All right, you've convinced me. I'm gonna start praying and I'm gonna start fasting. But how do I do it? Do I just stop eating? Is it as simple as that?
Let's figure it out together. Coming up right now on the Clear Vee Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.
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Good to be here. Good to see you. Today's going to be a great episode. We're going to unpack some things that people are often confused about. Things like prayer, things like fasting.
Most people don't know really where to land on these things. I mean, we can all kind of agree that prayer is important, but today's episode is going to help clear the waters and provide an accurate view on what the Bible really says about prayer, fasting, and its place in the life of a believer. That's right. And before we get into all that, we do want to thank our sponsors, Mighty Muscadine, LeBlue, Ultra Pure Water. Watch Safe is another one of our sponsors, and potentially you.
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Dr. Shop, praying and fasting. Half of that I got no problem with. You know, I pray every day. That makes me a good Christian, right?
I pray every single day, sometimes twice, definitely when I'm in trouble. Fasting, That's kind of Old Testament stuff, right? That's not like stuff for today. Yes, it is.
Now, let me go ahead and preface that with: if you have medical issues or health problems going on or you're on medication, things like that, make sure you consult with somebody. It may not be for you, and that's okay. If you don't fast, it's okay.
So, don't think, man, I am going to destroy my health. But since God says I need to fast, and I need to do it, don't think of it like that. Christianity is not a religion of legalism that either this or that.
Now, God gives us plenty of grace, and there are other ways that you can be sincere and set aside that time of prayer with God without fasting. That's right. So, don't think that you have to if you have health reasons. But having said that, there is a place for fasting and is very important. It's found all over the New T Old Testament.
Let's talk about the Old Testament first. You have Moses. Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights, and his fast Was without bread and without water. That man was hungry. Wow.
I mean, that man was, I don't know how he got past day two. And 30 nights. But guess what he got? 40, not 30, 40. Yeah, 40.
Yeah, 40 days. And guess what he got in return? The Ten Commandments. Yeah. Ten Commandments, the guiding system of our world to this day and to the end of time.
Yeah. Now we don't. We don't like live by Ten Commandments. Of course, the principles still stand. It's not like we disobey them, but we have a greater law, which is a law of Christ.
That's right. So, yes, we do keep the Ten Commandments, but we do it more through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives rather than a list of do's and don'ts. That's right. But the Ten Commandments. Yeah, I mean, that was the reward for his fasting, the reward for his devotion.
And that's the guiding principle throughout the secular world. I mean, people, even if they don't go to church, they know the Ten Commandments. The Big Ten, you got to obey the big Ten. Then you have someone like Joshua, who fasted all day after the Battle of Ai. You know, Ai is where they were defeated.
And so once that happened, Joshua knew something was wrong. And he had enough spiritual sensitivity that he knew that this is not going to be like, hey, guys, I don't know what went wrong. But let's come together, man. Let's straighten up. Let's get our act together and let's jump back in.
It was like.
Some's bad going on, yeah. And it's not going to be found just by, hey, so what happened to our plan? Yeah. No board meeting was going to fix this. Yeah, he knew some deep...
Hidden treacherous sin had taken place. And then in that fasting, you know, they found out Achan was the one who had stolen things that God had said to destroy in Jericho. And this is the reason why they had they had been defeated as many died. Yeah. He fasted.
Then you had the people of Israel who fasted all day before the Lord. Because there was a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of Israel. I mean, think about it. Benjamin, they had done some very evil things. If you read the book of Judges, you hear about it.
And God's people fasted. to say God please bring our people together. Bring our nation together. They fasted. Then we have Hannah.
Hannah fasted before the Lord because she could not have any children. And Samuel, I'm sorry, Eli the prophet did not understand that. And he tried to condemn her. But but she knew what she was doing. Yeah, absolutely.
She was fasting before the Lord. Then you have us under Samuel, the people fasted all day in repentance for their sins. That's a big deal. Yeah. Picture of fasting.
I mean, I think a lot of times people today, maybe not a lot of times, but people today will soften it to fast from something else, like fast from.
Social media. I'm on Fast from my Xbox. Yeah, fast from my Xbox. Seriously, I've seen that. Dude, I've done it.
