Pastor Shane Idleman Shares His Personal Story about the Power of Fasting

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Do you understand the power of fasting, both spiritually and naturally? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, today's broadcast might literally change your life. I mean that without hype, you may hear some things today that will change your life for the better, for eternity, both physically and even more important, spiritually. This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the broadcast as we are here, friends, to infuse you with faith and truth and courage and to help you be healthy and thriving in the Lord.

That includes physical health but spiritual above all and the too many times go hand in hand. I'm joined today by Pastor Shane Eidelman. We've become good friends over the years. I deeply respect his heart for the Lord. His writings often bear the heart of God with a prophetic clarity as he serves as a pastor, as a servant of the Lord, both in California and with a national burden and message. He recently reached out to me. He was going on a 40-day fast and kept me posted through the fast. And then he's just put out a documentary. If you're watching on YouTube or Facebook, you can see the link to it, 17 minutes, where he talks about his own journey. We're posting it, sharing it on social media so that as many people as possible can watch it. But this has been life-changing for Shane himself, a man of fasting and prayer.

We want to go into his journey but we want to talk about the power of fasting, why it's so important, why God gave it to us, first spiritually but naturally as well. Hey, Shane, welcome to the broadcast. Great to have you with us today. Hey, Dr. Brown.

It's great to be here. I'm looking at you here. I'm watching you here but you're looking at me here so I'm going to try to go back and forth. Oh, no, don't worry about it. You just look straight ahead. Don't worry about looking at me when you're talking because we'll only see you when it's you. So, Shane, first tell me about the spiritual burden. What is it that drives someone to fast? And then is it some kind of religious work that we're doing?

What's the purpose of it? Well, for me, it took, I would say, close to five years. God would put this on my heart. I'd be reading Scripture and as you know, Scripture kind of leaps out at you when God is really trying to get a point across. And then just studying how the body works, knowing the physical benefits of fasting but then also the spiritual benefits of fasting. And it's just been on my heart and really fear kept me away from it and the opinions of others. You get too skinny. You're going to kill yourself. You're going to starve yourself. That's not wise.

Of course, not knowing how the body works. And then just 40 days, I mean, that's a load to carry. And so just the timing of it and it just worked out to be really, really efficient. And when we decided to do it, the church was already meeting every night of the week. And we're having church every night of the week. I started right at that point and then I just kept going through Easter. And I would have a little bit of juice, which I talk about in the documentary, if I had to get through a busy work schedule, three services on Easter, services every night.

So if I had to have a little juice every now and then or some bone broth to get through it, I would definitely do that. But that's why it's not about a good work or legalistic or, you know, it doesn't make, it doesn't bend God's arm, but it sure bends my knee. And he doesn't love me more, but I sure love him more. And it's really just, you know, fighting the flesh. You've talked about this quite a few times. And just denying the flesh and that fullness of the Spirit coming in and really radically changing your life. And a lot of emotions come up.

And I have five kids at home. So that was a little challenging. Without my wife's support, it would have never happened.

She was gracious and very, very helpful during the season. All right, so we're going to go through the journey, what actually happens during a long fast. You know the physical aspects, how the body works better than most of us do. So we'll talk about that. But in your video, you talk about the burden of the Lord. You talk about David Wilkerson saying that God baptizes his church with anguish when he's going to move. Why should we be in anguish now? You as a pastor with a growing church, with a great family, why are you in spiritual anguish? Boy, I mean, if you just look around, and you know, preach into the choir here with, I know your audience, but it's a good reminder that if we look around and just see how far we've drifted from the truth, if we look at biblical doctrine too, woe be to those who call evil, and woe be those who call evil good and good evil, and the court system, the school shootings, the violence, the families falling apart.

I don't know if you've been following the suicide rate with young adults, and that's an epidemic level, the over addiction, especially of opioids, and it just seems like everything is completely falling apart. And so there needs to be desperation. That's why I believe David Wilkerson said when God seeks to recover a ruined situation, he will literally baptize a man in anguish, and filling that heart of God, and that's really what gets you up in the morning early. That's what drives you to the prayer closet.

