 fasting in the early church. No wonder why the results were also intense. The reason why as at Hungry Jan we're speaking about this topic is we live in a culture where most of us will not die out of fasting, we will die out of overeating. Our food industry has become a money industry and most of us, the problems we have physically today are not due to fasting, it's due to not fasting. And so we as a Christian church, we believe in this practice and it's not just physical, fasting is a spiritual practice abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. Now I want to share with you concerning how fasting increases the heat in your life to drive out certain problems that otherwise you cannot overcome in your own human way. The first thing that I would like to share is this is that personal transformation precedes power demonstration. Personal transformation precedes power demonstration. Now the context of the verse of this kind shall not lead by prayer and fasting comes from the story of Jesus being on the mountain and his disciples being not on the mountain, nine of them, they were casting out a demon of a little boy who had epilepsy and they couldn't cast out that demon and so they started to argue with scribes and then Jesus comes down, deals with the demonized boy and delivers him. Now when Jesus was on the mountain I want you to see what Jesus did in Luke chapter 9 verses 28 through 29. Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As he prayed the appearance of his face was altered, some translation says transfigured and his robe became white and glistening. I want you to see this before Jesus moved to the valley from the mountain and delivered the boy he was on the top of the mountain and he was praying to the Father. As he was praying I want you to notice what God changed, his face changed. Personal transformation precedes power demonstration. Many of us we need to reclaim our mountaintop experiences because while they empower us for our valley problems what mountaintop experiences do first and foremost is they change us. Before prayer changes your husband it will change you. Before prayer saves your children it will first sanctify you. The Bible says as he prayed his face changed. One of the best benefits of prayer is personal transformation. Now getting a personal trainer eating your broccoli and going seeing a therapist eating your vitamins that has its place nothing wrong with that we need to do that that's part of the package but nothing changes a person's inner being and spending time with the one who made it. Now you would think if there is any person in this world and planet who did not need to pray it would be God. If anybody who would be busy it would be Jesus. Yet he had time to pray but I want you to notice within the Trinity as Christians we believe in one God in three persons. God is not bored. Some people say oh you know God had nobody so he created humans because God needed somebody to hang out. I don't know where you got that idea from but it's not in the Bible. God for eternity was always three persons. That means there was always a relationship. There was always a communion, love and understanding. That's why God made you and I relational craving for a relationship because you came out of a relational being who was relational for eternity. That's why when Jesus came on this earth this relationship continued with the father with the spirit. That's one of the reasons God doesn't want a religion. He wants a relationship. That's one of the reasons until you are in a relationship with Trinity and seeing how they relate to each other you'll never know how to relate to your spouse. Why? Because in the marriage relationship we are equal but different. In the Trinity they're all equal but they have different roles and yet you never see father and the son fighting. You never see the spirit of God having an issue with the son of God. There's always a harmony, one promoting one another, one submitting to one another, one always acknowledging one another, one honoring one another and so you look in your marriage, you look in your family, that is supposed to be a reflection of what is happening there but we cannot live out in our family if we're not part of this communion with this relational being called God who reveals himself in three persons. Amen. Amen. Sorry guys, one second. I am going to figure this out right now. We are gonna get to, oh my goodness they did everything just get switched. Guys, good morning. Everybody, God bless you. I hope you are still with me. I see 400 of you so my whole setup just got messed up ever since I switched my, let me just try a different, okay so all of them are, wow. So good morning everyone. Let me just see you guys in the chat. Thank you so much for your patience and I appreciate each and every one of you that stuck around. We're gonna get into the word of God in just a moment but internet issue, typical stuff with streamers sometimes and so all of my setup pretty much got messed up because we have to reduce the quality, restart the stream and so all of my scenes are not as they are supposed to be but it's okay. It's not about the scenes. It's not about the chat on the screen or the links. It's about you guys and it's about what the Lord is doing with us right now. So let's drop that in the chat of where you are tuning in from. I want to welcome every person. God bless you. Those of you that are tuning in today we are going to look at something in the scripture that I believe is gonna be impactful. I see my sister in the chat, Lillia. There's about 400 or 500 of you on YouTube. People are coming in from Tampa, Mexico, Ghana, Philadelphia, Kenya, New York, Washington DC. God bless you. Today is day 10. That's right. Today is day 10 and there's about 100 of you watching on Hungry Jen YouTube as well. We welcome you as well. God bless you and there's about 60 of you watching on Facebook. So before we go any further let us know where you are tuning in from as well as let us know how your fast is going. Those of you logging in from South Africa, let me turn on my Facebook audio, logging in from Canada, logging in from London, Trinidad, Alabama, Luxembourg, Romania, Pastor Illia is in the chat, Jamaica, Finland, Long Island, New York, Oman, come on. California, Namibia, South Africa to God be all the praise and glory. So now that you have let me know where you're watching from. How is your fast day 10? Somebody dropped number 10 in the chat. Day 10. How's day 10 going for you? How are you feeling today? How's your energy? How's your physical body? How are you feeling today? Drop that in the chat right now. We just wanted to fast is going great from Columbia, Ohio. I am so hungry. People saying I'm craving food. Oh yeah. Meeting some struggles along the way but we're going strong. Come on. That's good. Awesome. Switzerland so much better. 