My Experience on the “Daniel Fast”
“I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips….until
the three weeks were over.” Daniel 10:3
21 days ago I embarked on a physical, spiritual, emotional
adventure called the Daniel Fast. It’s a
partial fast designed to “feed your soul, strengthen your spirit, and renew
your body”. It’s based off of the story
of Daniel in the Bible. When the Israelites
were overtaken by Babylon, the King took some of the wisest Hebrew men to serve
him. Daniel was among them. The King gave them the finest foods and wines
to eat to strengthen them. However,
these foods were sacrificed to false Gods.
Daniel would rather die than deny the One true God by eating sinful
sacrifices. So he pleaded with the
King’s messenger to allow them to eat only things that came from the ground and
to only drink water (for those items were not sacrificed to false Gods). The King’s servant allowed it and when he
checked in on him in 10 days, Daniel and his fellow Hebrews were stronger and
wiser that all the other men who ate the meat and drank the wine.
The world says that you are crazy to give up eating foods
like cheese, milk, meat, fast food, anything containing sugar, coffee, and pop, but the truth is, I am
blessed to have a choice to do so. My
first feeling of this process was a deep humility in the fact that there are
many people who live on less that what I was eating on the fast, and they do
not have a choice. It taught me to be
truly grateful for my food no matter what the type.
It was eye opening to see the emotional and physical
attachment I had with food. Day 1 of the
fast I vomited twice! I used to only
drink ½ cup of coffee in the morning and one pop at night. I didn’t think that was enough caffeine to
worry about having severe withdrawls.
But I was wrong. I was so sick. And as I sat crouched by the toilet, I
couldn’t help but doubt and wonder why in the world I would do this to myself. But looking back I can see how that
uncomfortable withdrawl opened my eyes to the physical stronghold of caffeine
on my body. I was also made aware of the
mental stronghold. Before, I always had
to have my cup of coffee in the morning.
It brought me joy, I looked forward to it, and I would say that I needed
it. Now, being 3 weeks free from any
coffee or caffeine, I can surely say it is not necessary to function. It truly isn’t. On week three, I felt fine, if not better in
the mornings with just a glass of water.
The first week I felt so extremely tired and constantly
hungry. All I could focus on was my
“flesh”. My regular morning prayer time
was more like morning nap time. As my
body was weeding out the old toxins I was used to, I was feeling the pain. Looking back, it really painted a physical
picture of what sin looks like. When you
eat crappy food so much like I used to, your body gets used to it. Same thing with things like sin, you get used
to gossiping, lusting over things you shouldn’t, envy, anger, jealously and you
live in it. It doesn’t feel all that bad because why would it, “everyone else
is doing it.” But once you allow God to start detoxifying your life, just like
detoxifying the body, it is super hard at first, but then the breakthrough
appears. You don’t realize how good you
can feel in freedom from past sinful habits or eating habits until you actual
feel what good is!
It was about halfway through that I started feeling better
and God gave me complete self control over food. I got used to the balance of being satisfied
and being ok with hunger. The cravings
weren’t that bad. And I started allowing
God to control what I was eating. He
would tell me when to stop and what was ok to eat and when. I remember in the “Daniel Fast” book, Susan
Gregory said that one of the goals of the fast was to make holy spirit led
decisions about food. I doubted. I thought, does God really care about what we
eat ? Didn’t Jesus did make all foods clean and ok to eat? But it’s more than just the food. A gift of the holy spirit is self control
and God wants us to have that. With self
control over food, you can be more energized, more available, more attentive to
the spirit and what God has for you on that specific day. Instead of focusing on how tired you are and
where your next cup of coffee is coming from, you can focus on complete
dependence and trust on God. Let me tell
you something true: Our God is greater than caffeine, and He is so able to make
any person a morning person!
It truly was the last few days that were the hardest. I was really tired of chopping up veggies,
cooking, and eating beans! I yearned for
some meat and cheese. I persisted and on
my first day back to regular food, I was so happy to eat an omelet for
breakfast and a turkey sandwich for lunch!
I had never been as thankful for “normal” food as I was on that
day. And on that day, I felt
different….I felt really free, super free.
You see, it wasn’t all about the food.
I tapped into self control through food and it bled into my mind and
heart. God is so faithful! Other battles I was facing spiritually were
won. And I do not write this to boast of
anything I did. God led me to this and
God guided me through this and I am so thankful. So if you are struggling with self control,
whether it’s with food, money, relationships, or any type of addiction, talk to
God about fasting. And when He says “do
it!”, you obey. It will change your life
for He is “able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power
at work within us, to Him be the glory.” Ephesians 3:20
For more information about the Daniel Fast check out this
website or ask me any questions your wish!:
http://daniel-fast.com/