That's what causes you to fast. That's what causes you to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, that anguish. Without anguish, the opposite is comfort, and convenience, and apathy. And we all know what happens if we have too much apathy and convenience and comfort, and that's what happened with the nation of Israel quite often, is they would, God would bless them, and then here comes the apathy and the complacency and the departing from God, and then he would wake them up again. So that call of desperation is just, I think it's a biblical call to really say, this is how bad I want it. Lord, I want it bad enough to give up this incredible appetite for food, to have a stronger appetite for you and the things of the Lord. Yeah, so it's often joined in Scripture with fasting, and as you say, it's not a religious work, but it's the ultimate way of us saying, God, more than anything else, more than anything else, I want you, I want your purposes, to the point that I'm even setting aside eating, sometimes drinking for a short period of time, anything, or foods in general, and something happens with that. Shane, did you find, because when you're fasting, you're conscious of the fact that you're fasting, that it was almost like a prayer was going up to God all the time, your fast itself was a prayer, your fast itself was saying, God, I'm this serious, I'm this desperate? Well, that's what, fasting actually does become a prayer, because there's not much else to do, instead of, I mean, beyond your normal responsibilities, but it's, your fast in itself becomes a prayer, and I think Arthur Wallace wrote on that in his incredible book on fasting, and the more you seek Him, the more you find Him, and I wish I could tell you, it was like walking on clouds every day, it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was one of the most incredible things I've ever done, I mean, you just wake up at three in the morning, not tired, you don't want to eat coffee, and just want to seek God, you put on worship, and you begin breaking down, and weeping, and God just pours into your heart, and a lot of the, I think I wrote three articles during that time, and the sermons were different, it just, there's a, it really can't describe it to someone who's never experienced it, and so yeah, it was, it changes your life, because instead of eating, you're praying, and instead of, Lord, I'm really struggling right now, I'm hungry, I want to go to the refrigerator, and instead you start praying, or the kids are acting up, and just forget it, let me just throw in the towel, instead you go into prayer, or you take a drive and you worship, so it does really, your whole lifestyle becomes a prayer, but it's not easy, I don't want people to be left with that impression, that it was the most wonderful thing I've ever done, it was challenging. And Francis, you watched the documentary, which again we have linked on social media, so if you're listening by radio or by podcast, be sure to check our Facebook page, or Twitter feed, or YouTube page, with the video for this, because we've got links up to Shane's documentary where he talks about these things, you know it reminds me of a prayer meeting in late 82, early 83, we were having a tremendous move of God in the church, I was part of then, and we were having these powerful Sunday night prayer meetings, we used to have prayer once a month and it was the dullest, deadest meeting, it was hard to get through, and now God was moving so powerfully, we opened the building every Sunday night for prayer, we're praying in our homes, and we go a good three hours of just fervent prayer, no music, no teaching, just praying, and we come in one night and we're just, it's kind of lethargic, we weren't stirred by the spirit, our words seemed somewhat listless, and I'll never forget, one of the brothers had a deep voice, he said, brethren, we are too fat to fly, we had our big meals today, now we come in here to pray, and you feed the stomach, you deprive the spirit, I mean that's kind of what happens, so it's the exact opposite with fasting. And that's interesting, that is something that always amazed me, and I don't know why God designed it that way, but he sure did, you know, try praying after Thanksgiving dinner, try praying after a big meal, I learned this lesson, I think before I even planted the church, I remember God called me to speak at men's events and different churches, I was traveling, I was a traveling speaker for many years, not many years, probably six years before we planted the church, and I would go to a men's breakfast and I would eat just what they were eating, and then now it's time for me to go up and preach, wow, and it only took two times, I said, I'm not doing this again, and so it would be, it's almost you're exchanging because you walk in, you smell the bacon and the sausage, and men's breakfast usually aren't healthy, and so I would just deny that and just say, Lord, I need you, I need your fullness, and when you go up there, it's night and day, it's not even, you can tell a clear difference in even your cognitive thinking, your direction, your precision, scripture memory, the clearheadedness, it's like, I never would preach on a full stomach again, and I've pretty much done that to date, sometimes I'll fast for a whole day before I get up Sunday morning. On day 31, I preached at Rob McCoy's church here in Southern California, I think you can find it on YouTube as well. The title was something like, Act Like Men, Please Act Like Men, from Paul's encouragement there, and man, I could tell, it was incredible, people could tell there's a difference, what's different about you today, can you tell us what happened from last time you were here, and it was because of fasting and I just walked away from the huge buffet, and again, we don't make it a good work, and look how spiritual I am, and it really had nothing to do with that, I didn't want the guys to know I wasn't eating, I didn't want, there was just a desperation in my heart, and you begin to weep even easier, you begin to just, your heart breaks for the things of God, you watch the news, and you can't worship, you start weeping during worship, you don't want worship to end, so it's almost like, I want to be careful here, but like a spiritual high that you don't want to leave, but then there's, on the way home, oh, it was tough, wanting to stop by and get something to eat, and then get home, and the kids are throwing a fit, I've got five kids, and two of them are nine and under, and so it can get a little challenging, and just wanting to give up and then just go in my prayer closet and saying, Lord, I need your strength right now, and so I can't explain it, I don't know why God created us that way, but it's almost like you can't feed the flesh, even a good thing, even, you can't feed the flesh and then receive the fullness of the Spirit at the same time.

