Detox: Quieting the Cluttered Life
Silent Fast
As I write this article, the youth and young adults in our church are doing a media fast. Some of their leaders noticed how distracted teenagers are today and so they felt led to call a seven-day fast from all forms of electronic and social media. Having teenagers myself I have overheard comments that fasting from food would be easier than fasting from Facebook.
If you are still wondering, a media fast is a period of voluntary abstinence from media for the purpose of hearing God’s voice more clearly by silencing all the others. Media includes television, radio, cell phones (except emergency calls or calls from parents), texting, movies, video and computer games (Angry Birds, too!!), internet and all music except worship music.
When I was in seminary we would spend time exercising the “Spiritual Discipline of Silence.” This was back in the days of typewriters, long before texting. But even back then, at first, silence can be deafening. We are so used to so much commotion that when it is silenced, it is a bit disconcerting. However, getting quiet is a pre-requisite to getting to God know more personally and intimately.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”
It takes a few days in quietness for my mind and heart to settle down. Few realize just how much goes on in our mind and spirit and, as a result, what that commotion and noise does to us physically and emotionally. Unprecedented numbers of people are popping pills to quell the panic and anxiety. Many more crank down the caffeine to better cope and keep up.
Ironically, all of the above merely add when what is needed is subtraction.
Quiet is the key to recharging the batteries that run and power things like our creativity and ingenuity.
Toxic Fast
One of the hats I wear, besides being a pastor, is that I’m a state legislator. Many have written me to decry the distracted driving so prevalent today as youth and young adults text while driving. When you get behind the wheel of a car your focus should be on one thing: the road before you. What is true with regard to driving is true for any who seek to navigate life successfully. The less distraction the better.
This issue of Home Cures That Work is focused on detox has other contributors addressing natural ways and the health benefits to detoxifying our bodies. Somewhere in all this, is my hope that you will come away with the understanding that so much is toxic to our bodies. Even more, so much is toxic to us physically and emotionally. Toxic means poisonous. Graphically, it is symbolized by the skull and crossbones.
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“Pornography is inherently violent, inherently unloving. It is a perversion of sexuality, not a true form of it, and one that teaches violence and degradation at the expense of mutual pleasure and intimacy. It is about conquests, about conquering. It is the very opposite of God’s intention for sex. It tears love from sex, leaving sex as the immediate gratification of one’s most base desires. It lives beyond rules and ethics and morality. It exists far beyond love.” ~ Tim Challies
Seeing the skull and crossbones on things like rat poison and drain cleaner is common and necessary. What if we put the skull and crossbones on things like pornography or internet chat rooms? No study is needed to know that far more lives have been devastated by pornography than by people eating rat poison.
Natural health experts have made great strides in recent years bringing forth data showing how the build up of a variety of toxins in food preparation and pharmaceuticals results in a slow poisoning. Those of us who deal daily with people’s emotional and spiritual lives can make a case that there is a slow poisoning of sorts that happens when people are living lives inundated by internet and media, advertisements, endless activities and entertainment addictions. We weren’t made for any of that, we were made to interact with God.
The reason every religion in the world teaches and encourages fasting is because it works. Fasting from food is a natural detoxification of the body. Long before modern science noticed the benefits of it, the Bible called for it. No wonder, considering the author of that book is the creator of our bodies.
But, fasting is more than a physical detoxification. Fasting creates a physical void in us that God delights to fill spiritually. When we fast from food, we do so in conjunction with prayer. When hunger pangs come, we can turn them into prayers… “God, I want you more than I want to eat.” Those are prayers God can’t resist.
In Mark 9, Jesus healed a boy who was being tormented by evil spirits exploiting what was probably the condition epilepsy. Jesus’ disciples tried to drive the evil spirit away and heal him but they were unsuccessful.
Later Jesus explained that breakthrough in these tough situations is only possible through “prayer and fasting.” In other words, fasting results in a concentration of power to prevail over adversity. Those who don’t detox and dial in to the Lord via fasting and prayer only know defeat.
There are a variety of kinds of fasts and a variety of ways to fast. As mentioned earlier in this article, a person can fast from specific things like media, desserts, shopping, sports or just about anything a person identifies they are too dependant upon and clouds them from the Divine God. In the Bible, there are a variety of different fasts that can be grouped into several categories.
An Esther Fast is no food and water for three days.
Esther 4:16 says, “Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.”
This is the most intense form of fasting because it is the only one that includes fasting from water. It should not be done as your first fast or without medical oversight. The purpose of an Esther Fast is to get God to move on behalf of a nation.
A Daniel Fast is just vegetables and water.
Daniel 1:16 says, “So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.”
A Daniel Fast can last a period of months or even years. This too is an intense form of fasting for spiritual breakthrough in nations.
A Forty Day Fast in it’s pure form is a water only fast, although many do these today with juice or even some vegetables.
It really doesn’t matter and there is no need to be legalistic about a fast. It could be any period of time, as you feel led or able, even a 24 hour fast, or a three day or twenty-one day fast. Most who desire to fast should start with a simple fast for a set period of time and press in praying for specific things.
A few years ago I fasted for eighty-four days eating only a small evening meal. Let me offer you one word of caution I learned during that fast.
The benefits of a fast usually come after the fast not during it.
During the fast is a difficult time. It was during his forty day fast that the devil kept harassing and tempting Jesus. We need to be careful what “voices” we listen to during a fast. Those who fast regularly will tell you the benefit and the breakthrough a subsequent to the fast.
The spiritual life is not a cluttered life and clutter happens naturally over time. Because of this, every so often we need to get quiet before God and get away from the distractions. Recognize there tremendous power behind what we allow through the eyes – and the stomach. Take deliberate action, such as a media fast or a fasting from food, to limit the commotion and get to know the Divine God with renews intimacy and connection.
We live in a very polluted environment these days, and much of our food is mass produced and altered in such a way that we end up consuming toxins that our body needs to process and eliminate in order for us to enjoy good physical health. There are a variety of cleansing and detoxification protocols and products used today for these physical cleansings of the body. But your spirit also is subject to spiritual toxins, and we are all in need of spiritual cleansing on a regular basis to keep our spiritual life healthy. Do you need spiritual cleansing and detox?
Steve Hickey, is the founding pastor of a life-giving church with over 700 members, a church planter, a trainer of leaders with John Maxwell’s organization, a police chaplain, and is very active in politics as a national voice for the unborn. He’s written several books, including his latest, Momentum: God’s Ever Increasing Kingdom www.MomentumHandbook.com. Steve and his wife would like to pray for your specific needs and have a prayer team at the church waiting to hear from you. For more information or to submit a prayer request visit: www.ChurchAtTheGate.com/prayer.php
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