I'm really excited for this year's 21-day Fast Forward Challenge. Fast Forward Challenge came out of the time when the book was written about fasting. So I wrote a book called "Fast Forward." And last year we released the first Fast Forward Challenge, where we invited a larger Christian community who are interested in taking God seriously in the beginning of the year, to fast with us. I think about 15,000 people signed up. Now many people didn't fast 21 days, some people did few days. But the fact that people were conscious and even desiring to make a decision to fast was a huge encouragement to me. I've met people throughout the world who never fasted until the Fast Forward Challenge came. I've met people who never fasted and with us fasted 21 days on water. It was shocking. I met people who were on the 30th day of fasting, after the 21-day fast and they were inspired by what the Lord was doing through our ministry. I am not a fasting expert and also I am not a fasting lover. I don't like fasting. I'll be honest with you. For those of you who think that I am addicted maybe to fasting or all he talks about is fasting, absolutely not. I love food. I love eating. I think food is a gift from God. So we're not fasting because we hate food. We don't fast because we somehow love fasting. We fast because we love Jesus and because we understand that we live in the physical body, there are physical needs, and spiritual beings that we are, these needs of our spiritual man are more important than the needs of our physical body. And we temporarily put a stop to some of these physical necessities as the Lord leads us, so we can prioritize our walk with the Lord. Now I've heard so many incredible testimonies of physical healings. I've heard testimonies of family restorations. I've heard testimonies of people coming to know Jesus, their family members who did not know the Lord, at all. I want to inspire you, invite you, challenge you. What would this year look like if you fast? What would happen if you would take the next 21 days and set them aside to pray and fast? What would happen if you would wake up every day at 5 o'clock for 21 days, and seek the face of God and for 21 days you would do a fast? Some of you have never done it, so you don't know what would happen to you. I have done it, many times, and I can tell you your life will change, why? Because fasting is a Biblical way of humbling yourself before God, and God promises to give grace, unmerited favor to those who humble themselves. Fasting is a Biblical way of subduing the appetites of the flesh. Fasting is trading the physical for the spiritual. Fasting is preparation for temptation. It's where you are training your body not to get what it always wants. Fasting can be a path for many people to recover their health because as you fast your body begins to eat the toxins, begins to eat the extra fat and all other stored things. That's why sometimes we get these headaches, we get bad breath and all of that stuff because the body is actually doing like a deep cleansing on the inside. It may feel like, oh I'm killing myself. You're actually not killing yourself. You're actually saving certain things about your physical body. Again, this doesn't apply to everyone in every situation, which we will talk about in just a moment. I am not a medical doctor, I do not recommend everyone to go on the water fast. What I am recommending is for everyone to do fasting, and then to use common sense and wisdom on what kind of fasting that they will do. And also to consult either their doctor or most importantly ask the Lord what He would have you do. Fasting is the key to get your passion back for God. Fasting is the key to get your fire back for God. It's what will separate those people who always want to have revival and those people who will have revival. Fasting has to be coupled with prayer. Why is that important? Because while fasting separates you from the physical realm, prayer connects you to the spiritual realm. Fasting disconnects you from the natural, the physical, the visible. Prayer connects you to the spiritual, to the invisible realm. So if you're only fasting but you're not praying, there is a reward in that, don't get me wrong. Jesus clearly states, if we fast, that the Father will reward us. But fasting and prayer brings this fire result in your life. It's this explosive breakthrough in your life because fasting disconnects, prayer connects. We must understand that Jesus wants fasting to be done in private. This does not mean that you cannot tell anyone that you are fasting because if you're fasting you want to tell your spouse. Because it will make things very difficult if you keep avoiding lunch, dinner or for some reason you're not coming to dinner. So it could create a family problem so you do want to tell your spouse. If you're fasting and you're a pastor, you might Inspire your congregation by encouraging your congregation to fast. Even Jesus told somebody He fasted 40 days. How else would the authors of the New Testament knew that Jesus fasted 40 days? They didn't know this supernaturally. Most likely, Jesus in a conversation mentioned to them how His ministry started. So the Bible isn't against us doing a corporate fast where we tell people, hey we're doing it together. The Bible is against and Jesus is very explicit about us doing it for the reason of being considered spiritual, being considered great or being considered super righteous. The motive matters why we do that. Do we do it to please God? Do we do it to draw near to God? Or do we do it to become famous, to become known and to be considered as someone "special"? If we do it for that reason, we will get our reward and unfortunately that reward will be extremely