Hi, my name is Kate McClure, and I’m a part of the God TV team. Welcome to God Today. I want to talk to you about the three things that I gained from implementing fasting in my life. I believe that as believers, we are called to live a life of fasting, and if you’ve never fasted, today, I want to kind of make it simple for you. But first, I want to talk about the three things that I always gain when I fast, when I put that into my life, it might be once a week that I do it, or maybe it’s a specific time that I fast, whatever it is.
Here’s the three things: The first thing that I gain is self-control. When I intentionally spend time, I cut something off. I say no to something, and I say, “Yes” to the Lord instead, I gain so much self-control. I just see it affect every single area of my life. When I have the lifestyle of fasting, I go to the gym more, I make my bed more. I just am living my best life when I’m living life to the fullest. When I, when I implement and have fasting as a priority in my life. So things that I want to see breakthrough in my life, I start fasting for those things, ‘cause fasting brings breakthrough. Somebody said that fasting is “Holy Spirit Pitocin.” The things that you are trying to birth in your life, it’s actually Lydia Marrow that said that. And the things that you’re trying to birth and see come forth in your life fast for those things, it brings acceleration and breakthrough.
The second thing that I gain is intimacy with the Father. Here’s the real deal guys. Every time that you set your intention on the Lord, that automatically brings intimacy and nearness. He is near to us and He desires a relationship with you today, right now. And so when we set our intention to praying, to hearing His voice about something, then we automatically gain that intimacy. In James 4:8, it says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” When you fast, you’re drawing near to the Lord. He’s drawing near to you. It’s literally that simple.
And the third thing that I gained from fasting every single time is a lot of times I, well, a lot of times I’ll fast just for intimacy. There’s many different reasons we can fast. It can be to cut something out of our life, like self-control like I was saying, intimacy with the Father. And there’s a lot of times where I need to hear God on something, where maybe the timeline is quick and I need to make a decision. I’ve just got to hear His voice. So I always, when I fast, I ask the Lord, here’s the thing you want to do before you fast, ask Him, how long are you fasting for? And what are you fasting from? So I’ll ask the Lord, “Okay, what am I fasting this time?” when I feel that like nudge to fast, and He’ll say maybe five days, and it’s the Daniel fast. Or sometimes even He’s even said a month and Netflix, because I’ve put Netflix above our relationship with the Lord. Like that’s real talk right there. And so I will fast that. I want to cut anything out that’s going to get in the way of my relationship with the Lord. So whatever that is sometimes, but there’s, there is biblical, like there’s, it’s biblical to fast from food, whether it’s the Daniel fast or we see Jesus fast in the desert. And so we see fasting across the Bible from New Testament to Old Testament, all of it.
So whenever I fast, I don’t always get the answer while I’m fasting. It’s at the end of the fast, it’s at the end of that faithfulness and consistency and sticking to it that I get like this, like oh, this is the answer. And I just know it in my heart. So I’ve seen that happen a lot of times in my life. There was a year where I needed God’s help and I would fast literally for a week, every quarter. And then I would fast once a week, I would fast for a day, and that’s actually one of my favorite things to do is just on a consistent basis, to fast once a week. And that I’m not saying that this is what you need to do to be a good Christian, that is not it at all. If you do not fast, you still are great. Like the Lord loves you. You have a great relationship with the Lord. What I’m saying is this just adds so much to your life. And so I want to encourage you, maybe just ask the Lord, if this is what He has read, this is something you can put into your life, and just see what He has to say. Maybe ask Him like, “What can I fast? Or should I fast?” I’m telling you, He’s going to speak to you today.
So I just want to pray for you right now. I just lift up everybody watching. Father, if you have, I just want to pray that anybody who’s seeking, should I fast Lord? Would you just highlight the things that we can fast, highlight the things we can fast for, Father, and I just pray breakthrough over their lives right now, whatever it is that they are pursuing whatever they are petitioning Heaven. I just pray breakthrough for them in the Name of Jesus, Amen.