Yeah, it's the truth. All right, friends, we'll be right back, we're going to talk practically what you can do, taking steps, my fasting's so powerful, we'll talk about that further, and also what happens physically when you pray, when you fast, when you join these things together, okay, we'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Do you have a question about fasting, a practical question, ministry question, physically, biologically related question, phone lines are open, 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH, friends, we encourage you to watch the 17-minute documentary that Pastor Shane has put out, talking about his journey during this prayer and fasting, some of it recorded as he was in the midst of this. Shane, I remember in 1988, the Lord clearly laid on my heart to do a 21-day water fast, so I had done many three-day fasts, five-day fasts, and of course, sometimes I'd fast one day a week for many months, but I hadn't done a longer fast, and in those days, I had all my food addictions, I was eating unhealthily then, so that meant you kind of go through withdrawal, I didn't realize that's what it was, but more headaches, and it's harder when you have more addictions, thankfully I've been free now wonderfully these last eight years, but I remember the first seven days of this 21-day water fast, every day I was desperately hungry the whole day, and people said, yeah, after a certain number of days it breaks, but it didn't break, then on the eighth day, all hunger left, now I lusted for food, I desired food, but all hunger left, and I experienced no hunger those next 14 days, if I'd gone longer, then hunger would have come back at a certain point, but I remember that unless I was ministering, this was my experience, unless I was ministering, and I really felt the Lord there, everything was boring, life was boring and dull, after I broke the fast, and of course you have to break it carefully, eating healthy and little by little, I was visited by God in ways I had never been visited before, for me it happened after the fast, and then God used that to change my life, brought a deep purging and purifying in my life, and I look back to it as something very, very pivotal, as people think about fasting, do you encourage people, hey, do what you did, dive in, go on a long fast, or do you encourage them, hey, take some steps, understand, unless the Lord has given a very, very clear word, what would you encourage someone that says, I've never really fasted much, I'm kind of afraid to, we're not talking about someone with, say, with diabetes, who has a medical condition, and needs certain food, we're talking about your general person who's healthy enough to fast, what would you tell them first about how to start, what to do? You actually hit the nail on the head right at the beginning when you said, God put it on your heart, and so that's what I would encourage people to take it to prayer, and see what God wants them to do, obviously, I think most people can get rid of the highly addictive substances, that's why fasting is so hard, you're coming off of a massive sugar addiction, caffeine addiction, nicotine addiction, processed foods, artificial coloring and flavoring in the chemicals, a lot of the people don't realize, there's a lot of chemicals in food to make it taste good, and so you're coming off of all of that, so that's why fasting's hard.

So if you don't know where to start, Jesus said, when you pray, when you give, and when you fast. So obviously, we see that it's a spiritual discipline, you would know definitely more on this than I would, but looking at the Didache or Didacte and the early church writings, and it looks like it was pretty common for them to fast 24 hour periods, and so that would be a good place to start, I would, you know, if you're ready to just go for it, go for it, understand there's gonna be withdrawal symptoms, and like you said, if you're a diabetic or you're taking blood pressure medication, what happens is when you fast, your blood pressure drops, and so if you're taking high blood pressure medication, it's gonna also cause your blood pressure to drop, and then you're at an unhealthy level, so as always, we want you to talk to your physician first, diabetics, it's a blood sugar level issue, especially type 2 with the insulin resistant, your cell isn't wanting to absorb the insulin, so it's kind of ironic that we pump more insulin into the body, insulin is the fat storage hormone, so it's really hard for diabetics to lose weight, and it suppresses glucagon, glucagon is the hormone that helps burn fat, so that's a whole nother history, so to answer the question, or a whole nother podcast, but to answer your question, I would start where you can start, I would try to go a full day, 24 hours, miss breakfast and lunch and dinner, if you can, if you're not on medication, just be very aware that you're gonna start with drawing from things, and maybe even get your body ready for a week, so there's really no cut and dry way of doing even biblically speaking, it's when you fast, but I guarantee they didn't, it wasn't as challenging in Jesus' time, because what were you withdrawing from, all you're really withdrawing from is the natural sugar, the fructose in fruit, figs and things like that, and the natural desire to eat, but that is funny, it took you seven days, and people are different, sometimes it takes people about three or four days, and the hunger hormone is suppressed, and you no longer feel that desire to eat, but some people, it takes a little bit longer of time, so I would start where you can start, and take it to the Lord in prayer, see what he puts on your heart, I think most people are gonna be convicted to get rid of a lot of the junk they're consuming, that's really what's hurting us more than anything else. Yeah, and I remember when I was doing, I think it was either a three day fast or a five day fast, so it was just on water, and I didn't know how to break fast properly then, and because it wasn't a long fast, I would just go out and have a big meal, and I was super into pizza, and if I was getting, it was this really great little Italian place nearby, if I was getting a big meal, I'd get chicken parmesan or something, and just pile this thing on, and I remember, I remember finishing this fast, either three days or five days on water, getting this giant meal, and eating it, and I still, something wasn't right, and then I got a bunch of peanut M&M's and ate them, then I felt good, I realized, wow, that's what you need, it wasn't just the food, unhealthy food, but you needed this particular unhealthy food, so, I remember when I started, by God's grace, it completely changed my lifestyle, so August 24th of 2014 was the first day of cold turkey getting rid of everything, and I remember thinking, I felt miserable, and I don't understand physiology the way you do, but I realized, okay, these are toxins leaving my body, this is a good thing, these are poisons leaving my body, now I just gotta get rid of the poisons, is it a parallel shame, the physical body, the same thing spiritually when we fast?

