12. Practitioner's Podcast: Fasting as a Way to Slow Down

Okay sorry. We're good to go. Now this is going to. You know in about 20 minutes we're going to be amazed at how good this episode is. Praise the Lord.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the practitioner's podcast. We're applying Jesus found disciple-making to everyday life this episode and all of our episodes are powered by navigators church ministries which focuses on helping churches make disciples who can make decisions. For more information check out navigators church ministries dot or Justin random question of the day.

Hit me with it. All right Tony have you decorated for Christmas yet? as of this recording? Absolutely not. We're recording this on veteran's day November 11th and it'll drop December six. So by December six while I have decorated no because there's not four hours in my schedule that. For decorating between now and December 6th.

Okay. Gotcha. Now yeah we will we will decorate on December six because that will be St and St. Nicholas is day and that's a tradition we have in our family that my wife So that's that's the day that we'll do it. So oh I love that tradition. I love to have a set date eat now do you guys block stuff out?

Like if I were like Hey grab it let's go to dinner on the six. You'd be like no we can't because we're putting up decoration or is it yeah pretty much. Yeah. We would say that we can't unless there was like some extenuating circumstance where it had to be that day. Then we put people above our traditions but.

Yeah. Hmm yep. Yep. So there you go. Holiday season. So Tony during the holiday season there's lots of eating feasting. All the great foods of the holidays. And we're not talking about any of that today. We're talking about the opposite. We're going to talk about not eating. Yeah. And that feels a little counterintuitive giving the season of feasting and friendly and all the parties and all the things that we're going to do.

But we're going to talk about fasting today and I'm curious just in the very first time you're fast to do you remember when it was and what was the. I don't remember exactly. I think it was sometime in high school. we did a 24 hour fast as part of the youth group. And it was pretty terrible.

I just felt hungry the whole time and thought man I don't know why we're doing this. So that was my first time. well so I grew up Catholic and in the Catholic faith one of the things that happens a lot during lent is that you'll fast on Fridays. Now sometimes that fasting is just for meat. And sometimes that fasting is from a lot of things or you'll give something up for lent and we can talk a little bit later of whether or not that's real fast and you're not.

But I remember my very first Lenten fast. We did it as a youth group Fridays. We weren't going to eat meat. We were going to be super disciplined. And we were at a church youth group meeting and the priest walked in for our morning devotionals and he brought food from McDonald's which you know whatever no big deal.

And next thing you know he unwraps this egg biscuit and bacon. same witch and takes this big old bite of it while the rest of us were fasting. And we went father John you're eating meat on a Friday and he looked at me and he was like I forgot.

And I think maybe I've had a kind of a graceful approach to fasting ever since. Okay. Well that's probably good. Yeah. Fasting is one of those things that I feel like there's never a great time to talk about. Right. Like if you're fasting you're really not supposed to be talking about. if you're not fasting and then you're telling other people how you did fast then it feels like you're boasting or whatever.

If you're like okay where are you? Where are you telling me this? and so I think it's really really important and it's a significant tool in the life of a disciple in terms of their growth. And I thought you know as you and I sat down and kind of planned through episodes this season with both of us really.

This would be an important topic to talk about. how how do you want to kind of kick it off? What how would you talk about fasting with somebody who maybe hasn't fasted before or who doesn't understand much about it? so I would say this that fasting is a tool designed to separate us from the needs of the world so that we can be dependent on.

Right. Fasting is a tool designed to separate us from the needs of the world so that we can be dependent on God. Meaning that when we fast intentionally what we end up doing is we create we create space for God. To fill that gap right? And that gap then becomes a way that we can be dependent on God that leads to a fullness that we might not otherwise have.

Meaning in in the midst of the uncomfortable feeling the the the pain of it the discomfort of it the the tiredness the all of the things that come with prolonged fasting. we learn to be dependent on God. I I really like the way that Philippians 1 29 says for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ.

Not only to believe on him but also to suffer for him. And I think this intentional act of suffering brings us to an intimacy with Christ. That's hard to get in our daily comfort. Yeah that's really good. You know I think most Christians most disciples fasting is not a part of their spiritual walk at all.

And you know I don't I don't know exactly why that is. I mean I know it's more so in the Catholic faith it's more present. but in the Protestant denominations it's really not very. Despite there being lots of scripture about fasting and one that we've kind of already alluded to is Matthew six 16 through 18 where Jesus is instructing the disciples.

He says when you fast do not look somber as the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others their fasting. Truly. I tell you they have received their reward in full. But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you're fasting but only to your father who is unseen.

and your father who sees was done in secret will reward you. But twice in that passage it says when you fast Jesus talking to the disciples and it's not an if it's not a if you think about it it says when you fast. And so. You know over the last several years that's something I've been mulling over more and more of well what does fasting look like in the life of a disciple and why does Jesus want us to do it?

