Fasting 101

Hallelujah. If you have your Bibles open with me this morning, we’re going to bring in right now the Edenton campus. We’re going to bring in the Edenton campus at Salt Church in Virginia beach, and we’re going to give a big shout out to those guys this morning, welcoming them. Happy New Year. So welcome to Virginia Beach Salt Church and to Edenton Fol Campus.

Can we welcome them with a big howdy? Amen. God is so good. God is so good. I know.

Last week, I just appreciate Pastor Kyle coming up from Edenson and really talking about declarations and faith. And he’s that guy. Kyle is. So we were honored to have him here. Honored to have him speaking.

And I’m honored to have all you guys here today. Jeremy, Wells and Corinna, where are you guys? In the back. Jeremy and Corinna are here. I mean, they came out of this church many years ago.

Jeremy went to Emanuel College, went into ministry. Now he’s transitioning to the Asheville, North Carolina, area. And his dad Tom is here. And we love Tom and Christie. They’ve been such great people.

So, anyhow, Godspeed to you, man. Bless you guys. Can we give it up for them and just be. Keep them in your prayers as they go? So if you have your Bibles, open with me to the Book of Matthew, chapter six.

And I’m going to talk about fasting today. So some of y’, all, I was hoping I wouldn’t get. I think everyone can get something out of this today because fasting is a biblical discipline that I talked about recently as I preached through the Sermon on the Mount. There are three specific disciplines that Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. One is prayer, one is giving, and the other is fasting.

And Jesus mentioned these, not in a way like, if you ever pray or if you ever decide to give, or if you ever fast in your Christian life, here’s how you should do it. No, but when he approached each of these, he said, when you pray, when you give, and when you fast, meaning that these things are part and parcel of the Christian experience. They’re part of the Christian life. So we’re going to dig into it today, talk about it, and I’m going to set the parameters for what we’re going to be doing for the next 21 days. Amen.

So Matthew, chapter 6, verse 16. Jesus said, moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting, assuredly. I say to you that they have their reward. Jesus is saying, don’t be a hypocrite. When you fast, when you give, when you pray, when you do anything for the Lord, it’s not just so others can see.

If that’s your goal in life, then you have your reward. Others saw you do something religious. Thank you very much. Jesus is saying, be sincere with this verse 17. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father, who is in the secret place.

And your father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly. Now, what he’s saying here is the same thing he says about prayer. When you pray, don’t stand on the street corners and be like the religious leaders of the day. Go into your closet and pray. When you give, don’t sound the trumpet or let the music be played.

When you give and announce you’re giving, no, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand’s doing. In all three of these instances, he talks about sincerity is in our religious disciplines and also the secrecy of them. I don’t think, though, he means that we cannot let anyone know if we ever pray, if we ever give, or if we ever fast. I think he’s just pushing the argument, don’t do it for that reason. Okay, don’t do it for that reason, but we’re doing it for the Lord.

So fasting is a biblical concept. Fasting is a spiritual discipline mentioned in the Bible over 70 times. Great men and women throughout the history of Christianity have given themselves to prayer and fasting. Just look at Christian history in America, just Jonathan Edwards or David Brainerd, or in England with John Wesley or Andrew Murray in South Africa, or Rees Howes and John Hyde and William J. Seymour and Smith Wigglesworth.

And on and on and on. Great men and women throughout history have fasted. One of my heroes, the 1700s Great Awakening preacher John Wesley, he required his ministers to fast every Wednesday and Friday until 3pm and he said, and with fasting, let us always join in fervent prayer, pouring out our whole souls before God, confessing our sins with all their aggravations, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, laying open before him all our wants, all our guiltiness and helplessness. This is a season for enlarging our prayers both in behalf of ourselves and of our brethren. Let us now bewail the sins of our people and cry aloud for the city of our God that the Lord may build up Zion and cause his face to shine on the desolate places.

That’s a powerful call to fasting. My understanding was that with John Wesley, with his ministers, if you didn’t obey his rules to fast on Wednesday and Friday, he could kick you out of their organization. We’re not doing that today. I’m just encouraging you to fast. Amen.