It is, and I should just throw it out there too, on our church website, westsidechristianfellowship.org, my books on fasting are actually available as free downloads, so people can download the books for free, and they can get a lot more information on what about intermittent fasting, what about one meal a day, what about this, what about that, I answer tons of questions in those books that we probably can't get to here in this program. But to answer the question, the physical and the spiritual, you know, you wanna be careful because we don't wanna speak where the Bible isn't crystal clear, but we can see there's a parallel between how I'm taking care of my body physically, and the ramifications that we'll have spiritually, so you know, if you're not eating well, you're not getting enough sleep, it is gonna affect your devotional life with the Lord, it's gonna affect you spiritually, and same thing, often spiritually when we're not doing good, it affects the physical, so somehow that is all interwoven, and the fasting, that's why it plays a huge role in this, because you're actually starving the flesh that says, feed me so I can destroy you, that's what the flesh says, feed me so I can destroy you, and we're starving that voice, we're getting rid of those appetites, and then therefore, we are not only benefiting physically, but we're benefiting spiritually, and the reason you were feeling that way, yeah, wasn't the toxins were being removed, but also, when you're coming off of things like sugar, caffeine, it has an effect on the brain, like opiates do, and you're really withdrawing from a drug, and so that your body is detoxing, and that's why fasting is so hard for so many people, because they're just not in a good spot physically, so it's gonna be a rough road usually ahead, I say pray for heaven, but expect hell, or get your body prepared physically for the fast, yeah, and even just say, Lord, I'm weak here, I'm a wimp, I've had to confess it to the Lord in your prayers, Lord, I'm a food wimp, I'm disciplined in all these other areas by your grace, but I'm a wimp here, and I need your help, and even taking a baby step of skipping a meal, or a couple meals, and people say, well, I'm not addicted, I say, well, tell you what, go without this, whatever the dessert is, or your favorite treat, or go without it for a week, or for a month, and see if you're addicted or not, and if you are, ask yourself, should you be a slave to an unhealthy food as a follower of Jesus, does that make sense, Shane, what about, and you talk about this on the documentary, but what about your mental clarity, things that were happening to you physically, obviously you fasted first and foremost to honor the Lord, and it was a spiritual exercise above all, but a lot happened to you physically, we'll do more of this after the break, talk about this more, but how was your mental sharpness, what areas did you feel a change when you completely deprived yourself of food? Well, there's a lot of things that take place, and just to, not going into too much detail to confuse people, but they won a, there's a, I think he's from Japan, he won a Nobel Prize in 2016 for the discovery of autophagy, and that is where we, once we get past 24 hours or so of no food, your glycogen storage in your liver and muscles is getting depleted, now your body will begin to burn tumors, not non-cancerous maybe, tumors, or sometimes cancerous tumors, they'll burn these cells that are not healthy, your body, we are so well designed by our creator, that it now goes and it begins to repair the body, and so my joints started hurting more for a while because retracing was taking place, now there's no more energy, I don't know if you knew this, but 50% of our energy, of all of our energy goes to digesting food, 50%. If you can get rid of that, and now you've got, now your body can go and even improve joint, my joints had never felt better, bending over, touching my feet, and just moving, obviously the weight loss that was coming, my joints were feeling better, my mental clarity, I was sharper, reading, things were just coming to me better, and then the joints hurt for a while, but then they started to feel better, and that's because of retracing, your body usually retraces old injuries in order to repair them, and so it is a very deep healing process, and you know, this is where it's hard, physically speaking, you're not supposed to return, you're not supposed to start eating again until actual hunger returns, because you can really stop the healing process of the body, but spiritually speaking, we want to do it, you know, when God wants us to stop, and sometimes those align, and you do have to be careful, once you go past, I mean, five, six, seven days, you know, you want to make sure you don't have something called a refeeding syndrome, and I found out it takes more discipline, just as much discipline to end the fast as it does to begin the fast. That week after the fast, boy, that first week, everything, yeah.

