Original subtitles

Welcome to this teaching

where I'm going to talk about fasting

This is part of the series HOW TO

and this is going to be

a very practical teaching

with some strong testimonies

also to really encourage you out

there to fast we need to fast.

Fasting is part of our life as a disciple

of Christ. There is much breakthrough

in fasting, so if you are longing for

a breakthrough in your life

are you are longing to overcome flesh

in your life

then see this teaching about fasting

and again this is part of a series HOW TO

so it's a very practical teaching

but of course I will lay down

a foundation first

Jesus in Matthew 6 He talked about fasting

and He said "when you fast"

He doesn't say "If you fast"

He says "when you fast"

a few verses before in Matthew 6

He's saying "when you give"

and then He talked about giving

and then He says "when you pray"

and He talked about praying

and then He says "when you fast"

and He talked about fasting

Jesus did not say when you give

do this and this

when you pray

do this and this

and IF you fast

do this and this

He said "when"

In the church we talk a lot about giving

we talk a lot about praying

but we don't talk a lot about fasting

fasting should be part of

our Christian walk

the same way as praying and giving

what Jesus is saying is

"when you fast"

you fast to God who is in heaven

don't fast to people

don't fast to be shown

wash your clothes, brush your teeth

set your hair if you have hair :D

and don't show that you are fasting

but it can also go to extreme

where it becomes weird

for example

if you are fasting a longer period of time

like 40 days or 15 days

or 14 days or 40 days

or one week

of course you cannot hide

you cannot hide it from family and friends

like try to imagine

you are being invited to a wedding

and nonono I'm not eating

are you good?

yeayea I'm okay I just don't eat

don't you want anything?

no I'm good

if you do like this

people will start to talk

what is wrong with you

what is wrong with him

like why are you not eating

so in that way it's okay to say

that you are fasting

don't be afraid to say

you are fasting

because otherwise

you would be weird

but you fast to God

who is in the heaven.

and this is between you and God

so don't have to go and

show it

it's not the first thing

you come when you go to a house

I'm fasting I'm on my 17 days

don't do it like that

but don't be afraid to talk about it

and this is satan's tactic

he almost warns us to

not talk about fasting

shh don't talk about fasting

because then you wont' get any reward

but look at the context

Jesus also said "when you give

don't do it like there in front

of people

when you pray

don't do it in front of people

but we are not afraid to talk about

praying and giving

so keep it simple but fast

fast is part of our life

and we fast

what is fasting?

that is a good question

some people say: "hey. I fast.

I fast from TV"

but fasting, keeping away from TV

is not a fast

but keep away from TV

throw the hellmachine away from your house

I think, it is good to do that.

I think it is good to take a time when

you keep away from internet, when you

put away your telephone and seek God

It is good to take those times, but that

is not fasting. You can use other words,

but fasting has to do with food.

you have to abstain from food and drink.

why? I am going to explain to you

in a short time. Something is happening

in your body physically when you don't

eat and drink. But something will not

happen in your body when you keep

away from TV or your telephone.

So, fasting has to do with food and drink.

There are different kinds of fasting

in the Bible, Pharisees fasted one

or two days a week; Jesus fasted 40 days;

Ester fasted three days without food and drink.

Normally, you can keep away from food for

40 days; most healthy people do that and

live 40 days without food. But you can't

do 40 days without drink, of course.

You need something to drink. In the Bible

we see three days without food and drink.

The whole nation did that in the time of Ester.

We see Moses was in the presence of God

he also did not drink and eat for 40 days

That was a miracle. Fasting is keeping

away from food for a long period

or keeping away from food and drink

for a shorter time. I want to say that

Daniel fast, people are talking about him,

you keep away from meat, milk products,

eat salad and fruit, did not eat sweets,

that is also fasting, but I am not going

to talk about such fast here. This is not

the fast I know much about. But I know

about this fast. The fast when you

keep away from food for a longer

time of period. Or you keep away

from food&drink for a short period.

If you fast for 40 days without food, you

must know that this is not the same as

Jesus fasted for 40 days with only water.

Why? Because drinking water from rain

or mountains is very different from the

water that is running from our tab today.

There is chlorine; minerals were taken out

If you fast for 40 days with only water,

then add something to the water,

minerals, so your body gets some minerals

I think it is very important, if you fast

for 40 days, really take care of your body

I know several people that have done it

and they end up getting sick, because

they drank water out of tab and did not

add any minerals. So, add some minerals

and give your body something to work with.

