Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, I got to take you to Alaska. I need some give me some Alaska bumper music here. We got to go north. Here.
Alaska bumper music.
Yeah. Give me some Alaska bumper music. Give me something there. Man.
Up in Alaska, the state that stands alone. No dog race. Run from Anchorage to Nome.
They're doing it right now.
Yes. Race with the lightning. Pace with the chilly winds. Do well beneath the northern lights. Cross snow and the ice. And it's called the Iditarod Trail.
They had to move the start, didn't they?
They moved the start to Fairbanks because of lack of snow over once early stretch of the race called the burn.
Yeah. Lit.
Turn it up here a little bit.
I did, I did I did the I did it right.
Okay. There we go. That's good enough. I can't take too much of that.
That's fair.
We need a new one. Should have contracted with Boston to write it. And I did a run song.
Man, that would be a pretty epic. Yeah. Too late.
Uh, so here's the deal. The Iditarod is going right now. In fact, I texted my buddy Mitch Seavey the day before he took off and just told him I was praying for him, and he responded, thank you so much. He's, uh, he's a competitor. They're out in it right now. I think right now, Mitch and the teams are moving toward the Yukon River, and it's an epic race. I want to take you back to a place, though. It's called Happy Valley. They should have renamed it Unhappy Valley. You
come out of, um. You know, we're about 100 miles into the race, and you come off of a lake and you go down. It's called the steps. And, I mean, it is almost vertical. And if you can survive that, you got a big chunk of the race behind you. One little stretch about, I don't know, a quarter mile. And it's just going right into a gorge. And I was navigating it pretty well. And I got down near
this is 1979. I'm competing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and I got down near the bottom and my sled just took a quick dive to the left. I somehow got over a stump. Tree stump of some consequence and it was right below snow level, and it just tore my sled up and threw me further into the ditch. And I'm sitting there in a heap and my dogs are looking back at me like, man, what
was that? And at that point, I still had 13 dogs in my team, and I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm like, I got to wrestle this sled back up onto the trail. I'm about six feet off the trail in deep, deep snow. I can get no traction at all, and every time I'd push, my legs would go deeper into the snow. And then it dawned on me. I got a dog team hooked to this sled.
You don't have to do it so much by yourself.
And I just looked at him and I said, guys, and the command is not mush. You say hike. And I said hike! Hike! And they leaned into those harnesses and they pulled that now pretty smashed up sled up out of the ditch, back onto the trail. That's what I'm proposing between now and Resurrection Sunday for you. I want you to join me on something. We've called our church One-eighty Chicago, to a fast starting today. Today is lent.
I want you to join me. Not a full water fast and no food for 40 days, but one meal. If you're medically able to do this. If you're healthy enough to do this. If you're not, maybe just move it a little bit later and spend one meal a day where you are seeking the face of God to overcome that one thing that's got you in the ditch spiritually, that's holding you back from running the race, holding you
back from all that God has for you. You know, sometimes we wrestle with ourselves trying to get ourselves out of the ditch. Did you know you're hooked up to God and he's got all the juice you need? Yeah, every bit of it. You say, Carl, do you believe this stuff? I believe it.
Yeah.
And I want you to taste it.
Carl, before we give out this resource. This is something that popped into my mind. Fasting is not transactional in the sense of I'm going to not eat so that God will give me something. Correct?
No, this is about aligning our lives with the power source in our life, saying I'm desperate for you. Yes, it's just saying, God, I need you. You don't say hike to God. No, you say, God, pull me out of here. And I don't know what it is. I don't know what that one thing is that's really holding you back from everything God has for you. But if. If you want to know the most important day on the calendar for every Christ follower, it ain't January 1st,
it is Resurrection Sunday. And I want to give you a resource. I gave a message some time ago. You can listen to it. You can scroll forward through the worship set. You can enjoy it if you want, whatever you want to do with it. Or you can just go right down to an ebook, a little overview of its compilation that my bride put together of 30 different resources on fasting, practical things, how to fast, how to position your heart, why we fast. What we can fast
for all the ways that we're in the ditch. Man in a snowbank asking God, can you get me back on the trail? I want to run this race like never before and God can do it. We're calling this 40 day fast, which the way the sequencing works up to Resurrection Sunday is every Sunday is a feast day, but every day, starting today, just skip one meal. Lean into God. And then on Sundays, it's a feast day. If you want to join us and you want to know some tips on fasting, get this link right now.
