I would like to talk to you about a topic that is a bit different maybe than usually
i want to talk to you about 40 day fast a few weeks ago I did a an episode about a fasting
and we did an episode about 21 day fast the importance of that and I think it's very popular
in churches especially in the United States to do a 21-day fast and I would like to share this for
those of you who are listening who maybe have this on your heart or perhaps you're a minister and you
feel like God is going to lead you one day I want to share with you some tips and encouragements
or maybe in the future you will need to come back to this episode to receive encouragement first of
all in the Bible there is three main men who went through a 40-day fast extended period of fasting
surprisingly these 3 men showed up together on the Mount of Transfiguration it was Moses
it was Elijah and it was our Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 30 after receiving baptism
in the river Jordan Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into an extended period of fasting
and during this fasting we know he was tempted by the devil and then afterwards we know that angels
came and ministered to him and he returned from this fast with the power of the Holy Spirit into
his ministry and so i would like to share just a few things concerning a 40-day fast one of them
is it became a foundation for Jesus's ministry before Jesus went into ministering to the
public he took an extended period of fasting some people said this 40-day fasting was resemblance of
the 40-day 40-year wilderness that Israel has went through I don't know exactly if that's true or not
but i do know that before he went into ministry there was this extended period of fasting that
Jesus took I know a lot of men of God from their stories where they also took an extended period
of fasting before going into their ministry or before going to the next level in their ministry
different men I can name them some of you know them and God released something in their ministry
when they did that also number 40 in the bible speaks of cleansing when Noah went through in
the ark he went through the flood for for 40 days there was a cleansing that happened on the earth
and a lot of evil things including animals and a lot of bad stuff and people inhabitants were
cleansed by the flood and the rain the the third reason or the third thing about the 40 day fast
so the first thing is that it can be a foundation for your ministry if you're a young minister and
you want to lay a proper foundation you know today we go to college for 4 years get a theological
training and that's good but there's a spiritual training and spiritual foundation that we can lay
to our ministry and that is through an extended period of prayer and fasting and the second truth
about the 40-day fast is there is a cleansing that happens in an extended period of fasting
when we started this year our 21 day fast in about 6th or 7th day
of the fast I felt the Holy Spirit really challenged me something that i know it came
from God to extend the fast and to go into 40 days instead of 21. to lay a foundation
for my ministry some of you who watch and follow our ministry you know that and this year I got the
non-profit status and so i launched the Vladimir Savchuk Ministries alongside you know with Hungry
Gen I'm still with Hungry Gen still under the covering of Hungry Gen and you know my first
objection in my mind was that you know i can't do 40 days the longest i've done was 18 days and i
almost died i felt like that that was 10 years ago but when God leads you into this which i'm
going to mention in just a second God gives you supernatural grace and i really started to look
at the life of Jesus he was 30 years of age and he goes into a 40-day fast at the age of 40 at the
age of 30 I'm sorry into 40 days at the age of 30. for me it's today is actually I think 37th or 38th
day of this fast and something I've noticed in the process of this that it was after 21 days
that I started to experience a deeper cleansing of the Holy Spirit in the area of my soul. idols
that I justified as natural normal behavior things that i use to numb myself things that I look to as
relaxation that i thought it's my rest things that like workaholism you know that i thought
is just my habit and I started to see that as an idol other things in my in my heart God started
exposing the evil exposing the the things that that's pleasing to him and start cleansing that
and it didn't happen in the first 21 days or even you know 25 days it started to happen later in to
the fast and so for those of you that God will lead you into that I just want to encourage you
and prepare you by the way that there is going to be a cleansing that God will start doing you might
go into it to lay a foundation for your ministry but the real results are going to be God's going
to purge you and purify you you're going to lose a lot of weight but you're going to gain a lot of
spiritual weight God's going to cleanse you from a lot of spiritual emotional and even mental toxins
the third factor of a 40-day fast is this it has to be led by the Holy Spirit
you don't lead yourself into a 40-day fast it's led by the Holy Spirit Moses was invited into
a 40-day fast Elijah was prepared by God into a 40-day fast he walked for 40 days and Jesus
the bible says and the spirit of God drove him into fasting otherwise it would be a torturous
honestly just a discipline on your part and it would be very difficult to complete it like in my
case i really sensed the spirit of God leading me because there was no way in this God's green earth
that I wanted to do that myself I like food I love food and so um the idea of going without food for
more than 20 days is already scary and radical but the idea of going for 40 days it seems like
forever and so but when the Holy Spirit impresses that he gives you grace when he gives you grace
it becomes not only doable God begins to work in your life so it has to be led by the Holy Spirit
it's not something you conjure up in your own mind it's like hey that's that's what i'm going to do
the spirit of God has to lead you into that and number four factor of the 40-day fast and that is
there is going to be a spiritual battle taking place during the fast a lot of it will happen
in your mind some of it will happen in your soul and you are gonna have to win that battle
Jesus there was there was an attack on him and for me I had to mentally prepare and prepare my
soul and my spirit that whatever attacks come whether it's disappointment whether it's just a
dark cloud whether it's craving to even eat and all of those things i have to plow them through
and overcome them you know many people they start fasting and they can't complete their fasts
because mentally they are very weak it's not that the body cannot take it
it's a lot of times the problem is that our mind is very weak a crazy part it says about Jesus that
and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights it says afterward he was hungry so that tells
