"When you pray, pray first for the Holy Spirit because when you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything."        - Medjugorje April 4, 1985

"You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature."       - Medjugorje Dec. 2, 1982

Following up on interest re our recent reminder that cited medical research showing notable

physical benefits to fasting, I wanted to pass on another study. However, there is a distinction

we should be clear on when discussing fasting –

Dieting is not fasting.

The difference is perspective and the priority we put on the action.

Dieting is done to lose weight.

Fasting is a sacrifice to please the Lord.

The health benefits that come from fasting are purely ancillary gifts from the Lord for yielding to Him.

I don’t think there is a person here who, if he were going to devise

an ideal program to lose weight and improve health would think to follow a bread and water fast.

I certainly would not, which begs the question why do we fast on bread and water?

On the one hand isn’t that regiment too easy? Especially if we allow ourselves to add olive oil? Or butter? Or honey?

There is also the question: Wouldn’t it be better to just have vegetables as our fast if we are allowed to eat something?

Thirdly the question that has gone through all of our minds asks if a true fast requires eating and drinking nothing?

The answer to those questions and why bread and water lies in the influence of Medjugorje which has on the one hand taught us

nothing new but gives us granularity into scriptures we otherwise would not have. Beyond

the cadence of Wednesday and Friday fasts (specified in the Didache) the teaching has been

that bread and water is the best fast … and that all Christians are obligated to fast twice weekly.

Per the link in our repository of fasting information that is always included below our daily message,

it was exciting to when Anthony kindly sent us research from the Oakland children’s hospital that specifically

highlighted how positive whole grain breads are for health. As you may recall if you

have been fasting with us for a while, their research went so far as to say that the benefits

of whole grains fit like a puzzle piece into the American condition of malnutrition.

Perhaps there is so much more to “give us this day our daily bread” than we have realized

for our health and well-being? Perhaps that verse does not just mean “cheap sustenance”.

If you are just starting or struggling to get back into fasting, allow yourself some leeway and ask

the Spirit to guide you. From my experiences with the messages, the Lord does not want you

to feel ill or weak from fasting. If at first you think you can only fast from breakfast and lunch

and then need dinner, go ahead and ask the Spirit to guide & help you … and help you get to full day

fasts.

The key is to say yes and to get onto the path to unlock great grace in your life and the world.

Before passing on these scientific comments I will say that my expectation is that in the years ahead

science will specify that bread and water, twice weekly, is the best fast possible and is a regimen that unlocks

tremendous physical health benefits as an ancillary blessing from the Lord because Heaven knows what it is doing and what is best for humanity.

“It’s not trivial to do this kind of study,” says circadian biologist Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, who wasn’t connected to the research. “What they have done is commendable.”

Previous studies in rodents and humans have suggested that periodic fasting can reduce body fat, cut insulin levels, and provide other benefits.

An alternative is the so-called fasting-mimicking diet, devised by biochemist Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues. For most of the month, participants eat as much of whatever they want. Then for five consecutive days they stick to a menu that includes chips, energy bars, and soups, consuming about 700 to 1100 calories a day…

Now, the researchers have completed a randomized clinical trial in which 71 people followed the fasting-mimicking diet for 3 months, while volunteers in the control group didn’t change their eating habits…

A 3-month trial can’t determine whether the diet increases longevity in people like it did in mice, which rarely survive beyond a couple years. But Longo notes that levels of insulin-like growth factor 1, a hormone that promotes aging in rodents and other lab animals, plunged in the low-cal group. And subjects who were at the highest risk for age-related illnesses also saw other indicators of malfunctioning metabolism go down, such as blood glucose levels and total cholesterol.

Longo says that this diet “treats” aging, the most important risk factor for killers like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. “It looks like you can go at the underlying problem rather than just putting a Band-Aid on it”

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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/five-day-fasting-diet-could-fight-disease-slow-aging

Thank you for fasting with us today.  You will be glad you made the effort for all of eternity.

Why We Fast – Our Core Fasting Intentions

1) For the Holy Spirit to reign down upon America renewing our land as the Christian, capitalist meritocracy we were founded to be.

2) For the protection of our police, firefighters, military and their families from harm and that the Lord bless their courageous generosity on our behalf one hundredfold.

3) For the protection of the families who fast with us, and for God’s blessings of abundance upon them and that true to His word, we will be able to witness that He prospered us in famine.

Would you like to learn more about fasting?

We maintain a repository of ideas and information we have learned over the last decade while fasting weekly for America. From scientific studies on the benefits of fasting, to the differences between intermittent dieting vs intermittent fasting, to scriptural references regarding the power of fasting to the history of first century Christians who stated believers are obligated to fast weekly, we hope you will find numerous insights with our free resource located here.

Together let us also implore Heaven while fasting for intentions you have highlighted:

4) For Mike Lindell who is putting himself on the front lines suing over the election fraud that has taken place and for all of the warriors who are stepping up around the nation to fight for the gospel – May The Father cover them in the blood of our savior,  protect them and their families from evil and bring victory to their endeavors.

5) For priests, ministers and all who aspire to lead others to the Lord, that the Holy Spirit will reign down upon them as at Pentecost filling them to overflowing with an understanding of what the Lord wants, courage and the desire to preach what He would have them preach and protection and strength from all evil that comes against them. 

6) For the Americans jailed after January 6th who were admitted to the Capitol building by the police, and who were not found to have destroyed any property at the capitol yet who have been held captive ever since on our own soil - That God's Spirit will move quickly to bring justice back to this land by freeing them while enlightening Americans how to bring God's justice back to our nation.

7) For young Megan who has an incurable liver condition @ Duke Hospital - Asking the Divine Physician for a complete healing.

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