2819 Church - So We Fasted… | Ezra 8:21-23 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Philip Anthony Mitchell opens the year by teaching on fasting and prayer, urging us to devote ourselves to this powerful, ancient practice over the next 7 days.

You can be seated. If you're a guest to 2819, we want to welcome you to our gathering. And if you're one of our digital disciples watching me live right now in cities across the country and around the world, we welcome you to 2019. To all of our families sitting in that overflow, just thank you for being in the building. The Spirit of God is not handcuffed to this room. The Spirit of God is all over this facility. So I don't want you to feel like you're lacking anything sitting in that other room. The Spirit of God is in that room.

And so I just thank all of you for being here. You have perfect attendance for 2025. Thank you, God. Now, this morning, I just, look, hear my heart. It is one of my deep burdens that we would be formed into an Acts 2 church. I am too old to be playing church and trying to do church and not be the church. The Lord didn't call us to do or play he called us to be a church and i'm i'm too old for that foolishness and one of my prayers is that we will be formed into an acts 2 church it's the whole foundation of this ministry

and that we will be serious about the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples. Matthew 28, 19, where our name came from. I want us to be a people deeply devoted to the scriptures and not just the opinions of men. I want us to be a people deeply devoted to prayer. I want us to be a people deeply devoted to community and fellowship. Even though this is messy and sometimes it hurts and sometimes we get offended I want us to be committed to community deeply and loving each other deeply and forgiving each other quickly and easily and being planted and rooted that our character could be shaped in the context of the messiness of community.

And we stop running from church to church every time somebody offends you, but we lean in deeply and we grow in the context of community. I want us to share all things in common for as best as we can. I want us to get as far as we can without a bank and without the government that we can provide for our own selves. And I'm not anti-bank or anti-government. I just want to see how far we can get without them that we can share all things in common.

We can provide for ourselves. We can get out of this building for ourselves. So I'm going to remind you every week that on the last Sunday in February, the month of love, this isn't, we are not a money house. We don't do gimmicks and stunts and any of that foolishness. But one time a year we take up what's called a gospel expansion offering, where we ask everybody to come together and sacrifice that one Sunday. And that we use that funding. We use that funding for the expansion of the gospel in each year. These last year and this year, we're trying to put all of that whatever comes in towards getting out of this building

now today I was supposed to start a brand new series in the second to last half of our walk through Matthew, which we've been in that book for two years. God has done something supernatural as we've walked through the book of Matthew together, a journey that started with 183 disciples. And I was supposed to start that series today, but because as a shepherd, I'm calling our entire church, local disciples and digital disciples, to one week of consecration, seven days of consecration. I want to use this time that we have together to orient your heart around consecration and to encourage you to lean into consecrating your heart this week towards the Lord. And so, Father, in the name of the Holy One, give me the strength in my weakness to obey what you told me to do.

And I pray you would open the heart of the son and the daughter and even draw in the heart of the unbeliever. I ask for your help right now in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen and amen and amen. Amen. My family, I want to start this talk with just a moment of transparency. I got up this morning at 3.15.

I got down to my prayer room about 3.24 a.m. And as soon as I walked into my prayer room, immediately I just burst into tears when I walked into my prayer room. And in those moments when that happens to me, I am aware now after walking with the Lord for 20 years that the Lord is just impressing some burden on my heart. And as I knelt down and as I wept bitterly, I felt this grief in my heart, just over the things that has infected the church in the West in America. And I begin to grieve over the state of the church, over the condition of the church in the West in America. I was grieved over the sin that is in me, the sin that is in you, the sin that is in the church in America, the sin that is in the body of Christ. I was grieved over our shenanigans and our antics and our foolishness

and how we've turned the church into a market. I was grieved over the things that I see in the American church that grieve the spirit of God, things that we have made Western and try to make it Christian and things we have taken that is Western and try to make it gospel. And I wept over those things, and I pleaded with God, and I cried out with God, God, I pray for another great awakening to hit this nation. I prayed for an outpouring of repentance on our nation. I prayed for an outpouring of conviction on our nation. I prayed that there would be mass revival in this nation, a mass turning away from the world towards Christ, away from apathy, away from idols, away from all of

