Редактор субтитров А. Синецкая Корректор А. Кулакова Greetings to the worldwide audience of the manifest telecast. That looks like a leaf is coming in my cup, don't I? I'm going to move that right there. Let me just say something to you. This is going to be a very unique teaching because I'm going to be dealing with a subject that probably you know a little bit about, but I'm going to give you some additional details on the just this invisible power that's behind fasting, this supernatural power and ability and clarity that comes to your life when you begin to set aside seasons of fasting. We're going to talk about some of the Jewish fast cycles.

We're going to talk about, we're just going to go through a lot of things.

Let's get started right here because I believe the church has lost this ability to do this.

Now I do understand something.

Let me say this up front that there are people that have medical issues that you have to

use wisdom if you do this and sometimes doctor supervision of things because you take medicine that you have to take with food. So I do understand that but people who can fast people that are able to do so this is a very important part of your life. Now we'll say up front that if you take the actual Hebrew word fast it means to close the mouth and it actually means no food whatsoever. Now most of the time when a person does fast, and I'm really getting ahead of myself here, but most of the time when a person does fast, the normal thing to do is drink water. And I had a mentor of mine, Dr. T. L. Lowry, and I really am unsure how many fort-day fast he went on. I know of one, but it may have been two, and I actually think he may have actually done a 21-day fast. Now, when they asked him to, now, here was a man who was a great evangelist in his day running crowds of 3,000 to 5,000, 6,000 people under his big tent. He was a good friend with some of the noted ministers of his day that had tents as well. And then he ended up coming off the field and taking a church from about 200, 300 people up to way over a thousand and built a building for that church. And then he moved to Washington DC where he started a church with about 30 people built a great church. So here's a man that literally saw and people who sat under his ministry saw miracles take place and it was because of fasting and praying. And the thing that I want to tell you which is very interesting is, one time he was elected to a position in the Church of God denomination here in Cleveland, Tennessee. And one of the members of the Executive Committee, those are men that are voted in by the ordained ministers of the nomination, asking, why do you fast so much? Now, here's a man that's seen all this. And he says, because there's a place in God that I haven't found yet. And so what happens to you in the process of fasting is sometimes you may fast out of necessity. Sometimes you may fast because you have a burden that you need to fast to get a prayer answered. Sometimes you will fast because you say to yourself, I just need to get closer to God. So it is your spiritual hunger or the necessity of of a prayer needing to be answered that will oftentimes lead you into a fast. Now, I'm gonna share something with you and I did this way back on a teaching, but I wanna share it with you again. Dr. Lowry from time to time would go on a fast in which he wouldn't preach a lot during a fast but he would preach occasionally. So one time he came to Leeds, Alabama and it was actually the church of a friend of mine named Victor Massey when we're still friends, very close friends and brother Larry had been fasting and I noticed something he preached and he wouldn't preach long he preached 10 or 15 minutes and pray with people that that would be over great great service by the way, but after service he asked for a cup of ice and What he would do instead of just drinking water during the day? He would take a cup of ice and he would crunch on a cup of ice and not just drink water, but the ice and so really what was Happening and I found this out later, is that by drinking water, that's fine, but when you crunch on ice, you almost trick the brain into thinking you're eating something when you're eating nothing. And it helps take that a little, you know, and he told me one time, he said, you know, once you go three days and you get the hunger pains out of the way, you can actually go up to 21 days and then those hunger pains start returning,

but once you pass day 22 or 23, unless you just make yourself eat, you actually can lose your appetite up to the 40th day. Then it's very dangerous for anybody to go over 40 days. Now I don't know a lot of people that have ever done that because 40 is the limit in the Bible. And I think we need to stick with the scripture teaches. Moses went on a 40 day fast. Elijah was a 40 day fast. Jesus was a 40 day fast.

So you have those three men. And I think we need to stick with what the scripture teaches. Moses went on a 40 day fast.