So Jesus goes after fasting. What is fasting? Fasting is voluntarily going without food. Hello. I’m going to read you the Hebrew definition of fasting.

Hebrew? In the Hebrew, it literally means to abstain from food. It literally carries the idea of closing one’s mouth from eating. That’s what fasting means. Fasting is voluntarily going without food for a period of time.

In order to humble yourself before God, focus on him and seek him earnestly through prayer. That’s what it’s about, to focus on God and earnestly seek him through through prayer. So fasting is a heart issue. God rejects the showiness of the hypocrites who fasted. If you have your Bibles, go left with me from Matthew and let’s go to Isaiah, chapter 58.

And I’m going to show you what fasting, the sincerity of fasting. Isaiah 58. And God rebukes the people of Israel for. For their hypocrisy in fasting. Here through the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 58 Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice.

They take delight in approaching God. Then in verse three says, why have we fasted? They say, and you have not seen why, Lord, are we fasting? And you have not answered our prayers. Why have we afflicted our souls?

And you take no notice. In fact, the day of your fast you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. It is a fast that I have chosen.

A day for a man to afflict his soul. It is to bow down his head like a bulrush, to spread out sackcloth and ashes. Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast that I have chosen? Verse 6.

To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, to Let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke, is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh, then your light will shine forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear reward.

And then you shall call and the Lord will answer. When? When you actually start living right, when you actually start treating people as you should, when you get rid of the injustice, when you treat people fairly, when you pay proper wages, when you don’t take advantage of people. That’s when I’m going to hear your fasting. In other words, you can fast till, as one man said, you’re so skinny we could pull you through a keyhole.

And if you’re living wickedly, it’s not going to help. It’s not going to help. Fasting can help if your heart is right. So I want to challenge you. Let it be a condition of the heart in these next 21 days that you work on.

You work on your heart and your position before God. Father, Fasting without repentance is just going hungry. Fasting without righteous action is just going hungry. Fasting without focusing on God is just going hungry. Fasting without the right heart is just going hungry.

So I’m going to state these three things that we can get from fasting as cans in italics here. Because if you have the right heart, these things can be obtained through fasting. Can we shout Amen? Number one. Fasting can bring power into your life.

Fasting can bring power into your life. If you look with me in the book of Luke, chapter four, Jesus fasts. And I want you to notice several things about this. Luke 4:1. Jesus is baptized.

And when he is baptized, the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he received the Spirit of the Lord at his baptism. Then it says in verse one of chapter four, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. So then he’s full of the Spirit because of his baptism, and he goes into the wilderness. And there he’s tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by Satan himself. And he doesn’t eat, and he’s in the wilderness and he conquers Satan in those three temptations.

The temptation that Adam and Eve couldn’t overcome, the Son of God overcame what Israel couldn’t accomplish in the Wilderness Jesus accomplished in 40 days. He defeated the devil. And then the Bible says in verse 14, after defeating the devil and the temptations, the Bible says, then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit. I think there’s something to this. He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.

Then after overcoming the enemy, after fasting for 40 days, he comes out in the power of the spirit. Then he goes to his hometown, to Nazareth. He walks in the synagogue and he opens up the scroll of Isaiah and he begins to read. In verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

There is something that happens when you fast, that when you fast and dedicate yourself to the Lord, consecrate yourself to God, supernatural power is released in your life, The flesh. You suppress the flesh, you crucify the flesh. And then the spirit comes out stronger, the spirit comes out stronger, and you become more sensitive to the things of God. I remember over the past couple of years, we have called fasts on a quarterly basis. And we just ask you to fast for three days or whatever you could do.

But three days we set aside for a fast on a quarterly basis. And then we would end those fasts with a prayer meeting, usually on the last night. And I remember some of those days we also had prayer meetings during the day. And we mixed it up. But I remember coming in here one evening, having fasted for three days.

