Exploring the Spiritual Significance and Transformative Power of Fasting

0:00 Fasting attracts divine visitation. In this most extreme case, cornelius, he saw an angel, but he said I was fasting. When you fast, it's like your spirit man is a giant satellite dish and you fast and now you buff it real good and wax it and move all the debris off and you're more sensitive to the spiritual realm. Who wouldn't want that? Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyccom.

0:41 That's citylightnyccom. Pastor Boyan Jansic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. We have this 21 days of prayer and fasting coming up in January, which means that I have to minister on fasting. But the only time I can teach on fasting is right now, during Christmas, which really doesn't seem to fit right, because it's Christmas and you're all getting ready to do irreparable damage to your bodies over the next 20 days.

1:36 I'm kidding, lord, I'm kidding, you know I'm kidding, and it's not exactly everybody's favorite message. I'm putting your flesh under, but I want to minister on that because we're gonna need it and we all need to be on the same page, because 21 days of prayer and fasting is coming from January one. We're starting right then on Monday, january the first, and going for 21 days, and so we need to be on the same page and talk about what fasting is, what it isn't, and so that all of your questions on fasting can be answered. Maybe you didn't have any questions on fasting because you never thought of it.

2:16 Well, now some questions might arise and you can email us and we'll be sure to get back to you. But Jesus, he said when you fast, not if you fast. Yeah, he started his lesson with when you fast, meaning that he was assuming you would, and Jesus himself fasted for 40 days, which he's our example. So if the son of the living God went on a fast immediately after his baptism and his anointing, still he went on a fast. How much more should we? And he went on a 40 day fast. We're not gonna do 40 days and it's up to you how long you fast. That's between you and the Lord. We'll be praying and fasting for 21 days.

2:57 Whether you fast for one day or three days, or seven days or 10 days or the full 21, just make it fit. So we're all in unity and doing it at the same time. Make your block fit in that 21 days. Interesting to note, there's two other heroes of the Bible who fasted for 40 days. That's Moses and Elijah. And when Jesus experienced the transfiguration, when the glory that was within him began to manifest outside of him, the two people that met him on that mountaintop or guess who Moses and Elijah it was like the 40 day fasting club met during the transfiguration, hallelujah.

3:39 So fasting is so powerful. I'm gonna give you five things that fasting will do for you, five benefits to fasting. Please note that fasting is not a hunger strike. It is not us trying to change God by showing him how we really, really mean it and how serious we are and how we're willing to deny ourselves food because that's how badly we want this thing that he's holding back from us. It's not. Fasting does not change God. God is good whether we fast or not, god loves you. Whether you fast or not, he's a fountain of gifts. He doesn't need change, he doesn't need convincing. We're the ones who change during a fast.

4:19 So fasting changes us. It doesn't change God. And I said fasting is in a hunger strike because I've so often seen it presented in that spirit, in that attitude, like I'm going on strike, god, until you give me what I really really need and I'm not gonna eat until you get me my breakthrough. And it's not that it's just gonna change us, amen. And also, you'll be tempted come January 1 to say yes, I'm gonna fast because you want to lose those five to 10, fifth vanity pounds. And I encourage you do not, do not fast to lose weight. In fact, if you fast just to lose weight, I pray that the Lord will come and stick it. Right now. I'm kidding, look at him. How come all the ladies just win?

5:01 No, don't take that away. Ha ha ha. But we have to have our motives, pure Amen. Sure, you're gonna lose weight. That shouldn't be your motive. Here's five things that fasting will do for you. Are you ready? Matthew 17 in verse 15, we're gonna read 15 through 21. Number one fasting purifies. It purifies your faith, lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?

5:44 How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me". And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said why could we not cast it out? And Jesus said to them because of your unbelief, everything you'll ever receive from the Lord is by faith, from your salvation to healing, to just really the daily satisfaction you will get out of life every day. It's something we all need to trust him for, just to be contented every single day. I gotta receive that by faith every day.

6:26 I gotta stand on the word that says he satisfies my mouth with good things. You receive that by faith. But it is possible to be in a place where, along with that faith, there's also some doubt and unbelief mixed in some confusion, that little voice in the back of your mind that's telling you the opposite of the truth of God's word. Anybody ever hear that voice Fasting shuts that voice up. Jesus said you couldn't get the job done like I could because of your unbelief. A lot of us, myself included, I like that man who came to Jesus. Jesus said to him all things are possible to him who believes.