bad, which will be extremely limited. It won't be a reward worthy of celebrating. Fasting is this private discipline that yields public reward. Fasting is this thing that the Father, He looks at you fast and He'll reward you publicly. Jesus didn't apologize for that. This is not some you know pray, fast, so you can get rich and blessed. No but this is also the truth of the Gospel, that Jesus told us God sees the secret fasting as a means, as a something to reward us for. That means, if you take a moment this season to fast, God promises to reward you. There's a reward that's coming for that. If you don't fast, well there is going to be no reward for this. This doesn't mean you are less loved by God. Let me make something clear. If you're not fasting, it doesn't mean that you somehow are less righteous. It just simply means you will not have as much spiritual weight. You will still have the same spiritual worth in the eyes of God. But a spiritual weight, that sharpness, that consistency, that clarity, that fire, that vision, that passion for God. You might be lacking. And maybe some of you are in that place where you got lethargic, complacent, predictable, lazy, shallow, superficial. The flesh has gotten the upper hand over your life. You feel overwhelmed, you feel like your fire died, you feel like you lost that, that fuego in your life. You're like, "What can I do? Where where do I go?" I will give you an ancient principle, a ritual. Something apostles did, Jesus did, great men of God did. The early church did it twice a week. Every great man that I know practices it, and it's called fasting. Now, fasting is found in actually pretty much all religions. It's a temporary abstaining from nourishment on religious grounds. At first it was more common among Greeks than the Romans but it spread over the whole of the ancient world. Actually the fear of demons played a role in fasting for Pagan cultures. It was also a means of preparing to deal with a deity, mourning, funerals. fasting during the time was due to the fear of demons attaching themselves when someone lost their loved ones. That's how the Pagan cultures viewed fasting. Egyptian priests would fast before entering the sanctuary, and fasting in the Pagan cultures prepared a way for extra spiritual revelations. Now we're not Pagans, we're believers in almighty God. So the Jewish faith, the Old Testament where Christ is concealed, New Testament is Christ is revealed, reveals to us also fasting. For example, the Old Testament people would fast during mourning for the dead to express sorrow. Moses fasted before receiving the Commandments. Daniel fasted before receiving his visions. Fasting was a way to express submission to God in the case of individuals or in the case of a group of people. Now the Old Testament only had one command of a fast, and that was one day a year on the day of atonement. So God didn't demand fasting from the Old Testament believers, like on a monthly or weekly basis. It was just once a year. Now let's move to the New Testament. Jesus opens His ministry with a 40-day fast, corresponding to that of Moses. But Jesus as the mediator of the New Covenant has already received God's revelation, so He fasts in order to be equipped to confirm His Messianic dignity and power. Jesus fasted, and then He entered into ministry. If you're watching this, re-watching this, listening or re-listening, you are not greater than Jesus in a sense that you can't enter into ministry without fasting. You cannot take on ministry. Now our ministry is not to save the world but our ministry is to continue the ministry of Jesus. We are to enter that ministry with the power, in the power of the Holy Spirit. but also let's use Jesus's method and that one was fasting. Jesus talked about fasting. In one of these days during the fasting, I will share everything Jesus shared about fasting but that's not going to be today. Now let's go into the early church. After Jesus went to heaven, the early church had a voluntary fasting on the specific days, on Wednesday and on Friday. Also during Easter there was a fast required of all Christians in the second sanctuary. Fasting was required before water baptism, as well as before taking communion. So Christians entered into water baptism, fasting. Believers in the early church, before taking the communion would fast. I know actually the church I grew up in in the Ukraine, you would fast in the morning before you go to church on the day that we had communion. The early church taught that the reason for fastings were to strengthen your prayer, to prepare to receive revelation, to express sorrow, to help the poor with the food saved. That's interesting. Meaning, if you save some food during fasting you give it to the poor, and to reconcile penance with God. To really show this brokenness over sin. Fasting doesn't save us but fasting breaks our hearts to show to God we express sorrow. So these are some of the history of fasting in the Pagan cultures, in the Old Testament, Jesus and also the early church. We are now in January. Some of you will be re-watching this later. Why, you would say, should we do a fast, an extended fast, a month in the month of January? Because of the principle of the first. The Bible has this principle of the first, that if you put God first, other things get added to you. In the beginning God. That's how your Bible, my Bible starts. If God is in your beginning, can you imagine what he would do? Well we know what He did in the Book of Genesis, He created things. What would happen if He comes in your beginning? If you take the special time this year, the first month, and you give it to the Lord, and you set some time to fast, you set some time to pray. You set that