Real simple to get.
Yeah, just text the word hungry. Hungry to 800 555 7898. The word is hungry and only the word hungry to (800) 555-7898. That links right in there for you.
Yeah. Godspeed to you guys. God can do what you cannot do. Stop wrestling. Call on the name of God. Text hungry hungry to our number here and we'll get that resource to you.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio, which is a lot of.
Teachings that are their call on our life. But then you stumble into these teachings, especially in the sermon on the Mount that Assumptions are made by Jesus that I don't know that we linger there long enough. One of them is when you fast. Not if you fast when you fast. Has that ever struck you, Ali?
Yes. Because when you think about all of the time we spend talking about prayer, that is certainly the expectation for the Christian. I don't know that fasting is as much a part of our conversations or our spiritual disciplines.
Yeah. Ronnie, when you give to the needy, when you pray. But when you fast right there in the sermon on the Mount, you can't miss it, can you, Ronnie?
You really can't, Carl. And sometime we try to miss it, or we just miss it, or we just read fast and don't pay attention. But, you know, fasting is mentioned 69 times in the Scripture in 57 verses. And obviously Jesus talked about it and Jesus practiced it, as well as the New Testament church as well as so many others, not only in biblical times, but in history and even today. And so, you know, God can do great things when we obey God.
Doctor Ronnie Floyd, our guest this morning, speaker, author, encourager of Leaders The Next Generation, featuring a book today, The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting.
Ronnie, why did Jesus fast? In practical terms, he's the Son of God. Why did he fast? Was he simply modeling the way? I know we're getting into some deep theology here, but what do you say?
Well, that's pretty deep. And, you know, I've had a lot of questions asked me about this subject for years. I'm not sure I've ever had anyone ask me that specific question. I do believe, Carl, that it definitely is a model. I mean, why would Jesus be baptized? It became a model. Why would he.
Pray? Correct.
You know, it would be a model. So I think it illustrates communion and Fellowship. There are things we do at times that that we may not understand, but God honors them. And I think one of the things that is really interesting about fasting is that it's it's almost mysterious with people, and they're not sure why that would happen. And they say, well, why does God bless that? If
he does? Well, I can assure you he does. But I believe it comes down to simple obedience to do what God says, that we would abstain from the most natural thing we do, which is to eat. And we all enjoy eating. But in order to pursue the God of heaven, to do something in our life that only God can do.
Doctor Ronnie Floyd, our guest this morning. Okay, so we've established that all Christians are called to fast. Is fasting just related to food? You hear about people doing a social media fast or a fast from Netflix or other things that they give up that are pleasurable for them for the sake of drawing closer to God. Is this the same category, or is that something entirely different?
Well, I believe the biblical model Ali is is what the Scripture says, obviously, and it's all relating to the matters of abstinence from food. Every one of those verses that are in the Bible and the word itself means, you know, not eat shut mouth. I mean, that's pretty clear. At the same time, there are people who perhaps cannot fast due to physical reasons, or perhaps they have some kind of disease or something, and they're on medication. Maybe
they need to limit whatever fast they did. But I think when you really come down to it, I mean, I think you all probably have found this in your life. Whenever you really sacrifice something you do enjoy, but you put a pause on it for a season so you can do something better in this situation pursue God, which is always much better. I believe God honors that. You know, I can't testify that that you know that that's the
biblical model. I know what the biblical model is, but I'm not demeaning that and by any means, and I'm not minimizing it because I believe God will honor that. When a person's heart is right, it's all about our heart and what our intent is.