our sexual perversion, away from our immorality, away from all of it towards Christ. I pray that God would pour out a spirit on the church that we, the people of God, would be grieved in our hearts over the things that's inside of us, the darkness in my own heart and the darkness here. And I wept for hours and I prayed for hours until I was completely empty

and was in that moment, I got this flashback in my head of what Paul said to the church in Rome, how he wrote in Romans chapter 7, how he talked about in me, that's my flesh, there dwells no good thing. And how in the back half of Romans 7, Paul is complaining about his flesh

and the war between the flesh and the spirit. Paraphrase like, the things I want to do. I keep falling short. I don't do them. I want to pray and I want to read and I want to be, but I keep falling short. And the things I don't want to do, man, I keep finding myself doing. I'm watching porn and I'm lusting and I'm smoking and I'm doing all and the things I'm in and I, and I grieve over that. And Paul has this wrestle

between the flesh and the spirit. And I'm thinking about that. And then as I was praying and crying, hear me, man, I thought about the thing I probably hate the most that brings me the most grief, is like a thorn in my side, and it's me. It's my flesh. It's the nature that I can't take off until the Lord delivers me from this body. It's why I look forward to eternity. I don't know about you. People think they know me, and they don't. I look forward to the day I leave this life to go be with my Lord. My only desire to stay here is for Lena, my children, 2019, and the spread of the gospel. I have no other desire to be here. Don't care about fame.

Don't care about platforms. Don't care about money. I have no other desire to be here. I'm being changed in the presence of my savior the things that used to matter to me does not matter anymore this is true story no cap and I thought about man that this thorn in my side this flesh that when you grow in maturity when you grow with God you start to hate the flesh because you feel like, man, this thing, it frustrates me all the time. Like, dang it, you thought about that again?

Dang it, you doing that again? Dang it, you talking like that again? Like, when will you grow out of this? Nobody's never felt that. You've never been angry at your own flesh no let me talk to the men strolling be like dang it i shouldn't have been looking at that no yes you have and then i thought to myself man there was a time when this was not a problem,

where the first human beings was created perfect, and they had moral perfection, and they walked with God in perfect intimacy and had no issues with the flesh until they thought they were smarter than God and was deceived by the enemy and plunged the whole world into sin and as a result of that all of us have to keep wrestling with the flesh and while you sit there and you look at me with your crooked eyes I just want to remind you that it is your flesh, the darkness of your own heart and your sinful nature. From that fountain flows all of the issues that you hate, your guilt, your shame, your insecurities, your jealousy, your pride,

your arrogance, your judgment, your criticism, your marital issues, your relationship issues, your friendship issues, divorces, fights and wars, sickness and disease, aging and gray hair, all of the things we hate in this life, man, they flow from the issues of the heart and the sinful nature. And while we who are followers of Christ, man, man, we have to live in such a way as to keep subjecting the flesh while we try our best to connect with the Lord in intimacy, because a lot of us don't realize that the best treatment for all the issues of your heart is the presence of God. Let me. All right.

Let me. The best treatment. Thank God for counselors. Thank God for your spa day. Thank God for getting your mani and pedi. Thank God for soul care. The best treatment for all of the issues of the human heart is God himself. But the flesh oftentimes keeps this veil between us and God that sometimes

it's hard to get close to God because of the issues of the flesh. And there is this one ancient practice that significantly weakens the flesh and it makes the spirit grow strong that through that practice, man, we tap into God in a way where we have like antennas up, we can hear him clearly. And it is this ancient discipline

of fasting and prayer. For the uninformed, what is fasting? It's not getting rid of just social media. That's a lazy fast. It's not just getting rid of music. That's a punk fast. Biblical fasting is the abstinence from food for a period of time for the sake of consecrating the heart to grow closer to God through prayer. It's not a hunger strike. It is the denial of the thing the flesh wants most, food and pleasure. No food, no sex. No food, no social media. No food, no fill in the blank. It is crushing. It is telling his flesh, I have authority over you. I like the way that feels, right, Carlina? It's telling the flesh, I have authority over you, and I will deny you what you want most for a period of time. I will weaken you so that who I really am, a spirit inside of a body body can grow strong in intimacy with Christ. And when you fast,