alarm clock, you wake up earlier. And for 21 days you go into prayer, you go into fasting, you present your petitions to God, you ask Him to examine your heart, you intercede for your loved ones, you ask for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done, you renounce certain habits, patterns, thoughts that perhaps have plagued your life. You do some warfare, you speak in tongues, you feast on the Word of God, receive fresh rhema and revelation from God. Ask God to speak to you on what you should do this year. Show you what He's about to do in your life. I can tell you one thing. I've never met one person who fasted, biblical way and regretted it. But I have met a lot of people who wanted to, hoped that they would, wished that they would. And kind of always complain, "Man, I'm just not there, where I'm supposed to be with the Lord." So may this be the year where you are going all the way with God, and we're here to help you. We're not here to blow the trumpet and say, "Look we're fasting." Trust me, I would rather not do this. I'll be honest with you. I would rather, completely in January, shut off all of the media not to stream at all. But I'm a pastor, and I'm a communicator and I'm a preacher of the Gospel. And I know the power that words have to inspire believers, and my goal is to light the flame that's in my heart in yours. Somebody lit that flame in my heart and I want to light that flame in yours, and inspire you, encourage you. And when it gets hard sometime in the middle, for you to persevere, for you to go in and for you to not give up. So I wanted to invite you into that. Now let's go in into some of the practice components of the fast. When considering the prolonged fast, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Number one, the right time. If you are pregnant, nursing, you are not to fast, you are not to fast at all. You should be eating and not fasting. Don't fast if you are under 18 years of age without the permission of your parents and the supervision of your parents. Minors are discouraged from fasting food and should never engage in fasting without express parental consent and oversight. Minors who desire to fast are encouraged to consider non-food abstaining, such as TV, movies, internet surfing, video games and other entertainment. If older teenagers do a food fast, you know fast food, under the supervision of their parents, we encourage them to use juice, you know protein drinks to sustain themselves out of consideration for their health, growing body and metabolism. Also you want to check with your doctor first, if you're taking any prescriptions or over-the-counter medications to treat pre-existing conditions. Fasting may be a bad idea if you have some sort of an event coming up that requires a lot of physical energy. So consider the timing. Now most of us walking into this January already kind of were conscious of that. So personally for me, I didn't schedule any meetings, any trips, speaking trips, just so that I can focus specifically on this, this habit that we have with the church. The second thing that you want to consider in doing a prolonged fast and that is the right motive. Fasting shouldn't be forced. It's always something that we do voluntarily. Though spiritual leaders may invite others to join in a corporate fasting, with a specific goal in mind and for a specific time. Fasting should never be forced or made out of compulsion, where you feel guilty, you feel driven by fear. 40-day fast always have to be led by the Holy Spirit, not just imitating someone who was led by the Holy Spirit. 21-day fast, you have to, for 21-day fast you have to ask the Lord to lead you as well. Moses was invited into the mountain to pray for 40 days and fast. Elijah was given angels food before doing a 40-day fast and Jesus was led into the wilderness for a 40 fast. I personally don't think you should be just kind of like, "Yeah, I'm just going to do a 40-day fast." I think you need to be led by the Lord, so is 21 day fast. Just ask the Lord to lead you and guide you in that. Now the third thing we want to remember is the right start for a prolonged fast. What does the right start mean? Pigging out before starting to fast shows right away your heart posture. If you wait until the last night and you go to the fast food restaurant and you just stuff yourself. That right away shows your heart is not right. You kind of want to ease the eating before you go into a prolonged fast. So meaning you want to start cutting back on solid foods a few days beforehand. You don't want to be eating a steak you know like, oh this is my last good meal. That is not the approach. You kind of want to prepare your body already for that. It's best also to cut back on the caffeine days before fasting. It decreases your headaches. Preparing your heart in prayer and repentance is one of the best ways to spiritually prepare your heart for fasting. Ask the Lord to lead you into the fast. Now the fourth thing about the 21-day preparation of the fast and that is you need to do the right thing. So actually let me highlight something. The biblical fasting is to abstain from food, and water is part of that fasting. There's Daniel Fast. It's not technically a fast, nor is it biblical fasting, nor is it actually a biblical definition of the word fasting. And I understand this offends some people, but it's still a respectable and a good sacrifice, and for a lot of people it's extremely beneficial. Daniel did it but we just don't see it in the Bible it being called a Daniels or a fast. We see a lot of mourning. He didn't eat sweet stuff. He didn't eat, you know Daniel's fast you know no sweets, no dairy, no meats, no caffeine. Just water or juices and vegetables and fruits, and