All in all, I had 500, 600 calories that first day, and then, oh, man, yeah, you want to go for it. Yeah, we'll talk about that, and then come back, friends, to really emphasize what can happen when we give ourselves to fasting and prayer as a church, as a community, a lot of change will not happen without that. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I'm speaking with my friend, Pastor Shane Eidelman, about the power of fasting and what happens in the spiritual and physical journey when we fast. If you have a fasting-related question, give us a call, 866-34-TRUTH.

Shane, I remember when I did 21-day water fast, and my wife Nancy said, okay, so here's how you get off the fasting. So I remember the first night of eating, and I had just a little piece of fruit and a little fruit juice and maybe a little piece of toast with nothing on it. And I remember just the taste of the bread was like, whoa, this is amazing. And then after some days, she told me, okay, you can go out and get a salad. And at that time, Burger King had this little buffet, a salad buffet, and I remember I got it. I thought, this is unbelievable.

I can't believe the quality of this salad and the tastiness of the dressing. Some weeks later, I went back and it tasted like, I don't know, like paper. You know, it's like, okay, when I haven't eaten, right, it says in Proverbs to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. But it's the same thing with this reappreciation for all the tastes of food and everything like that, that spiritually, when we shut out other things, because obviously the goal is not to fast and then to watch TV 14 hours a day or to fast and binge on Netflix, right? I mean, that's that's obviously not the goal. The goal is a sense of separation. And it's something that if you can handle it physically, everyone can do while working a job, while busy at home with kids, while doing everything else that we do. As long as you can handle it physically, then you can separate yourself to fast in the midst of everything, because as we said, your whole life 24-7 then is separated to God, I'm here for you. God, I'm hungry for you.

I'm thirsty for you. Do you believe that we will see God's purposes for America or for the church in America come to pass without increased fasting? Boy, that's a good question.

And you know, I do get this question often, it might tie right in. People say, well, I don't have to fast. Well, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian either. But you're not going to operate effectively as a Christian. You don't have to, but these things, you're not going to know a deep, intimate relationship with the Lord without starving the flesh. And people do lust for food. That's why Paul said that God has become their belly.

I think it was Paul or Peter, that God has become their belly. And I think in America, we forget just how drawn we are to food and addiction. And so it's really about starving the flesh. And what happens, you know, in studying revival, like I know you have too, you're not going to find, I can think of any revival that started from just a preaching a sermon after a big breakfast.

You know, none of those things are bad. But it was time of travail and seeking God and starving the flesh and fasting, saying, Lord, we are so desperate, we need to hear from you. Even Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I think he was on a three or four day fast.

Evan Roberts and New Hebrides Revival, Duncan Campbell, and then the earlier Welsh revivals reading their journals. I have journals of Hal Harris, Griffin Jones, Daniel Rowlands, who, you know, I'm in a season of prayer and fasting this week, John Wesley, season of prayer and fasting this week, George Whitfield. And so we get these great movements of God.

Often fasting has been the catalyst and prayer, of course, prayer and fasting. But remember, it's not like, okay, look what I did, Lord, now you have to honor this. It's a cry of desperation. And God says, I hear that cry of that child. Oh, God, would you rend the heavens?

Would you come down and visit your people again? God, we are so desperate for you. It's really hard to make that connection when I'm always full. I mean, I just, I mean, I know this upsets people, but maybe it's conviction.

Maybe you should take it to the Lord. We're not designed to sit and eat all day long and have fellowship and always about feasting. There are moments of feasting and famine. And so I think it's about, really, if we're to be completely honest, the problem we have in our nation is food addiction.

It's what it is. It's food addiction. We are addicted to all the chemicals in the food, the sugar, the caffeine, this, and we just love it.

We love it, love it. So when I talk about fasting, oh, no, I don't want to do that. It's really the addiction that is really challenging a lot of people. And I would say out of a hundred people, if I have a group of a hundred people, I'm pretty sure 90 percent, 90 of those people could fast.

But the vast majority say, oh, no, I can't do that. I've got, you know, for years I said I've got hypoglycemia, borderline, I can't fast. Come to find out I was addicted to sugar. So once you correct that problem, and then most, I mean, all type 2 diabetes is health-related. It's diet-related.

It's lifestyle-related. So by fasting, and even with diet, you have to be careful, you know, you want to regulate the blood sugar levels and maybe intermittent fasting. But you can begin to reset the body the way it was designed. And so, yeah, to answer your question, of course we can't say, oh, unless we do this, God is not going to honor his word, because we know that's not true. People get prayers answered without fasting. God built the church without me fasting initially.

He opened up incredible doors, I'm sure the same in your life. But it isn't interesting that fasting is the only one that meets all four of those conditions in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people humble themselves. Fasting throughout the Old Testament was really, it was sackcloth, ashes, humility, desperation, judgment is coming, and it humbled themselves, pray, seek my face, not my hand, not what I can give you, but seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Fasting is tied into all of that. And so I just realized, and again, I'm just trying to be honest, if we're always filling ourselves with food, we're always gratifying the flesh, my body wants Starbucks, let me drive to Starbucks, my body wants Dunkin' Donuts, my body wants fast food. I don't think we stop and really say, how much am I listening to my flesh and being driven by my flesh instead of listening to the Spirit of God?

