in your life that that you ain't that they're not going to release itself from you if you're not praying and fasting. It didn't say prayer or fasting. All right, it didn't say prayer or it said prayer and fasting. So prayer and fasting means that that runs hand in hand together. Prayer and fasting, they belong together. Prayer gives you direction. Being in the presence of the Lord, He is the one that speaks to you, the directions in which you're going. Fasting gives prayer the intensity that it needs so that you can begin. You're starving the flesh, in other words. When we were looking for our next steps and where to go not too awfully long ago, Brandy and I began to pray and fast until we got answers from the Lord. And he answered and we heard and we moved, and we're right where we're supposed to be. There are times when you have to pray and fast in your life. And we should do that more than we do that. People don't like it. It isn't easy to deny yourself. People don't want to why you don't want to starve the flesh. Come on, we love to eat. Hello? We don't wanna we don't wanna we gotta we gotta stay on our little diet. Because I can tell you this that that that fasting without prayer is that's like a diet. That's like you're trying to do something dietary. All right. That's not anything spiritual. Prayer and fasting run hand in hand together. You should pray and fast. And a lot of us, but see, and in a lot of us, Corey, a lot of us have never, we've never been, we've never been taught to fast. We've never, we've never even read it in a sense where we thought, okay, well, maybe that was for then and and not for now. But if Jesus said, well, however, this kind doesn't go out except by prayer and fasting, that lets me know that prayer and fasting is important to take care of some things. Maybe, maybe you're still dealing with something, and this is the only way to take care of that. Josh, I've been believing and I've been I've been hoping and I've been I've been praying and I've been I've been pressing in. Well, try praying and fasting and seeing, seeing what God wants to do in your life. You know, fasting without prayer, that's just a diet. We don't want to do that. All right, so let's let's really look at how we adopt the lifestyle of prayer and fasting. This is not I don't want this to just be another teaching on this, if you've heard this before. Jesus isn't commanding fasting. That's right. He is expecting it. He says, when you do. And that's the thing. Jesus is like, you guys need to now he said, hey, your unbelief. We gotta deal with this unbelief, you guys. But this kind, you gotta pray and you gotta fast if you want to see results. He always leads them in the way. And he's leading us in the way even now, even today. Maybe there's some things in your life that you won't see, or you your the results you won't see unless you're praying, unless you're fasting. Yeah, this is all about the full gospel. We don't leave anything, we don't want to leave anything out of this. This is a lifestyle. There's some strongholds, some battles. Maybe there's some spiritual resistance. Maybe you have some some sort of personal breakthrough, some deliverance issues. Maybe you got some family issues, you have some bondages that are holding you bound still. You got some issues with your flesh, you're issues with your mind. Maybe you have areas of oppression in your life that will not move because you heard a good message about what you should do, but you still haven't done it. You still haven't done it. Some things move when you pray. Some things move when you fast. But some things break when you're praying and you're fasting and you are pressing in and pressing through. I'm just saying, a lot of people, you you know how to pray. Even if you know how to pray a little, all right. You at least you know how to pray, and you know that prayer is important and that things happen when you pray. Amen. But there are few people that know how to fast. And that's the reason we're talking about this this morning, and how the two run together and what this really means. All right. And prayer, obviously, is how we talk to God. We talk about prayer in here all the time. You know, you need to find yourself in the secret place, you need to be praying, you need to be seeking the Lord. All right, we talk about praying. That's how we commune with him, that's how we speak with him, that's how we talk with him. All right. Fasting is how you humble the flesh. Does fasting have to be only food fasting? Because health issues make that a struggle. If health issues make that a struggle, then you would need to seek the Lord, all right, and seek some wise counsel on how you can fast. How you can fast. All right, seek the Lord on how you can fast. Okay. Because there's there's a way that you that you should be able to, all right, but you want to do it rightfully. All right, and that's just good advice. We don't need you passing out nowhere and defeating the whole purpose. I mean, this is just a way to starve the flesh in order to get closer to the Lord. And you got to do that in the health boundaries that you have. I know a lot of people deal with different things. So do it smart, do it wise, okay, but do it. That's the thing. To do it. Meet with him in faith in this place with him. But fasting