me that for 40 days Jesus wasn't hungry it was after 40 days that he was hungry
and so the the physical body can handle if God leads you your body will handle it where the
problem is going to be is in the mind the mind is going to create and play tricks with you
not only with the 40-day fast with the three-day fast but sometimes even one day fast with 21 day
fast the mind is going to start to play tricks with you the enemy will use the carnal on renewed
mind to begin to throw you into all kinds of extremes all kinds of ideas and lies so that you
will quit it happened with me probably every week almost there was these seasons of an hour to two
hours where something just there's just an attack i remember it like yesterday about two weeks ago
on Tuesday you know just this huge cloud of discouragement apathy passivity honestly even like
a feeling of worthlessness feeling like what are you doing you know just quit just give up
and so what helps you to get through that is understanding that this is not just emotional this
is not just mental this is not even just physical it's a demonic attack when the devil attacked
Jesus it wasn't that like the devil showed up with the fork you know or some witches and warlocks
it was in his mind and his emotions and so in exactly the same way most likely you and I will
be attacked as well and so we have to be able to withstand that we have to make up our mind that we
are going to go all the way until the end so what helps me to overcome those attacks is honestly
I made a decision that i'm going to go till the end and people who don't last a lot of times
in the fast or don't complete their fast are the people who honestly they say i'm gonna try to do
it instead of saying that i'm going to do it Jesus is an author and a finisher of faith he's not just
somebody who begins something he's somebody who completes it and i really felt that prompting
from the Lord and from confirmed in the scriptures that God wants me to be a finisher God wants me to
be the one who goes till the end that's when he's going to continue his work in me and I should not
leave the operating table just because I feel like I am tired of laying on this table it's when the
doctor tells me I am done then you can walk out from the operating table and so like even i
think it was last week I drink a little bit of juice slight little bit of juice and my stomach
started killing me and this juice was vitamin vitamin water i'm sorry it wasn't juice and so
and I really feel like dying I almost I thought I'm gonna die for an hour and a half you know
I realized I shouldn't be drinking that vitamin juice even though it was completely fine you know
weeks before but there was that thing that comes on you like oh this is a sign God doesn't want me
to do it but to overcome a mental battle you have to make up your mind that i'm going to go till the
end and so I remember you know my wife asked me hey are you hungry? what are you you know how you
feeling and I told her this may sound radical this may sound unreasonable and this may sound reckless
but it's my personal conviction I said I would rather die than to quit and stuff so because I
am determined the grace of God determines me to go all the way till the end and during a
night prayer as I was praying you know saying Lord help me to finish help me to complete this
goal help me to finish this fast and I really felt the Holy Spirit prompt me in my heart that
I want to complete my goal in you more than you want to complete your goal in me
God has goals during the fast he wants to get rid of certain idols he wants to destroy
break certain besetting sins God wants to liberate us from certain things and while my goal is to get
to the finish line so I can start eating. God's goal is so he can go to his finish line in me
and get some things done get some things out break some things down in me and so in you
as well as a minister as a Christian as a believer so I'm just encouraging you today
I'm just strengthening your faith with that the promise that I personally received for my
40-day fast and that is this one it says verse 11 of Matthew chapter 4 then the devil left him
and behold angels came and ministered to him and then in Luke it says and he returned in the
power of the Holy Spirit and i really felt these four simple promises there are certain devils
that are currently on my tail certain devils certain habits certain proclivities certain idols
that I'm battling with everybody has certain things they're fighting for and after this I
really feel that God's going to destroy not only crush but destroy those things the devil left him
the Bible says the angels came I really believe that there is going to be a supernatural ministry
of God's angel supernatural connection to the men and women of God and then the thirdly it says that
the angels came the devil left him and then it says that he returned in the power of the Holy
Spirit to Galilee and started to preach the gospel and so I really believe that that is really
the work of God that he wants to accomplish in each and every one of us if you are watching
right now or listening and maybe there is a desire or you know that one day this is going to be your
journey I want to encourage you don't guilt trip yourself wait for the Holy Spirit to lead you when
he does lead you announce that your fast to your close friends to your mentor and to your spouse so
that they will hold you accountable for example in my case the moment I announced it to my my
friend pastor Ilya and he right away resignated he says you know what the Lord is leading me in
exactly the same thing in fact when the moment we mention it to a very close circle of friends
we have two other people that join so we're doing it four of us together and because we're doing it
together we even created a group text message of encouraging each other to persevere and not
to give up I would encourage you to announce it to somebody that you trust somebody who can hold
you accountable and pray for you I would encourage you also to replace the time that you spend eating
with consuming God's word not just reading the Bible begin to feast on the word of God until
it becomes your real food may God restore the appetite for his word because in the wilderness
when Jesus was hungry his combat against the hunger was men shall not live by bread alone but
by every word of God after the fast you have to have a deeper hunger not for food but for the word
of God if the only thing fast produced is a hunger for food but not hunger for God my friend you miss
the purpose of fasting and allow the Holy Spirit to expose weak bad negative toxic areas of your
life that you're currently managing that you're currently hiding that you're currently justifying
that you're currently honestly adopted carnal lifestyle things that are not worthy of the call
of God allow God to send the flood of his rain and wash that out out of your life and I pray
that when God leads you into it that He will give you the grace to finish it in Jesus mighty name!