so that's good. And if you've never done fasting, that's actually pretty hard to do as well, to do the Daniel's way of consecration. So that's the full fast, the Daniel's way of doing it. For 21 days some people can do from morning till evening and they eat just one meal, one light meal a day. Some people do it 3 days non-stop. 72 hours, and then they eat and then they continue 3 days. Now what is the right way to do it for you? Honestly there is really no scriptural mandate on how you should do that. Nor is there a verse in the Bible where every Christian should be doing a 21 day fast, okay. Just let's make it clear there. We are encouraging you to prayerfully consider what you can do in the next 21 days. Is there a magic to 21 days? No. Is there something super special? Absolutely not. You can do 30, you can do 7, you can do 12 and so but a lot of people are doing that, and I think it's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. It gives you just enough time to kind of break some of the cycles in your life for you, when you are doing that for 21 days. Some people said that it takes 21 days to develop habits, even though that's been disproven. It takes more than 21 days. It take about 90 days and even more, and so but 21 days is a good time to kind of put things away for the Lord. What I would encourage for those of you who are considering it, is focus more on prayer than even fasting, and do the fast that is sacrificial to you. Ask the Lord to lead you into it and then do something that has a sacrifice. Don't offer to God what cost you nothing. If you're currently living on one meal a day, you probably, if you're a healthy individual, probably can even do liquid water fast for 21 days and stuff so and everything will be fine. If you of course have some other challenges with your health, or you have a very strong physically demanding job, requires a lot of physical concentration. Then yeah, you definitely want to reconsider that and just choose something that is good, reasonable but also has a component sacrifice in it. So how and what you're going to do is between you and the Lord, okay. Pregnant women should not fast from food. Let me say that again and again. Nursing mothers should not fast from food, nor is children. Now, if you're a parent and you want to train your children in the fasting and skipping a breakfast or something, that is between you, your children and the Lord. I don't have young children so I'm not going to advise on that, and I'm not a doctor, so if you're taking medication or all of those things, you kind of want to go to the doctor and ask him. Actually last year I got a fever. After going to Romania and I preached there, I came back and I just I had such a big fever. It was so bad I actually ended up in the ER because I had a hard time sleeping, my lips were like blown up. It was like painful, and so we were starting the fast, and I was like man, I can't, I don't know if I can do it. So I went to the doctor and you know I asked the doctor, I said, doctor, you know am I okay? They're like yeah, it's just a fever. And I was like, if I start the fast will it hurt me? He said no, actually it will help you. He's like, some people recommend taking few days not to eat so that your body can focus all this energy on attacking the bad cells. He didn't give me the green light to do a 21-day fast but he just said, hey, don't worry about it, you know for a few days you'll be okay. And honestly, my recovery happened within about, very speedily, a few days and I was already on my feet and the fever broke and everything was fine. So I have witnessed that in my life before, that it helps to break certain things, even in health when it comes to fasting. There are documentaries, where through fasting people are able to just experience like crazy changes in their body, positive changes. Again, I'm not a doctor so I don't have a lot of comments on that but you can do your own research and consult your own medical professionals. What to do while extended fasting, because we can all start it. Now when are we doing this 21 days? We are starting it on Sunday night or Monday morning. So Monday morning, January 8th until January 28th. From my understanding that's the plan, yes. January 8th, Monday. Or technically I treat it always as January 7th, evening, because Jewish calendar always the day begins with the night before. So the evening of January 7th or the morning of January 8th is when we begin this, and then it will end on Sunday, January 28th. January 28th is when it will end. The reason why we didn't do it January 1st is because for a lot of people there's still holidays, they're coming in from New Years. Just kind of wanted to give people a chance to just kind of recover from that. And so once now everything is settled, kids are going back to school and it's kind of life is getting back to you know kind of out of the holidays, back into its rhythm. A new year and new resolutions, kind have some goals, want to accomplish some things. And it's a good time to say, you know what, let me put my spiritual life first. Let me prioritize my walk with the Lord. So when doing a prolonged fast, consider the right timing, consider also the right motive we mentioned, consider thirdly also we mentioned the right start. Meaning don't go on Sunday eating a heavy steak. Just kind of ease in into it, cut back on caffeine, cut back on solid foods already a few days beforehand. It will be way easier the first few days. Now let's go into the right thing to do while you are doing an extended fast. You must understand, the first 72 hours probably are going to be the hardest. The sugar level drops on the first few days of fasting, glycogen in the liver is converted to