It becomes almost synonymous with I'm giving this up for like Lent, I'm giving up chocolate, or I'm giving up sweets, or I'm giving up whatever. You fill in the blank. But fasting in the Bible is different. Is it exclusively about food? It's just going for without food.
Yeah, it is about food in the Bible, but sure we can extend that to other things. And if you're taking the time to just dedicate your time before the Lord in prayer and expressing your sincerity. And your diligence, in your determination to see God move in a powerful way. Right now, I think m many of us don't live our life with that zeal and that intensity as people used to live. Why do you think that is?
And I'm not saying everybody always lived that way. But Much of the revivals and the awakenings happened because people were zealous and sincere for God to move in their generation. Yeah. Why do you think we've lost that when it comes to the things of God? Because I think there's a lot of people, not everybody, of course, but there's a lot of people out there who, if you tell them, hey, listen, you can fast intermittently and you're going to lose a ton of weight.
It's a great effort, it's a great way to burn some fat, get healthier, control your eating. They will do it, they'll do it for months at a time. But when we say this is something you should set aside for even just a day. to get close to God.
Well, God doesn't, we don't really do that no more. That's old. We justify it. God loves me. Yeah.
Here's my prayers anyway. But we're willing to do it intermittently from months on end if it's going to have a tangible result that we can benefit from. We feel like that's not the case with the things of God. Yeah, because we accept the circumstances of life, the problems that we go through. The unresolved situations or lack of healing as men, it is what it is.
No amount of abstaining from food is going to fix that problem. That's a sickness. Or that's a a person who is making wrong choices. Or my church is not going to grow. Or my community.
I mean, it's just the way the things are right now. It's all going downhill.
Well, can we fast and pray for that? Not eating my mashed potatoes and chicken. You know, that's not an option for me. You know, pushing away from the table and putting my fork down is not going to somehow miraculously grow our church. It's not.
If I grow that cheeseburger, is it really going to bring about world peace? Yeah, come on. Come on.
So, Dr. Sean, I feel like there are people who are listening that maybe are from different traditions or maybe have grown up differently. Can you outline for our listeners and our viewers what exactly is fasting? What do we mean when we say fasting, and when is it an appropriate response?
So, fasting is simply God's people setting aside food. entertainment, and any distraction to get serious with him. Let me repeat that again. Fasting is simply God's people setting aside food, entertainment and any distraction to get serious with Him. That's fasting.
And So, if you are inundated with a culture or a church setting where people are just. Ho-hum, business as usual. We do this because it makes us feel good. Do I care about the world? Yeah, I do, but is that something that keeps me up at night?
Not really. Does it bother you what's happening to the people in your family? Yeah, it bothers me. It bothers you enough to say, man, God, unless you move, unless you do something powerful, nothing's going to change. The hearts and minds of people are so callous and so hard hearted they cannot see their need for Jesus Christ.
Yeah, I mean I mean they If people have choices, man. I mean, they just that's what they do. Yeah. I guess it's not for everybody.
Now, if you see the world like that, kind of ho-hum, dry, dull, you've lost the joy, you lost the fire, then here's what I was saying: don't walk away and say, Well, I guess I lost my fire. No, light up the fire. This is revival. This is the revival culture that is part of the American. Christian landscape that we don't just let the fire die down.
We fan the flame, we stoke the fire, we get it going. Clearview, in a sense, is a revivalistic church. It needs to be. This is not just that we do great things and great messages and a good worship and a good student program and a good children's ministry and decent outreach out there and help a little people here and there. Doing great.
No, we have a revivalistic culture. that we believe That the awakenings that happened in America, the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the prayer revivals. the crusades that went on, different religious figures like Billy Graham and others, or D.L. Moody, if you go further back, or Sam Jones, if you go further back, they believed that we can strike the match again, or we can stoke the flames again. It requires people, individuals, churches.
who see The reality that without the gospel of Jesus Christ, humanity is lost. I think it helps, you know, that you were born in India. You've seen what it looks like when people on a massive scale are lost. Coming here and starting to see those same things revitalizes the need. You know what I'm saying?
It revitalizes that revivalistic approach where I think people here can get comfortable and do get comfortable and they don't see the decay. Yeah. And even if it's slow, even if it's fast, you don't see it sometimes. Yeah, that's right. You're lulled into this false sense of complacency.