And I come as a fellow sojourner and struggler in this area. I was overweight when I was younger, it's always an issue for me, I've talked to you about that before. If I don't control it, it's gonna, like I talked about in the documentary, I know how epigenetics works and autophagy and apoptosis with the cellular division and calories and macronutrients and carbohydrates and fat and ketogenic and how much protein and how to really lose weight, and I was still 230 pounds when I should be like 180, 190. But just too many nuts, too many good things can also start to add on. So I think it's just being a steward, a good steward of this gift God has given us. I mean, I didn't wanna go, I didn't wanna be in ministry as much, I don't wanna go visit people at the hospital, I didn't wanna call people back if I'm always tired and sluggish and overweight. I think it really, really affects us at a very deep level that we don't realize until we step away, step back from it. And just being stewards over our body and denying ourself and taking up the cross, it's every area of life, and I can say firsthand that I am much healthier, much more vibrant, much more full of energy, much more clearheaded at 67 than I was at 59.

I mean, dramatically, night and day. And here, just this little incentive for folks. So I used to have probably about three headaches a week, not migraine, but bad enough that I would take Advil regularly, and as I'd be sitting, writing all night, I'd always have some Advil and make sure if I was flying I had it, because I'm getting headaches, pretty decent headaches, about three times a week. So that's over 1,000 a year, right? You say, when's the last time you had a headache like that?

Well, almost eight years ago. So you're talking about almost eight, no, probably more than 8,000 headaches that I haven't had by strictly going by this no dairy, no flour, no sugar, eating totally healthy, and then being very careful, because I know even with a good thing, like raw organic nuts, good to have a few of those a day, you can have too much. So that's it, I worked it out, okay, I eat this amount, and it's rationed out. And if I do it, I stay at an ideal weight.

If I indulge too much, it starts to go up. So it's very clear, but you feel alive, and again, I know there are people, you have serious sickness, illness, there's diet alone, it's not gonna change it, so our hearts go out to you, and you can love Jesus from a sick bed as much as from a healthy bed. We understand that, it's the heart that God is looking at. But we're in this body, and I'll tell you this, when I had COVID, and then it messed with my heart, and I was totally weak, I mean, to get up and go from the bed to the bathroom was an ordeal. To try to eat a meal, I didn't have the energy to digest even a few bites. I wasn't thinking about ministry. I wasn't thinking about how can I help Nancy, because she's sick too.

I wasn't thinking about what book can I write, or how can I minister to our listening audience. I was too weak. So if we are so physically weak ourselves, or weighed down, or addicted, or slowed down, mentally, physically, how can we really do everything God's called us to do, and be a blessing to others? Think about the others, being there for the others.

So this is so critically important, friends. I want to take a call, Shane, it's an important question, and I understand that you're not speaking as a medical doctor, we're not giving medical advice, but Paul in Richmond, Virginia, had a question. He said complications because of the COVID vaccine, and he was asking if fasting could help with that. So obviously, a medical doctor would need to probe all the issues, but what about intermittent fasting? Aren't there whole books written on the health-giving power of fasting by secular doctors? Yeah, and that's a good point, and again, I don't want to endorse, but I followed a lot of Alan Goldhamer, who put people on 40-day fasts, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, 40-day fast.

Dr. Daniel Pompa actually has a whole series of videos on repairing COVID from COVID vaccine and the disease from fasting. You look at Peter Attia, one of the foremost experts in this area of fasting, and they all attest to the fast. Doctors that know about how the body works all attest to the fact that fasting works.

Now, I don't know what the question would be about the vaccine, what type of issues is he having, and they've even found that, I believe it was Dr. Valter Longo, he's head of longevity at, I think it's USC here in Southern California, how fasting during chemotherapy can really just cut down the effects of chemotherapy, because what the body's doing, it doesn't have any more energy now for digestion, it could go into healing. So again, not being a medical professional, not knowing exactly what the situation is, I would say in nine times out of 10, fasting can help. When we talk about fasting, it's usually just water only, maybe a little bit of juice. The whole idea is to get rid of the nutrients. However, intermittent fasting that Dr. Brown just mentioned is also, it's a fad right now, but I think it's also biblical. I don't think we're supposed to eat five times a day, and whenever we want the food. intermittent fasting waits a good 15, 16, 17, 18 hours. I do that quite often. I did it yesterday.

I did it today. I wait about 19, 18, 19 hours before I eat. And that really, you don't have to take a nap, your glycogen storages are down, you go into tophagy quicker, growth hormone is elevated, testosterone is elevated. So I would say yes as a person to benefit from fasting. Dr. Steven Fauci.

