Fasting Interview | Michael Dow | Daniel Kolenda

something that begins to happen this time of the year I believe the Holy Spirit begins to lay on people's hearts that it's time to reset it's time to recalibrate it's time to get ready not only for the new year but for the new thing that God has in store for you and many of you are even now beginning to sense that and many more of you before the program is over today you're gonna feel that need in your heart just to get ready to do something to position yourself for the new thing that God is bringing into your life and that is why I have my guest on the program today his name is Michael Dow he's an evangelist he's a teacher he's an author he's a great friend of mine I was there the night that he got saved which is an amazing testimony in itself but one of the amazing things about Mike Dow I've known him for quite a few years and I have watched how God has taken him and lifted him up in such an extraordinary way and today God is using him all over the world literally I remember the night that he got saved he was a drug addict he was a criminal he was a guy who was was heading to an early death or a life in prison instead what happened as Jesus saved him changed his life he end up marrying the pastor's daughter today he has three beautiful children and he's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world what I saw happened over those years as God lifted Michael up was that he would that the Lord would speak to him and he would obey and over and over again the key to the breakthrough the key to the success that he was seeing was that simple obedience to the word of the Lord and I remember seeing as this was happening that all the time he would be fasting I'm talking about not not just you know I'm not watching TV for a week or you know fasting ice cream or something like that he was doing 40 day water fasts back-to-back-to-back it was something I'd never seen before you know I've done some fasting but never on the level of this and I saw how God gave him such incredible breakthrough I was always amazed by it and that's why when he wrote a book just recently called fasting rediscovering the ancient pathways I said I've got to get my hands on this I've got to see what God has revealed to him about it I want to talk to him about it today and I believe that it's going to be a blessing to you as well thank you Mike for being on the show today thank you so much so tell me why did you feel compelled to write a book about a subject like this I mean this is not one of those topics that's like a feel-good inspirational thing this is kind of hard maybe even unpopular in some in some circles why did you have this on your heart if I'm gonna be honest fasting was never really on my radar to write about it was for my entire walk with the Lord always one of those secret place secrets something that was special between me and God and like you said there's millions of objections to fasting which I've come across many of those but earlier in the year I was actually on a long fast and a friend of mine had begun fasting and he sent me a text and the text went something like this man I feel like I'm gonna die please tell me this gets easier I need some help are there any books like I need something yeah and so just under the inspiration of the Lord I sent him back a pretty lengthy text and he wrote back immediately and he said wow man like whatever book you got this out of please like tell me the author tell me where I can go get it like I really need some help and I just kind of laughed and I said man that's it's not a book it's just out of my own history of walking with the Lord and he said then maybe you need to write the book and when I read the words in the text it was partnered with an invitation from the Lord well and I felt like the Lord asked me would you sit down and write it and that began a process with God but when I responded and I said yes I said God why why me out of everybody that you could have write on the subject yeah I mean there's many more worthy candidates to sit down and to articulate the beauties or the truths of fasting and the Lord encouraged me with my own history and he said Mike I'm not asking you to seek out people who know a lot about fasting he said I'm asking you to unpack the treasures that I have packed into your life over the years that you have walked faithfully with me hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of days down these pathways well he said I'm asking you to open up the treasure box and just to lay it all out and so I said yes and that was an amazing an amazing journey to tell tell us because you've told me how at one time the whole book was just laid out before you from the Lord yeah so when I said yes to the Lord right I'm having this internal conversation with God I'm not gonna say it was this audible voice that thundered out of the sky but it was the still small prompting of the Holy Ghost in my own heart in life and I felt like the Lord asked me would you write it when I said yes visually out in front of me like panoramic vision like a movie being played before me a treasure box opened and pages scattered across my view from left to right and I saw the content that's in the book well now obviously not word-for-word I still had to sit down and I had to sort through it and I actually had to get it out but I saw chapter titles and content and issues to wrestle and things that he wanted me to kind of jump over and work through and the the progression of how to walk through the subject of fasting which is even why the cover is as it is it's a maze because that's the way that fasting is for most people yeah I don't really understand why how often like when like what is it all about why would we do this like who wants to do this so for me it was kind of demystifying the maze that fasting is for some and making it as simple and as beautiful as just recognizing the invitation of Jesus yeah to meet him in an ancient pathway what really just jumps out at me here which is chapter 9 is practical because there are a lot of books on fasting that tell you it's a good thing to do it's it's you know it'll give you this breakthrough that breakthrough but there's not a lot of people that give you practical advice how to make this work tell us a little bit about the practical side sure some of the practicalities of fasting you know over walking with the Lord in several different fasts and different types of fests I experienced a lot of challenges a lot of things that came up in the pathway of fasting that I didn't really know how to deal with you know when I started fasting there wasn't necessarily anyone around me that I was gleaning from right so I really had to trust the Lord to say like if you're inviting me into this you have to walk with me and help me I remember one fast specifically that towards the middle of the day it was day one of fasting my vision blurred and I had a hard time seeing and I got a massive headache and I had a decision to make as many of us do mm-hmm and I thought to myself man am I about to die like I can't see no no like it was hard I remember in those days I was in college I couldn't see the professor I was in the second row I mean my entire focus was off and I was wondering to myself like this can't be what God wants me to do yeah like if this is what's in front of me and in fasting man we got to find some other way to meet with God and I find that this is the experience for most yeah you start encountering practical things in the body because we're clothed with flesh right sure fasting is a spiritual thing but what's gonna happen to my flesh when I jump into fasting blurred vision headaches mood changes you know stomach aches fatigue lack of sleep more sleep than normal you know all of these types of things I would get messages from friends and they would