Rodney Floyd, our guest right now. Ronnie, coming up here, I want to tackle some of that blue sky vision for, as you've written in your book, 12 Ways God Will Change Your Life The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting. I think people need a story and then some hope for why would I withhold food? And because a lot of us head into fasting and we're like, we're so focused on being hungry, the last thing we can do
is talk with God. So let's break it down. A little vision for what fasting can do for you and me. Coming up.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
We've got our special guest with us today. Doctor Ronny Floyd, speaker, author, really a mentor of leaders. And he's written a phenomenal work. The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting 12 Ways God Will Change Your Life. So how does he change us? We need a vision for what can be. Otherwise, this is going to be an arduous task and it can become very religious and empty. Ronny.
Well, there's no question about that. Just like anything else that we would try to do in the Christian life, I believe one of the greatest stories would be the one that God creates in each one of us when we do it, and because it becomes what we call a testimony and, you know, the power of testimony. Yes. When you look at the Bible, there are so many testimonies of it, for example, Jehoshaphat Surrounded by the enemies. There was no way out, and he proclaimed a fast
and called people to fast and pray. And God delivered them. Uh, Ezra on his way to Jerusalem with the people, taking them back to the land, uh, knew he had to go through enemy territory. He had told the King how great God was, and God had given him the favor of the king. But it dawned on him right before he left. You know what? We're about to enter enemy territory. And you know, if I talk to the king and tell the king, you know that I need a cavalry.
I mean, that doesn't really show him how great our God is. So I proclaim to fast, to humble ourselves and to specifically ask God for a safe journey. And I think the passage there in Ezra eight is one of the premier chapters in the Bible that gives to us this specifics that involve any kind of fast that we ever do, and God delivered them in that situation. Carl and Ali and, you know, there are so many others. I mean, you can think about the New Testament church.
You think about Jesus's own life. I mean, think about this. The Bible says when Jesus was baptized, the spirit came upon him like a dove, right? And then it says, he as he was being filled with the Holy Spirit, he was led into the wilderness. Some people, when they walk in the wilderness in their life, they think, well, surely God is not behind this. Well, the Lord led Jesus into the wilderness. Into the wilderness. He faced massive temptation for 40 days of not eating. And then what
did he say? When or what the Scripture said is said that he came out of the wilderness empowered by the spirit. Uh, like the dynamo is the word there, like dynamite there. And then it was in that same situation that Jesus proclaimed, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me to preach the gospel. So,
you know, even Jesus model this miraculous thing. And so I've experienced it personally in numerous occasions, which are part of my personal testimony, not just recently, but going back, even as a college student, going back to when my wife had cancer, going back to when I was compelled to fast for for 40 days the first time, the
Lord led me to do that. And what God did to the times of praying for our church, or the times of taking people on a journey of fasting and prayer, when we had people pray for their burdens and fast for their burdens. And so, I mean, I could go on and on about it, obviously, but there is something that happens uniquely, mysteriously, and I promise you, it is a supernatural power of God that intervenes in the midst of life when we obey God. The simplicity of obeying God's word.
Doctor Ronnie Floyd, our guest right now. Now, you mentioned a couple of different miraculous things that you've seen as a result of prayer and fasting. What is the appropriate motive to go into a fast with. Is it okay to fast because I want God to answer a specific prayer. Is it okay? I mean, not is it okay? But is that the right motivation? I want God to answer my prayer, or I want him to prepare me for something I have coming up? Or it's sometimes it feels
like our motives could potentially get off. We don't want to use this as a tool to try to manipulate God. How do we discern that?
Well, I believe you have. You've named several reasons why we would do it. And I think that, you know, if God if you know, God's not going to bless it, if he if you're trying to manipulate him. And I think I tell people this often, you know, fasting and prayer is not a couple of hoops to jump through in order to get God's favor. God's bigger than that. God.