Generally speaking, so many benefits. All right. We're going to come back. There's an interesting question from a caller.

How come fasting brings more pressure and issues in his life? So we'll tackle that when we come back. Stay right here. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance.

You can't resist us. This is how we rise up. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I was just looking at an email from my friend, Dr. Mark Stangler, right before the broadcast. Another encouragement to healthy living and to use some of the great health supplements that they have. Go to vitaminmission.com. Dr. Stangler is the sponsor of this broadcast. So as you get some great products for yourself, you get a special discount and along the way, Dr. Stangler then turns around and makes a donation back to us to help us reach more and more people. Remember, if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, we have a link to the 17-minute documentary about the power of fasting and prayer joined together and the physical benefits of fasting by Pastor Shane Eidelman.

Be sure to watch that video. Shane, what do you say to someone who says, wow, when I fast, it seems it stirs up more opposition and trouble for me. What do you make of that?

What would you say to that person? Wow. Well, absolutely. And I believe that because it's a spiritual discipline and because you're going for spiritual results and you're trying to draw closer to the Lord, the enemy is going to do, you know, whatever he can to sidetrack you. And I told my wife, my associate pastor, Pastor Abram, we were talking, I think, I don't know, when I was almost 40 days in. And I said, I just had to get to the point in my mind that life is going to be challenging. But I'm doing this. I've got to do it. So whether the kids, because that used to be my excuse, all these, the kids are acting up. I've got all these issues at church.

I've got to lead the ministry, lead the church, lead a radio network. I can't fast. I can't fast.

I can't fast. So I had excuses for everything. And then the enemy would bring up things, obviously, you know, contention, division.

This is happening. So the power of the made up mind and saying, OK, I know this demonic opposition is real. And especially when it comes in, when you're going to commit to prayer and fasting, I would, I pray for heaven, but you got to expect that there's going to be a lot of turmoil. And what's ironic is we haven't, you know, you'll probably see later on YouTube or Facebook, a lot of the comments come in that they're usually from people who don't know anything about fasting. They've never experienced fasting. They've just they've just read certain things.

And they really don't have any grounding on science and how fasting really does affect the body and can really help disease in a big way. So that was just more of a side note. But yes, with the spiritual realm is being shaken up. And I think it was Arthur Wallace again, who said pressure has to be applied off into the spiritual realm before there is breakthrough. How many times how many times have you experienced that? Oh, I just pray for an hour.

Hey, my problem is fixed. Often it's it's it's pressing in. It's pressing in. Lord, I blew it a couple of times. You know, I talk about the documentary where I just grabbed some nuts and said, oh, you know, oh, well, you know, and then I got back on track.

And just just constantly pressing and constantly persevering. And at the end of it, I lost about thirty seven pounds. And I know it's not about the weight, but it's a nice benefit from the spiritual. Because if it's going to benefit you spiritually, it's also going to benefit you physically. I don't know of anywhere where God's going to tell you to do something that's really harmful for your body. And it's usually very good spiritually and very good physically as well.

Yeah. And my friends, don't be intimidated by the fact that Pastor Shane has done a 40 day fast, primarily water, the 21 day water fast. And I've prayed much about, Lord, are you telling me to do that 40 day fast? Just because 40 is mentioned in the Bible with Moses on Sinai, supernaturally sustained by God, of course, then Elijah going, but fed once by an angel and then going on the strength of that 40 days in Jesus, 40 days. So I've asked the Lord about that and have to sort out being thin now, kind of at an ideal weight. So how does that work? But I'm sure Jesus was not obese when he went to fast.

So I give that back to the Lord. But either way, don't be intimidated by those numbers. Again, if you've never fasted, skip a meal or go 24 hours. Take the steps you can, and then you're really fine. Okay, wow, I am struggling here.

Why? I'm more addicted to food than I realized, because if you're feeding an addiction every day, you don't realize how addicted you are until you can't feed it. But ultimately, I know what's driven me is I have to break through, and nothing else is working. And the ultimate expression that I can give to God, saying, God, I'm saying no to everything else, even these essential things, because I have to have you, because I have to have the breakthrough, because I've got to see this answer, because your glory is at stake, your name is at stake, people's lives are at stake. And that's ultimately what pushes many of us to get into that place of discomfort, to separate ourselves from the things that we love so much in this world, food, et cetera. And that's what's going to drive us more than anything. Thank God for the physical benefits, but it's that spiritual drive.

Share from your heart your passion. What makes your heart beat before the Lord? Why you get up and have early morning prayer? Why folks are gathering early in the morning in your church and seeking God?

What's making you tick? I think what the church is experiencing is a massive wake-up call. We see that things are not going in a good direction.