Otherwise, I have been fasting for 40 days

several times and I decided to drink juice

so my body has something

to work with. That is something between

you and God. You decide how you are

going to fast. This is between you and God

Sometimes, I had 40 days fast; I was

very relaxed I could drink different

things, juice, hot chocolate, sometimes

smoothie and some people said,

that is cheating. It's between you and God

Sometimes I was relaxed. There were

other times in the long fast when I had

been very strict, had nothing but water

and juice for a long period, nothing else

This is really between you and God.

But if you decide to fast, then keep

what you decided to do; do not change it

every day. Fasting is really good. Next

question is what happens when you fast.

If you look at physical things that are

happening when you fast. Fasting cleans

your body from toxins and you force your

cells to another process, where cells

start to work. If you fast one day,

you will not feel a big physical reaction,

if you drink a lot of water, you can do

it without adding things to water,

if you fast for only one day; the only

thing you will feel is hunger; cells

of your body start to react:

“Why there is no food, we are hungry”.

You can feel little headache, because

toxins are coming out; your pee will be

very yellow, because toxins are coming

out of your body. It is what you will see

if you fast for a shorter time of period;

you will see your body getting rid of

toxins; it is good to fast and this is

very healthy to fast. God has created

our bodies in a way that our bodies

need break sometimes to restart

and fasting is helping our bodies

to restart. This is really good and

really healthy.

If you look at physical things that happen

to your body when you fast. The first day

you can get a headache, because

toxins going out of your body. That

headache often disappears on second day,

you will be better on third day.

I encourage to fast more than just 3 days

Try that, because if you are fasting

only three days, on the first day you are

tired and have a headache; on the second

day you start to recover and on the third

day you are looking forward to eat again.

But if you are fasting for a longer

period, lets say, for 14 days or 20 days,

40 days, what is happening there?

Your body is going through different proceses;

different seasons. First thing, you can have times

of weakness, when you are very tired,

your head is not working fast, because

your body does not have the same energy.

But after that season you will have times

when you are very clear in your mind;

you have a lot of energy: what is

is happening? Your body now is starting

to eat some fat in your body; the body

does not need to use the same energy

to process the food and you have energy.

I had 6-7 days during long fast when

I was walking around, was out running and

had much energy and did not know

what shall I do with all my energy.

So, what I see in longer period of fast,

you pee a lot, toxins come out of your

body; in the beginning, you also do #2,

because there is food in your stomach

and it needs to come out. But in a longer

period of time of fasting body starts

to take your fat instead and you start

losing a lot of weight. In 40 day fasting

I lose around 16 kg (35 pounds).

But you will sadly gain most of this

weight again. But when you come out

of long fasting, it is important that you

do not eat much; you can end up with

gaining more weight than you lost.

But fasting is not for losing weight,

but for something else. The body

also starts to eat everything; sometimes

you can feel pain in your body, you can

feel weird, because your body reacts.

It is hard for your body; there are times

when you are saying: “What am I doing?”

you are weak and then temptation comes.

You go and look at fridge: “Shall I eat

or not? Why do I do this? If I eat,

I will have more energy, I will go out

and tell people about Jesus. And there is

a lot of things that are happening

with you in a longer fast when you are

going through different seasons.

“I am not going to eat, this is the best

thing in my life” and then “What am I

doing? I want little food” you look at

time, you look at calendar. And it is all

beautiful, it is all as it should be; you

go up and down, up and down. In a longer

fast you can have good seasons.

For me days 7-14 are good season; then I

come to midway crisis when I say “What

am I doing, there are long 40 days”, but

then you come over that and you have good

season again. And those ups and

downs are different from person

to person; just be ready that your

body is reacting, your body is screaming

for food, you peeing a lot. If you only

fast with water 40 days, your body will

shut completely, you will do #1 and no #2,

if you drink juice and other things, you

will go to toilet sometimes and do #2, but

that will be once in every three days

with little rabbit poo and that it all.

That is how it is. Understand it, there is nothing to be

afraid of; it is not dangerous; people can

easily survive, normal and healthy people

can easily survive 40 days without food.

Drink. I encourage you. Three days we see

in the Bible, of course, if you are in

the presence of God, God can do something

unique, but I would not be a part of that,

because it can be dangerous. I would say,

listen to your body, be wise in what you

are doing. But I have more teaching in

the description, where you can go much

deeper in fasting, what is happening

to your body and so on, if you are going

to do a longer fast, I can talk about

it much more, but his is just an

instruction. We would like to deeper

and say why fast? When you end small

fast, you can eat most things. If you have

a longer fast, go slowly into the fast,

don’t eat a big stake the day before fast,

get all of it out of your system 2-3 days

before; start to eat something light;

when you go out of fast, you have to

be very careful. Eat very simple food,

start with soup or some things your body

up running. Because if you eat too much

your body is not ready for it and you will

have a problem, you will be in toilet for

many days and have pain. So, if you longer

fast, step in slow and step out slow.

