FASTING & YOUR HEALTH- Health Benefits of Fasting
Common body reactions include extreme thirst and hunger (of course), weakness, fatigue, headaches, and occasional dizziness. In the early stages of attempting to fast these reactions are more intense. They fade and fasting becomes easier as the body becomes more conditioned.
With more regular fasting our bodies become less “unruly.” God also helps us in our natural weakness of finding it difficult to fast. He always makes his grace abundant on his children that are sincerely willing to obey his word. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work,” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Regular fasting cannot kill the body. We may lose weight and strength during prolonged fasts but the spiritual breakthroughs in moving closer to God are too precious compared to anything we can lose.
In order to enhance the positive effect of fasting in the initial stages, it is recommendable to drink some salted water for the cleansing of the bowels. Add 2 level teaspoons of salt to 1/4 litre of hot water and drink it. You can take this at any time, even when not in a fast, but with an empty stomach, in order to cleanse your body. During a fast, it should not be taken before the first day.
WHO SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN FASTING? If you have certain types of physical problems, e.g. diabetes, or if you are on some kind of regular medication, you should consult your doctor and get his advice before you begin to fast. There will be some people who will not be able to practice fasting. I believe that it is the responsibility of other Christians to fast for those who cannot.
Ulcer & Fasting?
Diabetes & Fasting
Please consult your doctor and observe your functions well before you continue the fast. Fasting and prayer is voluntary and not religious compulsion
Four Cleansing Methods
- The pores of the skin are channels through which the body secretes much poison, and this happens particularly during a time of fasting. This is the reason why Jesus says: “Wash thy face” (Matthew 6:17). It helps a lot to bathe more frequently than usual.
- The kidneys are activated by drinking water frequently, therefore the urine is diluted and poison is flushed out.
- The lungs are there to secrete the body’s poison through breathing. Therefore it is necessary to be out in the fresh air, to take deep breaths of fresh air, as well as often opening the windows.
- The bowelsare also an important means of secretion. Do not worry if the bowels almost stop working altogether, as this is only because there is no supply of nourishment.
- Without prayer your fasting is ineffective and in vain.FASTING-PRAYER=HUNGERSTRIKE.
There are four things necessary to human life. They are placed herewith in order of importance: 1. THE FIRST GREAT ESSENTIAL TO LIFE IS AIR, NOT FOOD. 2. THE SECOND IS NOT FOOD, AS SOME WOULD SUPPOSE, BUT WATER. 3. THE THIRD, IS STILL NOT FOOD, BUT SLEEP. 4. FOOD IS THE FOURTH GREAT ESSENTIAL.
The longest period of authentic wakefulness on record is not quite ten days. Legends of prolonged insomnia are heard from time to time, but as they have never been verified, they continue as mere legends; consequently, food is proven to be less important than sleep. Food is less important than water because a man in a hot desert sun will die in a few hours, or several days at the most, if he has no water to drink; (this is more fully explained elsewhere). Food is less important than the air we breathe, because, if we could not breathe, thereby getting fresh air into our lungs, we would die in a few moments. So food does not have as important a place in life, as most of us are inclined to believe. Although a person can continue weeks, and sometimes even months, without anything to eat, which is much longer than he could live without any of the other essentials, yet food has a very important place in the physical welfare and is one of the four essentials. Please see the chapter following this one on how long a person can fast.
Speaking of food, one does not realize the huge quantity which is consumed in the course of a month by an ordinary individual, until one fasts. Most of the American people consume far too much food. According to health experts, the American people as a whole suffer more or less with auto-intoxication. The Scriptures show us plainly that we should be temperate in all things
“To this a spare diet contributes much. Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat. That’s like a man, but this below a beast.”
MISERIES OF FASTING Although various complications, many of which have been enumerated, appear while fasting, such as fainting, fever, dizziness, headaches, a tendency to vomit, severe sharp pains in the abdomen, weak knees, short breath, sleeplessness, or sleepiness all the time, nervousness, vexation, foul breath, watery nose, sneezing, backadie, burning kidneys, side-ache, etc. THESE DO NOT all appear at one time. PERHAPS ONLY ONE OR TWO may be noticed by any one individual in an entire fast. Please do not be alarmed, as this is just a natural result of the fast, and in nearly all cases is experienced only during the first part of the fast. Usually hot water drinking, enemas and exercise will stop the condition. After the body is cleansed, the condition will subside. Pains in abdomen are often caused by drinking cold water too fast. A change to hot water will remedy the condition. Oxidation of waste material in the intestines causes the fever. Large enemas wherever necessary, are helpful. The enema bag should be elevated high. Some medical advisers, however, state that it is not always necessary for the bowels to move when fasting—that enemas are not always necessary.