7:09 And the man said Lord, I believe, please help my unbelief. Well, which one is it? Yes, it's both, I believe, and at the same time, while I believe, there's these inner mumblings and mental ramblings and I'm up one day, down the next and I don't know. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief, you'll see. We'll keep reading what the cure, or at least one of them, is. Because of your unbelief, jesus said. For surely, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

7:54 However, this kind now specifically here he was talking about a particular spirit, a particular demon. This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. But it's not a stretch to realize that this can imply to every area of our life that Jesus said your problem is unbelief. You should have added fasting to your praying, because fasting will purify your faith and it'll shut down that nagging voice. How many of you who fasted you can say amen. I have actually lived this. I've experienced just that a cleansing of the faith, amen. My first 40 day fast. It was year one of city light and we had initially started in the ballroom on 53rd and 3rd in Midtown Manhattan and then we wanted to get 7th Street.

8:44 Remember beautiful 7th Street? For 17 and a half years we had 7th Street, a small little place in the East Village, and out of that small little place was birthed all the missions endeavors we have around the world. This church was birthed out of 7th Street. The Brooklyn church was birthed out of 7th Street. Everything we ever did came out of 7th Street. I just wanted that place, but it was a building that was over 100 years old and I needed a certificate of occupancy, a COO, and I had to come up with it. I'm 26 years old, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm in the middle of a 40 day fast and somehow I find out I need to go to the Department of Buildings. I ended up in Jamaica, queens, at the Department of Buildings. And have you ever been to a bureaucratic institution in New York City.

9:27 It's so imagine I'm already intimidated as it is and I come into the Department of Buildings and it is just wild. Shoulder to shoulder. It actually looked like the stock market pit. You know the pit at Walgreens everybody's shouting, waving their hairs. It looked like a Bosnian flea market. I'm going, what do I do? And I see a woman behind a counter and in that moment I'm like I just knew that she was saved. She may not have been, but I knew at least that she would be on my side if she knew I was.

10:12 You know what I'm doing. It's like the Lord. Just, I'm looking at everybody and I'm like this is your woman. He says to me. So I go right up to her and I pull out the pastor card, I go right up to her. I'm like I'm a pastor, I need something called a COO or we cannot get this building everybody's. I've been going around in circles for weeks now, how do I get this thing? And she looked at me, she went and she disappeared. It was like 15 minutes. I'm like I think she forgot about me. She came back with a document and it said there is no existing COO because it's a building from the 1880s, but it was a document that said whatever we wanted we could do in there.

10:54 And I walked out going, hey, hallelujah. But I went in there strong and I went in there with my faith unclogged. Very rarely are we operating on 100%, pure, high octane, unadulterated faith. Am I right? Or am I right? There's usually just these little grains that the enemy throws in, grains of unbelief and doubt, and that stuff will snuff out the power of God. Jesus said it right here. He said because of your unbelief, you were listening to the little nagging voice more than you worded the truth of my word Fasting is a cure for that. Amen. If it was just that, it'd be enough for me, hallelujah.

11:37 Let's go to Daniel, chapter 10, verses two through three. In those days, in those days I, daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food. Maybe the Lord came and just poured out his spirit in the beginning of the service so you'd be able to stomach what I'm about to share right now. It didn't go over too well in the first service and it was just like a side note and the air sucked right out of the room. So this isn't my point for number two. But I do just want to point this out that how many of you've heard of a Daniel fast? Right, no sweets, no meats, eat a salad.

12:20 This is why I married Emily. I'm so proud of her. She's been on a Daniel fast for the last 20 years. What a woman of God. I just want to let you know. I must say this also, just deviating from the message everything is fine between my wife. She's not here. Her father was in a play in Pennsylvania and she took my kids and Our kids. Excuse me, see, I let it out no, our kids no, cuz I'm sorry. I went into somebody after the first service, the folks from Virginia. Somebody came up to me very concerned and said is everything all right? Pastor, I noticed your wife's not here and you have a scar on the side here.

