PHYSICAL BENEFITS OF FASTING
Anyone saved or unsaved, gets the secondary physical benefits of fasting. When we abstain from food, the stomach has a rest while the body does housecleaning. Many people are literally eating themselves to death. God gave the stomach a natural eating capacity of 13/4 pints, an omer, Ex. 16:16, for each intake of food. By being continually on a three meal per day habit or more, we stuff God and faith out of our lives and our lives out ahead of time. We stuff out health and invite diseases and demons in.
Fasting is the quickest and greatest curative agency known. Observe animals when they are sick – they do not eat. When you feed a diseased body you feed the disease while fasting starve out the disease. Fasting detoxifies the body and gets rid of practically all unwanted poisonous filth.
The foods we eat with preservatives and other chemical substances only serves to overwork the system and in cases where harmful substances cannot be assimilated by the body - the body stores them away; but the toxic effect only serve to harm the body (the case of the man with led deposits)
WHO CAN FAST. (Read 1 Corinth. 6:13, 19-20)
Everyone can fast as long as the person is spiritually, emotionally and physically prepared. However, in some instances, it is advisable not to fast; e.g. pregnancy, when going through severe emotional trauma, - death of a loved one, or divorce, if you are severely anaemic, and do not fast at festive times, (unless especially called to do so)>
Anyone fasting from three days or more, need to go on a detoxification diet longer than seven days, should have a blood test and be supervised by someone knowledgeable of fasting.
You cannot starve during a fasting. Excess starches and sweets cause the body to be converted into an alcohol factory. This causes habit hunger which is simply lust or appetite. Persons bound to this habit find it difficult to stop. (Luke 21:34; Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34, Prov.23 :21 ) –“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness clothe a man with rags."
Num. 11:8-34; Ps.78: 17-33; Matt.24:35; Luke 21:34; Rom 16:17-18, show us the sin of food addiction. 1Cor. 9:27 tells us about bringing the body under subjection – “ But I keep under the body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself be a cast-away.”
Fasting helps to subject the body and dominate appetite. It purifies the bloodstream and improves circulation. It cleanses the blood vessels so that choked vessels with cholesterol, etc will be cleared out and blood can freely flow. This prevents blood clots, heart diseases and heart attacks. Since the heart rests during fasting, blood pressure problems are put right, both high and low blood pressure.
In times of illness, it is necessary to conserve energy. Eating uses energy and retards the healing process. Fasting rests the stomach and digestive organs and diseases associated with them are cured. In a long fast, mucus, stringy and ropy faecal material are cleared out. All poisonous, contamination invites demons and diseases. Fasting starves them out.
Diseases such as cancer and other types of tumours, have been cured by long fasts. What happens is, that the growth is turned into food fuel for its own destruction. Fasting cures up to 99% of all functional ailments, among them, ulcers, goiters, indigestion, constipation, dyspepsia, diabetes, high and low blood pressure and so on.
It quickly heal skin diseases such as boils, skin blemishes, pimples. Other diseases such as rheumatism, asthma, arthritis, fevers, anaemia are cured by fasting. Menstrual irregularities are controlled as the uterus and tubes are cleansed of congestion. Weight can be controlled by fasting, both over and under weight.
Mentally, fasting improves thinking power, helps the person to study better, remember more and concentrate better. Although, during some periods of a long fast, this is not always the case, but after the fast, concentration improves. Pythagaros, the Greek philosopher on occasions, would order his students to fast when they had examinations. This he claimed made them perform better.
Fasting cure headaches and indeed headaches during fasting indicates that you ought to fast to remove toxic substances from your bloodstream. Headaches which occur as a result of the abuse of different substances, such as, tobacco, drugs, alcohol could be cured after a fast of seven days or more. If headaches are as a result of blood pressure problems, fasting can cure that as well.
Fasting aids and improves sight, hearing, touch and smell and respiratory problems, e.g. Sinus, tonsils, etc. It cleanses out the home and temple of the Holy Spirit. Let us eat Jesus as our menu (John 6:27,) we will not get hungry again.
Fasting shrinks the stomach, draws up the intestinal tract to normal size and prevents colitis, cancer of the colon, piles, etc. After the fast is broken, a smaller stomach should encourage a normal appetite. Thus bad habits should be overcome. Fasting aids temperance, a segment of the fruit of the spirit.
Fasting restores youth and beautifies the complexion. Regular fasts prolong life from 20- 40 years depending on the manner which fast are entered into and how often they are done. Rejuvenation and reversing the aging process are testimonies of many.
The older a person becomes, the more often he should fast. No one is too old to fast. The Bible shows that people lived longer the more they fasted. Look at Moses 120 years, Noah 950, Methuselah, 969. We could live up to 120 years functioning well, Genesis 6:3.
DURING THE FAST
The body has reserves for fasting – fats, sugar, carbohydrates and proteins. A person of 70 kilos (154 lbs) 1666 cal. Has reserves for three months – one of 135 kilos has 880,000 cal. Reserves for 14 months.
In a fast of seven days to 14 days – the body uses protein in the first week, less fat ; in the second week more fat, less protein. The body only uses the excesses, as a special defense mechanism to protect you.
During the first few days of the fast, breath is foul smelling, this reverses as fasting continues and tastes develop.
You may feel weak in the legs and back, because of protein use. After 10 to 15 days, the individual becomes stronger day by day as the body is cleansed and poisonous substances removed.
Walk slowly, avoid sudden jerky movements, but it is necessary to walk, so that the body can use the fat. If you remain still you will feel weaker –because of the proteins being used. Take fresh air. Your brain needs 140 grams of glucose per day to maintain basic metabolic rate. After that the brain uses fat because glucose finishes up to four weeks, then more fat is used.
During a fast you may sleep less up to 3 to 4 hours per day. Insomniacs sleep longer 20 – 24 hours.
Physical strength varies – it is increases in weak cases at the beginning, by the third week there could be a lessening of strength, but many maintain strength. Some exercise is needed to avoid weak feelings.
Weight loss is normally 1 lb. per day, more in overweight persons. In rare cases, some people gain weight especially in short fasts. Usually there are no bowel movements. If there are, they can be difficult or easy. Diarrhoea is possible when toxic matter is being released.
There is a reduction in sexual desires during fasting, but after, energy is renewed. Cases of impotence have been corrected by fasting.
You may vomit, feel nauseous, salivate a lot, have skin eruptions, headaches, back-pain, fainting spells, unpleasant tastes in your mouth, irritations in your throat, hiccoughs, dizziness, all these reactions are quite normal and the intensity of reactions depend on your diet, as well as on how well you prepared for the fast. All such reactions are simply the body cleansing itself, so there is no need to worry.