 Hello, David Diga Hernandez here and I'm excited for what you're about to hear. You're going to hear a powerful testimony about a man who went from atheism to Christ and then had a powerful encounter after fasting for 24 hours. I want to welcome now my friend, Talyn Michael. My friend, welcome to the broadcast. It's a blessing to have you. Thank you so much, David. I'm very happy to be here and I'm excited for what tonight has to offer. Well, we're excited to hear this testimony. You know, I just want to say real briefly, I've been seeing what God has been doing with your ministry and I want you to know and I want everyone to know we're very excited for what the Lord is doing. God is raising you, lives are being impacted and it's just really inspiring to watch what the Holy Spirit is doing through your life. So it's a joy to have you on. Thank you for joining me. I want to dive right in. Take us back to that place now. Take us and tell us about the old Talyn and how he was an atheist and far from God and what happened from there. Absolutely. Well, I'll summarize it the best I can. I did not grow up in a Christian home. I grew up just about as far away as you can get from a Christian home, a very broken home. And I don't say any of this to like dishonor my family or my parents or anything like that. This is just the reality. But I grew up in a broken home. Parents went through a divorce. My dad was a severe alcoholic, physically abusive, just a very dark upbringing. And when I was 12 years old, eventually things with my own father had gotten so bad between him and I that I had to move in with my aunt and my uncle. And they were very gracious. They took very good care of me. But growing up in an atmosphere like that, it makes it more difficult to believe in God or at least so I thought because immediately you just associate the father with your father. So my relationship with my dad was terrible growing up. So basically I looked at the Heavenly Father like I don't want another one of those. But obviously that's just the lies of the devil that get into your head through experience. But as I was growing up through middle school and through high school, I knew that I didn't want to have a life like my father at all. And the only lives that I did see that were successful, that were happy, that were full of peace and joy were Christians. Although I was the guy in middle school and high school and even in college that would mock Christians. There was still something in Christians, which I know now what it is. It's the life of God. But there were things in Christians that I longed for. But I was too prideful to ever admit it. Well, long story short, I played sports and I began to excel in high school football. I got a high school football scholarship to go and play college football in the state of Iowa at a private Christian college. Go figure. Well, I go to this private Christian college and I didn't believe in any of the stuff they were telling me. Most of people on the campus were the type of Christian that they partied with me on Saturday night. And then they were inviting me to church on Sunday morning. So it was, to me, it was a bunch of nonsense. It didn't make any sense. But I met one guy that changed my life. This man was baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire. And the Bible says that the eye is the lamp of the body. And when your eye is singularly focused, meaning that you're pure, you're singularly focused on Christ, that your whole body becomes light. And that's what he was to me. I saw something in him that I'd never seen in anybody else before. Well, I was in the darkest place of my life. I was drinking all the time, partying. I was empty, had anxiety, had depression, had everything terrible that the world could offer. And at that lowest point in my life, he started to plant the seed of God's word in my heart. And then a few months later, he ends up asking me if I want to make Jesus the Lord of my life back in September of 2017. And just him, me and God as our witness, he baptized me. I gave my life to the Lord and the rest is kind of history. I love it. And I want to go back and touch on something real briefly. You had mentioned that your perspective of the Heavenly Father corresponded to your perspective of your earthly Father. Can you touch on that just a little bit and why that's something important that people understand? Absolutely. Well, fatherhood is a spiritual thing. You know, just being born into the world is natural talk. But father and sonship is spiritual talk. Being a father, being a son is a spiritual thing. So whether or not you know it, having a father in your life that fathers you the way that God intends for a father to be a father is actually a spiritual thing. So the way that I had no, I had no intimacy with my dad. I had no relationship with my dad. My dad was always striking me instead of loving me and molding me that way. The discipline was different. So what it does is it scars you. It changes your heart. It makes you heart of heart toward a father figure more or less. So when you hear about this Heavenly Father that loves you, he sent his only begotten son to die for you. When you hear all of this stuff growing up, it seems so far-fetched because you've never encountered the love of a father. But then when you actually do, it changes you forever and it changes you from the inside out. So in terms of who you used to be, I'm trying to get a grasp on what your perspective was just in a little more detail. You had mentioned that you would mock Christians, that it was something that you thought was just somewhat of a joke. I'm trying to understand the mindset behind that individual because there are people watching who are praying for people right now who are right now like you used to be. And so maybe minister on that just a