glucose and it's released into the blood to restore the blood to the average glucose level. It's recommended to get as much sleep as possible and rest because it will be troublesome in the beginning stages. I usually sometimes get a headache, want to quit fasting, feel crappy and just moody and even a little bit cranky. First few days sometimes you know it's like, man, I'm just a little bit even sleepy and it's completely fine. So just first few days just remember, it's just not easy. Wash your face, brush your teeth because you're going to have a really bad breath. And just kind of honestly ride that wave. Remember your metabolism starts to convert fat cells to fatty acid, so that your fat starts melting and breaking out. This fat starts coming out through you exhaling. So as your body breaks down this stuff and starts melting it, it starts coming out usually through your mouth. So it's interesting that the fat does not go out through the urine, poop or sweat, but it exits the body through breathing . And so that's another reason why when need to bathe properly and brush our teeth and stuff. So another thing to keep in mind is drink water but don't drink too much water because if you drink like a camel a lot of water, you will wash out all of your nutrients. And yeah, you can also drink water that has a low calorie electrolyte or add some mineral fasting salt to your water. Some people like to drink a little bit of coconut water. Not my personal preference but some people like to do that. It is wise to abstain from strong stimulants like caffeinated or sugary drinks during the fast, including artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks. Avoid soy protein drinks which have been known to cause health problems during fasting. If you are doing a more like a juice fast, you know try to drink more of raw fruit juices such as apple, grape or pineapple which are excellent sources of necessary natural sugar to stabilize the blood sugar and to keep energy levels up. So these are just some of the things that you can do. Try to walk, some people exercise but makes it a little bit harder to go full-blown exercise level. So minor exercise is like walking, which is the most practical, ancient form of exercise. Your bodies go to supply of fuel, sugar will run out within a day or two of fasting. At this point and only at this point, your body begins to move to its backup source which is fat. And fat is something we all have a lot of, most of us, unless you are an Olympic marathon runner or Mr Olympia. Now an average human being has about 34 lbs of fat. That's about 68 days worth of fuel for your body to feed on. That means when you fast, not only your body is not hungry, you actually have opened the doors to your body to have all you can eat buffet. Come on somebody. So don't believe this you know lie that your body will tell you that you're gonna die, oh I'm starving. No, no, no. Your body is switches. It just takes a little bit of time to switch to the second source that you have stored, of at least 34 lb for most of us. Some of us have a lot more than 34 lb, so that's about 68 days worth of fuel for your body to feed on. Now so that's some of the physical things that are going to be happening as we fast. The spiritual things is you want to fill your time with reading, praying, journaling and spending time with the Lord. Personally, I want to invite you to next 21 days to do a 5:00 a.m. prayer. Now is there anything like super spiritual by 5:00 a.m. prayer? No, just it's just early. Some of you may do 6:00 a.m, maybe 7:00 a.m. But if you are going to be one of those people that you feel led and inspired to do that, let's do it together. I also sense that the Lord wants a lot of people to wake up a little bit earlier to spend time with Him, and fill the time with prayer, fill the time with reading. There will be days when fast that you are going to have a hard time sleeping, you'll wake up earlier and it's okay. Don't force yourself to sleep if your body doesn't want to sleep. Just go and pray. Go spend some time in the Word and then you know go to sleep. So those are kind of some of the things that I wanted to encourage you is join our Bible memory group, memorize verses, read the Scriptures, pray, journal. If you don't have my "Fast Forward" book, get the "Fast Forward" book where you can also, it's a 21-day devotional really. Or get the reading YouVersion Bible app plan, which we have 21 days fasting there as well. Get a group of people in your small group, in your church. Do the reading plan together, so that there's a sense of accountability, encouragement to each other and do it together. Fill the time with God. Don't try to fill the time with a lot of busyness and more activity because that's going to be really kind of counterproductive. The idea of fasting is so that we have more time to spend with the Lord, not so that we can have more time to do other things. And the last thing that I want to highlight about an extended fast and that is this, and that is the ending. You have to already mentally prepare how you going to end your 21-day fast. Why is that important? Because you have to have and planned the end from the beginning. The longer you fast, the longer it takes to come out of it. When breaking a fast of 10 days or more, the breaking period should be extended one day for every 4 days of fasting. So 21 days of fasting should take about 3 days to come out completely. 