Timeless Truths: Fasting is a spiritual discipline that brings the flesh under control—a must for anyone who wants to overcome sexual sin—and allows the spirit man to grow in grace. In this segment, Steve Gallagher gives practical and spiritual advice about establishing a regular habit of fasting.

Host: Hey, Steve, the question we want to deal with today has to do with fasting. An email came in with the question, “What is your view on fasting as it relates to overcoming sexual addiction?” And secondly, “Does Pure Life Ministries incorporate fasting in the Residential Program?”

Steve: Well, I believe in fasting. For one thing, it's a biblical concept that is fairly well stressed and there are good reasons for it. Fasting has a way of taking a believer out of the realm of the senses. We are so dependent on our senses and food is probably the predominant physical desire/need that we fulfill most regularly. And so, when you cut yourself off from food for a day, first of all, it weakens your flesh and that allows your spiritual life to be more robust. I know for myself that when I fast, I am much more in tune and sensitive to the spiritual realm.
       I don't know exactly how to say this, but it's almost like eating every day creates this spiritual sluggishness. And so, when you cut food out for a day, that sluggishness is gone and it allows your inner being to be much more aware of spiritual things. It's a wonderful opportunity for the Holy Spirit to speak into your inner man. It opens your heart up to His voice more. It makes you more aware of the spiritual kingdom. It allows you to enter into a time of worship and powerful prayer. Fasting is very wonderful for the spiritual man. It's a difficult discipline to do, but it is a very wonderful discipline.

Host: And just practically too, when we're talking about developing habits, whether they are good habits or bad ones, if we're doing it every day, like eating three meals a day, it is a habit. And so practically, fasting is a good exercise in breaking a habit.

Steve: Well, let's face it, sexual addicts have a history of living to gratify their flesh and food is certainly one aspect of that. So, it's not uncommon whatsoever to see a guy who's a sex addict also be addicted to food. So yes, when a sex addict occasionally fasts, it just serves to weaken the strength of his flesh and allow his spirit to take more authority in his life.

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Host: In the Word of God, there are specific things we may be praying for that will encourage us to fast and to pray. But you think that it's a good exercise just to do occasionally even though there may not be something specific that you feel you need to fast and pray for, but just as an exercise in denying the flesh?

Steve: Yes, absolutely. It not only is a discipline of our ongoing Christian life, but for instance, when the disciples tried to cast a demon out of a man and they were unable, even though they had done it before, Jesus said this kind does not come out except by praying and fasting. That shows the power that fasting has in the prayer life.

Host: Well, now let’s address the second part of the question we received. Do we encourage fasting in our Residential Program?

Steve: One of the things that Jesus said about fasting was that when you fast, don't do it so that others can see you do it. That also applies to praying and acts of righteousness. But in regard to fasting, a lot of people will do it because they want to be seen as spiritual. So, in our Residential Program where we deal with guys who have a long history of sexual sin that comes out of a robust self-life and a foundation of pride, we have to be careful about something like fasting because what could be a good thing for some could easily be turned into just another avenue for pride to become stronger in another.

Host: Steve, in the time we have left, can you give some examples of how someone who may not be familiar with fasting can practically begin doing that?

Steve: What I feel like is a reasonable way to begin a life of fasting is to basically fast two meals once a week. In other words, let's say every Thursday you eat your dinner at night and then you don't eat again till dinner the next night. Whatever works best for you. But that would be so that you miss a couple of meals in a row because that will be enough to take you into a weakened physical state without it being too overwhelming. And if you do that on a regular basis, whether it's once a week or once every two weeks and just allow it to become a regular ongoing part of your life, it really does become easier and easier to do.

Host: So let me understand now. So, you have a meal and at that meal you eat 2 giant pizzas. Then you fast for a couple of meals and then you go and have another meal with two more giant pizzas?  Haha.

Steve: Well, that's the way I did it. Haha.

Host: Well, the point I'm making of course is that this isn't just a mechanical exercise, but this is a heart issue.

Steve: Yeah. But you know, the truth is, maybe that's the way some people need to start. Maybe they need to start by kind of gorging themselves in that one meal so that it will hold them over. If that's how they have to get this discipline started, then so be it. God's not all wrapped up in that, but you are making a good point that we need to let fasting have its way in our physical being.

In the 32^nd message of our “Unveiling Yahweh” series, we will be looking at God’s love for the Old Testament.