little bit and then I want to talk about this encounter that you had with the Lord that shortly followed after your salvation experience. Absolutely. Well, there was a great evangelist named T. L. Osborn. He traveled the world, led massive crusades for Christ, led many to the Lord, had assigns and wonders miracle ministry. And he said that the gospel in one verse would be John chapter 10 verse 10, that the thief comes to steal, he comes to kill, and he comes to destroy. But Jesus came to give you life and give you life abundantly. See the number one trick of the devil is that when you don't know God, just like every other atheist out there, you blame everything on God. If the devil could have his way, he would get you to think that he has no affiliation with anything in the world. He gets you to think that everything happening, all the starving kids, all the terrible things, all the murder, all the all the roughness in the world, he gets you to pin it on God. Well, when you take the devil out of the equation, you get a goofy state of religion, where all of a sudden you start thinking, well, if good things happen to me, then it's God. If bad things happen to me, then it's God. But that's actually not the gospel. So I grew up thinking that all these bad things happening in my life were because of God, when really it was because of the devil. So when light was shed on that, and I realized that God's not the only one at play here, there's a devil that has a plan for my life, just like there's a God that has a plan for my life. But the devil's plan is a terrible plan. He's the one that caused all the destruction, all the stealing, all the killing, all the destroying. When I realized that I don't have to have anything to do with that anymore, and God has a good plan for me, a plan to prosper me, not to harm me, to give me life and life abundantly, that's when everything clicked. And I realized, oh, the devil really is the father of all lives, and God really is a good God. And thank God for that man who lived his Christian faith without hypocrisy. There may be someone watching right now who's listening to this, and is praying for someone who's very stubborn, hard-hearted, and seems to be distant from God. I want you to listen to what Talon just said, that there was an individual in his life who truly loved him, and who truly lived out the Christian faith. And in that, there was power when he ministered the gospel. Okay, so Talon, you received the Lord, take me to that moment, just describe that somewhat, and then we're going to talk about what happened shortly after. What happened in the moment that you received the Lord? Well, the heavens opened in a lightning bolt. No, I'm just kidding. It wasn't anything like super spectacular, like a lot of people would hope, although I've had some spectacular encounters with God, and we'll get into them a little bit later. But basically what had happened was, I had mentioned to you, I got kicked out of college because I was causing so much trouble. And during that time of my life, this man, this mentor of mine, he was more or less a spiritual father to me, who led me to the Lord. He didn't have any hypocrisy in his life. He was full of the Holy Ghost. And in Matthew 13, the Bible says that God's Word is seed, and it's planted into the soil of your heart. So he began to plant the seed of God's Word for about six to nine months, just loving me into repentance, just sharing the truth of God's Word. He never gave up on me. When the school gave up on me, when all my friends gave up on me, when everybody else turned their back on me, he was there. And he kept planting God's Word into my heart. And then eventually he asked me to make a decision. There does come a day where you have to make a decision, and every Christian will have to make this decision to go all in for God, to get off the fence, to not be lukewarm, but to be cold or hot. I prefer for you to be hot, but to be on fire for God, or to leave it all behind. And so one day he just said, Talon, you know, you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life. You've got to believe in your heart. You have to confess with your mouth that he died for you, that he paid the price for your sins, that he rose again from the dead. And you have to make him your Lord and Savior, then you'll be saved. And so I agreed. And I said the sinner's prayer. And a lot of people, they don't like the sinner's prayer, but hey, the sinner's prayer worked for me. I said it. I meant it in my heart. I believed it. I spoke it. Yeah, he dunked me in the water. I came up and on the outside, nothing changed. But on the inside, I was a new person. I was born again. And I knew it. I couldn't explain it, but the old man had passed away and all things had become new. And that following weekend, I tried to go live the same life that I was living before. But on the inside, the Holy Ghost wouldn't let me. The Holy Spirit would speak to me. He would convict me. He wouldn't let me go live the same way that I wanted to live. That's him. And so I was just, I mean, he cleaned me from the inside out. I couldn't continue to live the way that I was living because Talon died that day. I died and I was raised again in Christ. I was a new creature. And then the Holy Ghost began to sanctify me and pull me out of the world. I like to say that the Bible doesn't mention the sinner's prayer, but it often mentions sinners who pray. And the Bible talks about confession corresponding with salvation. So that's something that I believe is absolutely valid. Now take us to this place now. You're saved. You're born again. Those layers and those years, the Holy Spirit had worked through your heart. Now you've surrendered your life to Christ. Take us to that place now where there's this desire for something more. And this is actually the title of