40-day of fast will take about 7 days to come out completely. The big rule of coming out of an extended period of fasting is you should never break the fast with eating a normal meal. Can I say that again for the people in the back. You should never break the fast with eating a normal meal. Now we are talking about extended fast and biblical fast which is food, abstaining from food. If you break the fast with the normal meal, let's say on 21 days, you will nullify the physical benefits of fasting, you can cause serious, irreversible complications, you can have serious discomforts and you can actually die. So on our 21 day or 20th day, we will also share some practical things you can do. But for now we are not there yet, so we're only there to start. And I want to encourage you to kind of begin to prepare your spirit, prepare your body, prepare your heart as we enter into this season for the glory of God, amen. In fact, I would like to pray with you that the Lord is going to lead you. I want to pray with you that the Lord is going to this year bring you back closer to Himself. I want to pray with you today that the Lord, that you will return to the Lord with all of your heart. That you will experience deeper level of consecration, commitment to Him and that He will put a fire and ignite a desire in your heart for His glory, amen. And then I'm going to stay back and just answer some questions. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank You for this day, thank You for this stream. I thank You for every person that is watching right now and rewatching later. Thank you Lord God, that you're a God of love, mercy and grace. I thank You that it's not by good works we are saved but we are created to be Your masterpiece, for good works You made us, to do good works for Jesus. Lord, You said when You depart physically from us, then we will fast. We desire to know You Jesus, we love You and we ask You right now, would You help us? Would You draw us Holy spirit, to come near You, to come close to You and to be Your vessels of honor. Precious Holy Spirit, as You led Jesus to a fast, would you lead us to a fast? Help us. May there be a change and a shift in our life, family, ministry, our career, our health and finances. As we humble ourselves before You, may we experience Your grace. I pray for divine strength. I pray for hunger to be restored. I pray for miracles. I pray for answered prayers. I pray Lord God just for a deepening, for just a deeper hunger for Your presence, in Jesus mighty name, amen, amen. Well thank you every person who was praying for that, and as I finish this stream before I just mention any questions. I wanted to kind of invite those of you who are mainly connected to our ministry, have been connected to our ministry and have been following our ministry. And if this is the year that the Lord is using, can use you to help our ministry reach more people for Him, and so not only through the fasting, not only through books, courses. We offer books, courses. All of that free of charge, and so we reach millions of people every single week through our media ministry. And I want to give you that opportunity right now to prayerfully consider becoming a partner with our ministry, or giving your best gift to help us to continue to do this for the glory of God. We will attach the links in the video and it would be greatly appreciated. It's a good soil that this will go into, to help us reach more people as we've been doing for the last many years already. Now so the fast starts, guys the fast starts on Monday and really excited for this. So I'm going to try to see, I saw some of the. How long do headaches last? Heather, I personally have seen them usually last just one day but sometimes no more than one day usually, yeah. What can we drink? The best thing to drink during fasting is water. Hello Pastor. l from Romania. Hey David, God bless you brother. Any devotional Scriptures for this 21 days you would share? So I personally felt for this fast the Scriptures about Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 7, when Samuel fasted with God's people and it's actually verse 6 of chapter 7, and then God gave them breakthrough. And in fact He supernaturally supported them in their victory against the Philistines. And they subdued Philistines, and they recovered the territory, restored the territory and they had peace. So I kind of felt that word for this year, that God wants to restore, recover and bring peace. He wants to subdue some enemies in our life and that's what's going to happen, so my encouragement would be to read 1st Samuel chapter 7. Yolanda, fasting is starting on Monday. What can we drink for a liquid fast? Water. Can I drink tea in my fast? Yes you can, preferably not caffeinated. Can I drink fruit tea in the Daniel fast? Yeah Daniel's Fast has a lot more a lot more options. Are spiritual attacks more common during a fast? They could be. Jesus was tempted during fasting. So don't always assume that fasting means automatic overflow of just angels and breakthrough and blessing. Sometimes it could be a warfare season but afterwards has come the sweet victory. From what time to what time or is it up to an individual? It is up to an individual. The early church from my understanding, they did it from morning till late afternoon. Somebody I think told me from 6am to 3pm. It's usually encouraged to do you know from morning till evening if you're doing a fast that ends every day. I think that's how Muslims do it as well during Ramadan. They just do from 6 to 6, from sunrise to sundown and they eat. Interesting like Muslims actually have a very, very strong emphasis on fasting in their religion. Now we're not in any way trying to be like Muslims. I believe that you know that's not the same faith but at the same time something very interesting that fasting is a very crucial part of their religion. My church would often do a consecration from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Yeah, that sounds about right. What about