We see from the violence and political spectrums, and even in my area, we have Drag Queen Day at the library for kids, and pushing sexual perversion and some of the assembly bills here in California. And it's just out of that desperation, saying, you know, enough is enough. We're going to have to seek God like never before, get back on that old path. And I believe that God honors that. If you seek him, you will find him.

He draws near to those who draw near to him. If you cry out to God, he will hear you. And there's a desperation, and that's where, for me, fasting tied in. And I'm glad you said that, because it's not for everyone, and it doesn't mean unless you fast, you're not spiritual. It doesn't mean unless you fast, God's not going to answer prayers.

We know that, but there's a deeper intimacy that happens during seasons of prayer and fasting. Even if it's try missing two meals a day, you're going to feel that. And I think, you know, I think a three or four day, five day fast is almost as challenging as what I did, because that's the hardest part. You know, once you get through that first week, now I've got a lot of momentum.

Now I'm like, okay, I can do this. And so you can't minimize God isn't, you know, looking at us as, okay, you've got to do two days or three days or four. It's really not, I don't, it's hard to explain that, because there's a lot of negative analyses out there when it comes to fasting and critical people and judgmental juries, and they just, they just are convicted.

They don't want to address this issue. But it's about, I need to hear from God. I must hear from God. So now we have prayer meetings and worship meetings a couple hours before our services on Sunday.

Wednesday nights are structured for that. It's a desperation, it's a calling out to God, because extreme, the best way to word it is we are living in extremely difficult times. It's going to require a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare, like most people are not familiar with. And desperate times call for desperate majors.

And that's really my heart behind it. Yeah, as you were saying those words, that's exactly what I was thinking, the extreme times in which we live call for things that seem extreme to the flesh. But look, even in my own life, as I've incorporated prayer retreats into my life more than ever before. I was talking to Nancy, I'd gone away for eight days, you say, oh, so you do all that plus vacation? No, it was instead of vacation, and just one way to get alone with the Lord.

And I came back and I hadn't been in a situation that many days just alone seeking His face in years. And I said to Nancy, I think I need to do this like a weekend, a quarter. And then when I'm home, I'm not traveling, just not leave the prayer room until I break through on a Saturday. And she said, no, no, you need to do this monthly, not quarterly.

I said, you're right. So I cut back from travel that also cuts back on potential ministry income that I get when I'm out and funds donate to our ministry. And so I spend basically once a month, a weekend, Friday night, all day Saturday, Sunday, just seeking the face of God.

And I'll do that with my normal salads and stuff. But the point is, I realized, okay, I'm 67, there's things I want to see happen. I'm deeply burdened to see happen, but they haven't happened yet. I've got to up pressing into God and I've got to become more like Jesus than I've ever been.

And that's not just going to happen. So Shane, your example has been wonderful because you're seeking to live what you preach. You're honest, you're not condemning others, you're encouraging others to come along. And your articles, your recent one on God looking for prophets not puppets, you're really you're nailing things with the heart of God. And I know that praying and fasting now built in that this is part of who you are in God and it's helping you get a message out. God's honoring that to more and more people. You know, this is very interesting, you'll agree and you'll probably realize this before too, but the more time I spend with God, especially during this season, sometimes I can even cry thinking about it, is the bolder I become.

Is that interesting? Oh you're too bold, I know you get the same thing. But the more time I spend with God, the more bolder I become about what's going on. Now I'm filled with love and grace and mercy and joy and the fruit of the Spirit, you know, sometimes it's not always perfect, but there's a boldness that rises up. So when you read that article that was published that week or so, those come from the prayer closet and so if we have to name names now and then or talk about situations, it's not out of a spirit of disunity, it's out of just a heart broken for the condition of our nation. So boldness is going to come directly from the prayer closet and we see our gun safes are full in America but our prayer closets are empty and that needs to be reversed.

I'm not against any of that, I used to shoot trap all the time and a country boy really, at heart. But you know, we've got all this push for these things that are political, the elections, which we have to be involved, but my concern is the foundation of godliness isn't being built. When you build the foundation of prayer and fasting and humility and gentleness and then you come out in the fullness of the Spirit, that's when you can go protest an event, that's when you can make a difference in your community, that's when you can get involved in the political arena more so because now it's coming out of the fullness of the Spirit and where is God directing you versus angry, bombastic tirades and things like that that really aren't too beneficial.

And I'm guilty of that, it's hard to love your country, love your God-given freedoms, love your children, love your church and see what the enemy is doing and not get a little worked up. But we'll turn that working up, we'll turn it into fasting and we'll turn it into prayer and the nation will be shaking. Shane, what's the website again where folks can go? Well the books are at westsidechristianfellowship.org or they can go to my website shaneidenty.com for all the other things. Alright friends, let's do it, let's go for it, let's see what God will do.