The Old Testament makes up the vast majority of Scripture. Yet mostly New Testament passages form the basis for Sunday sermons across our country. Certainly the New Testament’s importance cannot be understated—but neither can the Old Testament’s. Not only does the Old Testament provide a framework for how to understand the New Testament, but it also teaches us crucial things about walking with God.

In today’s sermon, Steve Gallagher aims to give us a greater reverence and love for the Old Testament and show why it will help you find freedom and victory.

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“Sin and holiness cannot go on in mixed form forever. Either we must be saved from sin or sin will damn us forever.” – J.B. Chapman

Men and women seeking to resist the rise of lawlessness will find the strength to do so through the Lord’s discipline. This may seem counter intuitive. But Christians who exhibit the greatest character are the ones who have been tried through the hottest flames.

This episode:

· How God’s discipline will strengthen you

· How His discipline proves His care for you

· The blessings promised if you endure discipline faithfully

When we surrender to God, He takes a personal and intimate interest in our lives. Because lawlessness still lingers in our fallen nature, He lovingly disciplines us—not to harm us, but to draw our wills into closer alignment with His beautiful will. As we yield to that process, we discover more and more of the peace and fulfillment that come from living under His authority.

Resources We Mentioned

• Pure Life Mobile App

People don’t like being told what to do—especially when it’s God placing the orders.

But when we live under God’s authority, we’re also given the power to live out the Christian life and unshakable support to withstand life’s trials.

This episode:
• An inside look at the authority structure of God’s Kingdom
• How coming under God’s authority anchors us when life is hard
• Why submission to God offers hope nothing else can

As we’ve seen throughout this series, a spirit of lawlessness has infiltrated much of the church. But scattered across this world are those who have rejected lawlessness and submitted themselves to God. In this episode, we’re looking at two character qualities that exist in every true believer: submission to God and faithfulness in the midst of life's trials.

Resources

• Fall in Love with Jesus (Video Segment) By Pure Life Ministries

Imagine a country where you could break the law and get away with it.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it all.

The hyper-grace teaching in the American church has unleashed chaos and confusion—creating a system where disobedience is excused and holiness is optional. As a result, millions of believers are disobeying God’s laws without any remorse or desire to change.

This episode:

· The inherent flaws of the hyper-grace teaching

· A look at the true grace of God

· Understanding the harmony of holiness and grace

It's nearly unthinkable that a pastor would come right out and say, “It’s all grace—live however you want, and you certainly don’t have to obey God!” But what if sermons are being preached every week across America that imply exactly that? Today, we’ll talk about the doctrine that has quietly created an atmosphere of lawlessness inside the church.

Resources

• What Does it Mean to Know God? (Sermon) By Nate Danser

In the 31st message of our “Unveiling Yahweh” series, we will be looking at the Knowledge of God.

The apostle Paul knew God in a way that gave a fire to his ministry and his prayers for his spiritual children. And his desire for all the churches he established was that they would know God like he did and walk in the power of God.

Nate Danser takes a look at Paul's letter to the Colossians to unpack this knowledge in today’s message. This same knowledge was not just for the first century Christians, but for all sincere believers today.

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In this Timeless Truths segment, Jeff and Rose Colón explain that broken marriages will only experience true restoration when both the husband and the wife learn to walk in true repentance and humility toward each other.

Host: Jeff and Rose Colón have joined us in the studio today for a discussion focused on couples. Jeff and Rose, good to see you as always. As we look at some of the issues that couples are dealing with, what is one of the enemy’s tools that he uses in bringing disunity to a marriage?

Jeff: Well, what I've seen with a lot of marriages is that pride, selfishness and just an unwillingness to humble themselves and be broken before God is usually at the center.

Host: What are some of the ways that you see that issue being manifested in a relationship?

Jeff: One of the biggest ways is just finger pointing because when someone's not broken, they tend to see the faults of others more glaringly. I remember a couple we worked with a few years ago, they were married for over 40 years and when we got involved with them the husband was seeing everything his wife was doing wrong and she was seeing everything he was doing wrong. It was just a constant bickering and eventually it ended in them divorcing. And it really is sad because that marriage did not have to end. It was really a tragic end to a 40-year Christian marriage simply because neither one would look at their own heart and see where they were missing the mark.