Elijah was a 40 day fast. Jesus was a 40 day fast. So you have those three men. Now I want to go to a verse in the scripture, Matthew 17, 19 to 21. I want to read this to you and then we're going to go to the Hebrew types of fast. The disciples came to Jesus apart and said, why could we not be cast him out? This was a demon and a young boy. couldn't cast it out. Jesus said to him, because of your unbelief, for very

I say to you, if you have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, remove hints to your under place and it shall remove and nothing shall be made impossible to you. Have be it this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting. Now when he said this kind does not go out. He could have referred to the unbelief, the level of unbelief, this kind of unbelief is not gonna leave you till you fast and pray. It also can refer to the type of spirit, which is a very strong spirit does not leave after prayer and fasting. Now the reason I think it could refer to the first is because Jesus had given them power to cast out devils and heal the sick. So they already had that authority. So the unbelief was the hindrance. So what fasting does, it gives you a level of spiritual authority that your faith is increased to believe that when you pray, things are really going to happen. Fasting is not one of those things that just moves God, it makes him greater because you have fasted. But fasting is for it to impact your thinking, your soul and your spirit. And it's just a wonderful thing. It's also very healthy. Doctors are now discovering that occasional fast are very good. Now I want to give you a little bit of my story before we get into just some of the Hebrew fasts that you might be interested in. When I was called to minister at age 16, I really was called to preach and preach my first message at my dad's church. And then when I turned 17 on my birthday, I went to my granddad's church in Gorman, Maryland,

preached for a Saturday and Sunday. I actually went up there a couple times. But I lived what was called a fasted life. Now, what do I mean by that? I got to the point, and I was still in high school, by the way, that I would just not eat much because I really felt like I wanted to be very, very close to the Lord.

So I often didn't eat during the day if I did a very little.

Sometimes I would eat with, you know, but when I started evangelizing at age 18, I would spend a lot of time in fasting. Now my wife said to me after we were married. She said, Perry, I believe that the reason God blessed you with long revivals and he still does after we were married is because you dedicated yourself to years and years of nothing but fasting and praying and studying the word of God. I preached a revival at a little church in Montcombe, West Virginia. Now Polly Blair was the pastor and her husband and when I was there I would stay in the bedroom. We didn't have hotels back then to stay in and most most of the rural churches couldn't afford to put you in a hotel. So you stayed with the pastor in his home or sometimes with members in the basement or the attic. I stayed everywhere, trust me. And I would not eat a lot in fact. Polly Blair said to my dad, she says, when Perry was with us for three weeks, I literally can hardly remember him eating anything the entire time I was at it. Now I I did, but back in that day I just didn't feel like I felt like if I ate food that it may hinder the flow of the spirit. Now that's not necessarily a proper way to think, but food can be a hindrance and so maybe it maybe it is a proper way to think. Well what began to happen is our revivals will continue an average of three weeks every night. It wasn't a Sunday through a Wednesday or a Friday Saturday in Sunday. It was every night and they would last up to 11 weeks. In the fall at Tennessee, I preached one revival that lasted 11 weeks, we had one night off because of weather. So we start seeing literally and I know for, you know, when I was in 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28 years of age We would see hundreds of people in a town converted to the Lord a lot of young people Many hundreds filled with the Holy Spirit But when I would come back to Cleveland, Tennessee, and I would tell people the revival we had Some people didn't believe it some even some ministers didn't believe They said, I just don't think that many people get safe today. But we saw it. There were churches that took in 100 members, 200 members, 250 members, you know, 30 members, 40 members. And so I created that to, first of all, the call of God to do what I do, obeying his voice. I also believe that separating yourself to God through consistent prayer, consistent fasting is the key to seeing great results, whether you're a pastor of a local church. And sometimes I'm just going to be honest with you, some things don't really break to your fast. Now, my dad was very, I don't know that my dad ever went on a very, very long fast, like 21 or 40 days he never did to my knowledge. But dad was, had believed that a 72 hour fast, I've just watered with no food would be very effective. So when he needed, for example, his father who, long story years and years ago, had a nervous and was controlled by spirits. My dad went to see his father, my grandfather, and he fasted three straight days, and after three complete days, a 72 hour fast, dad prayed for his father and his father was completely delivered. So my dad understood the power of a, what we would call a 72 hour fast. Now one of the early word of faith men that I knew was Kenneth Hagen. Brother Hagen also knew the significance of what we'd call a three day, 72 hour fast because those fast, most people can do those. And again, depending on your health, but the Bible even says that fasting can restore your health. So we can't underestimate the power of it. But if you're on like medication or things of that nature, I always tell people to use wisdom and get the advice on doing this. But for those of you who can, sometimes there's three days of water, you don't tell anybody you're fasting and you don't spend it sitting around watching TV programs. You spend it in prayer. And you might be surprised the results that you'll get from those fast. Now let me go back to this because I told you I would tell you. There are national fasts that the Jewish people have and in fact let me go back to my notes here because I want to be sure I got these right. The national fasts they are the time when the nation of Israel actually fasts together and they usually commemorate a national tragedy. There are different dates and as you know you can I can give you the date but it may be a different month every year because their calendar is different. There is the fast of the firstborn which is done the day before Passover on Nissan the 13th. There is the fast of Thamus which is the day that Nebuchadnezzar tore down Jerusalem's wall. That's on the 17th of Thamus. Now these months of Nissan and Thamus again may fall in different months like they could fall in May or June. They could fall in, I'm sorry, March or April, they could fall in August or September depending on the camp, but the month, But the Jewish month is always the same. There's the fast of the 9th of Av, which happens on the 9th of Av, the month of Av, and it commemorates the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians and also the Roman destruction in the year 70. There is a fast on Yom Kippur, on the day of Atomot, devout Jews will fast the entire day, and it's always on the 10th of Tishray. That's when the 6th Moadim or the 6th Apointed time that Israel honors every year is definitely Yom Kipper which is the David Atomant. Then there's also something called the Fast of Esther which is on the day before Purim which is the celebration of how she gained victory over Haman and she spared the Jews in 127 provinces. And that's also found in the book of Esther. But that particular fast, which is called the Fast of Esther, it takes place on the 13th of Adar, which is again a celebration connected to Queen Esther. Now there's two others that deal with that dealt that deal with national fast times. One is on the 9th of Av again, Cartichebeov, which again is the destruction of the temple and Yom Kippur. Now remember these two are considered to be national times when not just you families fast or about but people should fast to commemorate those times. When you come into the New Testament, it's a little bit different because the Pharisees were known for their fasting. And of course they had a lot of traditions connected, but the Pharisees fasted two times a week, according to Luke 18 and 12. They fasted on the second day of the week and also the fifth day of the week, which was in that day a Monday and a Tuesday. Now the thing about the Pharisees fast is this, they wanted people to know they were fasting. They literally would darken their face and make themselves look like they've been up all. I probably had the shovel to hear. Trying to make them look real spiritual. Now the one thing Jesus said about fasting is,