Now, WHY fast? Because Jesus said it.

Finished. Thank you for watching this

video. Because Jesus said it, we do it.

But he said , we should fast and there is

a reason to fast, just going into those

seasons. There is a reason, there

is physical health , I think, healing

happening in the body; I know people

with sickness and when they fast, they

experience healing because toxins coming

out of your body. Why fast? One of the

main thing has to do with flesh and spirit

The flesh and spirit are involved with each

other. Fasting is helping spirit to

overcome this war. The best way I often

illustrate is by dogs. Try to imagine

you have two dogs that are fighting.

They are the same strength, they

are fighting. You want green dog (spirit)

to win, how do you get one dog win when

they are equal strength? You start giving

one dog much food and giving the other

dog no food. What happens? By time,

not on the first or second day, but by

time, this dog becomes weaker and weaker,

and this dog becomes stronger and stronger

and this dog is going to win. This is what

happening in fast. For example, dreams.

For me, I have got most clear dreams in

a fast. Hearing God’s voice. Most clear

times God has spoken to me was in fast.

It is more clear than in outside of fast,

because in normal life, when you are

not fasting, there is a war between

your flesh and spirit; the war is going on

When it comes to hearing God’s voice and

to other things, in fast this becomes

weaker and this becomes stronger

and stronger. Hearing God’s voice is

much easier. For example, first time,

when I fasted 40 days, I needed God speak

to me. I was asking: “God, speak

to me, speak to me,” it was so difficult,

I had a season when God did not speak

to me and I needed Him to speak to me.

I felt like it was difficult to discern

it was me or God or who was it? But then

I fasted and fasted; on 39th day, the last

day of the fast God spoke and I heard it

very clear. It changed my life. It became

a new beginning in my life. So, fasting is

helping your spirit to take over. Also, if

you have flesh in your life, you are

tempted with sin, in fasting you crucify

your flesh, you deny your flesh and what

it wants, you feed your spirit with

praying and eating the Word of God,

so your spirit is more in prayer, more in

worship, more in the Word and you deny

your flesh and what it wants; the flesh

becomes weaker and your spirit is

stronger. That is so important when it

comes to overcoming your flesh in your

life. It’s so important to be lead by the

Spirit in your life, when it comes to

hearing God’s voice in your life. If you

need to hear God’s voice, if you need to

overcome flesh in your life, fasting

is the secret. But I want to say, don’t

experience that if you fast over a meal

here and there. Let’s say, many people say

"I have jumped over a meal once".

You will not experience your flesh become

weak if you take one day fast. For that,

longer period of time fasting is needed.

In a longer fast, there is selfdiscipline.

Because “Oh, I want food, I am hungry”.

“No. I am listening to this”. “No, I am

hungry”. “No, I am listening to my spirit

not my flesh. I do self-discipline,

I get my flesh to obey; my flesh

understands: “You are not chef in my life;

I am not following you, I am following

you.” There is self-discipline in fast.

Let’s say, you are in a jungle and you

need to survive in jungle. Will you be

with the one who just joined the army,

who is very green and knows nothing,

or you want elite solider, one of the

special force guys? You want a special

force guy, you believe, you will survive

with that person. But how did that

person became special force guy?

By training and training, by pushing

his limits all the time, by going through

the things, and knowing that he does

not need to listen to his stomach that is

shouting for food, he does not need to

listen to his body, when it wants to sleep

he does not need to listen to his feet

that are hurting because of walking.

Special force people become strong

because they push their limits all the

time and go through seasons of training.

The same way, if you want to be a strong

disciple who wants to learns to walk

by the spirit, not by flesh, go through

hard training. How? By fasting. Because

in a fast you take control. Your body

wants to have food, you are even

looking at the fridge. “No! I am not

listening to you, I am listening to my

spirit”. What you learn in a fast, you can

benefit after the fast. Because even after

fast, you have learned: I am in control,

not my flesh. I use that today. Fasting

is so good in so many ways. We do not want

to listen to the flesh, we want to

listen to the spirit and that is why

we fast. So, fasting has to do with this.

Another is casting out the spirit

of unbelief in your life, to experience

breakthrough. That is the last thing

we want to share here. Matthew 17 there

was a man who brought a boy with a demon to Jesus

and disciples could not cast out the demon

Jesus cast out the demon and disciples

asked: “Why couldn’t we cast out that

demon?” Jesus said, because of unbelief;

you have unbelief in your life. If you

have faith and you say that mountain

“be casted out” and this will happen.

Nothing is impossible for you if you

believe. In Matthew 17:21 “this kind does

not come out except by prayer and fasting”

that kind is not a special kind of demons.