And it’s like, three days is the worst. After three days, you should get some momentum. But that first three days we just replayed over and over and over, like Groundhog Day. So anyhow, I remember coming here one night, fasting for three days, and I felt a prophetic word for somebody. And I started sharing it.

And then I just kept going and kept going and kept. And I felt like I could prophesy over everybody in the room. Now, did God change? No, God didn’t change. Hans changed.

I came in here with my radio dial tuned in to hear heaven because I’d crucified the flesh for three days and walked in here. And I’m telling you, we ate Mexican food right after that, too. Maybe that was on my mind too, but hallelujah. So it can bring supernatural power into your life. It can really amp up the supernatural power in your life.

You become Sensitive to the things of God. Amen. Second thing fasting can do. Fasting can supercharge your faith. Let me show you a story.

In Matthew, chapter 17, Jesus comes down off the mount of transfiguration, and he comes upon a boy who is demon possessed. Let’s read this story. It’s so good. Let’s begin with verse 14. He comes down here, and he comes upon this boy.

The boy is demon possessed. And the disciples had tried to cast the demon out of him, but they couldn’t. And so Jesus comes down after having been on the mountain, and he says, verse 14. Some say, wait, I’m in the wrong chapter. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him.

This is the Father of the Son. He came to him, kneeling down to him and saying, lord, have mercy on my son, for he’s an epileptic and suffers severely and often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, it’s okay, boys. Don’t worry about it.

We all fail sometimes. No. Jesus said, o faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.

He openly rebuked the disciples, and Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour. And then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why couldn’t we cast it out? What’s the deal? And Jesus said, because of your unbelief.

That is the reason. Because your faith wasn’t working at a level that you needed it to work at. Because of your unbelief, you couldn’t cast out that devil. And he said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

That’s a difficult verse, and for centuries people have tried to comment on it and have tried to figure it out. And all I can understand about it is, is that prayer and fasting supercharges faith. So you can work in the supernatural in ways you couldn’t normally do. It just takes faith to the next level. Are there some demons that are more gnarly to deal with than others?

Yes. Anyone who works in deliverance ministry will tell you that there are classifications of demonic spirits, and some are difficult to deal with. One particular author. I’m thinking of one of my favorite Books on deliverance I read years ago. He said there are spirits that cause people to sin.

Then there are other spirits of another level. But he said, when we get to the highest form, there are these occult spirits that people have allowed into their lives through involvement in the occult or witchcraft or Ouija board or whatever. And he said those become the most difficult. I don’t know, you go study it yourself. But sometimes you encounter a demon that is so difficult, you need to put some high octane in your faith tank to deal with that thing.

Maybe some of you have a situation right now in your family that you’ve prayed about and can’t seem to get breakthrough over. Come fast with us. We’re going to run that devil out of your house in Jesus name, out of your kids in Jesus name. Come on, fast and pray and break that thing. You have the opportunity to go to the next level with God.

I don’t want to finish my life having not done all I could for the Lord. I don’t want to finish my life being a mediocre Christian. I don’t want to finish my life. And they say, well, Hans did a good job. You know, he preached on Sundays and he’s nice to some people.

No, I want somebody to stand up and say, no. He rocked some nations and he moved in signs and wonders, wonders and miracles. And to get to that level, you’re going to have to sacrifice and do the things Jesus did. If fasting was good enough for Jesus, I think Hans needs it. How many of y’ all want to live an above average Christian life?

Come on. Hallelujah. We want to end this thing on fire. End strong. End strong.

Hallelujah. End strong. My heroes, my mentors in life ended that way. I’m thinking of Dr. Elias Malki that I mentored under.

I think he died in his 80s and he’s still preaching. He was still traveling the nations, preaching. I think of H. Richard hall, who I was ordained under for years and, and loved and revered. He died preaching, sleeping in vans, Sunday school classrooms preaching the gospel.

Hallelujah. I do believe hotels are okay, though. But anyhow. But he was hardcore man preaching the gospel. Come on, finish strong.

Finish strong for the Lord. This is a strong man’s gospel. I think what Leonard Ravenhill said, it’s a strong man’s gospel. Going to finish strong. Can somebody shout hallelujah?