God looks at your heart, and I can assure you, when you look at the Scripture and the first chapter of the book is that I talk about an invitation that God extends to us, that you cannot decline. It's how God shows us when we need to fast. And I'm not seeing a lot of this, but this is brand new material. The Lord put in my heart as I was writing this book, and that could be some of the very things you mentioned. Like a need, like a burden. It could be a spirit of restlessness that
enters your life. It could be desperation. Perhaps somebody has a disease. Perhaps you need an answered prayer, you know, do we sell our home or do we not? Do we take this new job or do we not? We need to draw aside and see what God says. Or maybe somebody just really desires a fresh touch from the Lord and they feel like, you know, I need to spend time with God. I mean, I could go on and on for the reasons that the Lord may call you to do it, but many of those are modeled.
Think about when Nehemiah, for example, in the Scripture, there was a need that arose and a burden came upon him, and he fasted and prayed about that burden. And God sent him to go rebuild the wall in Jerusalem.
Ronnie, does fasting change us or our circumstances more?
I think that God often changes us to align with his purposes, and I think that that's what happens. He changes us. He can change circumstances. Some people ask, you know, do we change God when we pray and fast? Well, I'm not sure we ever change God. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's always dependable. He is sovereign. He knows everything. But here's what I have found Carla
and Ali. And this is one of the greatest treasures of fasting and praying is that when we fast and pray and we give that specific need or that list of needs before the Lord, and we diligently withdraw and talk to him about them, you know what? Whether God answers those the way I had hoped or not, when I finish, it's really okay Because God is alive in my heart. God, I've given this to you. This is you. You do what you want to do. And we always don't get the answers to our times of prayer and
fasting the very week we do it. Or week a week after that. You know, Daniel got an answer after the fast. And I think that many times God does answer our prayers after. But you know, God always is fulfilling in your life, my life, everyone's life, his sovereign and providential will. And when our attitude lines up with that, it's almost like we realign our lives to God's will when we fast and pray.
I want to give some practical kind of guidance or ask you to do that for folks maybe who are brand new to it. What's a what's a good starting point? I mean, do I you mentioned you'd done a 40 day fast. Do I skip a meal? Do I try to fast a day three days, seven days? What guidelines would you give someone who's new to this? Completely.
I would say this, Ali. Whether it's a pastor or ministry leader who's going to lead his church or his ministry into a season of fasting for a period, or whether it's an individual who's listening today, I think it's really critical. It's just like any other area of your Christian life. You just have to start where you are and so be wise. And so what I would encourage people to do is to call a one mill fast.
And that's where I would start. And, you know, you could tell, you know, you could decide, I'm going to eat breakfast, I'm going to eat dinner today. But from 9:00 to 5:00, I'm going to really try to draw a side in some of that time and seek the Lord about what's on my heart, especially during that 20
to 30 minutes of when I normally eat. I'm going to get myself in God's Word and ask God to speak to me about what I'm talking to him about, and I think that that is the first step you sustain yourself with water and with juice and you'll be fine. You really will be fine. Now, when you get into extensive fasting, then you know you need to really consider a lot of things. You might even need to consider
talking to your doctor. You might need to consider your condition. Obviously, there's a lot of things, but starting at the basics, I would start with a one meal fast, and then I might go to a one day fast at another time, and then I may go to a three day fast. And because all of those are different points and they all are points of growth in our Christian experience.
Love it. This is powerhouse. This is powerhouse. Boom crew. You want a link for this? We got it for you. It's called the supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting 12 Ways God Will Change Your Life. And I want you to get this link right now. Just text the word fast to our number 800 555 7898. Fast to 800 805 55, 7898. Ronnie, you are a blessing, young man. Yep. I called you young man. We're just getting started on this journey through eternity. But, Ronnie, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you. Hey. Thank you, Carl and Ali. The Lord bless.
You. And it's always great to be with you.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
You know, today is an epic day, and we're going to talk about this day of lent and something that you can lean into. But I want to put out an appeal for prayer in a couple of ways. One is if you would lift up prayer for our team. We've got somebody at home today with a bad, bad bug and she has got when you when you are shaking so kind of forcefully that it's hard for you to even get sleep. When you get the chills like that, you gotta. You got a bug.
Oh, yeah. Please pray.