Is fasting harmful to the physical body? This question has been raised more than any other question concerning the subject of fasting. In the light of modern medical science we can state with assurance that fasting is not in the least harmful. Fasting purifies and cleanses the body; it permits a balancing of the circulation, absolutely essential to good health; it allows the various eliminating organs to dispose of the effete material from the system, and to oxidize, or burn up, the useless matter which has accumulated, like ashes in a grate.
When a fast is begun, the first things which are oxidized and eliminated are those useless materials floating about in the form of mal-assimilated food material, which sometimes choke the small blood vessels and congest the lymph vessels. In other words, THE VERY THINGS WHICH WE WISH TO ELIMINATE FROM THE SYSTEM, ARE THOSE WHICH NATURE ACTUALLY DISPOSES OF FIRST OF ALL. Fasting is housecleaning of the body. The Holy Spirit, then, is given a clean temple in which to dwell. Cleanliness is also godliness. When assimilation stops, the processes of elimination are greatly accelerated. We will show four methods used in this process.
One should not drink milk or coffee when fasting for to do so is dieting and not fasting. Nothing at all should be drunk except water. It is a purifying agent, and is necessary to wash out the poisons from the system.
FASTING DOES NOT REDUCE, BUT INCREASES THE ENERGY AND HEAT OF THE BODY by the combustion of the waste poisons by a process of oxidation, in which waste becomes the fuel for its own destruction and elimination from the body. The process of combustion becomes a source of added bodily heat for the faster’s comfort, as well as a source of added energy, bringing about revitalization and restoration of health. Fasting RETAINS THE YOUTHFUL COMPLEXION AND APPEAR. ANCE. FASTING DEFERS OLD AGE AND KEEPS THE BODY YOUNG. Flossie Winsor writes from Triton, Newfoundland, “My flesh is taking on a natural, rosy, youthful color. I feel like a new person.” An early old age is both a biological and mental abnormality. It results principally from accumulated impurities and deposits. Abstention from food will help to remove the accumulations, and thus defer the physiological process that brings on old age. We are only as old as the number of dead cells we have in our body. Fasting converts dead cells into food fuel. This explains why we look so much younger after
I have personally seen pessimism, gloom, discouragement, anger, grudges, fear, morbidity, despondency, worry, fussiness, mental tensions, perversions, vile and depraved thoughts, excitability, other forms of mental conditions, and bad habits disappear completely after the bodily purification is accomplished. Bodily purification leads to spiritual purification. Demons often feed on food filth and carnality; many times fasting unlooses them and makes a person free from demons and disease. The health authority, Bernarr Macfadden, tells us “That the body intimately influences the higher soul-powers during a fast, I definitely know. Physical renovation and purification lead to spiritual renovation and purification. I have experienced a sublimation of the Spirit, during a prolonged fast, which is difficult to put into words. It must be experienced to be known. There is a spring to the step, a feeling of joyous release, of gladness which fairly overwhelms one. There is, too, an exaltation of spirit, a broad and more generous sympathy, love and understanding for all things and for all mankind, a feeling of well-being, and of peace with God, with one’s fellowman, with the world, and with all things which are a part of our everyday living.” If this is the exalted experience of a person interested in the physical welfare of individuals, how much more glorious should be the experience of those who would “specialize” in power and faith with God through fasting and prayer? It takes Jesus, however, to give eternal life.
WHAT ABOUT UNPLEASANT PHYSICAL REACTIONS? Because of current lifestyles, most people will experience some type of physical reactions in the early stages of the fast. Some common ones are headaches – and they can be very severe – dizziness, and nausea. If you are fasting for a day you are liberating your blood from normal digestive duties, to do a lot of clean up jobs which badly need doing, but which never were done because your blood had to spend its time digesting food. In fact to overeat is to reduce your physical energy. When you go beyond what you need in food, you are simply making your body do extra, unnecessary work digesting unneeded food. If you can find the faith to do it, praise God. “Thank you God for my headache. I realize that my blood is there doing something that needs to be done a long while ago.” Don’t stop your fast. If you do you have let the devil defeat you. When you fast do so resolutely. You had better make up your mind that you are going to do it and don’t leave open the possibility that you might have that meal after all because then the devil will be at you all the time to have that meal. If you have made up your mind not to eat again today and dismiss that possibility from your mind, it’s much easier. At meal times you may feel real hunger pains. Actually, you don’t need food, but your stomach operates by habit. In about an hour you will find that your hunger pains will go without you having eaten. It was just habit. If you want to fool your stomach take a couple of glasses of water. 4 Fasting uncovers our problems both spiritual and physical, so when the problem is exposed don’t blame the problem on the fasting. Instead thank God that the fasting has revealed the problem which was already there.