say bro I almost lost my vision today like I had to get to the nearest McDonald's that I could find and I feel better now and I would think to myself well let me ask you a few questions do you have any intake of caffeine in your life and they're like oh yeah I drink like a pot of coffee every morning you know this that whatever I'm like well did you cut coffee with you're fast like I'll of course said well your body is detoxing yeah it's going to happen yeah you're not going to die you know like you may feel like it but this these are the types of simple little practical things that if we could prepare you for them in advance yeah as you're walking through them you know because if you're looking for a way out they're always gonna be there lots of ways up and the first what what I find is the first conflict that arises everybody takes that as a chance to bow out right it's like Ooo Ooo like okay this this must be a sign you know it's the fleece from God it's the Gideon encounter this must be my fleece that I'm not supposed to be fasting well no maybe you're supposed to walk through it a little differently and know the challenges that are in front of so some practical wisdom is very helpful extremely helpful yeah you know from my own life things that I had to learn through trial and error you know and then also from the encouragement of others you know as I've been able to help others you know over year yes now you maybe you've really scared some people with some of those symptoms but you know tell me this is it worth it to overcome all those obstacles and fast it's more than worth it why you know Paul mentions in Philippians chapter 3 he's speaking of some that are enemies of the cross and in verse 19 he uses a description in saying that their God was their stomach these were individuals who were dominated by their appetites and what I find in most cases is that we live in such a way that regardless of how much spiritual talk comes out of our mouth at the end of the day the enemy knows that we are really dominated by our appetites sugar addiction you know carb addiction these are actual conditions yeah you know these are actual medical conditions you know Jesus stands next to the well in John chapter four and he looks at the woman at the well and he says if you would come to me I would give you a drink that you would never thirst again now it's interesting that in a practical sense he's standing next to a natural well but he himself is an unending will and he's offering something that the natural well is never going to be able to provide he tells the woman you've been coming here day after day and for the rest of your life you're gonna have to continue to come and he positions himself next to it it says but if you would come to me and I find that this is the case for many well the freeing from things that we don't even know have us bound you know as simple as it can be sugar addiction carb addiction you know and on and on down the line so I've found the offering of freedom in the place of fasting to be one of the most incredible things that Jesus offers us we're gonna pray in just a moment for the viewers before that I want you just to talk a little bit about the fact that you know where we are about to go into a new year time goes by so fast and it's a it's a time of new beginnings but I think for a lot of people it's it's a time where they're gonna have to make a choice whether they're going to go into that new season talk to us about the importance of fasting as it relates to these new seasons that God has in our lives the importance for me is fasting even as you mentioned as a lifestyle fasting for me is not a January offering mm-hmm I know that it's become extremely popular for an offering in January and I would heartily Amen that however I'm not so much worried about what your January looks like I want to know what this February through December looked like because faster fasting in January doesn't exempt you from obedience over the course of the rest of the year and I know that specifically Daniel fasting has become very popular in the month of January and for whatever reason the Daniel fast that people have chosen is the three-week one mentioned in Daniel 10 and I'm going somewhere because there are multiple fast find in the Book of Daniel chapter 10 yes i Daniel fasted for three weeks right no bread no meat no sweets but in Chapter one we also find another fast and it's ten days just vegetables and water why isn't it the chapter one version and why is it that in Daniel when he knew he was going to fast again that he didn't think to himself man God really showed up last time when I did ten days of just vegetables and water why didn't he all of a sudden or automatically just resort to a systematized way of walking with the Lord for something that brought him breakthrough before in his life because I find that it's much easier to try to systematize our walk with God than it is to actually live in his voice day after day and if a Daniel fast speaks anything to me it's allowing God to design what fasting should look like the duration of it what we should refrain from what we should have what we shouldn't have because this is what I find Daniel doing so fasting more so than a January offering has to become a lifestyle and should it be spontaneous absolutely should it be planned absolutely it's yes and it should be a lifestyle but it shouldn't only be discipline it should also be the spontaneity of the spirit and your sponding to God and whatever design that he would give so I think that especially in preparation for the new year that as we evaluate our lives I think all of us can say we don't look like Jesus to the degree that we want to and that if this is one of the ways that God could cause me to look more like his son then I'm all for it yeah jesus said when you fast yeah not if not if in Matthew 9 he said to John's disciples the bridegroom is with them but when he goes they will be found fasting they will be found fasting so there's an expectation on the part of Jesus that this is what his followers will look like yeah a lifestyle of fasting and following after him and experiencing him and even as you said a wonderful union by which can only be forged in and through the place of fasting you know what I what I feel in my heart is that even as some of you are watching this this is a confirmation of something you've already felt stirring in your heart that the Lord is calling you to this maybe you didn't know when or how maybe there's been a lot of unanswered questions well my friend the answers been provided Michael Dallas new book on fasting is a treasure trove of wisdom and and it comes straight from heaven in my opinion I believe that it's a game changer in the area of fasting here's how you can get your book on fasting by Michael Dell we want to send you a copy of Michael down spoke on fasting you see fasting is so much more than simply turning away from food fasting is intimately and intentionally turning to Jesus and in Michael downs book fasting rediscovering the ancient pathways you quickly see how fasting is a secret source of power that's often overlooked fasting as a lifestyle gives you a deeper experience and stronger connection with God and once you've gained a glimpse of that kind of intimacy and the countless rewards and blessings that follow through fasting your life and circumstances begin to change write the number down we want to send you a copy of Michael down spoke on fasting it's our gift to you as you give a gift of any amount to help in our soul-winning ministry today call right now and be sure to ask for your copy of Michael Dow Spock on fasting when you call today [Music]

Channel: Burning Ones

Views: 4,598

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Id: 6tlHJ5L85Sg

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 25 2018