Right? there's another scripture in mark where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and they're asking Jesus why aren't your disciples fasting right now? And he says well As long as the bridegroom is with them they cannot fast but the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and they will fast.

And so we just have this scriptural expectation really that disciples of Jesus will be fasting at time. Yeah. And then we also think about Jesus fasting himself right. For 40 days in the wilderness. and and what happened in the wilderness was a preparation for his ministry. And so in a lot of ways when I look at Jesus's 40 days in the world What I see is I see Jesus preparing himself to get closer to the father closer to the holy spirit.

So he can go out and then preach the message which the first message he preached out of the wilderness is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand right? For the kingdom of God is near you know depending on the translation but this idea about repent Hey the kingdom is coming. So. You know part of why we're doing this episode now is because you have a kind of a practice that I know you wouldn't normally talk about but for the sake of the community we kind of agreed to it today is that there's some fasting that you do with pastors a couple of times a year.

And this was really the first time it was a bigger group. They were probably I don't know where there 10 of us on that. That fasting group 14 actually around 14 pastors. and I'm going to ask to talk a little about how you decided when and what that looks like but but I think it's really important to note something in the practice of this fasting is that as a discipleship to tool fasting is meant to be.

Meaning that there's something to doing this corporately with your Paul or Timothy or with a group of people who are your peers that when everyone is fasting and praying together it changes the atmosphere of the community. It becomes a way where it's not just an individual intimacy with God. Now it's a corporate intimacy with God and that becomes really powerful.

So. Justin can you tell us a little about how this tradition came to be for you and how how you kind of get started on this process? Yeah so it actually started probably five years ago five to six years ago. one of my best friends invited me. To do a fast with him and he was just going to try it out.

And I think we did two days that time and neither of us had done a long fast before. And so we're like well let's just try two days. See how it goes. And so we did it and it was hard but it was really good and in a spiritual sense but also just felt reset not only spiritually but also mentally and emotionally.

And so that started a habit for us where we've just started to do it twice a year. And normally our normal rhythm now is we'll do two five day fasts a year where we're just having water. And so we don't eat anything you know tea coffee food you know we just have water. and it's really each fast is different.

That's one of the things that I've learned. And so some are really really hard. Some are not as hard. but God has something different in each one for us. And so after. Probably a year or two of doing this. I started to invite others along with me in it. And my thought was well if I'm experiencing all of these benefits from fasting I want to invite others along who can benefit as well.

And what what benefits I've seen is not only a closeness with God. I almost feel like I'm walking down into a valley or a pit of kind of suffering. And for the first couple of days it's pretty hard but towards the end it gets easier as your body adjusts. And there's some metabolic things that are going on there that that help with that.

But I'm walking down into this pit of suffering and I can say. Jesus in a different way. And so that's been really helpful for me. And so we do it twice a year and we've done it. Like I said we've done it shorter times. A lot of us are done in seven days. and the benefits have been really huge.

let me just share this last one Antonio and then I want to hear about how how yours went for you this time. But this time for me it was one of the harder fast I've ever done. And each day starting with day to day through to through day four I seriously thought about quitting because I just didn't feel good.

I didn't feel like I was connecting with God. I didn't feel the closeness with him that I normally feel. but I stuck with it and kind of gritted it out. And then. At the end. Once I started to eat again that's when all the things I normally get on the fast I got this time and it was after. And so really rich depth with with Christ.

I sensed feeling reset and renewed and rejuvenated spiritually and physically and emotionally. And so that was just really interesting to me. Cause I don't recall a fast like that where I didn't get a drink it. I got it. but like I said the fast is really about for me all right. Journeying with Jesus and helping to connect with him in a new way.

What was what's been your experience and specifically the last one if you want to share that to so I I've done a number of different fasts and I you know I've done a Daniel fast where you only do things from the ground from the book of Daniel Daniel one. And I think Daniel. later seven maybe more Daniel fast from the King's table specifically around rich food.

So I've done that at the beginning of the year a 14 and a 21 day fast for a number of times but this is it's been a while since I'd done just a pure water fast and that's what we were doing. A water. Now I knew that I had a an obligation on the last day of the fast. So I ended mine a little bit early and I fasted for a very particular reason that the invitation came at a very unique time because I was preparing my last sermon at the church at restoration the church that I had been serving at.

And so I was really praying and hoping that God would give me a very Clear and distinct words so that it would be God's words instead of mine. So when I fast one of the things I do is I use that extra time in my schedule to create intentional space with God. So I oftentimes like a lot of pastors meet with people for lunch and coffee and all these things.

