How Fasting Changed My Life | Spiritual Leadership Podcast with Landon Schott

Fasting is one of the fastest ways to spiritually grow and it's been one of the most impactful ways that I've spiritually grown over the last 25 years. 25 years, that's my fasting journey. It started when I was 15 years old, fasting muffins and juice during lunchtime, and it's ended to be now 11 40-day fasts here in my 40s. Fasting has absolutely changed my life, my ministry, and my spiritual journey, and I want it to change yours. So let's learn more about fasting. This is Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders. Fasting is a deliberate temporary abstention of food or drink for spiritual reasons. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that dramatically accelerates spiritual growth. I want to say that again. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that dramatically accelerates spiritual growth. So if I want to simplify that for you, fasting is simply denying the flesh and feeding your spirit. Let me give you some biblical examples of fasting. Moses fasted for 40 days in Exodus chapter 34, and that's where he encountered God and God wrote the Ten Commandments. Elijah fasted 40 days, and after he fasted 40 days, God used him to go and tear down the stronghold of Jezebel. Esther fasted three days, and this was a complete fast, and she had all of Israel fast with us. After she did that, she found favor with the king. Jesus fasted 40 days, and after he fasted 40 days, he overcame what the first Adam couldn't do, and he overcame the temptation of Satan himself. We see many different kinds of fasts all throughout the Bible, and they have different meanings and different outcomes. Now I want to caution you real fast, because religious people will say you can only fast water, and if you're doing any other kind of fast, it's not fasting. And I want to encourage you, don't waste your time arguing with religious people. Jesus didn't waste his time doing it, and you shouldn't waste your time doing it. See, fasts are all throughout the Bible, and there's many different kinds of fasts, and I would say this, all of them are beneficial for your spiritual growth. For example, there is a water fast, but there's also a partial fast. Many people call that a Daniel fast, which is simply just eating

vegetables. You're pretty much eating like a vegan. Then you have full fasts like Queen Esther, where you eat nothing and drink nothing. Then you could do liquid fasts. There's also married couples fasts, according to 1 Corinthians 7 5. This is when you abstain from intimacy with your spouse. You do it in unity, and it's a season of disciplining your flesh and spiritually growing. Now, if you're not married and you're single, then everybody's doing this fast all the time. You have corporate fasts. This is when you call all of the church together or all of your family together. We see this with Israel all the time, where they did these multiple fasts that they would call the entire assembly together. And then I call it an anything fast, where you could literally fast anything to discipline your flesh and strengthen your spirit. So don't just get caught up in just certain ways to fast. The key is to grow in your fasting relationship or your fasting journey. Because the truth is, fasting is a journey. Again, I told you that my story started out where I was fasting muffins and juice when I was a sophomore in high school. So this is 1998. My fasting journey started, and through my teen years, I would do little, tiny, short fasts. I'd do mini fasts. There were three-day fasts, five-day fasts. There were liquid fasts. I would fast candy. I'd fast things that I liked. It was a season where I learned how to deny my flesh. And this is where your fasting journey starts. It's a season where you deny your flesh, and that's when your spirit begins to come alive or grow or become more sensitive. Here's one of the secrets of this. When you learn how to deny your flesh, that's the season that you start hearing the voice of God. Now, I'm going to do another show on hearing the voice of God at another time, but when you fast, it makes you more sensitive to the voice of God. Then when I got in my 20s, I started doing 21-day Daniel fasts, and I started doing 40-day Daniel fasts, and I started upping my game. It was a season in my 20s where I would fast one day a week for the entire year. One day a week, all year. Then another time in my 20s, I did the first weekend of the month. I mixed it up, and I did all of these different things where I learned how to fast. I strengthened and got stronger in my fasting disciplines. So this is the season where you learn