you hear God more clearly. When you fast, you draw closer to God than ever before. When you fast, you can move God to intervene in circumstances. People have prayed and God has moved. People have prayed and God protected. People have prayed and God intervened. People have prayed and God healed. People have prayed, I like this one, and God answered. And in this room and in that room and in the scriptures, man, these rooms and the scriptures are replete with true stories and testimonies of people who fasted and prayed and seen God move mightily on their behalf. I want to just mention three of them from the word of God that I love personally. The first one comes from Ezra, who was a priest and a scribe and a mighty spiritual leader. The people of God have been exiled by Babylon. Persia conquers Babylon, and they allow some Jews to go back to their homeland. And in the 400s BC, Ezra is coming behind a priest named Zerubbabel, who becomes a governor,

and he's leading like over a thousand Jews back to Jerusalem, back out of exile. Now, the journey from where they was back to Jerusalem, a very dangerous journey. People were killed along that route. So, Ezra, watch, who was a man of the scriptures and a man of God, in Ezra chapter 8 and verse 21, before they leave to head to Jerusalem, he says in verse 21, then I, that is Ezra, proclaimed a fast there. You know what it is? He called the whole group of a thousand of them to a fast. So we see corporate fasting is biblical. Then I, Ezra, proclaim the fast there at the river Hava that we might humble ourselves before God. Because that's what fasting is. It is humbling yourself before God.

It is acknowledging that God has the power and the capacity to move on your behalf. To seek from him a safe journey for ourselves and our children and all of our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way. So this is powerful. So Ezra says to himself, we have to make a journey that's dangerous. Should I depend on men or should I depend on God? And because he was bragging on God, which he says next, watch. And because he said, he told them, the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him.

And the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him. So he's bragging about God to a king, and he says to himself, well, since I was bragging on the ability of God, now I have a choice to make. Do I go back to that king and ask for soldiers to protect us and ruin the reputation of God, or do I put my faith out there, fast and pray, and trust God to provide for me what man cannot provide for me. So he calls the congregation to a fast, and what is their response? Verse 23, so we fasted.

That is, we hear you, man of God. We got you, man of God. We got you, man of God. We're going to do this. Watch this word. Together, man of God. All of us together. We're going to seek God together. We're going to humble ourselves together.

We're going to fast together. We're going to consecrate together. So we fasted and implored. You know what implored is? Pleaded, petitioned, prayed, asked our God for this. And I like this next part. And he listened to our entreaty. Did you see that?

Watch this. They fasted and prayed and God answered. Watch this. This is God meeting a need through fasting and prayer. And I know there are plenty of people under the sound of my voice. You have a need right now in your life that may be inside the context of God's will. And God might be so inclined to move on your behalf if you would humble yourself, consecrate, fast, pray, seek him, implore him, and trust him to move to meet the need that you have right now in your life. Here is a group of people fasting. God responds by meeting the need. A second example I love is in Acts chapter 13 i'm just gonna jump around the scriptures can i do

that i'm going outside of what i normally do is that anybody got a problem with that the book of acts was written by a gentile named Luke. He records the first 30 years of church history. He records in Acts chapter 2 the birth of the Christian church. As Peter preached the very first sermon on the day of Pentecost, the church grows to 3,120 disciples. The church then grows to 5,000 men. The church is then spreading out all over Jerusalem. The church is then spreading out all over Jerusalem. The church is then persecuted. As the church is persecuted, they flee Jerusalem, and the gospel spreads around the known world at that time.