is how we humble the flesh. Fasting causes you to be to sharpen you spiritually. It gets your focus on it. So I recommend one meal a day for people. If you have some health issues and health concerns, yeah, at least have one meal a day. Don't go all day. All right, and there are some people that will go sunup to sundown. All right. So if you can get up early and eat you a little something, then spend the whole rest of the day until the sun goes down and then eat again. You could do that as well. So you could do, but the the whole thing is God, I am blocking off this time. And I'm gonna starve my flesh on purpose because there's some things in my life that I know won't break unless I press in and I just and I give this time fully devoted to you. God, I need answers. Lord, I need answers. Some answers won't come except through praying and fasting. And now you're seeking the Lord intentionally, you're starving your flesh, and he is going to meet you right then. He's gonna meet you right then. Whatever your flesh craves, craves, you need to fast from that. That's very true. Fasting doesn't replace prayer. Prayer doesn't replace fasting, they run hand in hand together. Fasting should actually strengthen your prayer and your time with the Lord. That's what it does. It strengthens your time with the Lord. And fasting, fasting is not some sort of a spiritual shortcut either. Okay, I want you to know this. All right, it it is about is about right posture before the Lord. All right, it's like saying, Lord, I want more of you than I do the comfort of being. Because when you're full, when you're full, like if I've if I've eaten, I and I, and this happens some mornings. If I've gone all morning, I haven't eaten breakfast and I've prayed, I've been searching, I've been seeking the Lord, I actually have more energy during that time. And then lunch gets here, and if I eat lunch and I just go ahead and eat, it's almost like now my energy is just like I guess it depends on what you eat too. But you're saying, Lord, I don't, I, I, I, I I know I am so hungry. I could eat that right now. I could make a sandwich, I could do this, I could do that. But you know what? I'm gonna spend this moment with you, God, because I am seeking answers from you. I want your voice to speak to me louder than those cravings that I have right now, God. I need you right now in my life. I need breakthrough right now. I need breakthrough in my life, Lord. So I'm gonna push all this aside and say, here I am. Here I am right now. And Larry, in those moments when you've eaten, don't beat yourself up. All right, there's no like perfect way. This is a heart. Honestly, this has everything to do with the heart and your posture before the Lord. Are you really wanting to adopt the lifestyles of Jesus? Are you really wanting to really press in to all that God has for you? Then we have to pick up this thing and we have to walk it out according to this thing. If Jesus made it necessary to say that certain things only go out through prayer and fasting, well then I might want to start praying and fasting. That's what Jesus said. And like I mentioned earlier, prayer or fasting without prayer is just a diet. If you're skipping meals but you're not seeking the Lord in it, then then that's not that's not really a fast with him. Okay. You're just you're just not eating. Biblical fasting, you are abstaining with a purpose. You're abstaining with a purpose. Hey, Lord, I got this going on. It ain't budging. And you know this is something big. This is a situation that needs to be resolved, this is something that needs to happen, and I need a breakthrough. I mean, Jesus is already, I mean, right before he mentioned this, you know, because of your unbelief, I say to you, if you got faith as a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, move from here, and it'll move, and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go except by prayer and fasting. So you got to show up and you got to believe that God is going to do what he said he would do. And then you're going to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. Try that today. It's starving the flesh. And it, I know it's, it's, this is not a very, it's not a very popular teaching nowadays. It's not something that people get all gung-ho in. And then, you know, some churches still have their corporate fasts and stuff like that. And but that's the only time that they will. There's some situations you're personally going through. You need to starve your flesh. That's so very true. The stronger, if you want to get stronger in the Lord, maybe today's a good day to fast. Say, you know what? I'm not going to eat anything till dinner, and I'm going to spend my lunch break praying and seeking you, Lord. Maybe there's some situations, and that could be you could fast today. I'm not talking about doing anything uber extreme. I mean, there's some sometimes, you know, I've been through a couple of week fast in my life because it's what I felt like I needed to do to really seek the Lord until an answer came. Amen. You don't understand. Crystal says, I don't understand. If God wants us to inflict pain, how is that loving? This is not about inflicting pain. If I starved my children, I'd go to jail. I'm not telling you to not feed the kids, okay? What this is