discipline. So you start with denying, and then you go into discipline. Now, this is happened when I learned how to discipline myself in my journey with fasting. This is when God began to lead me and use me. So this is when God began to strengthen my relationship with him, and I went from that spiritual leadership of passionately following the Holy Spirit to God using me to help other people passionately follow the Holy Spirit. Then when I got in my 30s, I began my journey of 40-day liquid fasting, and I'm at the point right now where I've done 11 40-day fasts, and this is where God began to overwhelm me. So in your fasting journey, you go from the season of denying to discipline to a desire that you have with God that's greater than anything you've ever had before. And when you desire God, it really means this, that you really want what he wants. And this is when your relationship with God goes to another level, and this is when you start seeing the benefits, the miracles, or the absolute sovereign hand or favor of God when you get to this stage of fasting. So I'm going to give you three of the benefits or the reasons why I love fasting so much. Number one, when you fast, you encounter God. Exodus chapter 34, when Moses is on his fast, he encounters God and gets the Ten Commandments. He is hearing from God. He's with God face-to-face, and it comes on the tail end of a fast. Here's what you need to understand. When you're fasting, it is easy to hear God. I was with someone recently, and they told me that they were on their first 40-day liquid fast, and they were on day 30, and I said, all right, day 30 is when he gets excited. He said, what do you mean? I said, day 30 is when your spirit starts coming alive. I call it a knowing, where you just know things by the spirit that you shouldn't know. I'd say this, some of the greatest revelations I've ever encountered in my entire life came on 40-day fast. Some of the greatest God encounters I've ever had in my entire life were on a 40-day fast.

I'm telling you, when you fast, you will encounter God. Number two, it's the title of the show, it's a fast way to spiritually grow. I say this to young leaders all the time. You want to grow fast, or you want to grow slow. It's typically doing the hard thing or the challenging thing that becomes easy in the presence of God, but you have to be willing to do what other people don't want to do. Guys, outside of daily encounters, it's my opinion that fasting is one of the fastest ways to spiritually grow. We have an example in 1 Kings 19, where Elijah, the prophet, is battling Jezebel, not just the spirit, but the woman herself. Where he encounters Jezebel, he is suffering with witchcraft. He's responding to the effects of witchcraft, of battling Jezebel, and he asks the Lord to take his life. He's struggling in his relationship with God. He's struggling where he's at spiritually, but then in 1 Kings 19, it says that he went and fasted, and after he fasted for 40 days and nights, he went with the strength of the Lord. This is what happened. He spiritually grew, and he went from running from Jezebel to running towards Jezebel, because when you fast, you spiritually grow. It is one of the primary ways you're going to spiritually grow, and here's another thing. It's one of the primary ways you grow in spiritual authority. Great examples in Matthew 4. Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit to fast. This is important, because there's a lot of people who say, well, fasting's not for me. Well, if the Holy Spirit led Jesus into fasting, I'm certain he's going to lead you into fasting. What happens when Jesus fasts? He overcame what Adam failed in. When Satan tempted Adam, Adam fell. When Satan tempts Jesus, Jesus overcomes.

Why? He's in the middle of a fast, and he has spiritually grown. Now he has the authority to overcome Satan, and that is the battle that Jesus faced on our behalf. It wasn't just at the cross. It was in the middle of his fast. Now, this is wild. Right after Jesus defeats Satan and overcomes that temptation in the wilderness, the very next text says this, Jesus begins his ministry. I personally believe that your greatest ministry, your greatest authority comes on the tail end of learning how to fast. Number three, amazing things happen when you fast, or I'll say this. It releases miracles. When you have a fasting lifestyle, it means that you live in a perpetual state of the favor of God and miracles. I'm going to give you one of my favorite stories of fasting. We just started our church. We were eight months in. We're in high school. There's about 800 people going to our church. Church is thriving, and one of my spiritual fathers, one of my mentors, calls me and says, The Lord spoke to me this morning, and he told me to tell you to be aggressive about your building. Now, there was a specific building that I felt like the Lord told me he was going to give me. So, when he said, be aggressive, instantly I knew what to do. I needed a fast. I think this was about my fourth 40-day fast at the time. So I went on a 40-day liquid fast, and I walked around that building every single day for 40 days.