Yeah. Please pray for Super Dai. And Ali is, uh, feeling punk. Um, we're going to avoid the jokes today. They'll be back. They'll be back. I know that some of you are like, oh, I needed my jokes today.
I know, but it is. Ali thinks it's funny. I don't think that you or I, Carl could be a replacement for it.
Come on, man. It'd be a total nightmare.
I'd be a mess. If you want to try, I'll give you the space for it. Yeah.
You know, if there's one day on the calendar, though, that you can set for a restart in your life. Boy, I've got it for you. You know what it is. It's not January 1st. It's Resurrection Sunday. Think about that. The celebration of the empty tomb. That our Christ is alive. So I want to tee up something for you by asking a funny question, but a very serious one. I asked it about a year and a half ago and we got crushed with responses. This will be totally anonymous.
Totally anonymous. I'm going to read out the responses, but not your number. The occasional name that we have here, we will not. This is just between you and God. And you're saying I agree with you. God, here's the question. What is the one thing that stands between where you are today and all of God's blessings? Think about this. It's a sin. Shame. Repent. Repeat. Or maybe it's something that you've pushed to the shadows. It comes from a
family of origin. There's something going on in your life and it's like, man, this habit, this hang up, this addiction, this thing that I do. The Holy Spirit's revealing it to you right now. That one thing that's holding you back from everything and you know it. Everything inside you. You know it. And you've maybe never told anyone. What is it? Text it to us right now. 800 555 7898. It is a powerful thing when you can agree with God and in this case, a couple other brothers, and
just say, I'm agreeing with God on this one. I am looking at square in the eyes. I'm looking in the mirror, and I'm saying, this is what is holding me back and I know it. What is it? 800 555 7898. There's something liberating about just texting it in and going, this is what it is, guys. Just want to give it to you. This is what it is. 805 five five 7898. What is it? What's holding you back? I'm going to break those down for you. We're not
going to. You're going to remain totally anonymous. But let's. It's a powerful thing to put in. This is what it is. And the first one in is alcohol. Good. Honest. That's great. What is it for you? Text 800 555 7898. And coming up, I'm going to take you to the Iditarod Trail. It's going right now. The Iditarod is in motion. My buddy Mitch Seavey is going for a fifth victory. And he might pull it off, even though he's in
his 60s. He's got an incredible team of dogs. But I want to give you a metaphor that is going to help you understand that what you've been trying to do in your own strength, it won't happen. But with God, all things are possible. What is that one thing that's holding you back from everything? Just text it to us here. Totally. Anonymous 805 55, 7898. They're pouring in here. Drinking, sexual purity, gambling, gluttony. Food. What is it for you? Codependency? Sports betting. Oh, now
we're getting. Now we're going there. 855 five 7898. And we got hope around the corner here. Guys, we got hope.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
We've had so many responses here asking the question.
Here, and I'm going to give you some hope right now. What is that one thing that's holding you back from all of God's blessings? Remaining totally anonymous here, asking you to text in your responses 800 555 7898. Having a child by one man and letting her and another man think he's the father. Wow. Discipline in all areas of life. Procrastination. Anger. Television is my distraction. Anger. Envy. Jealousy. Self-defeating actions. Little
spurts of lust. Time management. Flirting. Control and fear. Competitive jealousy and envy. Just reading out your responses. That's all I'm reading here. Overindulging in food and impulsive spending. Hidden drug addiction. Bad relationship with my husband. Laziness, fear and sin. Thank you so much for your honesty and for those of you that didn't even text in, you know that one thing that's holding you back from everything. So I'm
about 100 miles into the Iditarod. Back in 1979, 1100 mile dog sled race across Alaska took me 21 days, eight hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds to get there. But along the way, I had times when I thought, I don't know how I'm going to get out of here. I was going into what's called Happy Valley down the steps. It's going into a gorge in order to get up over a big Alaskan mountain range, in order to get down these steps. It's basically a freefall. Teams in front
of you, they're rolling. No brakes will really slow the sled, but you got to mash down anyway. I was flying down what's called the steps and almost made it to the bottom in good shape. And then my sled lurched to the left and bam! I hit a stump that was hidden underneath the snow, and it ripped some of the crossbars out, and it catapulted me into the deep snow that had no trail underneath it.