Yeah. And if that's how sad it is when the church pastor and the staff themselves are dull and dry and business as usual. Man, we are doing injustice. We are committing a crime against our people because they are looking to us. to fan the flames.
And we're over here, all our head is screwed up in some other garbage. Yeah. Well, so since we're talking about fasting, tell me what you think of this. This may be a stretch for me to say, but I think one of the things that does get us into this sense of complacency is how plentiful our food is. You know, I eat good every day.
I eat too good a lot of days. You know what I'm saying? Food is so readily accessible. It's fast. It's bad for me.
It tastes good. It's all the things that I, in my dreams, I want food to be. We are at a point now in our culture. We don't even have to, like, for fast food, we don't have to go get it. No.
We can have it brought to us. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's just delivered straight to us. And so when life is so good and so easy, like, yeah, it's easy to get complacent.
So I think this, maybe this, I wasn't even planning on the conversation going this way, but, you know, fasting. could really be that wake-up call, that revivalistic first step that we're talking about. Yeah. I don't think it needs to happen. People ask me for resources, and there are many out there, but two that I have trusted over the years.
One is by Ronnie Floyd called The Power of Prayer and Fasting. It's a great resource. And it's been around twenty, thirty years now. Good one. The other one is by Elmer Towns.
Elmer Towns was at Liberty University for many years. He was also a pastor at one time. And his book, Fasting for Spiritual Breakthroughs, Breakthrough, A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts. Again, great resource.
So, Ronnie Floyd, R-O-N-N-I-E Floyd, and Elmer Towns, they have written some great works. Bill Bright also wrote a book on this years ago, 20, 30 years ago, that helped me a lot with fasting.
So, again, fasting doesn't mean you got to do 40 days, 40 nights. Does not mean you got to do for like two, three days. You can do just a meal. Do a meal. And what do you do?
Don't do it so, man. I just want to lose weight at the same time. Pray, don't think like that. When you fast, think of it as, man, this is my. My Not really contribution because really, God is the one who's going to do the work of fanning the flame.
But my Communication with God. That I am communicating to God that I am serious about This situation. Yeah, it's like you grab little quick snatches of prayer during the day where you feel like you've got a moment to breathe. But I'm going to set time aside to eat. But this is taking that time that I would have set aside to eat and making prayer the priority.
That's right. You know, there's a pastor somewhere, there's a ministry leader somewhere, there's some leader in ministry who's listening to this who says, I'm with you. And I want to fast, and I want my staff, I want my team to join me. I don't know how to ask them because I feel like that's a push too far. I'm going to get pushed back.
People just won't want to do it. How do you encourage someone like that? I would say just start with yourself. If you're physically able, medically, it's possible, then you just start with yourself and say, hey, I'm going to fast for a meal, I'll fast for breakfast and lunch, and see what God wants to do. More than that, that's up to you.
I'm not here to tell you one way or the other. But definitely you can. skip breakfast and lunch. And don't gorge yourself in your evening meal. But be reasonable, be wise and discerning.
In that Fasting, just like John Wesley said, fasting is a means not only of turning away the wrath of God, but also of obtaining whatever blessings we stand in need of.
So you want to turn away the wrath of God? From people in your life. From people in your church, from people in your community, from people in this world, in America, and the world at large. then you need to fast. If you want God's blessing to come into your marriage, into your family, into your church?
And to your community, Then maybe we need to consider fasting. And, you know, very soon we're going to talk about fasting and praying, even in our church as we sort of roll into the 4th of July. And this 4th of July is special because it will be the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. That's right. That's right.
And I want to take every opportunity that we can to promote something that we're talking about. This is a good time to take a little break from what we're talking about and tell you about a really great project that's happening here through Clearview Media, which is a documentary film. It's our first ever original film written and produced right here at Clearview Church. Dr. Shaw and I have been talking about this.
It's telling the story of America through the eyes of an immigrant. How do you fall in love with America all over again, especially if you've been born here?
Sometimes it takes that outside perspective. And Dr. Shaw, what I really like about this film, as we're even continuing to film it, you're going to be filming a little bit on it this weekend, is that it is so timely. It is this celebration. And a lot of times during celebrations, we fail to do that, to look backwards and see where we started and these values that we were built upon.
upon. We are only focused on who we are now. And isn't it great to be an American now? But back then, it really costs something. Yeah, we don't live life looking in the rearview mirror, but at the same time, we need to be aware of our foundation.