The first martyr is killed, Stephen, and then the second martyr is killed, James. He's killed by a king named Herod. So now the church is growing and dealing with persecution at the same time. Okay. Everybody missed that. The church is growing and dealing with persecution at the same time. Okay. I mean, it's going to hit somebody when they get home. The church is growing and dealing with persecution at the same time. The church is growing and dealing with persecution at the same time. Sounds like another church I know. I'm trying to, sister. The church is growing and dealing with persecution at the same time but persecution is not stopping the church from flourishing they can say what they want on social media they can they can say

what they want in the city the persecution is not slowing down the move of God that he's doing in the church. Just keep the parallels in the text. And then in Acts chapter 13, verse 1, now there were in the church at Antioch, which was the second home base of the church after Jerusalem, where the people were first called Christians there. Prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit, I like this next word, he said. Okay, because the Holy Spirit is not an it. Stop saying that.

He's not a spook, a ghost, or wind. The Holy Spirit is a person. The third person of the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. All in the New Testament. Jesus calls him a he because he has a pronoun. He's not a female and he's not a spook. That's for all the false prophets who preach God, our mother. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. All the false prophets who preach God, our mother. No, God gave us his pronouns. Jesus said, when he comes, he will, and he will, and he will. All of John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. All of it. As they were fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke.

As they were fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke. As they were fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke. And he said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry, or for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Do you see that? So the first group fasted and prayed, God met a need. This group fasted and prayed, God gave them guidance. Just like there's many of us right now, we need guidance.

Should I take the job? Should I move to the city? Should I marry this person? Should I sign that contract? I'm wrestling with this decision. Like there's some of us who need guidance. Say, God, why can't I hear you? Maybe you need to quiet your flesh. There are people under the sound of

my voice who are trying to make important decisions like we are as a church. And sometimes you need to quiet your flesh fast and seek God. Your antennas go up. You can hear him more clearly. I just want you to see from the scriptures that God speaks during fast. He meets needs. He speaks. He gives guidance. He gives direction. And sometimes he whispers when we have the discipline to quiet this flesh.

So we get guidance during a fast. Another one I love. It's probably my favorite. I know you're not going to like this one, but I don't care. I'm going to read it to you anyway. Joel chapter two. You never read that book, right? The people of God do what Americans do who call themselves Christians. The Lord is not enough. So they stray from God to loving other idols and doing what they do. And then a swarm of locusts comes into the land and ravishes their economic livelihood. It is a sign of God's judgment, God's discipline upon them because of their sin. And you would think that God is so cruel, he just leaves them out there suffering in their sin. No, no, no, no, no. But Joel chapter two and verse 12, I love this part. So my God, I just want to jump off this platform and shake somebody. This is for everybody who deals with guilt, everybody who deals with shame, everybody who feels like, I don't know if I could consecrate because you don't know what I've been doing.

There's no way God is going to listen to me. He's not going to hear me. Man, I've been in sexual immorality. Man, I've been far away from God. I know it's a new year, but I'm not feeling God right now. I'm far away. This is, but I'm not feeling God right now. I'm far away. This is for all of us who are dealing with that. Listen to what he says in verse 12. Yet even now, in the middle of your rebellion, declares the Lord. Watch this word.

Return to me. Return to me with all of your heart. How do you do that? With fasting. Gosh. With weeping. With mourning. Break yourself.

Shed tears. Cry over the issues of your heart. Come to me and tell me how far away you are. Tell me you're cold. Tell me your prayer life sucks. Tell me you don't read. Tell me you're far away. Tell me, return, return, return to me

with fasting and weeping and mourning. And I like verse 13. Rend your hearts and not your garments. I don't want your empty praise, and I don't want no dead service. I want your heart. He says, break your heart. Pour out your heart. Watch this.

Ring out your heart. Tell me, God, I'm struggling. I'm struggling with masturbation. I'm struggling with lust. I'm struggling with jealousy. I'm struggling with pride. I'm struggling with anger. I'm mad at you, God. I'm mad at my wife. I'm mad at my Gosh. Oh, God. Oh, God. And not your garments. Man, you can dress it up and come to church and fool everybody. But the Lord said to them,

wring out your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and he is merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. That is, he can turn off his punishment whenever he's ready. He can move into your situation. Man, he can give you a breath of fresh air. Listen, you know what I want to say? He can give you a personal revival. My marriage is cold. My prayer life is cold. My Bible reading is cold. My service is cold. My heart feels cold. I'm talking to all of you who feel far away from God. Man, return to him with what? With fasting and with prayer. Watch. And he can give you a personal. See?