10 and loving it. Okay. Switch the Esther to Daniels fast. Finishing strong. Hungrier than usual. Cravings are real. Fasting is good. 10 feeling strong. God is faithful. Spiritual fire. I was feeling dizzy rebuking the devil in my sleep. All right. That's the way to go. Way to go. Tired. Some people saying I'm tired. Some people saying I'm feeling powerful. My day 10 was harder than expected but I'm still hanging in there. I'm starving to get hungry but stronger than ever. All right. Nausea feeling but fairly better right now. Representing hungry in church. God bless you Pastor I feel the flesh hungry. Oh yeah. Rebuking the dreams of eating food. That just got real. Kelly thank you for sharing and for shared and cared. Come on. I like that. People are logging in from Sweden as well. Robin. Gotta sustain me every day. Craving chips and sauces. Come on. Don't be tempting us. Okay. Don't be telling us what you're craving in the chat. Come on. Be nice. That's not cool because if I'm going to start talking about what I'm craving right now I was telling my wife yes that I had a little moment of weakness and so I was I was telling her what I'm craving and so yeah it was it was not pretty and stuff so I think that we need to avoid we need to avoid sharing what we're trying to eat or what we're looking forward to eating because then it just really focuses your attention on on food and I think that's that's the point of fast is just not to not to think about this stuff so but to focus on the Lord so amen day 10 is going great I'm going to try to see if I can actually show guys show you my the Amazon oh wow look the Amazon actually showed up so if you have not gotten the book make sure that you check out the book it's right here fast forward you can go on the website past of lab.org and get this book this book will help you to go alongside of fasting see somebody dropping Chick-fil-A oh that's that that you just did us dirty that's just so wrong I rebuked this in Jesus name let me just read one review as you guys hear every single day I mentioned to you don't forget to leave a review it means a lot for people like others and then as well as for me in the area of publishing and book nary said this book has helped me to understand the importance of fasting to even greater level past of that gives insight and clarity on fasting Cynthia said the book really helped helps you in your fasting and in it it talked a lot that I did not know and I love it is formatted with scriptures and prayers yay come on Maria also said this is the most complete book on fasting there is oh wow that's that's that's a strong statement the book will give you personal tips health tips a lot of scriptures to back up the teaching when you buy the book you will be a part of private group where believers share their feelings and we pray for each other and courage one each one another all bed all Betty said on one of some of the pages there's a black square this is a digital book the page will the page before the black square and the don't seem to appear come after each other so I think the electronic book has slightly different formatting but thank you for letting us know so yeah so there's these reviews if you already got the book and drop the review drop number one in the chat if you only got the book and did not drop the review then go and drop the review so you can drop number one in the chat but if you got the book and drop the review drop number one in the chat it means a lot to us if we would much appreciate it remember we have a reading plan that goes with it remember we have a physical book audio book and other things and you can download it free of charge I saw somebody posted on instagram that actually printed the whole book and made a made its own like a binder for it so come on god bless you if you do that that's your call and so I don't have a problem with that all right we are going to dive in because I have right after this I do have an interview with a pastor Mike so if somebody can ban the chats the porn chats that are showing up right now at hungry gen chat so my hungry gen community if you guys could just ban those so that they're not visible and they're not seen seems like some of these bots should be fasting instead of dropping all kinds of demonic links in Jesus name amen now let me just see if I have olive tree okay so olive tree doesn't look that bad here as well I'm going to just resize it just a little bit so that okay so this is except I look so so big on the screen let me just reduce myself guys right on the spot here's my little OBS work all right so we can we can do this we can do this so clean slide from one side clean slide from one other side and we are going to go to work in just a second guys thank you for your patience patience hanging in there as I am on the spot trying to figure out these good things all right day 10 let's drop in the chat again day 10 of the fast today is day 10 of the fast in day 10 and I'm going to share with you the health tip from the beginning right away in day 10 what you're going through physically so in the day 10 stage three typically falls between day 8 and day 15 this stage includes dramatic improvements in mood and mental clarity and is the stage seasoned fastest look forward to the most just keep pushing somebody dropped it in the chat keep pushing so about now day 10 and day 11 day 12 is the time where the experience fasters usually look forward to this time because this is where you usually are already beyond that initial stage of headaches and all of that stuff so you start feeling so much better your