Yeah, that's right. Be aware of where we came from. And this, this film, this documentary is a beautiful story and will help people as they're watching this, as they're viewing this. It will help you fall in love with America. It will help you see America with fresh eyes.
It will help you see how God has blessed us and is continuing to bless us and what the future, what the next 250 years, if Jesus doesn't come back, could look like. That's right. We're going to be doing a big, big premiere right here at Clearview Church on June the 28th. And then it's going to be available for digital release at some time after that. But we want to encourage you to follow it.
Follow us, follow Clearview Today for more updates on that. And we can't wait for you guys to see it. It's been a big blessing. Yeah. That's right.
Dr. Shaw, this prayer and fasting, this was Nehemiah's response when he hears about what's happening to Jerusalem, how the city is still in ruins, how no one is safe, the walls are still in. and ruins and rubble on the ground. He fasts and he prays. What does that do for Nehemiah?
Why is he led to fast and pray?
Well, I mean, he's led to fast and pray because he is heartbroken over the situation of his people back in Judea, his ancestral homeland. He is not only heartbroken, but he is very concerned about the future of his people. And this is a great time to mention that we think that the people of Israel, or the Hebrews, or the people of Israel, or the people of the northern kingdom, or the southern kingdom, or once the exile happens, then this only the Jewish people, the other tribes are scattered. We tend to think that they have lost. All, or they never had any idea of the coming.
Messiah. There is only certain prophets here and there, but overall, people were like completely clueless when Jesus came. They're like, what, Messiah? Oh, yeah, we heard that there's a Messiah coming to free us from the Romans.
Some did. There were some people who did believe that. But that does not mean that that All Jewish people or all Israelites or all Hebrews believed that they were just waiting for someone to come who was going to be their next king. No, they knew that this king was also going to be the one who will be the sacrifice. Not only for their people, for the whole world.
Again, there's a misunderstanding there. We think that. Up until the coming of Jesus And after his Death, burial, resurrection, and his ascension when he said, Go into all the world. Make disciples. It's at that point they were like, oh, thank goodness now, God is not racist.
You know, up until this point, glad we cleared that up. Up until this point, it was just for the Israelites or the Jewish people. But now everybody's welcome. That's such a misunderstanding. Yeah.
They knew Abraham was told, through you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Okay, so they knew that they knew, and many of them tried to share the gospel. Yeah. Of the pre-incarnate Jesus. with those around them. The queen of Sheba came to Solomon not because she was so enamored by his wisdom, of course, but she wanted to know the wisdom of God.
Yeah. And many believed, many like people in the Old Testament believed that. Yeah, you have Rahab. Rahab was a Canaanite. And she believed.
She gave her life to God. And then she was grafted into the family tree of the Messiah. Mm-hmm.
So, where am I going with this? When Nehemiah was burdened, it was not just like, oh, my poor. Uncles and aunts and cousins and nephews are over there with no food to eat, and they're going to die of hunger and they have no protection. And even if they have protection, they don't have the basic amenities of life. They don't have food and water.
And even if they have food and water, they don't have the other things that we get to enjoy, like a basketball goal or a soccer field or a Y. You know, I wish they could have what I have here in Persia. No. He knew that the plan of salvation was in jeopardy. He knew.
Why is Jerusalem? I mean there are plenty of Jewish people in Persia. Why worry about Jerusalem? Because this was the city of the great king.
So for him to be concerned was not just concerned that my Blood relatives who I never met, or maybe I have met some of them or heard about them, are in great distress. No, the plan of salvation is in great distress. The gospel was the priority. The grand gospel, yeah, for the whole world. That's very interesting to hear you say that because.
I wonder if we today would operate with the same level of. Concern, intensity. People would be like, God's going to take care of it. God's got a plan. God will work it all out.
Nehemiah stepped up because he felt like the plan of salvation was in jeopardy. Yeah, absolutely. What separates us from that mindset? From thinking, like, I have to do something because God's plan is at risk. Two things.
Number one, we need to see the whole Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ. Because it is there.
Now, everybody did not see everything about Jesus Christ at their stage. of the Revelation. Adam and Eve did not understand everything about a cross. And nails and the crown of thorns and all that, but they understood. that he will be bruised.