13:02 So I looked at her very serious and said it's not all right. She cracked me over the head with a bottle and left. I Didn't say that to her, but that's. I said yeah, every everything is fine. The scar is a basil cell I had removed two weeks ago and everything's fine with that too. But I don't even think I'm mentioning this stuff. Then you realize where some people's minds go. That's really not an NYC thing. I'm never. None of you, all of you. You've seen the scar. Nobody even thought to ask that he'll be all right. I'm sure it's fine. It's that which is cool. You're cool, I'm cool, it's great. Now, where? Where was I with my message?

13:44 Somebody help me. Daniel fast, I thought of my wife, cuz. All right, in Christianity, learn to question everything. Somehow we have just accepted this norm of a Daniel fast because so-and-so wrote a book about it and then three other so-and-so's quoted it. And A Daniel fast is supposedly a fast where you can eat all you want, but you're eating lettuce and chomping on carrots and having broccoli and it's no sweets, no meats. Yet it never says that that's a Daniel fast and most theologians agree that the Daniel fast was a full fast. In fact, the very word fast means to close the mouth, amen.

14:26 But in America especially, you're not gonna find the Daniel fast in other parts. But is there Daniel fast in South Korea? They, you know what they got to stop reading American authors. We always want to make things easy. Daniel says I ate no pleasant food. You know what kind of food is pleasant food? All food. He just said I ate no pleasant food. No meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all. That's all that said. How you get that. You can eat as many salads as you want from that, I have no idea. But sometimes we just accept these things without ever questioning them. I Ate no pleasant food.

15:06 No meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. He went on a fast for three weeks. This is during the Babylonian captivity. The Jews were taken captive, taken a Babylon, and Daniel is Praying for breakthrough, but not just praying. He's fasting for breakthrough. And on the 21st day the angel of the Lord comes and says from the first Moment you set your face to see God, I was sent. You know, the moment you pray, the answer is released. But he said there was war in the heavenlies and I had resistance in the spiritual realms. But you were praying, you were standing on God's word and you were fasting.

15:49 And on the 21st day I got the breakthrough Amen. Number two is my point fasting hastens breakthrough in your life, amen. Okay, we should. We have a moment for the Daniel fast, 30 seconds of silence for a dearly departed friend. I Know you've probably gone on him. I tried once, felt no anointing on it years ago and then, okay, now you're gonna get real upset at me. If you're working, then just fast one day, fast two days. If you're working very vigorously or working with your body, that's my encouragement to you.

16:31 But all I want, I just want us to have a proper fast, however long you want. But if you're gonna fast, make it an actual biblical fast. And the very word fast means close your mouth, yeah, amen. Drink, oh, I forgot to say this in the first service. Drink all you like, drink lots of water and drink fresh squeezed vegetable juices and fruit juices. Don't, please, don't, be making high-sea and and and you know none of that artificial stuff. You can drink whatever you like, drink plenty of healthy juices and and lots and lots of water, but nothing goes in your mouth during your fast. Amen. And I feel like this got popularized because in America we kept lowering the bar because no one was rising up.

17:13 So it be, you know. First came to Daniel fast and it's like well, if you want to give up chocolate, you know, okay, you Personally, I'm fasting radishes. It's a major sacrifice, but I'm. And then I heard preachers say you know why don't you fast television, fast screen time? You can avoid it or don't do it, but it's not a fast, amen, oh, hallelujah. Number one fasting purifies your faith. Number two fasting hastens breakthrough. I don't know about you, but there's specific areas in my life, some areas where I can feel myself growing, I can feel myself advancing, and then there's other areas where it's like I hit a lid, like there's a seven foot ceiling over me and I'm just ugh and I come back down.

18:03 Oh, that's where you need the breakthrough. The number one way to get a breakthrough is actually just quickly do something you're afraid of doing in that particular arena. Amen. But add fasting to the mix, and fasting hastens breakthrough, hallelujah. Remember this isn't a transactional thing with God. We're not buying His blessings. Those have all been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus and we are not a works based church. We're a grace based church, but in grace there still are some things we can do. Not do with regard to our salvation, that's done. But with our Christian walk there are things that we can do to hasten the blessings of God, to hasten the breakthrough of God.

18:50 Number three found in Psalms 35, 13. But as for me, when they were sick. My clothing was sackcloth. Watch this I humbled myself with fasting. Number three fasting humbles you. Why is that so important? Because there are so many blessings associated with a person who's humble. The Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He gives grace to the humble. So humility is something to be pursued. And humility who can tell me the definition of humility? Say it loud your dependence on God, and that's all it is.