Man.
I sat there in a heap, man. Just.
I'm sure it hurt.
Just. Oh, it was a mess. My rib cage was banged up for a while because I hit the handlebar when I was oh man, jumping over, I found myself just disoriented and going, how in the world did I get here? And then I'm doing something crazy. I'm trying to get this sled back up on the trail so I could start running this race again. And I'm pushing and with every push, probably six feet of accumulated snow. So with every push, I'm going deeper in the snow.
I'm going waist high now I'm going chest high. And now I am stuck. And then it dawned on me. I've got 13 dogs attached to this sled. And I just looked at him and I said, hey guys, give me the command. Hike! Let's go, let's go. And they leaned into their harnesses and I held onto the handlebar, and they pulled that sled that was totally derailed and banged up and me back up onto the trail again. Got some baling wire out, put a few things together
and off we were racing again. For some of you, that is a perfect metaphor for where you're at spiritually today. You don't know how you got here. How did lust, how did wine, how did laziness. How did this become such a part of your life that you feel like you're off the trail and it's holding you back from everything? Here's what I want you to know. You won't get out yourself. But if you hook yourself up to God
in His power. It's more than possible. It's probable because it's God's will that you not be stuck in that ditch anymore. That I promise you. Today is lent. For 1800 years it's been celebrated and practiced. It's a great day to redeem, and it's headed toward 40 days plus four Sundays that will culminate in the resurrection, the best calendar day we have for celebrating God's ability to pull us up out of a ditch. You want that? And coming up, I'm going to tell you how.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's Karl and crew on Moody Radio.
Got a lot of responses asking the question, what is that one thing that's holding you back from all of God's blessings? And you know what it is. If it's procrastination, if it's too much doomscrolling if it's if it's wine that you were sipping and now it's sipping you, the list goes on and on. And you know what that is? The Spirit of God lives inside you and he wants to give you victory. And much like my dog team on the side of the Iditarod Trail, oftentimes our notion
is I got to get out of here. But when I realized, hold it, my team is right in front of me. They're hooked to the sled, and I was chest deep in snow with a banged up sled off the trail. And I simply said, guys, hike! Here we go. And they leaned into their harnesses and they pulled me back onto the trail, and I was back in the race again. That's the way it is for you and your relationship with God. You've tried too long in your
own power to get back up on the trail. God in his strength wants to do in you what you can't do yourself. You're hooked up to God. He's got the strength, he's got the power, he's got the juice. So I want to invite you into something. An adventure here today is lent. It's the beginning of a 40 day fast. Given that, and if you're looking at a calendar, add Sundays, four of them. You've actually got 44 days till Resurrection Sunday. But I want you to join me.
Our two church campuses are starting today. Elders were anointing with prayer on each campus from 6 to 8 a.m.. You don't have to be there for that. Wherever you are in this world. I'm inviting you to join us. If it's prompted in your heart by God to skip a meal a day, six days a week, starting today. Sundays are fast days or feast days, I should say, but every other day, fasting one meal to seek God for deliverance from that one thing that's holding you back
from everything. I want to encourage you to do it, my friend. God can do it. He has the power and he wants to help you today. And I've got a resource for you. I did a message on Isaiah 58, and my bride actually did an e-book, a compilation of 30 books that are going to help you with details, do's and don'ts, ways to prepare for a fast ways to head into it, and what you fast for. And I want you to get this link, and we're going to give you practical resources so that you can get
victory today. Text the word hungry. The name of our what we're calling our fast is hungry for God. Text hungry to 800 555 7898. Just that word. Hungry to 805 55 7898. And what we're going to have for you is a link that is going to give you all the resources you need to get victory text hungry to 800 555 7898. Especially my brides little mini e-book, no cost. Just come and get it.