And so I purposely said no to some of those meetings because it was a. And instead I spent that time in prayer or soaking with God. And it was Wednesday morning of that fast when God gave me a very clear it wasn't audible but it was very inner that inner voice that clarity there that was very much this is God this is what God wants you to say.

And it was it was almost like. Man. It was almost like my dad just taking his arm and putting it right around me in a very intimate way. And I was super thankful for that moment. There were some hard parts especially the evenings I went to bed early you know and and just I just kind of submitted to the fact that I was exhausted and I didn't have any food.

So and there were you know obviously it's not something that you want to do without if you're married without your spouse's buy in because. it will affect your attitude and your effort and your energy and inside. It has to be a communal decision in your home even. So even though my wife wasn't fasting I really needed her to give her blessing that I was able to go to bed at eight 30 or nine o'clock or whatever time.

Yeah. Yeah no that's really good. A couple of things that you mentioned there alluded to like the prayer right? Frequently in scripture we see prayer and fasting kind of wed together in the scriptures. And you know we don't quite understand the why of it but but it does seem clear that when we pay. Our prayer with fasting.

It enhances the power of what we're doing there in some way. That again we don't totally understand. and one of the advantages of doing it with others right. Fasting is meant to be shared is we can learn about well what's what's normal for these things right? So one of the things that I've learned in the process of doing them with others is you know it's normal to feel.

It's normal to go to bed at eight 30 when you're normally up until 10 30 and you know it just reduces your capacity but it's also normal that after two three sometimes four days our attentiveness really rises right. Both are senses. we smell things we haven't smelled before we see things out of periphery that we haven't seen.

we normally don't notice. and it's just interesting what's happening in the midst of the fast but I really like how you talked about how we should. involve those in our household in the fast and Tony both you and I have kids at home. And so one of the things that we do prior to a fast I fast normally and in may and in October or sometimes April October or whatever but they'll know.

Okay dad's getting ready to do his five day fast and I'll ask Hey do you guys want to join? Now? We have kids from 11 down to five. And neither my wife or I want them to do a water fast for five days. Cause they're growing and you know their bodies are different. but there's a way that we can involve them.

And and what we do is we just say well if you want to. You could fast from a food that you'd like or from a snack or whatever. And so each of my kids did that again this time and totally let them choose. And they've some sometimes I say I don't want to do it this time. And it was okay. No problem. but one of my daughters chose to only drink water.

while I was on my water fast now she was eating whatever she wanted to eat but she didn't have any milk no juice no. Any of the other things that she normally likes to drink and that was hard for her. And she got some of that experience of some intentional suffering in order to grow closer to Christ and as a way to show her devotion to him in that.

I love that. And I think it brings up an important reminder is that as you're walking with someone in faith as you're discipling someone they may not be at a mature level for full fasting. And and it's important to use it as a as a tool. So you know there's a lot of debate about in the fasting world.

It's hard to believe there's a fasting world but here we are in the fasting world about whether or not like giving up screens for example during lent as a true fast and biblical. It's probably not biblically but practically it's a really great step right? Anything that we can do to decrease ourselves so that Christ can increase is a really good step.

And that's what I love most about fasting and intentional intentional deprivation in general is I'm intentionally doing this to grow closer with. Yeah absolutely. And it's really interesting to me Tony that all the major religions have a fasting component. Right. So it's almost if there's as if there's something there's something to it right.

That humans have found helpful to them. And as we see it again it's in the scriptures. one of the things is we've seen. Last probably five to 10 years is the medical benefits of fasting which you know we're not a medical podcast. So consult your doctor and we're not. Get into all those details but it is out there.

And it's really interesting to me that maybe it's one of those things that God has instructed us to practice. not only for the spiritual benefits but also for some of those physical health benefits that the scientific community seems to be finding. Well and I I think that it it it's a good reminder that Jesus came in the flesh.

And so that flesh part is super important to what we're doing. And they care about our physical body as much as they care about our spiritual potty our body Justin why don't you give us our takeaway an action step? Yeah. All right. Takeaway fasting is meant to be shared. fasting is meant to be shared.

And I would add to that that when right like Jesus said when you fast it's meant to be shared. so that's the takeaway the action step probably pretty obvious plan your next fast. So you know when are you going to do it again? I do in the spring and in the fall. So when I do the long five day fast we have people join you know for some parts some of them do.

but if you're interested in joining me in that feel free to reach out to me through my website or through Tony's website as well. And just again thanks for listening. Thanks for being on. If you haven't yet please hit that subscribe button so that you can get each and every one of our podcasts. And please share these with.

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