the video that we're using, which is what happened to you after you fasted for 24 hours. Tell us this story. Wow. Well, there came a time about a year after I was saved, gave my life to the Lord. I realized that there was more. And I remember seeing a video on YouTube of a man on the streets of New York praying for a sick woman. And she got healed when he prayed for her. And when I saw that, it was like, I don't know how else to explain it, but I knew my calling in life. It was like every cell in my body screamed at the top of his lungs. That's what you're supposed to do for the rest of your life. And I knew I was called to evangelism. I knew I was called to pray for the sick, but I didn't know how to do it. I knew that there was power that I hadn't tapped into yet. So I began to hunger for an encounter with God. And this man that led me to the Lord began to speak to me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. And so when I was hungry for it, I said, Hey, I want to go up to this church that was an hour away. It was a spirit filled church. And I said, I would like to have hands laid on me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, they prayed for me. I got filled with the Holy Spirit. I began to shock a Baba and I didn't know what was going on. It didn't make sense in my mind, but I knew it was right in my spirit. So two days later, I was at a worship night. I was on college campus worship and I was, I mean, I was like the Saul to Paul conversion. I was people looked at me funny when I showed up to the worship night. They were like, there is no way that this guy is here. But I was there and I walked in and I remember quietly praying to God that night. And I said, Lord, if that was you and I spoke out in other tongues, I need the full encounter. I need the full measure. It didn't feel like enough because I'd only gotten a syllable. And when I said that, can I just know because I know some might be wondering, what did you mean by it didn't feel like enough? I'm curious what you meant by that. It was, it felt like I got a drink, but I didn't get, it was like a drop of the Holy Ghost. Like I knew that I had encountered the Holy Spirit. And I think I got one syllable that was like shaka or something like that. It was like, like a syllable of tongue came out. But I knew that there was more like I knew I had not hit the gusher. And I had, I had to hit the gusher. And so I said that quiet prayer. And I just said, Lord, I need the full thing. The moment I said that, not, not any time in between, it was like a fire erupted in my spirit man and bellowed out of my mouth. I don't know if I could yell that loud to this day. And I began to speak ferociously in other tongues. And I went for probably 30 minutes. And it didn't stop. It just kept going. And to fast forward to your question, I started pressing in to this revelation that I was getting on fasting. And I started researching videos on YouTube about fasting. And I saw some of pastors, pastor Benny's videos on fasting and other people's videos on fasting. And I knew that fasting was tied to the power of God. So in that season, I started depressing to fasting in what the Holy Ghost had to offer. Well, that's an incredible thing that the Holy Spirit put in your heart that hunger. And we can see it working in your life, drawing you to that place of surrender. And that's really the work of the Holy Spirit. I love what he does. So you fast now, and you are you begin to look into fasting. What began to result from this? Well, the very first time, and this is, this may be the first or second time that I've publicly shared this experience, because there's some, there's some encounters with God that are just very holy, that they're almost too difficult to talk about. And this was one of them, because this was my first, my first glorious encounter with God, I would say. And I had this unction in my spirit that I was supposed to do my first 24 hour fast. And when you're in the world and you don't know anything spiritual, you think, if I don't eat for 24 hours, especially as a college athlete, I was told, if I don't eat for 24 hours, I'll basically die. So I didn't, I didn't know what to do with fasting. But I went to a worship night on a Thursday night. And I was, I was fasting for the first time in my life. After that worship night, I was about 20 hours into my 24 hour fast, no food fast, just the water fast. And I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me. And he said, go back to your apartment and pray. So I went back to my apartment. I locked the door. And I sat down on my couch, and I just began to pray in English, Father, you're so good. Thank you, Holy Spirit. And I just began to worship the Lord and pray. And I knew I was supposed to pray in other tongues. So as I began to pray in other tongues, I closed my eyes and I lifted my hands up toward heaven. And as I was praying in other tongues, the brightest, most glorious orb almost of light appeared in my room. And I know some people might not believe this. I'm just telling you what I encountered this, it happened as I'm praying in tongues with my eyes closed. I couldn't open my eyes. The fear of the Lord fell on me. And it was the whitest, most glorious light that I'd ever seen in my life filled my room. And it was so glorious that even with my eyes closed, I had to turn my face away. And I just kept praying. But the power and presence of God had flooded my apartment. And it was the most precious thing I'd ever experienced in my life, even talking about it now. I feel the anointing on it. And from that moment forward, it changed my life. I realized I already knew this thing was real. But when that happened, I realized there are realms and there are dimensions that nobody talks about. There is something so real about this, and I need to press into it. So that kind of began my journey, where I started pressing in more to fasting and prayer, because that encounter forever changed my life. I love that you said that the light was so bright, that you had to turn your head even with your eyes closed. That actually reminds me, and I'll share this briefly about a vision that I had, where I saw my physical body. And within me was this orb, like a glowing, pulsing light. And the light would pulse and grow and then pulse and shrink over the light was a layer of soil. And on the soil were certain structures, they look like little buildings. Every time the orb would shrink, that soil would become uneven because obviously it created space or a vacuum for it to fall. And the structures would begin to topple over. And every time the orb of light would grow, the soil would become even again, and the structures would stand tall. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that this was His presence, His power, but that influence on my life came through prayer, through seeking His face. And every time I allowed for that influence of prayer to shrink in my life, the soil which represented my life would become uneven. And the structures which represented ministry, my marriage, responsibility would begin to topple over. So it's interesting that many, and I've heard other stories like this, where people talk about this light, this bright light that is described in your story. So I believe you 100%. That's an incredibly, incredibly intense, tangible manifestation of God's power. What did you notice in your life and ministry after that? Things that seem to be so heavy were just broken off. And the Bible says it's the anointing that destroys the yoke. And it was when the presence of God flooded my room that night. It was like everything in this, it's like that old hymn that says the things of this world will grow strangely dim. It was like from that moment forward, everything in the world was dim to me. I used to love sports. Suddenly I lost every taste that I ever had for sports. I used to love being entrepreneurial. And I still am very business minded, but that sensation to, that longing for money and to be very wealthy and powerful, it just left my life. It was all the things that would have been attached to the world grew strangely dim. And suddenly the only thing that I loved was praying, spending time in the presence of God, reading God's Word and preaching the Word and ministering, going, I mean, I'd go to Walmart, pray for the sick, go to restaurants, pray for the sick, go to the gym, pray for the sick. I was just, I was lit on fire for God. It was like William Seymour said about a hundred years ago. He said, Father, dip me in the kerosene of your spirit and light me on fire for God so that the whole world will come to watch me burn. That's kind of how I felt. I love it. Why do you think prayer and fasting are so powerful and why do you think it was so pivotal in your story? Well, I heard it put it this way once. Prayer combined with fasting is like dynamite with a detonator. If you just have prayer and no fasting, prayer is powerful, but you lack power without the fasting. And if you just have fasting without the prayer, you're kind of just on a hunger strike. But when you combine the crucifixion of your flesh with your prayer life, there's supernatural power that becomes involved. Like in Hebrews chapter 10, the Bible likens the flesh as a veil. It says that the tearing of Jesus's flesh was likened unto the tearing of the veil. Your flesh is a veil more or less for the glory of God that's deposited in your spirit man. So although you might be full of the Holy Ghost, Jesus, even the Son of God, the Word made flesh, had to go do 40 days of fasting and prayer in the wilderness before he came back full of the Holy Ghost and power, the Bible says. So there's something about the crucifying of your flesh to make your spirit man reign over your soul and over your flesh again that accesses the supernatural power of God's anointing. And it shows God that he can trust you because the ways of the flesh are now killed. They're subject to your spirit man. And he knows that you're not going to go and fall easily into those fleshly temptations like so many other people would. Even as you're talking, I know that spiritual hunger is being cultivated into people who are listening to this. So there's someone watching right now who's hearing what you're saying. They've heard about how stubborn you were and how God broke that with his love. They heard about how you encountered his beautiful presence in such a glorious way. They heard about how you applied fasting to deepen that level of surrender in your life. You've talked about the what, but people are asking, How? How? How to fast, do you think? Or how to press into power? How to fast? How to surrender? How do they position themselves in this way that you're describing? Man, well, number one, it does take a hunger. And it seems just like you said, David, people are hungry right now. If you're hungry for God, the Bible says that you will be filled. Those that hunger and thirst, they shall be filled. So if you're hungry for God, that's the first step. You getting hungry. Number two is start where you're at. For me, I didn't, I didn't just like go into a 40 day fast. Now Jesus did. I'm not gonna, I'm not at that level. We'll just put it that way. But I started with a 24 hour fast. You can start with where you're at. Just believe God. This is, I was teaching on this at a Bible study just yesterday at our church to our young adults. And as I was teaching the young adults, I said, you know, believe God for a supernatural encounter when you fast. The Bible says God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Attach a reward to it. Believe God for something big and just, just start with where you're at. Say, okay, Lord, today I'm going to consecrate this day, maybe tomorrow. I'm going to consecrate this Friday of this week. I'm not going to eat for 24 hours. I'm going to subject my flesh and I'm going to press into my spirit, man. I'm going to pray. I'm going to spend more time with you than I would before. I'm going to get into your word. I'm going to believe for fresh revelation and I'm going to believe for an encounter with you. Start with where you're at. Start in proportion to your faith and you are guaranteed that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. He will show up right on time. He'll show up to bless you. He'll show up to touch you. He'll open your eyes with fresh revelation. And I love it. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 58.8. It says that the glory of the Lord will be your reward. You will encounter the glory of God when you step in to a life of consecrated fasting and prayer. And then once you start small, you just build on it. You know, I did one 24 hour fast and then I did a 48 hour fast and then eventually a 72 hour fast and I just built it from there. Start with where you're at and God will reward you for it. I love that you said that because even as people hear about fasting, it can be quite an intimidating topic where they hear, you know, they've heard the stories of the 40 day and of course, you know, we recommend also taking some medical considerations and consulting with certain people if some of you have health issues. So there are practical steps to take in this as well as spiritual ones. But in terms of what you're describing that 24 hour fast, you know, people who are puffed up will go 24 hours. That's nothing. You know, we fast for 40 or we fast for 30. And I mean, think that's great, but we have to start somewhere, which is why I wanted to share this particular story, because people need to know there's a starting point to and this is a beautiful example of someone who just had a genuine hunger for God. And think about this, you probably, you probably experienced more in that 24 hour fast than many people who've experienced those 40 hour fast. I mean, that kind of encounter with God, you can't put a price on that. You can't manufacture that. You can't do anything to cause that on your own or in human effort. That's strictly by the Holy Spirit. So here's what I want to do, Taylor. I want to pray for those who are hungering. I mean, deep within they hear this to say, Lord, please, I want an encounter with the Holy Spirit like that. Lord, please, I want a touch of your power. Lord, please, I need breakthrough like that in my life. Let's pray with those who have the faith or believing for the faith, if that even sounds right in order to access that kind of power. Can you please pray? And then I'll pray after you. Absolutely. Wherever you're at, wherever you're watching this, there's no time in the spirit realm. So if you're watching this a week later, if you're listening on podcast, whenever this is uploaded, wherever you're at right now, if your spirit is stirred up in faith, I just want you to lift up your hands toward heaven and receive this prayer because the same Holy Ghost that is here right now is the same Holy Spirit that is coming through your device and he's coming into your house wherever you're at. Father, in Jesus mighty name, every single person under the sound of my voice, as they're believing for a fresh touch from heaven, I pray in agreement. I pray that you would encounter them now from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, strengthen them in their inner man by your spirit to press into a life of consecrated prayer and fasting. I pray that you would enlighten the eyes of their understanding that from this day forward, they would have deep revelation on the power of fasting. And Father, as we press in, I thank you ahead of time by faith that you are a rewarder of those that diligently seek you. Every person that seeks you in fasting and prayer, I pray that you pour out an abundant blessing on their life, that you move them up higher, that you open up their eyes more in the spirit realm and that you begin to operate in their life that signs, wonders and miracles and goodness and mercy would follow them all the days of their life in Jesus mighty name. Father, I pray that one receiving this now would sense the precious Holy Spirit near to them. Holy Spirit, make yourself known in that room I pray. Wherever they're listening, let there be a manifestation of your glory. And Father, I pray that you would take them to higher places, draw them closer than they've ever been. May they see Jesus, the Son of the living God. May they become more like him in character and mannerism and speech. Father, we pray that you would remove from us everything that displeases you. We're the clay. You are the potter. We surrender our lives now on that potter's will. And Father, we ask just one thing. We just want you. You are our greatest treasure. You are our purest delight. You give us purpose. Let there be stirrings of the Spirit deep calling unto deep, draw them by your Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus and bring deliverance and healing. Touch each one I pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Well, Taylor, and thank you for doing this with me. I sense, even as you were sharing, I just sensed strong anointing on what you were talking about. And I believe this is going to bless many men. You're going to hear this and be drawn into the depths of the Spirit. So I encourage you, those of you who are watching this now, if you enjoyed this interview, you'll enjoy my time I spent with Taylor on his channel, where we talked about impartation receiving from previous generations and, of course, the precious Holy Spirit. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.