19:34 Don't overcomplicate it. It's how much are you clinging to His cloth? How much are you looking to Him? That's humility. It gets warped and changed all the time to your decibel level, your personality type, the color of your clothing, how much money you have or don't. None of that has anything to do with humility. There's some people who are very, very, very quiet and very, very, very poor, and they're some of the proudest people on earth, amen. And I've seen people who are very, very loud and very, very boisterous. And then you talk to them and you realize they're like Solomon who said I don't even know if I can come in or go out, except the Lord lead me. And that was Solomon. Think of that humility. He was already a king, he was great.

20:15 But he said, lord, I can't even go through a doorway unless you take my hand. You're the dad, I'm the child. That's what you want humility. How does fasting help with humility? Well, when you fast, you'll quickly find out that you need Jesus when you fast. Why? Because food takes up so much of our lives and fills so many emotional holes that we have in our soul. How many times do we reward ourselves with food, especially New York City? Everything revolves around food. Let's go out after church for food, let's meet for food. Everything is food. We reward ourselves with food, we reward our children with food. And one of the first things you'll notice when you're fasting all of a sudden life gets very raw and very, very lonely.

21:04 Anybody experienced the loneliness of fasting? It's like the old Westerns with the ghost town. It's just like a whistling wind and the bramble bush that just blows, because now the entertainment is gone, the food is gone. You can't suppress any emotions with food. You can't heighten any emotions with food. A lot of food is just really powerful drugs that we ingest. Now it's raw, now it's just you and Jesus. And the first 48 hours are the toughest. That's when your flesh just starts to protest, really squealing like a stuck pig, rrrrrrr, and you'll be tempted to quit and you'll be made humble because you'll be needy and dependent on Jesus and you'll realize how many little band-aids food had in your life and you'll just be forced to look to Jesus and he will satisfy your every need.

22:02 And now you will have grown in humility. And when you're grown humility, you become a bull's eye for the blessings of God, because he resists the proud but he heaps grace upon grace on the humble. Hallelujah, hallelujah. We should look forward to that, to really to get back to the basics. When the music fades and all is, is it swept away, that old song? And then we come back to the heart of worship and it can be excruciating, oh, hallelujah.

22:44 Number four Acts 10 30 verse. Acts 10 30 to 31. So Cornelius said four days ago I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, say, I was fasting. I was fasting, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Number four fasting attracts divine visitation.

23:24 In this most extreme case, cornelius, he saw an angel, but he said I was fasting. When you fast it's like it's like your spirit man is a giant satellite dish and you fast and now you buff it real good and wax it and move all the debris off and you're more sensitive to the spiritual realm. Who wouldn't want that? Who doesn't want that? You see, every time you see fasting in the Bible there's always some kind of divine visitation, some kind of supernatural breaking into the natural realm.

24:05 And if you're dry, if you feel like you haven't sensed the presence of God and oh, too long, I would encourage you to join us on this 21 days of prayer and fasting. Thank you, madden. Awakens your spirit man Again. It doesn't change God, but it changes you and your flesh. Scripturally speaking, past tense was already crucified with Christ. The only problem is that it keeps trying to cause you to forget and get up off that cross. But fasting puts your flesh under and causes your spirit man to grow big. Smith Wigglesworth used to say I'm a thousand times bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. He wasn't talking about the Holy Spirit, he was talking about his own human spirit that's indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

24:49 It grows large, isn't it amazing? You don't eat, but your spirit, man, grows large. Hallelujah, number five, acts 13,. One through three. Worship team, you can come on up and you can lead us in any language you like. Now, in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger, lucius of Cyrene, manian, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarcansal.

25:32 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said what does fasting do? It brings about. The Holy Spirit said Fasting it's not that God starts talking more, but your satellite dish has been buffed. God's talking all the time. We're just so bad at listening. But when you're fasting and the music fades away and all is swept away and you're there, you're laying down, crying out to the Lord. Ah, lord, I'm lonely. This is just different.