mental clarity is better and you have an improvements in your mood your sleep is better and so many other things and so I personally feel physically great I do feel like somebody just cut my stomach out though there's like this feeling like I woke up this morning and I'm like do I even have a stomach not because it's shrunk but because it feels like like a vacuum there and so it's important to stay hydrated it's important to also get adequate enough of sleep and honestly it's important to keep a good mental attitude and not look forward to the fast ending but to look forward to the fast working on you and so just just take each day so in my mind I'm not looking forward to oh when is this going to end I'm looking forward to every single day Lord give me grace for today Lord give me strength for today Lord give me revelation for today Lord give me wisdom for today Lord work on me today Lord give me insights God leave me to prayer today and so that's the attitude that you should have if you're constantly counting days how many days still that's not the point and stuff so if you if you take each day you know one time I said this fasting is like it's everything is very fasting is spiritually fasting like it's fast but physically have you noticed that during the fasting everything is slow like when you're not eating everything is so slow everything is not fast everything is the opposite it seems like man it's only eight o'clock man it's only 12 o'clock things seem to be like suspended in time things are so much slower than usual and so but the fasting is it's it's fastly accelerating your spiritual life but physically you might feel that everything is way way slower than you have had before and so therefore the focus is not thinking about when is this gonna end and secondly what I would encourage you is not to focus about food that you're going to eat after the fast don't begin to don't give your mind attention to word oh I'm craving this I'm craving this don't talk about it don't think about it you just completely ignore those appetites and those cravings because hunger is subsided cravings they need to be subdued mmm that's that's good I didn't even plan to say this but this is good during fasting after a while hunger subsides with time but but cravings need to be subdued so drop that in the chat subdue your craving after your hunger subsided what that means is that you don't give attention to your cravings by talking about food researching food buying cookbooks I know a lot of people who during a fast buy a lot of cookbooks okay and so especially those of you who work with you know you're feeding your children so that's a little bit harder but for those of you who don't have you know little children that you're feeding just don't buy it don't look at it avoid exposure to online because a lot of times there's just a lot of food advertisements and avoid honestly TV to the best of your abilities all these commercials they're not helpful for you just read the word read the book read the the bible worship go for a walk you know go take care of your garden do something that occupies your mind and keeps it distracted from food the other component that I will give you during this 10 day of fast so the first thing that I just mentioned is is not to feed the cravings but subdue the cravings by not giving attention to the idea of food because your hunger subsides but your cravings need to be subdued the other part that is important that I would say is listen to messages or content unfasting as you're fasting so you can listen to some of my messages really listen to the message on sunday really listen to these broadcasts that I do they are trimmed so you can and just kind of really listen to the meat of it let it just play in the background why is it important to listen to stuff unfasting during fasting it strengthens your resolve to continue when you don't feed yourself with spiritual content while you're fasting especially the tailor toward fasting sometimes you can get discouraged along the way and so but when you strengthen your own resolve by by listening to stuff on that it really kind of strengthens that result so like some of my favorite ones jen sir franklin has few messages quite a few actually dirrick prince has few messages myelman roe has few messages pastavlad has few messages and so you can just honestly make a playlist and just one a day about fasting and it will just strengthen that resolve to to keep on going so don't buy cookbooks don't watch tv and don't scroll through the social media why because these and don't try to think about food don't think about food don't think about what you're gonna eat in the future don't worry about tomorrow just take every single day and just focus on the lord and so when the craving shows up in your mind you simply just just ignore that and just refocus your mind on something else and you will see how you know 11 more days and you're like oh wow it's over i can't believe it while you're in it it feels so slow even though it's a fast you think it's supposed to be fast but it's actually feels so slow but time will pass and so the goal is not to get through this fast the goal is to grow through this fast the goal is to humble ourselves through this fast the goal is to come out better on the other side through the grace of god on the other side amen if you believe in that drop number one in the chat drop that in the chat don't watch commercials don't buy cookbooks don't just try to get through it drop that in the chat for some of you watch messages on fasting while you're fasting to strengthen your resolve go for a little walk drop that in the chat as well and just stay hydrated stay hydrated if your church has a prayer meeting you better be at it you can just just go there and just just spend some extra time in prayer amen so let's share today concerning the word that I have for you and this one is going to deal with fasting for families and for finances so i'm going to share with you five reasons or five things that I believe fasting will do for us so five benefits of a 21-day fast we can actually name it like that five benefits of a 21-day fast and we're going to take this from Ezra now Ezra we don't know if he fasted 21 days most