Uh Abraham did not understand everything, but he understood that s he will be dying. The father is going to give his son to die. Down through the ages. They all understood. What's my point?
That we need to see the scriptures through the lens of Jesus Christ. This is not just a book about doing good and not doing bad, it's about Jesus Christ.
Next, second thing. We need to see our world always 24-7, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. We need to see life through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we stop doing that, Life goes out. When we stop doing that, zeal goes away.
When we stop doing that, our hearts become cold. When we stop doing that, then we are doing things, but we're no longer, we don't have the power. And the enemy loves that because you're doing things, but you've lost your focus. Yeah, I think there's a lot of churches, a lot of pastors, ministry leaders right now listening to this, and they maybe wouldn't say it out loud, maybe they would never write it down, but maybe inside there's a little voice saying, Yeah, that's me. Yeah.
That's me. It's a gospel. Yeah, we are seeing scriptures. Through the lens of Jesus Christ, and then we see our world every single moment through the lens of Jesus Christ. And it's, and it's, I know, I know we get, we use that a lot, but we have to be intentional about it.
We need to be intentional about every single thing we do. Why are we doing this radio show? We can shut this down and move on, life will go on. Why do we do this? Because we believe that what we're speaking, what we're saying, the YouTube videos, the podcasts, the Truth Network, the Pray.com, all the platforms on which we're doing this is so that the lives of men and women, boys and girls will be saved.
That's why we're doing this.
So This is what compelled this man to leave that beautiful blue tiled enameled corridor with those immortal soldiers, the Persian soldiers. They were like the SEAL teams of back in those days lined up on those walls to leave all that and say, I'm going to go. Why? It was not just because I got to go save my people. Yeah.
Because I love my people. Man, it's our tribe. Go tribe. No, it was about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's right.
And that's why we're doing what we're doing. And that's why you are doing what you're doing. That's right. Yeah. Everything we do, whether it's the Greek New Testament or the 30 Days Devotion, by the way, 30 days praying for our nation.
That's one of the things that you can use. And we're going to be sort of highlighting that. I just so happen to have a copy right here. And we're going to talk about this leading into the 4th of July 2026. All these things that we're doing, the music that we write here, everything is done so that the gospel of Jesus Christ can.
Go out there and save some lives. That's right. That's right. Amen. Guys, make sure you join in next time.
Same time, same station. We're going to dig further in the story of Nehemiah and see how he stepped up, answered God's call, and how these people were benefited because of it. If you're listening for the first time, want to say welcome. We're glad that you're here. Glad that you joined the Clear View Today Show family.
Make sure you're sharing these episodes with your friends. You can do that by following along anywhere podcasting content can be found. Don't forget that you can support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash gives. That's right. A couple of things we do want to let you guys know before we head on out of here.
And then a big announcement. Number one is we want you to make sure that if you haven't already, go ahead and pre-order your copy of the Robinson Pierpont 2026 edition. It's the Byzantine text form, the Greek New Testament. Lots of people have already pre-ordered. And if you haven't pre-ordered, I don't know what you're waiting for.
It could be that you don't know how to read Greek. Luckily, we got a solution for that too. We've got a brand new free video course out right now on YouTube, iTunes, soon to be out on Spotify. It's called How to Read Biblical Greek with Dr. Abadan Shah.
It's a great video series that's going to help you. It's going to start with the alphabet. We're Going to move to some vocab, we're going to move to some grammar. But our promise to you is: if you commit to doing this, if you commit your summer to learning biblical Greek, you will be reading that Greek New Testament that you've pre-ordered. You will be reading the New Testament in its original language.
All right, we're almost out of time. Big announcement: we've got a brand new original song from Clearview Worship coming out. It's called Great and Awesome. We just premiered it in our congregation last week. It's going to be out the following week.
I don't have a date yet, but it's going to be in the next two weeks. It's going to be available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, anywhere digital music is streamed or sold. It's a great, great lesson, great song. It comes from a sermon that Dr. Shaw preached in the book of Romans.
Actually, it comes from a sermon or from a scripture in Deuteronomy, but it's a great song. We're going to maybe premiere it or preview it a little bit in the next couple episodes, but we want you to buy it as soon as it's out.
So stay tuned. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Read Today.