you know, sometimes you don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. In other words, you don't necessarily, let me, let me stop and say this, let's not be misunderstood. There are called fast, you know, none of a call to fast for the entire town. There are times the church calls to fast for someone to be healed or a miracle that someone needs. So that is in order. That's called a corporate fast.

But when you fasting as an individual, Jesus made it clear to just just don't make it look like you're fasting. Now I'm going to read the verse to you that talks about this. Here it comes. It's going to come up on your screen as well. Moreover, when you fast, now he didn't say he didn't say if you fast, but he said when you fast, don't be as the hypocrites of the sad countenance for that is figured their faces that they may appear

and demand a fast. Verily I say to you they have their reward. So really he's saying here their fasting is not even going to be effective. It's going to be in vain because they're doing it to be seen. Okay, but you when you fast anoint your head and this is important here's the fun, anoint your head, wash your face, that you appear not to mend a fast, but to the life, Father, which is in secret, that your Father, which is in secret, shall reward you openly. So basically he's saying this, when you go on a fast, if it's gonna be, you know, one day fast, most people wouldn't even know you were a fasting, they were just thinking you were skipping a meal for some reason. But when you're on a fast, if it's gonna be, you know, one day fast, most people wouldn't even know you're a fast

and they were just thinking you were skipping a meal

for some reason.

But when you're on a fast, don't do things like, oh, go to work and say, oh, I don't have any strength. I'm not eating because I'm trying to get close to God. Just keep it to yourself. And they're probably gonna know you're not eating, would just say, well, I'm just abstaining for a period of time.

It's all you need to say.

Then he says, don't do it for a show.

Don't walk around a prince around.

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