And I told the Lord, if you give it to me, it will never be mine. It will always be yours. I would say, Lord, if this is not for me, don't give it to me. But if you give it to me, I'll steward it with everything I have. That was my prayer for 40 days. On the last time, because I'm a little crazy, on the last day of the fast, I walked around it seven times, I blew shofars, I declared the miracles of God, and then I went and met with the church's leadership, and I asked them to give it to us. And what happened at the tail end of that was one month later, we purchased a $40 million complex on 17.5 acres, one mile from downtown Fort Worth, 180,000 square feet of building. We purchased for only $4.5 million. It was an absolute miracle that God gave an eight-month-old church this building. And I believe with all of my heart, it was a release from the fast. It was a miracle from the fast. Now, undiscerning people might just say, well, Landon, you just seem lucky. And I would say, you don't know my God, and you need to become, you need to transition from a leader to a spiritually leader. And you realize that luck has nothing to do with it. What has everything to do with it is God's hand on you, or God's hand on me, because we've been seeking him in a fast. Guys, I'm telling you, it is how you release the miracles of God in your life. This is what Esther found in Esther chapter four, when she went and stood before the king. Esther, she fasted for three days and three nights, nothing. All of Israel fasted together. She went in boldness and stood before the king, and she found the king's favor. Guys, when you fast and you grow in this journey of fasting, I promise you, you will find the favor of God. Now, I want to give you one of the greatest secrets to fasting. This took place about two years ago that the Lord spoke to me. I walk onto our platform in our newly remodeled building.

It's absolutely jam-packed. It's the second service of the day, wall-to-wall people, presence of God is so powerful. I walk on the stage of Mercy Culture, and I can feel the tangible presence of God. And when I stepped on the stage, I heard the Lord say this to me. He said, this is a result of the fast. And as soon as he told me, I heard it different. Now, he was telling me I was standing in the miracle of the favor of God and the authority of God that's on our life and our church and our ministry from fasting. But when he told me I was standing in it in that day, the first thing that went into my mind was, I need to be fasting for tomorrow. If I'm living in the fast of today, it means my tomorrow is waiting for me in the fast of tomorrow. Church, I want you to know this. This is so important. Your miracle of tomorrow is in your fast of tomorrow. So that means this, that you have to fast today for what you're going to be living in tomorrow. Let me give you an example. Mark chapter 9, it's a story of the disciples that couldn't cast out a demon. And they're arguing with the religious people, and there's chaos, and then Jesus came. He cast the spirit out, and his disciples went to him in Mark chapter 9 and 28 and 29, and they said to him, why couldn't we cast this out? And Jesus responded and said this, this only come out by prayer and fasting. Now watch this. Jesus wasn't praying and fasting, but he cast the devil out. Now Jesus had already prayed and fasted. Remember Matthew chapter 4, he went and fasted for 40 days. So watch this. Now Jesus is walking in the authority and the miracles that day because he fasted yesterday. Jesus healed the boy because he had already fasted.

I want to let you know that your fast of yesterday determines today, and your fast of today determines your tomorrow. So I want to leave you with this question. What could your tomorrow look like if you fasted today? What could your future look like if you had a fasting journey that you went on today? I want to encourage you, fasting is one of the greatest ways to spiritually grow. So let's recap. Okay. Fasting is one of the fastest ways to spiritually grow, and there are many kinds of fasts, but all of them will help you spiritually grow. Three benefits of fasting are God encounters, you spiritually grow, and miracles take place. And the secret of fasting is your fast today. day will determine your tomorrow. Now, let me pray for you. So Lord, I pray that your same grace that fell on me to fast. I pray it falls on my friends. Lord, every day I ask you to speak to me more clearly than anyone on the planet and help me teach others to hear the same. So I pray right now that they would begin to hear you so easily because of their fasting journey. Lord, I pray the same way that you met me in fast. I pray you meet them. The same way that I've encountered you in fast. I pray that you will encounter them and the same way you have released miracles, authority and favor on me. I pray you would release it on them. I pray over my friends this in Jesus mighty name. I declare over them speak Lord. Your servants are listening. Jesus name.