likely it wasn't 21 days so let's read this verse right now as we dive into it then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might humble ourselves before God so I want you to drop this in the chat the first benefit of fasting is it helps us to humble ourselves before God in fact something I've been mentioning for many times already and I'm going to repeat again that fasting is a biblical way of humbling ourselves so many people want God to humble them you don't want God to humble you because that is going to come in a form of humiliation when you humble yourself it will bring honor so drop that in the chat is that when God humbles you it happens through humiliation but when you humble you it brings honor it brings favor it brings the Bible says God exalts so if you have God humbling you he will you will have to you're gonna have to be humiliated but if you humble you then God starts exalting now not exalting in the sense that he makes you into something that you are not exalting in the sense that God begins to promote God begins to give favor God begins to give grace drop this in the chat fasting brings favor how is that bringing favor because fasting is humbling ourselves and Ezra he said we're gonna humble ourselves through fasting as we're going to see that they fasted and we're gonna humble ourselves through fasting so when you humble yourself God will exalt you when you rely on God to humble you then God will create circumstances or allow them for you to be humbled humiliated a little bit disgraced and that's a way that sometimes it happens I really believe that we either gonna humble ourselves or we're gonna be humiliated or we're gonna be humbled it's better to humble ourselves nowhere in the Bible does God want us to ask him to humble us we can ask him for grace to humble ourselves but to humble ourselves is our our decision and the ball is in our court so the first benefit is humility there's a sense of brokenness there's a sense of contriteness there's a sense of repentance there's a sense of decreasing and all of that is extremely beneficial and while you feel like you're decreasing while you're feeling man but I'm not getting my way oh trust me that's actually very good because the promise of the Lord is that those who humble themselves humble themselves he gives more grace so that's the first benefit of this 21 day fast the second benefit let's keep going and it says we proclaim the fast to humble ourselves and then the second thing I want you to see to seek God to seek God the second benefit of fasting is that whereas before maybe you loved God you believed in God fasting creates this thing in your relationship with God where you start going into a seeking mode meaning it's a pursuit of God now maybe you have not felt that in the last you know 10 days I want to assure you that if you spend time with God you will begin to notice that your heart's pursuit and passion of the Lord is going to grow now you might not feel it at first but your heart will get harder for God the seeking God is the second benefit of a 21 day fast if all you get out of this fast is humility before God and a deeper seeking of him praying a little bit more praying a little bit deeper reading a little bit more understanding a little bit deeper speaking in tongues more being conscious of God more my friend you already seeing a breakthrough seek God during the fast and so it's not about striving it's not about pressing like pushing yourself to heart it's just honestly relaxing in God's presence and saying Lord I'm after you like I've talked about yesterday that when we are after God's heart that we will develop God's heart in our life and so we humble ourselves and secondly we're beginning to press in we're beginning to seek God in our heart now let's get to some of the practical the third practical benefit of this fast is going to be and I want you to see we seek to seek from him the right way for us the right way for us the third benefit of the fast I believe is going to happen is God's direction and guidance for us personally sometimes it will come in the form of confirmation of what we were unsure about and other times it will come in the form of clear direction of what we were needing clarity on all of us want God to guide us amen and so what happens with this fast that Ezra did is he says we're humbling ourselves we're pressing in and seeking God we are believing God for the right way for us I don't want a right way for me you know it will be different than for you I want God's right way for me I want God's way for me and there's something freeing about God's leading in your personal life that you don't have to live your life competing or comparing yourself with others so many of us we duplicate other people's ways we try to run other people's races and partially is because our intimacy with God is shallow so we don't actually feel led by the Lord we are driven by our circumstances write this down in the chat drop this in the chat is the fasting will help you this year to be led by the Lord instead of being driven by your life you know we either live our life being led or driven we live our life either being guided or controlled we either live our life being pushed or we live our life being led we see God for guidance God didn't just give us the Bible he also gave us a guide the Holy Spirit and something happens as you fast even if you're not even praying for guidance I believe this prophetically for every person in the chat watching and rewatching God wants to guide your life this year he wants the Bible says sons of God are led by the Spirit of God he wants to guide your life this year now number four number four is fire and I believe a lot of us need this as well so the leading is the third one the fourth one for our little ones so we're not only looking for guidance the right way for us but our little ones I believe this includes family breakthrough come on if you're believing for a family breakthrough this year drop number one in the chat one of the things that this fast is for is Lord brain breakthrough to our parents our siblings and our little ones we're believing for God's guidance we're believing for God's intervention and God's salvation for our family