And I know I'm not the only one. Since y'all are so phony and since you're so holy, I know I'm not the only one who has drifted into a place where I just feel like I'm in a funk. Lord, I'm in a funk. I'm busy. Job got me stressed. Don't feel like going to church. Kids got me tired. Got bills I can't pay. Haven't talked to you in a long time. Don't know if it was the last time I read. I didn't pick up my devotional. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In a complete funk. But return to me, says the Lord. With fasting and weeping and wring out your heart. Wring out your sin. Tell me what's going on and he can give you personal. I mean, forget the country, me, revival. Some of us just need to be set on fire again. The Lord meets needs. The Lord speaks.

The Lord revives. Man, the Lord does mighty things during fasting and prayer. Family, listen to me. I'm almost finished. That it was during a fast that a woman with a damaged cervix, I'm going to keep saying this a hundred times, who the doctors told her, you will never have children. She fasted and prayed and cried out to God. If you give me a son, I will give him back to you. Her name is Sharon Mitchell, who God performed a creative miracle in her womb and not only gave her a son, but a daughter to shame the adversary.

She got a... The evidence is talking to you right now. What are we talking about, man? He's able. It was during a fast that God performed a creative miracle in her womb. She medically could not have children. Stand up, Abby. No, just run up here, right here.

Just stand right here. Quick, quick, quick. Move quick. Come here. Yeah. 2010. Bible college. First ultrasound. Cis on the brain. Doctor says she will not speak. She will not walk. She will be mentally retarded. We can't do anything. Leaking fluid in her spinal cord. And her parents fasted.

Her parents fasted and prayed and cried out to God. And he performed a creative miracle. The doctor said she would never speak. Say hallelujah, Abby. The doctor said she would never speak. Say hallelujah, Abby. The doctor said she would never walk. Stomp your feet, Abby. You have no idea what God would do when you turn your plate down and you get serious about consecration and prayer and fasting and going after him with all of your heart.

What are we talking about? And going after him with all of your heart. What are we talking about? I feel faith rising up in the room right now. So, did Jesus, are you all in the Old Testament? Did Jesus give a charge to you, his follower, about prayer and fasting? Watch this. Here's a better question. Is it optional?

Can I check out? In his most famous sermon, Matthew recorded the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said to you and to me in Matthew chapter 6, and beginning at verse 5, he says, and when you pray, you must not pray like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. I want you to draw your attention to the word when. The word when is a presupposition in the text. That means the Lord expects you to pray. So no follower gets an out from prayer. It's not for pastors. It's not for leaders. It's for every follower of Christ. Not if you pray,

when you pray. That is the Lord expects you to pray. And then he says, when you do it, don't pray like these hypocrites so you can be seen and heard. He's not against public prayers. He's against false prayers. Don't pray to be seen. Just be seen praying. He says when you pray with false motives, your only reward is people saying, dang, she can pray. Dang, he can pray.

When you pray with false motives, that's your only reward. Your only reward is the affirmation of people who can't answer your prayer. And then he says, but when you pray, this is what you do during the fast. Go into your room, your closet, your bathroom, your car, the park, the office, the cubicle. Shut the door, wherever you want, and pray to your Father who is in secret. The secret of prayer is praying in secret. The secret of prayer is praying in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. That is, he promises a reward for secret praying.

If you pray, you will be rewarded. Now, he does not tell us what the reward is. He leaves it nuanced so as to not limit him in our thinking of what he could do when you pray. That is, the Lord did not cap God to what he could do when you pray. That is, the Lord did not cap God to what he could do when you pray. That is, he can do anything he desires to do in the context of his will. He says, man, go in your room, shut the door during the consecration in secret, and keep crying out to God in secret. Verse 7, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard with their many words. Do not be like them,

but your Father knows what you need before you ask. You know what he's saying? Pray with honesty, pray with security. That is, just be honest about what your need is and pray that God will, in such a way that you have an assurance that God will hear you when you pray. You don't have to impress him with speech. Oh, Lord, thou art great and awesome. Like, you think if you don't pray King James English, the Lord won't hear. Sometimes the best prayer is like, Lord, help this dude right here. The Lord speaks more than Elizabethan English.