26:12 This feels like I'm being born again and again, like whoo, like then times when I fasted, I felt like I was soaring through the cosmos, probably my adrenal glands. But it's just. You know. You know, when you're fasting, nobody gets you. Nobody gets you. You look around and everybody's going about their merry life. You go, especially right in New York City. You walk on the street and what do you see in every window? Wow. And you're just walking like nobody gets me. The only one who gets you is Jesus. You're a high priest, the one who was tempted in every way, who knows, who also fasted for 40 days?

26:54 He gets you Hallelujah, and fasting will activate the Holy. Listen, I can do anything, I can go through anything if I have the word of the Lord. You want to describe a depressing time. Whenever the Bible describes a depressing season in the nation of Israel, it always starts off with the word of the Lord was scarce in those days. That the word of the Lord being scarce equals depression. So I need him to speak to me, not just from his word. Thank God for his word. I'm in his word daily, but I need a fresh word to my heart. There's something that's just been coming up in my life in the last few days that I hadn't had the word of the Lord on. It was a concern having to do with Brooklyn and the flooding and the and I won't get into the details, but I was just pumping gas in my car and the Lord flashed.

27:48 That anxiety of mine In my mind is this will not happen. That was the word of the Lord. I'm at a crusade, crusade, crusade. He said this will not happen. And I let it take root in my spirit and I knew that was the word of the Lord. And then all worry, all care, all anxiety was gone. You can do anything, you can go through anything, as long as you have the word of the Lord, as long as you sense and talk to you in your heart, and fasting brings about the Holy Spirit. Set Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away, hallelujah.

28:36 Fasting purifies your faith. Fasting hastens breakthrough. Fasting brings about humility. Fasting opens you up to divine visitation and fasting brings about the Holy Spirit said hallelujah. And what better way to enter into 2024, which I believe for us is gonna be one heck of a ride, and the Lord is gonna show himself strong on our behalf. There is never a time where I wanted to be sober minded and be in the Jesus zone. Can you agree? So I'm encouraging you join us starting January 1st.

29:16 Speak to the Lord, fast However long he tells you to fast. We're gonna be sending you out an email with some more details on fasting and if you have any questions, please email us. But really it's between you and the Lord and I always stress that between you and the Lord Amen, because you also don't wanna be that person who has to let everybody know that they're fasting. People tend to go one of two ways. One way is they gotta let everybody know I'm suffering. You gotta suffer with me. They come to the Christmas party and they just can't wait for somebody to ask them why they're not partaking of the cheese dip.

30:02 Are you hungry? Yes, so why aren't you eating? Well, ask me, ask me, are you fasting? Yes, I am Poo poo, poo, poo poo Signing a trumpet before you. Yes, I am. Jesus, said you lost your reward. I came from a church where they were so legalistic about not telling anyone We'd go out and there wasn't a person eating and I asked hey, are you fasting? And they were like what? Like really nervous, like I don't know how I can't lie to you and tell you I'm not. But I can't tell you I am or I'll lose my reward. Like there is, there isn't. Yeah, I'm fasting, but you don't have to look like you got beaten up by a band of robbers going down.

30:45 All morose Jesus said anoint your head, wash your face, put a smile and don't appear unto men too fast for attention. Your reward is they'll all think, oh, you're so spiritual, but your heavenly reward is nullified then, amen, hallelujah. Who'll be joining us January 1st through the 21st? Hallelujah, and trust me, if you don't feel it now, you definitely will. We'll be meeting here on December 31st for New Year's Eve, not at midnight, but same service times, and then the very next day we're getting together. Amen, let's pray. Father, you're so good and you hold 2024 in your hands.

31:29 We know that we're living in unique times, lord. I've spoken to people in their 80s who said that what's happening in the world today and the ups and downs they've never experienced in their lifetime. Spoken to people in their 80s on different continents who say the same thing. So it is a unique time and we trust, lord, your word. That will be the head and not the tail, will be above only and not beneath. The Bible says in destruction and famine you shall laugh, father. We just take this time to pray for our country, lord, that your good will happen here, father, that the word of God would have free course, that the Prince of Peace, that your shalom would be upon the United States of America and, yes, even the whole world.

32:14 We thank you. The blood of Jesus is on our land and that the plans and strategies and wiles of Satan are thwarted. And we still have hope in America, in Jesus name, but only because of you, oh God Father, that you would turn to nothing the strategies of the enemy and that you would cause your people to arise. We thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen, amen, hallelujah. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom.

32:58 That's citylightnyccom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.