And the third thing fasting can do is fasting can bring supernatural revelation into your life. And this is really what I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve been Looking forward to getting into this period of time, getting past the holidays, all of the chocolate dipped things on my counter, getting past all that, getting into fasting and prayer so I can hear from heaven. Let me show you a couple examples of this. First of all, Acts, chapter 10, verse 30.

There’s this Italian gentile named Cornelius. He was praying and fasting and giving. He was praying, fasting and giving. And as that happened, he said, a man stood before me in bright clothing, which obviously was an angel, and told him, said, go to Joppa, to Simon the Tanner’s house and inquire of a man named Peter and ask him to come down here. Peter at the same time is praying on the rooftop at Simon the Tanner’s house and he sees a vision from heaven.

And it’s a vision of all these unclean animals, not kosher for Jews to eat. And the Lord says, take and eat of them. And what the Lord was showing him was, I’m getting ready to take this gospel beyond the Jewish race and we’re getting ready to take it to everybody. And then these men come from Cornelius house and Peter goes back with them. And Peter begins to preach the gospel to them.

They receive Christ, they’re baptized, they’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. It all happened in as a result of this Italian guy praying and fasting. Supernatural revelation was opened up to him. Angelic visitation was opened up as he prayed and fasted. Then we see in the Book of Acts, chapter 13, at the church in Antioch, the Bible says there were certain prophets and teachers in that church.

Barnabas and Simeon, who is called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul, as they ministered to the Lord, which obviously was worship and prayer. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I’ve called them. Then having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them away. So in this beautiful church, and I think Antioch is the model church in the Book of Acts. In this church they were multi ethnic, they were mission oriented and they were charismatic and Holy Spirit filled.

And as they’re ministering to the Lord and praying and fasting, the Spirit speaks. How did the Spirit speak? Probably through a prophet who said, the Lord is saying, separate Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have for them. Then they prayed and fasted more, laid hands on them and sent them out on what became known as Paul’s first missionary. Journey.

They left the coast, got on a boat, sailed to the island of Cyprus, and started from the top of Cyprus, went all the way down to the south of Cyprus, preaching the gospel, encountering sorcerers, and everything along the way all happened through supernatural revelation given through fasting and prayer. One more. Acts 14, verse 21. Paul and Barnabas anointed the elders, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, we must through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every city and prayed with faith fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

They prayed and fasted and laid hands on elders who would run the church after they had departed. So fasting brings revelation, fasting brings revelation. Hallelujah for the Salt church folks watching this morning. It was during one of our fasts earlier in 2025 that I met with Pastor Leon. Now, we had scheduled this meeting, but it was interesting to me that right in the middle of that fast, I met him, met him at Starbucks.

I drank black coffee and sat down and Leon said, bishop, I need help. And I said, leon, I need help. He said, I feel my time’s ended at my church. And I said, well, I desperately need help. Would you help me?

And I help you. And I felt it was a God moment. And we took Salt Church in, and then Leon came to work with me in the bishop arena in the Redemption Ministries, the churches we oversee. And I. I felt it was a God moment.

And I knew it was super special because it came to me in the middle of a fast and I was super sensitive and trying to hear. You know, it’s like you put the antenna up and you’re fasting and you’re just like, lord, speak. Speak, Lord, speak, Lord, speak. Your servant is listening. I’m listening, God, to what you want to say.

How many times have we fasted and God has come and brought divine revelation. Dana and I were talking to one of the gentlemen recently that I used to travel with when I first started in ministry. And we asked him about praying and fasting, and he said he went on a 40 day. He went on several 40 day fasts. And he said on one of the fasts, he didn’t hear the voice of God for 40 days, but he said the last day he had a profound dream.

And in this dream, the Lord said, I’m going to. Basically, I’m going to start using you to perform creative miracles. And he said, I went to church that night and there was a lady that had a deformed leg. And she came up for prayer and I prayed for her and God healed her that night. And I knew the dream was real and those 40 days had paid off.