me and my family will serve God Pharaoh let Israel go at once said but just I'll keep the children just let the men go but let the women and children stay back you guys go but let the finances and the possessions stay back I believe that we're not giving Pharaoh nothing we're taking our family we're standing in the gap for our family if your family members are not born again take time during this fast to intercede for them and ask the Lord for the right way for your little ones for your older ones for your big ones ask the Lord for breakthrough for your family maybe your family is not open to the gospel you know there was a time when Jesus started his ministry and his own family didn't believe in him but you know he persevered he continued and then we see at the upper room his mom was there we see actually that his family members his brothers were a part of the local church serving and participating because God wants to bring a revival in our family drop that in the chat revival in my family revival in my children and revival in my siblings and in my parents the last thing that I want to share with you is this Nehemiah says for all our possessions now this is the last one but it's still a vital one and this deals with our finances God wants to bring breakthrough in our finances I've seen almost every prolonged fast a different measure of breakthrough in my finances it's almost like I expect it already I don't fast for finances I've never done it though this year one of my needs before the Lord is for us for the Lord to provide us you know three million dollars for our building fund for hungry Jen and I'm believing God will supernaturally do this this year I'm willing you know I'm going to be sacrificing my wife all of us our team is going to be doing that but I believe personally there is a measure of breakthrough in the area of finances now again let me make it clear and loud and clear we're not fasting for finances but some of us have a devourer we have a stronghold of poverty some of us have a hole in our pockets it's just none nobody in our family ever prospered no one in our family ever owned the home no one ever in our family went to school no one in our family ever was able to actually sponsor the kingdom of God we were always in need and for some of us I'm believing even if you're watching from a country where a country is not as prosperous as America and if you think that America is your solution I can tell you one thing over 60 percent or even more people in the United States do not have more than $500 in their savings account the country doesn't determine the blessing God does job is not your source job is your resource so as you're fasting I want you to release your faith Lord bring a breakthrough in my finances and by the way make a promise to God say Lord it's not about me I want to be a kingdom sponsor Lord I want to be not a bottle but a channel of your grace to support the poor to support the local church and to support my family and to support kingdom projects one of them could be even you know joining with with uh hungry gen building fund or joining you know with my team so that you can help me to translate books in other languages whatever the God places in your heart but I am believing and praying that this will be the year where these five benefits will happen in our life humility before God pursuing God guidance and direction family breakthrough and financial breakthrough now so that's what he fasted for now I want you to go to just few verses down and the Bible says verse 23 so we fasted and and treated our God for this and he answered our prayer somebody dropped it in the chat God will answer my prayer this year he answered our prayer so this prayer was with fasting and God answered it I want you to go just few verses down in the verse 231 and it says the following then we departed from the river of Ahava on the 12th day of the first month to go to Jerusalem and the hand of the Lord was upon us come on somebody man I feel like praying in tongues right now so they didn't pray for this but God puts his hand on them as they're traveling God puts his hand on them and then he says this he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from the ambush on the road I speak this prophetically over your life right now that this will be the year in the name of Jesus where God's hand will be on you where God will deliver you from the hand of the enemy and where God will deliver you from the ambush along the road every plan of the enemy that the enemy has planned against you that it will not prosper I speak this over your life that every tongue that rises against you you shall condemn I speak this over you today the word of the Lord that God wants to bring his hand on your life the hand of his grace the hand of his provision the hand of his guidance that God will take you by his hand that God will put his hand on you and that he will deliver you from your enemies and that he will deliver you from secret ambushes people that mean harm to you people that will cast spells on you and those spells won't work because God will deliver you from the ambush of your enemy in Jesus name amen somebody drop number one in the chat if you receive this prayer amen so guys I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap this live stream right now and I will let you go in just just a moment I'm gonna ask you that if you just tuning in hit thumbs up right now to the YouTube hit share this on Facebook as well as if the Lord puts on your heart today to give may God bless you as you do that I'm going to see if I can bring the giving links in just a second and so if God puts on your heart today to give God bless you guys but we are going to discontinue this live stream right now because I have another live stream to be a part of right now with Pastor Mike if God puts on your heart to give we're dropping the links to give right there may God bless you let's so where you want to grow let's release our faith today in prayer in fasting and also in giving may these five benefits of the fast appear in your life may God place his hand upon you and may God deliver you from your enemy and from the ambush on the road God bless you guys and I will see you again tomorrow at 9