Host: Okay Jeff, well as we look then at the husband and the wife, let’s first look at what needs to happen with the husband in a situation like this?

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Jeff: As husband’s, we have to be willing to look at our own heart. David prayed in Psalm 139, “God search me. Try me. See if there is any wicked way in me.” We have to start dealing with what Jesus called the plank in our own eye and quit focusing on the speck in our spouses’ eye. That's not going to happen unless we humble ourselves and really begin to pray, “God search me.” Because only the Lord knows how to expose those things. So begin to pray, “God expose my heart. Use circumstances. Bring to the surface things that I need to see in my life that I'm not doing right.”
       Secondly, a good thing to do is start measuring your life to the Word of God. Sometimes we have our own standard, and if we look at our life by our own standard, we might be doing pretty good. But a husband needs to start examining his role as it's laid out in the Word of God and ask himself some concrete questions. “Am I laying my life down for my wife? Am I respecting her as the weaker vessel? Am I honoring my wife? Am I putting her needs truly before my own?”
       Lastly, I would just pray for a fresh sight of Calvary because really, if you've lost sight of Calvary and what Jesus did for you there, it's very easy to see the faults of others. But when you really see what Jesus did for you on the Cross, you're not going to be so quick to see the faults of others.

Host: That is the place to be if you're looking for humility in your life. There was something you just said that I picked up on and I just want to confirm that it's true. You said that the husband has a greater responsibility here in humbling himself first when there's disunity in the relationship.

Jeff: Absolutely. And sadly, in most situations it's usually the wife that has to initiate dealing with an issue when really that's the husband's responsibility. And what I have seen is that I've needed to encourage men to take their rightful spiritual place in the home and be the one to initiate. They should be the first ones to be vulnerable, to open their hearts to their spouse and create an atmosphere where they can focus on the problem that needs solving and not the faults of one another.

Host: Amen. Rose, what's the wife dealing with here?

Rose: The wife needs to let the Lord expose her heart as well. A lot of times she feels like her husband is the problem. But she doesn't realize her own heart is just as wicked and dark as her husband's. It's hard for wives to embrace that truth, but when you look at Scripture, you see that we as wives fall short of the glory of God as well. And as a result, there are attitudes of our hearts that we need to repent of to our husbands. We need to be willing to go to him as well and confess where we’ve been wrong and humble ourselves. There have been times when my husband and I have done this. We're together, we've acknowledged what's in our heart or what we've been carrying around and then we just repent together before the Lord. Those times have been so precious because it's where the Lord's been able to break us and really show us our great need for Him.

Host: Now, Jeff said that it is the responsibility of the husband to take that leadership role. How does the wife respond in a situation like this when the husband is not willing to take the lead?

Rose: Well, she needs to go to the Lord and pray. She needs to commit her husband to the Lord in prayer and trust the Lord to move upon his heart and to bring about the changes that need to come or the conviction that needs to come. I've seen that in my own marriage there have been times where I couldn’t say anything or it wasn't the right timing to, so I had to go to the Lord with it and just pray. I had to commit it to Him. And usually something would come up as a result to answer that prayer or in my husband’s prayer time, he would come and share with me what the Lord was showing him about himself, and at that point in a spirit of humility then I was able to share some things that I was concerned about and let him know that we needed to work on them together.

Jeff: I want to add to that, when Rose prays and is an example to me and lives out her role before God, what I have found is that God then is able to deal with me. But if she was nagging me and telling me that I need to do this or I need to do that, I know that as a man it would just push me away further. And really what I have seen over the years is that her example of being a submissive, godly wife has made me want to step up to that role and be what I need to be for her.

Have you ever looked at the Christian culture in America and thought, “something just isn’t right here?”

You aren’t just imagining it. Something actually is wrong.

Within the ranks of the church, a powerful subculture of Christianity has formed —and it is infecting the lives of millions every day.

This episode:
• Three groups coexisting within today’s church
• How the Christian subculture took root
• How to resist its sway in your own life

Jesus prophesied that on Judgment Day many would say to Him, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy, and preach, and cast out devils in Your name?" And to their shock, He will respond, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.” In Ep. 07 of our series, "Resisting the Rise of Lawlessness" we'll face the uncomfortable reality that many in the Church are actually in the same spirit of lawlessness as the godless world around them.

Resources

• How Can I Be Saved and Still Be in Sexual Sin? (Article) By Steve Gallagher