And that God did a creative miracle, the first of, I’m assuming many in his life. So I’m excited. I’m excited to hear what you guys are going to get as downloads from heaven. I’m excited. Hallelujah.

But let me lay some parameters out now. Let me lay some parameters out for prayer and fasting. So we’re going to start tomorrow and we’re just going to set aside 21 days to pray and fast. Now here’s the deal. You do what you can do, you do what you feel to do.

If you have some kind of medical issues or something, you need to be very cautious about what you do. Because I’ve known people who’ve really gotten messed up in fasting because they had some issues. Maybe you need to see your doctor or whatever. If you’re pregnant, do not fast. Lord, help that baby in Jesus name.

If you’re a nursing mother, do not fast. And again, if you have some sort of thing going on medically, be very cautious about fasting. Here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. I’m going to ask you to do something for those who can. I’m going to ask you to do something.

What does something look like? Number one option. Number one. It’s like the price is right behind curtain. Number one is 24 hours without food.

Just go 24 hours without food. That’s a fast. Don’t get so excited and shout me down. But that’s a pure fast. You can drink liquids.

24 hours without food. Second option is do several days without food. Maybe you want to do three days. Maybe you want to do seven days. Maybe you want to burn it out and do the whole 21 days with us.

This is not a competition. This is grace saturated. This is not about who’s going to prove themselves as the most spiritual in our church. I think Jesus just taught against all those things. This is not about showing off at all.

And I’m not saying, well, here’s Brian. I want to keep a secret diary and see how spiritual it’s between you and the Lord. Amen. Everybody say pure fast. Pure fast is no food.

Drink water or some liquids, whatever. I’ll drink black coffee because I’m thinking coffee or Aspirin, I don’t know. Might as well just drink the coffee pure fast. Second is what we find often in the Bible. On the Day of Atonement and in other festival days, the Jews would fast during the daylight hours because the Jewish day begins in the evening.

And so the evening. It’s why Sabbath is evening, Friday evening till Saturday evening. So I’m just going to call it a six to six fast. And that is biblical. It is the way the Jews fasted.

And if you wanted to do that, do a six to six fast. Fast till the evening and then eat. Somebody says, isn’t that what the Muslims do in Ramadan? Are we trying to be like Muslims? We.

Well, first of all, the Jews were doing that centuries before Islam ever became a thing. So, no, we’re not stealing anything from Islam. They stole a whole bunch from Christianity. We’re not stealing anything from Islam. You can fast from sundown or from six to six.

Everybody say six to six, Jewish fast. Especially if you guys work. Some of y’ all are out there, you’re doing a lot of physical activity. You know, I think six to six is great. Maybe if you’re just fasting too, maybe do that for a day, maybe do that for three days, maybe do it for longer.

Amen. That’s the two options I have. I’m not giving you another option. What about Daniel fasting and all this? Well, Daniel never called that a fast.

He never called it a fast. In Daniel 10, he ate no sweet bread, no meat, and drank no wine for 21 days as he was seeking the Lord. And the Lord came and visited him on the 24th day. So, you know, do what you want to do. I kind of got out of that because sometimes Daniel fasting, it’s like I’m trying to figure out what I can eat and what I can’t eat, what’s going to be kosher and what’s going to be this and what’s going to be vegan and what’s going to be gluten free, what’s going to be just fast.

You’re going to occupy. Your mind’s supposed to be on the Lord instead of just trying to figure out, I got to get on Pinterest and get all those cool recipes, man, and we’re going to spend 21 days cooking and maybe come out of it heavier than when we went in. Just saying, that’s my take. I got kind of disillusioned with that many years ago, studying the Bible. So two options, just pure fast or six to six fast.

And if you can’t do either one of those, pray, because all of us should be praying. Praying is the main thing. If we’re not going to pray, don’t fast because you’re just going to go on a prayerless hunger strike. We don’t need prayerless hunger strikes. Actually put some umph into this.