talking about is starving your mind. And I'm not talking about like starving your. I mean, there's ways that we fast with our children. Like I said, you can do sun up to sundown. This is not some extremities like you're going 40 days and you're not eating. Okay. I have gone, I've gone about two weeks, Sean. I've gone about two weeks before with just with just water. That was that was rough. But if I there was a specific thing I was seeking the Lord for, and he did cut, he came with answers. What I'm trying to tell you is it works. This works. All right. I would I would not tell you anything that doesn't work. Jesus would not have told us anything that didn't work. He gave us, he gave us the ways to live and the ways to walk and the ways to talk. And like I said, if you're just starting out and you've never fasted before, I'm not saying don't starve your whole household for two weeks. No, I'm saying starve the flesh for a period of time so you can press in, you can press in more to the Lord. It's just adopting the lifestyles of prayer and fasting. That's all. That's all. And like I said, we're talking about something. This is not popular. I mean, and you know, a lot of people come with the with the with questions and things because you're not teaching this in church everywhere. Select ones do. I know Apostle Kelly's teaching fasting and he's teaching praying. Amen. Did the master command it? Yes, he did. It's all about obedience. It's about being obedient. And if there's things in your life that you haven't been seeing the answers on, maybe this is a time that you need to take some time to pray and fast. I know a couple that was making a huge move in their life. And they actually, they didn't let anybody, there was no guest in their home during this period of time. They literally stayed in their house, all right, unless they had to go to work and come home. But they stayed in their house and they stayed on their face before the Lord and they fasted. And within like a week or two, God moved in their life. He spoke to them clarities of exactly where they would be moving. He spoke the timing on what it would be. He showed them the place and everything lined up and moved because they took time to decide. Deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. This is a part of that denying yourself thing. Amen. Amen. This is a part of that deny yourself thing. If we go back to let's just go here. Here's another one for you. Let me get over here real quick. Matthew 6 and 16. So you want more words from Jesus? I gave you one section, all right, which is a rare one because it's removed out of some of the text, some of the more common texts or modern day contemporary text, sorry. Matthew 6 and 16. If I'm starting here, Jesus says this. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. I'm hungry. If you just don't eat, you miss the point. Yeah, you have to seek him and spend time with him. All right, so so when you're fasting, don't look like the hypocrites, like you're all sad, for they disfigure their faces and they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward, because they're already making it known. But but you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in the secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. In other words, when you're fasting, I don't ever just go around telling everybody, I'm fasting, I'm fasting, I'm fasting, I'm fasting. I understand there's times to have a corporate fast with the body, all right, but we're not all running around out here looking all like, oh, I'm starving my flesh for the Lord. No. And the then the other key words here, when you see this, Jesus says, moreover, when you fast. He said, when you fast, he didn't say if you fast, if you should desire, you know, you should if you choose to do this. No, he said, moreover, when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. Well, that means this is something we should be continually doing. When you fast, that tells us that fasting was expected. It wasn't optional for just a select few. It wasn't for just like the disciples only. No, no, no. This is what Jesus desired for everyone. He said, when you do this, because you should be doing this, all right. Jesus assumes that his followers are going to pray. Jesus assumes here that his followers are going to are going to give, and he assumes that his followers are going to fast. He's assuming that you're already doing these things. That's why he said, when you're doing these things, this is what you do. You know, over here in chapter six is huge. He's teaching us how to pray. Did you notice that? The model prayer came right before that. In verse 5, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues. So he goes all through this. And you should pray like this, our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, and we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you give men their treasures, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. In other words, I'm sorry, if you forgive men their trespasses, their treasures, what am I saying? If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you don't forgive them, your father is not going to forgive you. And moreover, when you fast, well, here it is. Prayer and fasting just went hand in hand together. We've made the we've