In January 2017 I embarked on a journey to rid myself of 100 pounds of fat and give my body an opportunity to purge itself of the results of a lifetime of destruction from added sugar and other high carbohydrate foods. I read a book in 2013 that set me on a course away from the usual regimes that have failed me and so many others. Did you know that the percentage of people who reach their goal weight and keep it off is only 1.7%. The industries that recommend the “move more, eat less” strategy blame you and I for this paltry success rate. I’ve read 11 books since on using therapeutic fasting to heal the body. You really can, by giving the body rest from digestion, create a condition within yourself to heal autoimmune diseases. Starting in the mid-1800’s this ability and its successes has been well documented.
Okay, so how is fasting like salvation? The requirements for salvation is a short list:
- Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
- Ask for forgiveness of your sins.
- Use the example of Jesus’ life to be a better person so that you do not return to your former self.
I’m not an ordained person, but that’s what I know for sure from my Christian education.
The requirements for salvation of the body is also a short list:
- Accept fasting as a gift from our Creator to purge our bodies of our dietary iniquities.
- Fast to engage autophagy to begin purging disease from your body.
- Change your diet to eliminate sugar except fresh fruit and limit grains so that your diseases do not return.
My education and use of therapeutic fasting is, I’m sad to say, purely for selfish reasons and not to be closer to God. Maybe that will change when I reach goal weight. Today I’m down 65 pounds and have arrested all of my autoimmune diseases except one. I’m now using autophagy to clear out my blood vessels and get rid of the excess skin from my weight loss so far. Learning about fasting is extremely important before doing it. There are a few normal side effects that will send you fleeing for the refrigerator if you don’t know about them and what countermeasures to apply for relief.
Facebook has several fasting related groups with surprisingly high numbers of members from all over the world. A great place for the novice to start. In one way I do not follow the example of Jesus. In The Gospel According to Matthew 6:16 Jesus is quoted saying,”When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do,...so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father…” I do tell others about this as a gift from God that I believe gives us bodily salvation from our dietary iniquities. Notice that twice in verses 16-18 Jesus said “when you fast” not if you fast. Then in Matthew Chapter 9 verse 16: “The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” Notice that it does not say then they might fast. It is clearly expected of us to follow His example including fasting. Not necessarily for 40 days, but after some education you will find fasting is not to be feared. In fact after the first three days it can be quite enjoyable. There are precautions. People under the age of 18 and people with a BMI under 18 should not fast without supervision of a qualified fasting professional. Pregnant women and lactating mothers should not fast. People with type II diabetes should fast with supervision as they will need to decrease medications as the body returns to appropriate insulin function.
Keep in mind that fasting does not cure anything. It gives the body rest and puts it into a condition that helps it cure itself. Just like everything else when it comes to God’s wisdom vs. Man’s wisdom fasting is opposite of Man’s wisdom. Man’s wisdom says that you need to “eat to keep up your strength” God’s wisdom says “When you fast” and “they will fast”. Jesus is also opposite Man’s wisdom. Man’s wisdom believes that the Christ will be the Lion of God. Instead we got a Lamb. Man’s wisdom has us all believing that we need to take something, eat something, do something, and pay for it all the way to achieve our health goals. God’s wisdom offers fasting with no special foods, no pills, no exercise, and at no cost except a little discomfort. Fasting is to do nothing. Nothing is easier than doing nothing.
Our bodies are not our own claims the apostle Paul in Corinthians 6:19-20 and we are charged with taking good care of it as it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. To simply dismiss fasting because it doesn’t sound like fun or because of fear is to embrace Man’s wisdom over God’s wisdom. If you think about it, if you were the evil one, wouldn’t sugar to be your favorite tool to not only destroy the temple of the Holy Spirit, but to break a believers will with the side effects of the palliative drugs prescribed to address the symptoms of our dietary iniquities before succumbing to an early end. And who do we typically curse when the doctor gives us the bad news? Who do we curse when enduring the worry of when our exit day will come? The addictive nature of sugar makes it so easy for the evil one to destroy your temple.
I have wondered for decades why God is called the “Great Physician” with prayers for help by believers being discreetly answered. The Book of Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah saying “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Maybe through fasting, which they did all the time back then, is what was meant. The Bible is not specific about the benefits of fasting, but I think it was just common knowledge in that time. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used it in his practice and it may be what he meant when he penned the famous oath, “First do no harm”.
Maybe the benefits of fasting were just such common knowledge that it didn’t need a special “commandment”. Today we don’t talk about or write about the benefits of indoor plumbing either for the same reason. Everybody knows that walking outside to use the restroom in the dead of winter is not a pleasant experience nor dumping out the kid’s thunder mug every morning. “What’s a thunder mug?”, you ask. See what I mean?
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