That kind is unbelief. They could not cast

that demon out because of unbelief.

And they need to experience that spirit

of unbelief leaving their life, because

if the spirit of unbelief is gone, nothing

is impossible for us. How do we get rid

of those areas in our lives where we have

unbelief? Praying and fasting.

Praying and fasting, and you are getting

rid of the spirit of unbelief and you can

see breakthrough in your life. Often

I say: there are times in my life where

I grow long enough and then I come

to a wall, I can not breakthrough this

wall; how can I breakthrough this

wall? And then,

fasting have done it. For example,

first time when I fasted 40 days, I came

to a point in my life when there was

some sin in my life I was still struggling

with, there was one thing; and I have not

seen healing and deliverance; I have not

seen power of God in my life; I was

praying and reading the Word, but still,

I was struggling with sin and did not see

breakthrough yet in healing and

deliverance, and in the power of God.

I was struggling, I was asking: “God,

why can not I breakthrough?” Then I

took a 40-day fast. In that 40-day fast

I experienced breakthrough in both

areas. I overcame that sin in my life, God

revealed fear of God in my life, in that

fast reading of the Word was so alive,

the Holy Spirit spoke as I have never

experienced before. And God used

that season to breakthrough when

it comes for healing and deliverance.

So, if you need a breakthrough, if there

are areas, fasting is the secret. Jesus

started his ministry with 40 days fast.

I am just saying, if the Son of God

Jesus, our High Priest started his

ministry with 40-day fast, he came out

of the desert in the power of the Holy

Spirit, how can we today believe we can

serve God and see breakthrough

without fasting? I am just saying, Jesus

said, “when you fast”. So, if you need

a breakthrough in your life, it can come

with many things. One time I felt I needed

a breakthrough with leading of the

Holy Spirit, the way I wanted, we were

standing in a hard situation, we needed

money, we had a house and we could

not pay for it, I needed God to speak.

And I fasted for 40 days and God used

that fast to breakthrough that wall that

was in front of me. I needed help.

I had unbelief in that area and fasting

was a help. It is between you and God.

Once God spoke to me from the book of

Ester and said, “Torben, fast three

days without food and drink”. and

I tried three days without food and drink;

Normally, I drink a lot during fasting to

avoid headache, to have toxins out of

my system, but those three days were

amazing. I did not eat and drink,

had no fluid for three days. First day,

I had breakthrough for one thing

I was praying for; the second day there was

a breakthrough and the third day there

was a breakthrough. God answered;

I had been praying for a long time all

three days. Also, I had time in my life when I

wanted to fast 40 days, then I changed

my mind in the middle and fasted 20 days,

gave up, because “What am I doing?

Is this my idea? Or is this God? God, what

is it?” and I ended by giving up. Don’t

be hard on yourself.

Just jump on it again later. Go into it

again later, because it is hard. It's hard

to fast for a longer period of time.

Fasting became a part of my life. Many

years ago I did it for the first time.

Every year since, I fast for shorter or

longer period. I want to encourage you to

get a life where you pray, where you

give, where you fast. This is a part of you.

Ask God what to do. Don’t ask God:

“Do You want me to fast?”

because Jesus already said "when you fast".

Ask God and say: “God, when do You want

me to fast? How long do You want me to

fast?” let fasting be a part of your life.

Take shorter fast, sometimes take longer fast.

In the Bible Jesus was in the desert

for 40 days. I have not been able to

just draw away for 40 days and be alone

somewhere for 40 days. I have not ever

done that. Some people can do that.

But I have been still living my life, my

everyday life. It is difficult to fast

a long period of time if you have a hard

physical job.

But I was fasting when I was working

and it was not so physical. But you can

do it. I had been fasting and still making

breakfast for family and kids, food

for the kids to send them to school.

I have still lived this life and choose

to sit at the dinner table with my family

and just drink water and be with them.

Why? Because that is a place we are

together as a family and we spend

time together and if I am not there,

if they do not see me for a long period

of time, it is not good for the family.

So, if you are married, you need to agree

on it with your spouse and find a way to do it.

You need to find your ways.

It is between you and God. Find a way,

when you say: “This is what God said to

me.” And then go for it. If you want more

teaching on fasting, I put two links under

this video, where you can go and get

a deeper foundation, come to the Bible

and find out what the fasting is.

Otherwise, I encourage you to see all

the teaching “How to”. We teach about

“how to pray”, “how to set people free”,

“how to hear God’s voice”. “How to fast”

is a big part of that. So, go into a fast

God bless you. It is going to transform

your life the same way as it transformed

my life and many other people’s lives.

So, go and fast. God bless you. Bue.