He says, don't pray like that. He says, pray then like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your 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 as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil. Theologians call this the Lord's Prayer. And you could pray it verbatim, but that's not why Jesus taught it. He didn't teach it for us to pray it verbatim. He gave it to us as a model to teach you how to pray. So how do you pray? You start your prayers by acknowledging who you're

talking to, our Father. And you think about where he is. He is in heaven. He is exalted. He is above. You think about who you're talking to and where he's seated. Then he says, your kingdom come and your will be done. Or he says, hallowed be your name. That is, worship God in your time of prayer.

Then he says, pray your kingdom come and your will be done. That is, busy yourself with praying about the things that God is concerned about. Pray for the spread of the gospel. Pray for the planting of churches. Pray for missionaries. Pray for spiritual leaders. Pray for people to be saved. Pray for the lost and no Jesus.

Pray for every unsafe family and loved one. Pray for the kingdom. If you pray like that, your prayer life will be on fire. Some of you, you'll be bored in your prayer life will be on fire. Some of you, you'll be bored in your prayer because all your prayers are about you. But when you see the world through the eyes of Jesus, you will be grieved over the state of cities in America. You'll be praying for the government and for nations. You'll be praying for places where they've never heard the name of Jesus. You'll be praying for Islamic nations and Buddhist nations and places where they've never heard Christ. You'll be praying your kingdom come and your will be done.

Then he gets to you. Give us this day of daily bread. Ask God for your needs and don't be ashamed. There's things you want in your heart you'll never say, but you have not because you ask not. Then he says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That is deal with your sin. Like don't go into God's presence and act holy. Go into God's presence and act lowly and deal with your sin. Tell him you're a sinner. Tell him you messed up this week. Tell him you messed up last night and wring out your heart from sin and lead us not into temptation. That is asking

for strength, right? So you see the Lord commands us to pray. And then in verse 16, the last set of verses, and I'm done. He says, and when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. I'm glad you're laughing. So that means I don't have to interpret that. For they disfigure their faces, for their fasting may be seen by others. Now, let me just tell you what that means. That is, don't brag about your fasting. Don't go to work and be like, oh God, I'm fasting. Oh God, we're on a consecration. He said, don't let people know that you're doing that. Because when you're doing that, you're just looking for people to give you props. Oh, snap, you're fasting. If that's what you do, your only reward will be the affirmation of men. That's your reward. He said, don't do that.

Truly, I say to them, you have a reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in heaven and in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly so here's what the Lord is saying he calls us to pray everybody look at me he calls us to fast he says when you pray do it in secret he's not against group prayer and he says He calls us to fast. He says, when you pray, do it in secret. He's not against group prayer. And he says, he calls us to fast, but don't brag about your fast. And that is iron your clothes, go to work, do what you got to do. Man, fast, and don't let people know you're doing that. It's between you and God. Now hear me. I'm calling this entire church to consecration this week, and I'll give you only two options, not these little punk American fasts. You get two options. They are biblical, and that is it.

For the majority of us, 85%, 90%, I'm calling you to what's called a total fast. That is, we won't eat again until we gather in this room next week, and the first meal we'll have will be communion together. That'll be my next meal starting tomorrow. The fast starts tomorrow. When Monday morning comes, my next meal will be communion in seven days. And we deny this body what it wants most. You get no food. You get no stimulus. This is what Jesus did in the wilderness in Matthew 4. He was out there, watch this, for 40 days and 40 nights.

Watch. No food, no stimulus. No food, no social media, no television, no radio, no stimulus, nothing that my flesh enjoys. This is me and Jesus alone for seven days. Total fast, liquid. For me, water only. And I'm calling the majority of you to do something you've never done before. Break your flesh.