left off the last part. We'll stop at 15. I'm not reading 16, 17, 18. Can't do that. No, this is a lifestyle thing, y'all. And if I'm adopting the lifestyles of Jesus in 2026, all right, if you're going to adopt the lifestyles of Jesus in 2026, we have to look how he lived, how he talked, how he moved, how he walked. There are places in spiritual warfare where prayer and fasting matter more deeply. We talked about that in Matthew 17. There are certain things that are only going to go that way. Prayer and fasting is more than just casting out those demons, though. Because a lot of times we'll associate it with that and say, well, we really just need to pray and fast if it when it's coming to a deliverance issue. Scripture shows us fasting is connected to many different things. It's connected to staying humble. It's connected to our humility. It's connected to repentance and being on our face before the Lord and crying out to Him in those times of lamenting when you're going through dark seasons of your life. This is about consecrating ourselves to God again. This is about, Lord, I need more guidance from you. I need more guidance in my life. I need solutions. I need, I need answers, Lord. This is about breakthrough. This is about being empowered to do everything that God has called you to do. Because when you fast, things begin to happen. Because Jesus already believes that you should already be doing these things. Jesus was one that would pray and be alone in the wilderness before he ever did public ministry. He was fasting and praying before he would ever get out and minister to a single person. Do you not think that was a key thing to his ministry and to his life? So that he could hear the Father clearly, so that he could move when the Father said move, so that he would stay when the father said to stay. And that's it. Yeah, that's it, Catherine. Some things are only budging if you're praying and fasting. The early church was fasting when they needed to seek direction. Ezra in the Bible fasted for protection and humility before God. Esther called for a fast in a moment of crisis. Other places in the word we see David fasted in grief and desperation before the Lord. Joel. He called for fasting in repentance and to return to God. We see fasting all throughout the Word of God. So, no, fasting's not just for one issue. It's not just for the some things only come out parts. This is a part of a consecrated life. And we see it over and over and time and time again. But we continue to leave this part out. Fasting, as we have been talking about, it weakens the flesh and it sharpens your spiritual sensitivity. That's what it does. It's almost like it cleanses your body, it cleanses your mind, it grounds you again in the Lord. That's what happens when you're fasting. And it really honestly, if you look at fasting, there are doctors that would that would advise you to go through a certain fast for your lifestyle because it resets the body. There are some people who will do just a full fast every Monday or whatever. This is naturally speaking, okay? I'm over here now, but it resets your body. How much more do you feel when you fast and you pray that you're resetting yourself in a way in the spirit so that you can hear God and move with God better? If that was doing things, yeah, Daniel fasted, Jason, absolutely. I mean, that's why we have the Daniel fast. No meats, sweets, or bread. That is another form of fasting. He gave up certain things before the Lord. Praying, fasting. It does something to you. A lot of the reasons that people would avoid fasting is because fasting will expose what is really going on in there. If if there are some things that only come out through prayer and fasting, then that obviously means that when you pray and you fast, there are things that are going to be that are going to come out. All right. There's a lot of people that, I mean, they they put food way up here before they do the Lord, which will make it even harder when it comes to fasting. And when your flesh is denied something, something begins to happen on the inside of you. When your flesh is denied something, something begins to happen on the inside of you. Randy, what's up, buddy? Thanks for your heart, me and the popular. I appreciate you jumping in this morning. Good morning, bro. And welcome. And I just want to say congratulations to the to the new addition that is coming to your family. All right. I believe there's a that is an order to do that, real quickly. We're going through the word this morning. We're in it. But I got to stop and give my buddy Randy some congratulations. They have a new little one that is going to be coming to their family. I'm so I'm I'm excited for you guys. This is number one, right? This is the first.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