And in the times when you should have been eating or normally would have been eating, how about take time to pray, right? Then say, I don’t know how to pray. Pastor Hans, very simple. Go before the Lord. Make your requests and petitions known in Jesus name.

Go before the Lord. Read some scripture, read some psalms, read some psalms and pray them back to the Lord. Go before the Lord and just sit, listen to some worship music, just soak in his presence. Ride down in your truck, listen to some worship music, talk to the Lord. You don’t have to get in preacher voice.

You can talk to him. Matter of fact, some of my most powerful prayer times, I’m just talking to him like he’s sitting right in front of me as a friend. Just like he’s sitting right in front of me. I’m saying, lord, here’s what I’m dealing with. And God, I need you to move and then believe what you pray.

Let me give you a way to pray here. Let me give you a way to pray. First of all, decide what you want from the Lord. Decide what you’re asking for and then find a scripture that matches what you’re asking for. For example, if you want your family saved and you’re going to pray that, go to Acts chapter 16, where Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, the Lord will save you and your household.

That was a household salvation promise. Take that and say, lord, I stand on that. And I believe for my whole house to come in, or you need financial breakthrough and you’ve been giving to the Lord, go to Philippians chapter four and take that. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. Or the many other gazillion scriptures that talk about God, blessing and prosperity coming.

Take those and pray them back to the Lord. Or if you need healing in your body, go to Isaiah 53 and pray that by his stripes I am healed. Lord, I pray that over my life. And now I declare that over my life in Jesus name. Then the next thing you need to do is you need to actually believe that what you prayed, God heard and is answering.

You need to actually believe what you just prayed has been set before the Lord and he’s going to answer it he’s not just like, well, nice try, Hans, but see if you can do it better the next time more eloquently. No, no, no. God’s not like that. Come before him sincere, straight, based on Scripture and believe that he’s going to answer it. Then the next thing you need to do then is guard your mind against any doubt or any thought contrary to to what you’ve prayed and stood on Scripture and believed.

Because you won’t see prayers sometimes you’ll see them instantly. Most of the time it’s going to take a while. And in that taking a while is when you walk by faith and you keep believing that your prayers have been heard and God is answering your prayers. And you fight against. You fight against any doubt, any unbelief that comes against you.

Then give the Lord praise. Even when you don’t see the answer. Go ahead and give him praise anyhow. Lord, I pray for my family to be saved now, Lord, by faith I’m going to give you praise and I’m going to worship you because I know you’ve heard my request and I know that prayer is going to be answered and it’s coming my way in Jesus name. And then never take no for an answer.

Never relent, never quit, never give up. Faith endures to the end. Faith keeps going. Faith presses in, faith walks, faith talks, faith declares, faith claims. Faith names.

Faith does never stop. Can somebody shout Amen. Whoa. Hallelujah. So here’s what we’re going to do.

Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to have prayer the next three Sunday nights. Next Sunday night, we’re going to be praying in Edenton 6pm the following Sunday night, which I think is the. We have the 11th in Edenton. The 18th will be here Elizabeth City at 6pm and then the 24, 25th.

24th, 25th, we’ll be in Virginia beach at Salt Church, praying at their location. I’d love to have you guys in any of these or all of these that you can make. We’re just going to come in, do some worship and pray. Amen. Every Wednesday, starting this week, we’re going to have a noon prayer meeting here in Elizabeth City.

We’re just going to come in at noon, open the doors and going to walk and pray. Somebody may grab the mic and lead in prayer. We may have some worship music on. We’re just going to kind of free flow and pray the next three Wednesday nights here or next three Wednesday lunch periods here at Elizabeth City. Can somebody shout AMEN it’s going to be awesome.

Y’ all ready? Hallelujah. Stand with me. There’s a lot of great teaching online about this. I’m going to recommend one guide for you here.

That’s Ted Shuttlesworth Jr. Teddy or Ted Shuttlesworth Jr. Has written several books on fasting and he has some great videos on fasting. He wrote one book I would recommend. I think it’s called Biblical Guide to Fasting or Biblical Guide to Prayer and Fasting.