taking vitamins and supplements? I normally do but I've stopped taking them during the fast. I think you just need to consult your doctor about that stuff, and so yeah, there is in my previous live streams, I was recommending, let me just check that right now. The salt, the sea salt and then compound B I think, something like that. So we're going to check and I'll probably mention it on Monday during the fast about that but just drink water. What's the YouVersion Bible plan you spoke about? So Selena, we have already one YouVerion Bible app Bible plan for 21-day fast. And from my understanding, we have a new one that's being released for this fast. So the links are on my website pastorvlad.org. Click on resources. What do you do when water becomes distasteful? Oh Junior. Yeah, it's interesting after about like the fifth day of water, you start tasting water. Yeah like you can just taste like different kind of waters. And so it's just very interesting, so yeah, it doesn't taste any good anymore, so but it is what it is. Can you attend a funeral on a fast? Yeah, why not. What about intermittent fasting? Yeah, that's also a good idea. And so would there be a zoom prayer? So we will not be doing a zoom prayer during the fast. But I have a personal church prayer, fire on the altar telegram group, that I will share on my telegram group for people who really feel like they're just kind of a part of this ministry, they want to check in with their 5:00 a.m. prayer, and so but we'll share that next we. I'm not going to share that right now and stuff, so yeah. B complex, yes. Joyfulworship21, thank you for sharing that vitamins that some people can take during fasting. What if you have extremely low body fat? Yeah practice wisdom, discretion concerning water fast. Some people don't and can't do very long just because they're super lean and super skinny. They need to eat more. How to join Bible memory or memorize the Scriptures? Grace Johnson, if you go to pastorvlad.org/memory and you will have the link to the app and you will also have the link to the group in the app. We are like 75 verses already. We're trying to memorize 100 verses. What about working out? Should I be working out when I'm fasting? Honestly, I think that you probably are not going to be able to work out depending what kind of fast you're doing. If the fast is kind of like just missing some meals, then you probably will be able to do it. But if you are doing a water fast, light exercise like walking is highly encouraged. Heavier exercise will be very difficult. Can I do daytime Daniel Fast by skipping one meal in 12 hours? Can I combine two types of fasting? Kim's daughter, so that sounds more like a consecration than a fast, but yes you can do that. You can, you can do whatever and however. I know one pastor who did a 40 days straight, but just ate a little bit of rice every evening, spent time in prayer, some days didn't eat at all and so that was kind of a fast. A lot of people, I realize when they say in the United States that they fast, they refer to a Daniels Fast, not to a water fast. And when somebody says, I did a 40-day fast. Usually they refer to a eating once a day. So I kind of realized, I always thought that that's what they meant in the United States when they say, I fasted. That you know they actually fasted like biblically, like H2O water. But then when I found out a little bit later that for most cases that's not how the fasting is done. And so it's fine, but at the same time, I think I do want to bring back the biblical perspective. When we fast usually, we personally have one type of fast that we do and that is the water fast. So I've tried to do the Daniels one, very difficult for me. But also I do have enough body fat and by God's grace I'm healthy and stuff, so I can do it. Like my wife is pregnant right now, so you know she's not going to be fasting and she shouldn't be fasting, so yeah. Daniel Fast is so much easier than Esther Fast, you can eat at least a little. Yeah, Sharice. Daniel's Fast is easier. Esther's Fast was harder. Yeah, Esther's fast was complete. Would the fast be valid if you're working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, and not able to have unhindered fellowship with the Lord? Jeremy, I believe so. I believe that the fast doesn't have to have a 24 you know or eight hour prayer. Jesus did say, when the Father sees you fasting, He will reward you. So while it is encouraged and important to couple prayer with fasting, but at the same time God will reward just the fasting if it's done with the right heart. Plus you know when He said, go and anoint your face. Meaning Jesus kind of was saying, hey, don't make a public spectacle about it. As you go about your life, you know you fast. A lot of people who fast, they don't necessarily stop everything that they're doing and just pray because that we that's not possible for many of us. We still have duties, responsibilities, jobs and so during lunch instead of eating, while you're fasting then you can just simply read the Scriptures. So you can just simply spend some time with the Lord. Then during dinner, you know prepare dinner for your family and then you just spend some time, prolong time with the Lord instead of breakfast. So that's still pretty sacrificial I would say and pleasing to the Lord. For the water fast, do you recommend salt here and there for needed sodium? Yes, for a water fast it could help to have fasting sea salt, and yeah. Dina, what can I do to break the spirit of depression? Dina watch a sermon that I have called dealing with depression or overcoming depression, Pastor Vlad. Just type that, and I have a whole sermon that I deal with it. For the spirit of laziness? Yeah, do the fast and yeah