So congrats to y'all.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Oh, I'm telling you what. And then eight later. You guys are going to enjoy that. Uh, we just, we just we're just experiencing having our first grand. So yet number one, have oh, amen. Amen, brother. Well, congratulations to you guys on this one. And and I know that God is going to move in a powerful way in y'all. Y'all are going to be such good parents. And like I said, we were just blessed with our first grandchild. And so, so yeah, so that now that takes things to a whole new level. When you get there one day, yeah, we'll we'll talk about that one. But but join you, enjoy your own for now and uh enjoy the new season that you guys are jumping into, man. We love you, bro. Yeah, we're talking about praying and fasting in here. This is one of those, this is one of those topics that's not talked about too very much. But when we deny our flesh things, something begins to happen spiritually on the inside. Shine, what's happening? Good morning to you and welcome in. Sherry, thanks for the confetti this morning. There you go, Randy. Shine, you have something to share with us? Well, just drop that down there in the chat, my friend. We would love to see it. And that's okay. I know you're on the other side of the world from us, so this is your evening reset instead of your morning charge. So I'm glad that you're here with us. Paul, you got six kids, four grandkids later. You realize that your quiver is full. Oh, goodness gracious. They say you know when your quiver is full. And so, yeah, that's what they say. Rosa Kara, thank you for the roses this morning, my friend. You're planning to go back to college to become a teacher. Well, amen, Shine. Well, congratulations on that. Shine is going back to college to become a teacher. You need prayer that that the right college would open up. Well, Father, we just pray right now, blessings over Shine this morning. Father, I pray right now, Lord, that you would that you would uh lead her in the right directions, Lord. Father, that that you would place her in the right college, Lord, to go forth and do uh what you're calling her to do right now. Father, I saw that you would open up every door financially, Father. Lord, the doors of opportunity, Lord, in the right place. And that God, you've already ordered her steps in the midst of what you have called her to do. As she puts one foot forward in front of the other, Lord, you're going to meet her every step of the way. And we look forward to walking with you on this journey, my friend. So definitely keep us posted on what God is doing in your life. Amen. Amen. God is good. God is good. Thank you, Jesus. Fasting is a way. Talk about fasting this morning or this evening, wherever you're coming from. Fasting is one way that we remind the flesh that it does, that the flesh doesn't sit on the throne, but God sits on the throne. So when you're denying yourself, you're not, you're not depraving yourself of something. What you're doing is you're giving something up so you can take on more of Him. And that's what I want to do. I want to take on more of what God has for me. I want to take on more because there's more. Maybe you haven't pressed into the more because there's some other things you need to be doing. And fasting will help you reveal some things that are on the inside of you that maybe you didn't know was there. Maybe praying and fasting go and they help you get rid of some things that you thought you have gotten rid of or you thought you had dealt with. Because we want to be so free. And right before Jesus talks about fasting in Matthew 6 and 15, 14 and 15, you need to forgive others so that you can be forgiven. And then, moreover, when you're fasting, forgiveness, praying, fasting, keep the inside clean and walk life out the way that he designed you to walk it out. There you go. These are measures to be able to keep your house clean. I want to keep my house clean. Amen. And then we look, we look over here. Let me jump over here real quick. If we go to Isaiah 58, give you another scripture here. Because I don't want you to think this is just me sitting here just talking about, well, this would be a great thing to try. No. This is this is a biblical, this is how we do things. All right, and you you can see I've made some footnotes up there. I wrote fasting. I've been in this one for quite a while. I think a kid got out that one right there. Listen, me and this one, we have been around the block. They say if your Bible's falling apart, your life isn't. So I'm going to go based upon that and say, All right, if we look at 58, Isaiah 58, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation. They did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness? You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread but sackcloth and ashes? I know, y'all just bear with me a minute, okay? Would you call that a fast and an acceptable day of the Lord? Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens. Uh oh, now we're getting to what fast does. I know a lot of the other you're like, what is he talking about? But we're now we're getting into the part. This is the fasting that pleases God. You fast to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free. Deliverance. And that you break every yoke. It is not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out, when you see those that don't have any clothes on, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh. All right, and then it goes on and on and on and on and on. But we see a very key thing here. Is this not the fast I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you shall break every yoke? That's what fasting does. God rebuked people here, though. God at the very beginning, what we see throughout this is