Power to Heal

We have a 3 year dog, Scooby, who occasionally will refuse to eat.  The first time he went about 24 hours without eating I was quite concerned that something awful was wrong.  After doing some research, I learned that it is common for animals to refrain from eating from time to time while they seek to rest or to restore health to their bodies.  Fasting is something animals know to do but how common is fasting for people?

Fasting is a powerful tool for healing. Herbert Shelton, the physician who supervised the fasts of over 40,000 people wrote, "Fasting must be recognized as a fundamental and radical process that is older than any other mode of caring for the sick..." Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Galen all praised the benefits of fasting.  Paracelsus, one of the 3 Fathers of Western medicine, is quoted saying, "Fasting is the greatest remedy - the physician within."

No amount of surgery, prescription drugs, or medical procedures will cure a body that isn't physically and spiritually directed toward healing. Fasting is an amazing way to unite our physical bodies with our mental and spiritual beings into a focused purposed with clarity of mind.

Physical Benefits of Fasting

• Supports healthy energy levels.
• It breaks addiction to junk food, drinking and smoking.
• Supports the body's detoxification system.
• Promotes healthy energy and weight loss.
• Supports healthy aging, healthy skin and glowing complexion.
• Supports healthy immune system function.
• Reduces stress and promotes sound sleep
• Supports healthy inflammation response and promotes join comfort.
• Promotes healthy memory, focus and concentration.

Some have called fasting the "miracle cure" because of the many physical conditions that improve following a fast.  Conditions such as allergies, arthritis, digestive disorders of all kinds, skin conditions, cardiovascular disease and asthma. Any ailment may show improvement because fasting initiate the body's won healing mechanisms.

With the Standard American Diet (SAD), we typically consume food from 6 a.m. in the morning till 10 p.m. at night. This requires our digestive system to work 16 hours and only allowing for 8 hours for it to detoxify & rest. Think of it this way: What if someone gave you a huge load of work to do, perhaps 3 times what you normally accomplish within an 8 hour day.  You would be extremely stressed and probably would only focus on the absolute “MUST” items and let the rest go undone.  This is what is happening to our digestive system when we consume food for 16 hours.  The digestive system can’t do the best job it could do, it’s stressing just to get what has to be done.  With fasting, we can hone in on a host of benefits that help our bodies heal and repair itself.

Outside of the many physical benefits for fasting, there are both emotional and spiritual benefits too. Fasting can provide breakthroughs in areas of your life that nothing else can bring and to open doors that cannot be opened by anything else. 

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?... Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you…” Isaiah 58:6,8

Spiritual Benefits of Fasting

• It can bring you closer to God.
• It can make you more sensitive to God’s voice
• It helps breaks addictions
• It shows us our weakness and allows us to rely on God’s strength

Emotional benefits of Fasting:

• It helps support healthy emotions
• It clears your mind of negative thoughts
• it can bring peace

Moses, Esther, David, Daniel, Paul, and Jesus are among some of the people noted in the Bible for having fasted for a variety of reasons. They fasted for safety, for wisdom, for repentance, and to receive answered prayers. In Matthew 17, the disciples were distraught because they weren’t able to cure a man possessed; they asked Jesus why weren’t they able to.” And Jesus said unto them:

 ‘Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.  Howbeit this kind [of faith] goes not out but by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:20-21

The first time I fasted was about 4 years ago. My marriage was in major trouble; the sort of trouble that now days, normally ends in divorce. I hit my knees and poured out my heart to God, confessed my sins and pleaded with God to intervene and restore my marriage. I fasted on only liquids for 3 days. I firmly believe this is what super-boosted the healing that took place between my husband and I.  Today, our marriage is richer, sweeter and beyond what I ever imagined. God showed up in a mighty way! 

Through fasting, God can help you:

• Create new, healthy patterns and disciplines in every sphere of your life.
• Break addictions, sinful habits, and unhealthy cycles that have held you from fulfilling your destiny.
• Go to a whole new level in your relationship with God.
• Experience powerful new dimensions of prayer and Bible study.
• See prayers answered and dreams fulfilled that you have nearly given up on.
• Step into the next season of His purpose for your life.

My husband, my 13 year son, and myself just completed a 10 day fast today.  It was amazing spiritually, physically and emotionally.  We followed the fast that is outlined in Jordan Rubin’s “The Maker’s Diet Transformation”. This 10 day fast involves a prayer journal which walks you through powerful scripture, devotion & prayer 3 times a day just like Daniel in the Bible. The fast allows for raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds to be eaten 3 times within a 6 hour time period followed by 18 hrs of fasting each day.  My husband lost 10 lbs, my son lost 8 lbs and I lost 7 lbs. I have a renewed confidence in the huge benefits found in fasting.

Jordan Rubin also expresses that this type of eating shouldn’t be done now and then, but that regular fasting allows for continual healing and benefits past the 10 days.  He recommends doing a “Cleanse Day Wednesday” every week.  This is where you go without food (only water and raw juicing) from 6pm on Tuesday to 6pm Wednesday.  Once a month, we should do a 3 day fast - only water and raw juicing for 3 days.  The 10 day Daniel fast should be done once every 3 months. 

If you are considering doing a fast or would like to know about the fast that we just did, download this document to get more information.  I want to encourage you to consider using this forgotten tool for powerful healing whether you are facing an illness, chronic condition, emotional stress or spiritual stagnation.  Be prepared to be healed.