I’d recommend Teddy’s stuff. I’ve been with him while he’s been fasting through the years. They live it, they do it and he has a great biblical perspective on it. Ted Shuttlesworth Jr. On fasting, amen.

Also, I remember years ago meeting Dr. Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ. He was really into 40 day fasts back in those days and he was doing them with juices and he had some great teaching on the practical aspects of fasting. I didn’t get into the physical benefits of fasting because I didn’t really want to do that because we’re talking about spiritual fasting here. I think sometimes we can get so much on autophagy.

He’s going to have, he’s going to clean out all the bad cells. We. Well, that stuff does happen. It does happen. Fasting is a God designed way to help your body.

It’s amazing what can happen through fasting. But I, I wanted us to focus on scripture today and the spiritual aspect of that. Amen. If you’re addicted to sugar, you’re getting ready to get set free. Come on, somebody.

If you’re addicted to sugar, if holidays got you under, you’re getting ready to get set free. In Jesus name, hallelujah. You’re addicted to King Dawns and Honey Buns and Cokes and Mountain Dew. Somebody shout amen. You know what I would recommend though is some of you may want to.

If you’re going to go pure fasting, you may want to drink some broth too. That’s cool. Chicken broth, bone broth. Some people do that. Some people fast.

Maybe water down certain juices and fasts. It gives you energy to go. Herbal teas. I drink herbal teas a lot when I’m fasting Stevia. Now here I’m sounding like a nutritionist here to y’, all and I’m not that at all.

But honestly, there’s a lot of, lot of great help and a lot of ways you can do this. Goal is, this isn’t a competition. You’re not trying to prove Anything to us. This is between you and the Lord. This is between you and the Lord.

To help you in your spiritual walk. And I’m telling you, telling you what, I don’t know what’s going to happen by the 25th of January in this house. We haven’t done a 21 day in many years because we did these shorter periods. So it’s going to be phenomenal. Come on, let’s all lift our hands.

Lord, we give you praise this morning. And, Father, we thank you for your word to us who believe. We thank you for your word concerning fasting. We thank you for the promises that we’ve talked about this morning. And now, Lord, we consecrate and dedicate ourselves over these next 21 days to hear from heaven seek you to start off this new year on the right foot.

And, Lord, I thank you for my brothers and sisters and I pray for them this morning. Lord, I pray that you speak and you visit and you bring revelation and understanding and supernatural power and authority into their lives over the next three weeks, Lord. And we give you thanksgiving, strength. God. Give them health, Lord.

Bless them in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Can the church shout? Amen. I want everybody working with the altar today to come forward.

If you’re in this building this morning and you’ve never committed your life to Jesus, this is the time to do it right now. This is to start off this year right, saying, lord, I’m going to serve you. I’m going to give my life to you, Lord Jesus. And if that’s you, we want to pray for you this morning. Or if you have another need in your life, you have maybe a healing need or a financial issue or a family, something else going on, we want to offer prayer for you.

Amen. And we have brothers and sisters up here. They’re scheduled on a regular basis. They love to pray. Everything is confidential.

And they pray in faith. Amen. So if anybody needs prayer, come on out right now as we just stand here for a few minutes in the presence of the Lord, as the praise team leads us. All right? Amen and amen.

You guys ready? We’re ready for some breakthrough. Amen and amen. Heavenly Father, right now we just want to thank you for this time, Father. We’re going to believe in many miracles.

We’re going to believe in breakthroughs, Father. We’re going to believe, Lord God, Lord God. We’re going to hold hands together and believe, Lord Jesus, that you are going to do mighty works, Lord Jesus, draw us closer to you, Father. We thank you. And we praise you for everything that you’re gonna do in your name.

Amen. And Amen. Don’t forget the 11th, the 18th, and the 25th. The 25th. We are here at 6pm if you can’t, you know, Elizabeth City’s far.

Elizabeth City’s not that far, but definitely would love to have you. I love you guys. Who’s excited for 2026? I know I am. I’m ready to do life with you guys.

Amen. Go with God. He’s going with you. Amen.