God is rebuking people who are fasting outwardly while living wrong inwardly. He's like you were looking the part. And then why have we fasted? They say, Have you not seen? In other words, don't you see me fasting? Don't you see me doing the things unto the Lord? I'm going through the motions and I'm checking the boxes. Don't you see all the things that I'm doing? But nothing on the inside was being done. They were going through the motions, but their hearts were still off. So biblical fasting is not the, oh, look at me, we're going through a fast, or, oh, look, me and my family are fasting right now, or I am fasting. Or no, it's not the look at me, look how spiritual I am, look what I'm giving up for God. Woo. It's not anything about that. When you're going through a fast, that's something personal. Nobody should even know you're going through it except your immediate family or whoever lives in the house with you. Biblical fasting is saying, Lord, come and search me. Lord, come and know me. Lord, come and change me. Lord, come and speak to me. Lord, break what needs to be broken on the inside of me because I want to walk wholeheartedly with you. And I am, I am giving this up today. I am starving my flesh so that you can come and fill me up with your Holy Spirit and come in and do a cleansing on the inside of my life. Ah, now we're getting to the crux of what fasting is and why it's so important and why the enemy wants to make sure that generations go by and we're not talking about this thing anymore. You know, the things that are being removed, I have to take a look at that and go, hmm, what did that say? What does this say? Well, you're not talking about that. I wonder how powerful that is. The enemy wants to just lull everyone to sleep now. It's gonna be okay. Just live that comfortable life. It's gonna be fine. Shh. Don't get too loud now. Don't, don't, don't get out there and get to speaking too much now. You know, don't go share Jesus with people. They don't want to hear that. Well, I'm putting the enemy in his place and saying, no, I'm sorry. We're gonna live according to the way that Jesus lived. We're gonna stand up, we're going to arise, we're going to shine his light in the dark places. So if you want change on the inside, you want God to come truly search you on the inside, how about we skip a meal today? Or or tomorrow, if you're not fully prepared, get yourself ready. I didn't say it was going to be easy. So if we're going to be doing this trying this fasting thing, we need to make sure prayer does go along with it, though. The goal is not to just become good at fasting, the goal is to get closer to God. There's a lot of people that are like, I've prayed and I've searched and I've I've I've wondered and I've done. Could it be that now it's time to deprive your flesh of some food and get before the Lord? And now let's pray and seek Him. Now let's get closer. We're getting closer to God. It's not just about becoming good at something. We've become very comfortable over in the Western world. We love our conveniences. We love to just things just go easy. We love the little quick fixes and the little things. You know, we we love to hear about, we love to hear about the power. And it's important to know the power that lives on the inside of us, but we're we we don't always uh want the disciplines that accompany going deeper with God. We just want the thing. We live in a very fast, a very fast food society. We want to drive around the building, not get out of the car and be full without any work, no effort other than handing the card over and getting the card back and taking the food and eating it. We're in a very fast microwave society. We want to have breakthrough, but we don't want to surrender anything. We want to have the authority of God, but we don't want to consecrate our lives to God. We want deliverance in our lives, but we don't want to have unalive to the flesh. Hello? Power comes from denial of many things. Absolutely, Sherry. Absolutely, 100%. And we we want we won't we want power. Power without prayer. We want we want results without fasting. I want this to happen without having to do that. That seems very difficult. And I don't want to do that. That's usually what it boils down to. We just don't want to do it. And we'll come up with all kinds of excuses and things as to not do it. We just don't want to. But there is a place in God. There is a place in your life where things are only going to happen with Him through prayer and through fasting.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Either that or you're going to just continue to be ruled by your appetite.