The Rock San Diego – 9/21 message – Fasting

• Christianity is not about rules, it’s about Jesus, the person, and your relationship with Him
• In Heaven, the church is married to Jesus – men and women aren’t married together
• The pleasure of the oneness between the bride and the groom on earth is a foreshadow of the pleasure of the oneness between the church (bride) and Jesus (groom) in heaven
• God wants to be one with you, but you have entanglement with the world
• Satan is real – there is evil in this world
• The way people know that you know God is not by what you know, it’s by how you live – that you and Christ are one
• What is fasting – to voluntarily abstain from eating or drinking for an extended period of time
• Why would I voluntarily not eat?  Because I want to be one with God – because your food is in the way of God
• Fasting is intended to separate you from your perceived life support, that you may focus exclusively on the Lord, your actual life support
• Out of all the food that is man-made, none of it is as good for you as what God made
• Fruits are ovaries of plants – they have the seeds in them
• The pulp of an orange regulates the sugar into your blood
• How are seeds so smart???
• When you separate yourself from food, you’re going to realize you have addictions
• When you separate yourself from your addictions, you remove your social crutches, and all you’re left with is Jesus
• The fasting goal is a personal encounter with the living God. “He must increase, and we must decrease” – whatever you remove, God now replaces that
• When you fast, you get to the point where you don’t get hungry any more
• There are some things (afflictions) that only fasting will repair or resolve
• The Devil has you addicted, thinking you need the cycle of food
• For most people, 90% of what they eat is no good for them
• What’s better, eating garbage, or not eating at all?
• #1 – prepare your heart – “God, I want to have an encounter with you”
• You will lose weight, your senses will become more acute, your body detoxes – you may get a little sick or feverish and you may start to smell worse than you do normally (just for a while as you get cleaned out)
• #2 – check your motives – establish spiritual goals
• #3 – prepare your body – fruits and vegetables only for 7-10 days, then drink juices, water, then come off gradually with another period of time with fruits and veggies (can use a little protein powder if you want)
• You could fast from sweets; white flour, white rice, white sugar;
• If you’re a healthy person, your body can do a lot more than you think
• #4 – prepare your schedule – spend time with Him – keep your mind on God
• Hunger pain is way overrated – nothing will happen – they actually start subsiding
• If you don’t need food, what else are you perhaps addicted to?
• Keep your fast a secret – avoid people as much as possible, avoid meals with groups of people, spend as much time alone in prayer as possible, tell your family what you’re doing (I’m not going to eat, please don’t ask me)
• Drugs get you high by telling your body to release drugs you already have in you (dopamine)
• You don’t know what you don’t know until you do it