laziness doesn't like fasting so. Somebody asked about a cigarette habit. I still struggle with my cigarette habit and want to fast. Will this hinder my fast? I think this can help you to break the habit. So go into fasting and you know don't put cigarettes into your mouth during fasting, but just water. And believe that the Lord's going to help you to break that during fasting because you know it's a craving and so as you're subduing greater craving which is food, the Lord can give you the grace to break that. I believe that. How often should I drink water a day for fasting? When you're thirsty. Cameron, how long have you been preaching for? So I started to preach regularly since 14, every week. But of course my first few years of preaching were like 5 minute, 15 minute sermons. At 16, started to have a little bit longer, so then at 16 I became a youth leader. Yolanda, come on somebody. I'm fasting with you guys on Monday. Can't wait. Fasting is so good for everything. It breaks strongholds. Ashley, does food taste better or worse when coming off the fast? I can tell you, food tastes heavenly after the fast. I'm fasting from dead works. Good for you. Will fasting break my son's addiction? Only God can break your son's addiction, but fasting can help you to pray for your son. Can I do a partial fast from sugar for 21 days, like chocolate, cookies, edible cookie dough and cake? Yeah, it's more like a consecration than a fast but yes. If it has a very strong hold on your life and this means a big deal to you, what you just mentioned, chocolate and sugar and all of the stuff. And giving that up, and it's a sacrifice. Yeah. Can you eat the Lord's supper during fasting? Depends on what that looks like because if it's like a full-blown love feast meal like the early church did, then that's technically kind of cancels fasting. But if it's a small cracker and a little bit of juice, I don't see that being as a problem. God, cover Vlad's baby, pass he pass with his child through the waters. Come on somebody, amen Trump won 2020 erection. Yeah, I don't think he won any erections. I think you what you meant is probably election, but yeah I think this is not relevant right now to the fast, so yeah. So I'm from the Philippines, I would like to join your daily live stream, especially during the fast. what time will you go live? So I will go live at 9:00 a.m Pacific, 9:00 a.m. So right now it's 6:00 p.m. here, 7:00 p.m. It will be morning live streams. So Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will be the streams at 9 a.m. God bless you, King's daughter. What is the right way of breaking the fast after 21 days? The slow way is the right way. Any sermon recommendation on studying and understanding the word? I struggle a lot. I do have a video that's called "How to study the Bible." It's about an hour long and that would really be helpful for you. Can I sleep in a day after I woke up at 5:00 a.m. during fasting? Yeah, of course. Sometimes you can take a little nap, yeah. But I think one thing you'll discover when you fast is that you will have energy, like after about I think fourth day or fifth day, there comes this it almost feels divine you know. But I think it's just more your body is now cleansing itself from a lot of toxins, and you get this energy that's been incredible. I have really enjoyed that. You know when I was doing a 40-day fast, in fact in the middle of it I flew to Ukraine to preach. So on the 20th day and it was just water. Somebody bought us first class tickets. This was my first time flying first class on an international flight. It was heavenly. It was incredible, and they give you food. Well they give you food on the long flight anyway. But in the first class, the food was amazing. It was a Turkish airline. I still remember the smell of that food. This was the best food that I haven't eaten, and I was with my wife you know and she was eating. And it was hard. I got to tell you, it was hard. Oh it was hard but it was mentally hard, not physically. And so I came back from that fast, no I came back from that trip and still had 19 days to go. And I surprisingly had a lot of energy. In fact the 40th day of fasting, I think 40th or 39th day of fasting, I was preaching in a conference in Florida and I did look pretty skinny though. Some people were wondering if I had like some sickness or something and so, but I felt really good, felt strong energy. So yeah, guys I do want to let you know that I am going to be speaking, just going to give you a little bit rundown of our events that are coming up. This Sunday I'll be preaching at HungryGen. We do have a marriage conference that's coming up. The registration for it will be released very soon and then I'm going back, I'm going to Florida. I'm going to be speaking at Jacksonville, and then more events are going to be uploaded by next week and so yeah. But meanwhile, thank you so much every person that has donated today to this stream. Thank you every person that has donated to our ministry, and then Martina is asking where can they get my books. You can go to savchuk, vladsavchuk.com and you can get books that are signed by me. Or you can go to Amazon and get them on Amazon, or go to pastorvlad.org and you can download them free of charge. All right. I will see you guys on Monday. So few more days, eat not too much, just kind of you know ease a little bit from eating heavy foods and let's get ready. And on Monday we're going to get, we're going to get running. And I believe the Lord's going to do some wonderful, wonderful things. I'm excited and I can't wait for the testimonies and the miracles that we're going to hear for what's going to happen from this fast. Blessings to you guys. I see you again on Monday.