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Is your hunger for that more than your hunger for God? See, it makes you look at things, it makes you question things in a rightful way as you should. So go back through some of these today. Matthew 6 and 16, 16 through 18, talking about when you fast. Jesus talking about when, not if, but when, because Jesus expects fasting to be a part of a normal kingdom lifestyle. Alright, Matthew 6, start in verse 16. Matthew 17, all right, just read Matthew 17, 14 through 21. All right, I don't know if you're writing these down. I'm going to give them to you. If you want to write them down, you can. Matthew 17, 14 through 21. All right, that's the passage that discusses the verse 21 that's omitted. All right. That many things come out just through prayer and through fasting. That just tells us how serious that prayer and fasting really is. All right. You can also write down Mark 9, Mark chapter 9, verse 29. All right. This kind comes out by nothing but prayer. All right. Some manuscripts and older traditions also include fasting in this passage. I don't know what your particular version you have says, but Mark 9 and 29, Isaiah 58, all right. What we just read through about fasting, not it looking on the outside, but you need to do things to make sure on the inside. It doesn't matter if a soul knows about it, nobody should know that you're fasting. All right. This is between you and God. Keep it between you and God. That's what it's about, is going deeper in Him, not just looking like you're just a good little Christian. All right. Joel 2 and 12, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and with mourning. So that's Joel 2 and 12. Acts 13, 2 through 3. The early church ministered to the Lord and fasted before being directed by the Holy Spirit. Fasting had to come before they were directed by the Holy Spirit. So there you go. Acts 13, 2 through 3. Ezra 8, 21 through 23. Fasting was tied to humility and seeking God for protection. So once again, fasting had to be used through being humble and seeking God for protection. So there you go. There's the word. Help us to stay humble. So, once again, what does today's teaching tell us? It tells me that I need to get in the secret place. It tells me that I need to get in the secret place. Because if you're going to be praying and fasting, you need to find yourself in the secret place. What's going to happen in the secret place? God's going to begin to speak to you. He's going to begin to show you things. You need to have a journal that you keep in your secret place with you so that you can write down whatever it is. Just get your little whatever. And then begin to write down what you see through the word during your prayer time, what God is speaking to you. Write these things down and then go back and reference these things. Don't write them down just to write them down to fill up a book to stick on the shelf to never look at. You write things down so you can go back and remember. I only have so much space up here. All right. And my memory is great and it's sharp. All right. I can remember a lot of things. Me and numbers get along real well. But if I'm not careful, I'm like, whoa, what was that? God was showing me this thing the other day. What was that? Well, I can go back, be like, well, you know, during my prayer time, blah, blah, blah, I can read it word for word. In other words, you got to block off enough time to be able to write things down to. Whatever you got to do to get before the Lord. And adopt prayer and fasting as a lifestyle. There you go. I've thrown it at you today. Now, what you do with it is what you do with it. Hopefully, I didn't just throw something at you and you don't do anything with it because then it was nothing. We all did all this in vain. I want to point you in the ways of the Lord. All right. So, Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, Lord, I ask Lord that you would wake us up again to your word. Father, wake us up again to how you want us to live our lives, how you want us to walk this life out. God, what this really looks like. Father, what it means to deprive my flesh so that I can dive in to more of you, God. Lord, the things that you want to deliver us from, the things that you want to uh to heal us from, the ways that you want to bring humility back to our lives again, Father. Lord, the the the cleansing that you want to do, body, uh, mind, spirit, everything. Father, come and reset us today. Lord, Lord, show us the importance of praying and fasting as we were designed to do, as our bodies. Lord, Lord, you know our bodies. You know what our bodies were designed to do. Do you do y'all ever think about that? He's the one that designed us. He's the one that put all this together. He gave you a nose, he gave you a mouth, ears, he did all this. He did every bit of it. Do you not think he knows how our bodies operate and what is good for us? Because a lot of the things that we think that are good for us are not really good. He knows how we should be and how we should be walking. He knows that fasting is important, which is why he is stressing the word through his word. That's why it's in his holy word. That's why it's in the text. It's important. We should be doing this. Lots and lots and lots of benefits for you. I know it's an inside, outside, upside-down kingdom where you lose to gain and you win alive, so you have life. Okay, so we're already there. So it wouldn't make any sense to not eat. It doesn't make any sense to not eat. I'm hungry, of course. So go spend some time with the Lord. Give some things over to him. See if he wants to speak to you. And you just might actually press through some things that you've been trying to press through all just through prayer. And taking it on yourself. Maybe it's time to give some things over to him today. Amen. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this. You don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.