Amen. There is one way to God and it's through Jesus. But in Jesus, there are many ways to connect with him. You can commune with him while creating. Denying your flesh and feeding your spirit. Ministering to his heart through worship. Meditating on scripture. Getting alone to be with him. Meeting with him in creation. Asking him questions and listening for his response. Learning something new about him. Moving into an encounter with him. Making the crooked ways straight. Serving his people. Remembering what he has done. Your daily encounters with God change everything. Discover how you connect with God. Text encounter to 59090 to take your connect with God assessment today. Let me give you some practical advice about fasting. I have 10 things for you today. Number one, name your fast. Naming your fast is simply describing what your fast is all about. So one time I fasted 40 days for America. I called it the American fast. One time I fast for spiritual authority. I called it the authority fast. One fast I asked God to trust me at a greater degree. I call it the trustworthy fast. Your naming fast gives you a bullseye target of what you're fasting for. And then you could put your subcategories in your scriptures and

everything else surrounding that. And it keeps that bullseye in front of you. Number two, make specific prayer lists for the fast. Be intentional about this. So I get on my phone. I'll start making lists of everything on that fast that I am petitioning heaven for or I'm believing God to do miracles in these areas. Number three, never make big decisions before you fast. If you're going to have a big decision that's a life-altering decision about who you're marrying, jobs, moving, big things like that, a fast before them will always help you make the best decisions. Number four, don't be weird about fasting. Anytime you start fasting and it has to do with spirituality, people just get weird, okay? So you don't have to keep it a secret when you're fasting and you're afraid you're going to lose your reward. And I understand that there's scriptures that tell us how we fast and what it looks like and don't be boastful about it. But if you have a friend that, you know, it gives you something to eat and you're like, I don't know. Thanks. And like, are you fasting? You could tell them just don't be weird when you're fasting. Number five, take vitamins and protein to help you with energy. If you're doing a liquid fast, you can take liquid form of vitamins. You can do all sorts of different things like that. I try to bulk up on vitamins before I start fast. It'll help you have energy on your fast. Number six, if you fail, keep going. I meet so many people.

They're like, I tried fasting and then I stopped. I don't know. It's a journey. Same thing when you're working out or doing anything else. You can have days that you make mistakes. You have days that you fail. So if you fail, get up, start over again. Keep going. Number seven, push yourself. I meet so many people that start fasting and they start a little too simple or, you know, they're like, hey, I'm going to fast cake for this week. That's not a fast that is really going to move heaven and transform the earth. Okay. And so make sure that you are pushing yourself, denying yourself. Isaiah 58 verse 5 gives us a great example where God is speaking to the prophet Isaiah. He said, this is the kind of fast you think is acceptable. So that tells us that there are fasts that do please the Lord and they're fasts that are in obedience and the fast that push us. Number eight, invite your kids into age-appropriate fasting. So we got young kids that are still growing. So they're not doing all food fasts in this season of their life. But I got a daughter that's 13 years old and she's passionate about growing in God and she's asking us to fast extended fast all the time. So we're making sure that all the fasts that she does are appropriate. for her age, but I would encourage you, invite your children in.

My little boys will fast sugar or their favorite toy or some activity where they realize that they are disciplining themselves and they're spiritually growing. Tell you a quick funny story. So we are recently doing a corporate fast at Mercy Culture. And so we're doing no food and no water for three days. And that was an awesome fast. And so we invited our children into it. So our boys were fasting sugar for the week. So I picked up my five-year-old from school and he had a white uniform on. And when I picked him up, he had brown stuff all over his shirt. I said, hey bud, what happened? He goes, I spilled chocolate milk. And I said, I thought you're fasting. He goes, oh, oh yeah. So I gave him the advice to when you fail, start over. Number nine, pray about where to break your fast. This is really, really cool. This is one of my favorite practical advice I'll give you today. As I'm fasting, whatever I'm fasting for, I ask the Lord to give me assignment of where to break my fast. So I have broken my fast all over the world. I broke one at the Western Wall in Israel one time. I broke one walking, praying around different churches in Dallas one time.