Crucify it. Tell your flesh it has no authority over you. Discipline it. Crush it. You give it no pleasure and no food. Your food for the next week will be the word of God. Matthew 4, 4, for man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Man, this will be my breakfast. This will be my lunch. This will be my dinner. This will be my snack.

Man, I want you to gorge yourself on the word of God. Listen to worship songs. Take walks in the park. The first three days is going to hurt. I've been 21 days without food. The first three days is going to hurt. I've been 21 days without food. The first three days is going to hurt. By the fourth day, you're going to be sailing. And the focus is not on what you can't eat.

That's fleshly. The focus is on I'm going after Christ with my whole heart. Watch. And the greatest reward you will get from fasting is whatever he wants. But the greatest reward you will get from fasting is whatever he wants, but the greatest reward you'll get from fasting is him. It is intimacy with Christ. You're going to hear him. You're going to feel him.

You're going to be near him. It's going to cheer him. For some of you, it's going to listen. And this will be a good week. If you're struggling, no sex this week. No weed. No cocaine. No meth. No weed, no cocaine, no meth, no pornography. This would be a good week to put all your vices on the altar and see if God breaks it out of your life in seven days. And then if you're

pregnant or you work a manual labor job and you ain't gangster to do a total fast, that should be 90% of y'all. But if you're not gangster to do that, you're pregnant or you got a manual labor job, your only second option is from the scriptures. Not these little punk American fasts. Oh, I'm not going to have coffee. But then you're going to do everything else. No. Punk American fasts. This is the Bible.

Your only other fast, partial. Like what Daniel did in Daniel chapter 10, who went 21 days with no meat, no delicacy, partial stimulus because he worked a government job. This is you saying, I'll just do one meal a day. I'll just do salad and vegetables, but I'm going to deny myself the things that I want. No chicken, no fish. Now all that stuff that you love, the things that make you feel, mmm, you deny that. No steak and cab. No steak and cab. No steak and cab. No wine.

None of that stuff. If it don't hurt, it's not a fast. It's a Pope American fast. I got two minutes. This week, we kill the flesh. We take authority over this body. We run after Jesus with our whole hearts. We deny ourselves and we press into his presence.

We run after him. we draw near to him we gorge ourselves on the word we walk, we fast we pray, we worship we sing, we lean into God's presence we want all of God and nothing else listen to me, you will survive

and don't spend this week talking about what I can't eat Listen to me. You will survive. And don't spend this week talking about, well, I can't eat. And oh my God, my church got me on my fast. And we can't do this. That's so American and it's so lame. If you start talking like that, Isaiah 58 is for you. If you fast with the wrong motives, the Lord will not hear. Call each other this week. Enc Call each other this week. Encourage each other this week.

Say, man, what are you hearing from God? And it's Wednesday. What are you reading from God? And it's Tuesday. Man, how are you holding up? And it's Thursday. What you're getting in the spirit? And it's Friday.

Encourage one another this week. Man, and spend the next seven days, Monday to Sunday. Get it out your system this afternoon, and run after God. Run after God with your whole heart this week, and let this be the week, man, we tell Jesus, you are my priority. Set the course for the year. Man, shoot, set the course for the decade. Believe for miracles. Believe for healing.

Believe for salvations. Tell God to speak to you. Get your questions answered. I mean, run after him. I want you to get to God's heart and nothing else this week Now with every hand lifted in this room and the overflow across the camera hold it high Every hand lifted This ain't no joke.

Some of you, you're going to be changed. You're going to be radically transformed. Your bodies are going to be healed. You're going to hear God, see him like Isaiah did. You're going to feel him on another level. Man, I feel this in my spirit Father in the name of Yahshua I pray over my spiritual family local and abroad

that you give us the grace to consecrate ourselves to fast to pray to worship to read, to listen to write, to be disciplined to get as close to your heart as we can to read, to listen, to write, to be disciplined,

to get as close to your heart as we can. I pray that over them right now, that they will be changed, transformed, healed, delivered, set free. They will fall in love with you like they've never had before. We ask that in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, everybody put your hands together.