I broke one in a prayer room in Washington one time. There's different stages in different places. And just ask the Lord, Lord, what would please you? What area should I break this fast in? And number 10, don't worry about doing it wrong. Focus on pleasing the Lord. When you're learning how to fast, everybody's gonna have opinions and their opinions really don't matter. Here's what matters. Are you disciplining your flesh? Are you feeding your spirit? And are you pleasing the Lord? And I would encourage you when you're fasting, you're pleasing the Lord. Asking questions are a great way to spiritually grow. Let's answer the questions today. Do I need to consult my doctor before I start fasting? So there are many benefits from fasting. I've done many different kinds of fast over the course of 25 years. And I could tell you that I've never been in medical danger because of fasting. I've only benefited physically from the fast. I would warn you that anytime you're dealing with carnal or worldly people, they tend to always resist fasting because fasting is how you spiritually grow. So if the enemy doesn't want you to spiritually grow, he's gonna resist fasting.

Next question. Can I take communion when I fast? And the answer is absolutely yes. I would encourage you to do it. I understand that you are drinking and you are eating the smallest, tiniest little cracker wafer in the world. But communion is a spiritual discipline. It is a spiritual act. And I would encourage you, yeah, that's not breaking your fast. Take communion while you're fasting. But keep that cracker small. Next question. Do I exercise on a fast? I would encourage you, yes. Stay in motion. You know that old commercial, body in motion stays in motion. That happens with fasting too. I try to still go on runs. I still try to do pushups. I still try to go on walks. And as you stay in motion, it will keep you in a rhythm on your fasting. So I'd encourage you, not the full extent of what you normally do, but stay in motion. Next question. Do I need to hear God personally

before I come in unity with my church on a corporate fast? I love this question. And many people struggle with this question because many people do struggle with submission. So here's how to answer that question. You already did hear God when you decided to be planted and submitted to your church and spiritual covering. So if God told you to go to that church and that church is now your spiritual leaders and that spiritual leadership has said, hey, God spoke to us to fast and you're a part of that and you're planted in that church, then the answer is yes, that's what you're doing. You say, well, pastor, I don't know if I want to fast that much. Then go to a different church that won't call you to spiritually grow. Go to a church that will allow you to be complacent and stay in your lukewarm state. But if you want to spiritually grow and you're in a church that's encouraging you to spiritually grow, I would encourage you, join in, be planted, be submitted. I get in front of our church all the time and we fast a lot at Mercy Culture. And I was like, hey, if you're a member here, this is what we're doing. And if you're a man, time to man up.

I say it all the time because here, we need to help people spiritually grow. And we're taking people as leaders to a place of spiritual leadership. And one of the ways that we do it is through fasting. So I encourage you, you've already heard God, be planted, be submitted. If you have any questions, you can text podcast to 59090 and I can answer your questions in future episodes. At Mercy Culture Spiritual Leadership School, we recognize that leaders are everywhere, but spiritual leaders are developed. Spiritual leaders walk with God and know His voice. The heart of our school is to raise up reformers who are able to spiritually lead in any room they walk into. We do this through encounters, teaching and impact. Supportation, service, equipping and activation. You can attend SLS in person or online. If you'd like more information, text SLS to 59090. If you desire to spiritually grow, I want to invite you to join me on this journey. Subscribe to Mercy Culture and you can follow me on social at Landon A. Schott. If you value this content, I would really appreciate it if you would share it with a friend. I'm Landon Schott, thank you for joining me on Spiritual Leadership where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders.