Sid: My guest is red hot for the Messiah, as a matter of fact my guest walks in God’s nuclear power, his name is Steven Brooks. He’s been walking in the gift of the working of miracles and healings, and I wanted to find out why him? Was he just someone special or does he have a special God that he has learned how to, and I love it in your book you mentioned something and what you say is “Is that true fasting, you break your love affair with the world.” Amplify on that a little bit.
Steven: Well, Sid there are so many things in life that are not even necessarily bad things, they could even be good things, but they all pull on our attention and sometimes it could be hobbies, sometimes it could be even a nice thing. I had a friend of mine confessed that because to the Lord’s blessing he had extra money so he went out and bought a beautiful plasma television, you know a huge TV, and he said, “Now I can’t stop watching it.” So we have all of these wonderful things, even blessings and good things, but fasting helps reset and recalibrate our priorities so that first of all the Lord Jesus is on the throne of our hearts and we’re ready and positioned to respond to Him instantly no matter what He might ask us to do.
Sid: You know, you’re a pastor, as you teach about God’s nuclear power to your congregation, and they start fasting, to your congregation and other places do you get much feedback of the change in their life?
Steven: Yes, the change is always a wonderful testimony to hear, sometimes the miracles will follow quickly after a fast, sometimes they might not show up till six months later.
Sid: And you know what? I have found that and I used to get discouraged from fasting because my peanut brain, that did not understand the invisible world, said that “Something powerful has to happen when I fast and when it didn’t happen, then I got discouraged.”
Steven: I understand, and most cases the benefits of a season of prayer and fasting you’ll see the results a few months down the road, sometimes it could even be a year later. Now God’s going to take care of the immediate transition that you might be in, but often you’re seeding into your future and you’ll know, you’ll actually be able to tell when that harvest is kicking in gear. I’ve had it happened eight months later…
Sid: You know what I believe? The good things that are happening in your life and happening in my life are actually were broke loose from a fast maybe a decade ago.
Steven: Absolutely, the harvest can also be multiplied and the Lord sees the sincerity and he sees the effort and He will reward anybody, anybody Sid who will diligently seek Him, the Lord will honor that even if it’s a fast for one day, even if it’s skipping one meal. There will be a blessing that will come for that person at the right time.
Sid: What about fasting other things beside food?
Steven: Well, I think it’s possible to receive a big spiritual boost just by fasting information data, whether it’s news, whether it’s internet, just to pull back from some of those things.
Sid: I’m a news junky with all these elections going on and…
Steven: I understand and I think many of us are and we love, we love this instant access.
Sid: So for me to fast news would be tougher than food.
Steven: I understand, and the catch is to replace it with something spiritually edifying and so yeah to pull back from TV spend some time with the Lord or even spend some more time with the family. But particularly to invest it into the Lord and into His Kingdom whether it’s going down to a ministry volunteering to help or at church, the Lord will honor that.
Sid: Okay, what about someone that all of a sudden they’re finances have dried up, has that happened in your life?
Steven: It has and you can have different reasons for that, I actually had a situation just a couple of years ago only about two years ago where it seemed that with my ministry finances something had bottlenecked, and I knew it wasn’t the Lord because the Lord He’s a God who will take care of things, He was blessing me. And I felt it was the enemy and sure enough I got into prayer and the Lord opened my eyes in the spirit realm and I could see it was like an evil army of the enemy holding back, they had built like a wall, it looked like a dam that was holding back water and I knew what they were trying to hold back was provision. And in the natural it didn’t make any sense, what happened to the constant offerings, what happened to the ongoing provision, it seemed like something dammed it up. But the thing is the bills keep coming in, needs are still there and I said, “Lord what am I going to do?” And He said, “What are you going to do about this?” And I said, “Well, Lord I’m going to seek You” because, see in Isaiah 58 which is the classic chapter on fasting it actually says, “You shall break the yoke.” Now I know the Holy Spirit is the one that removes the burdens and destroys the yokes, but Isaiah 58 actually indicates that we have an involvement in that, we have a participation in the breaking of the yoke. So I said, “I’m going to pull out all the stops and just right up front do a three day Esther fast and I did no food and no water for three days.” Now a person has to be careful about that, particularly if you are on some type of medication or…
Sid: And not just medication, I have to tell you I did it one time and it just zapped all of my energy.
Steven: Yeah, you’ll be pretty much shut down, you cannot work and function even just doing water is very difficult, if you cut the water also then you are going to have almost zero energy.
Sid: My bones even hurt when I did that, I have to tell you.
Steven: Yes, you definitely want to take some days off if you do that, see that’s also critical situation.
Sid: That’s a drastic situation.
Steven: That’s not normal every day. That’s once in rare moon you have something, you really… You have to respond, you can’t just…
Sid: Okay, you did the Esther fast, what happened?
Steven: Well, the Lord…
Sid: Well, I’ve already talked everyone out of it but now, serious what happened to you when you did it.
Steven: When it’s a life threatening thing like that you push yourself and there’s a grace that will help you through it. I came off the fast and I actually drove to the grocery store to get some juice, and I realized that that wasn’t a good thing to do either because after no food, no water, or no liquids my brain wasn’t responding very quickly. My brain would say, put your foot on the brake pedal when you see a red light, but I had no water so it was really hard to respond. So if you’re doing this type of fast, don’t drive, stay at home and let somebody get you some nourishment when you come off of it.
Sid: It’s amazing, all you have to do is add juice and none of this happens, but go ahead.
Steven: You’re right and so I came of the fast, nothing changed there was still something was stopping the normal flow of provision, and form this point on I knew that the Lord had heard my prayers but now I just got to walk it out by faith. And the enemy, I felt like the enemy was like taunting me, like God’s got you out of so many tight places, but this one you’re not going to get out of I going to embarrass you and humiliate you, your not going to get your bills paid on this one. And I said, “No, I’m going to stay in faith and God’s going to make a way.” And there came a point just shortly after that it broke and I had miracle provision flow in. I had money flow in and I couldn’t even explain, I had, for instance I had somebody from China send me $10,000, I want to thank them, I want to send a letter but there was no return address, there was no way to thank them. All I could do was say Lord, bless that person, I had money come in from all over the world, and every bit of it was miracle money. I was instantly able to pay off all my bills, replenish storehouses and jump right back and was in a better position than I was before it ever happened.
Sid: Tell me about and you talk about this in your book, “God’s Nuclear Power,” the art of waiting on the Lord.
Steven: Waiting on the Lord is a little bit different from prayer, because prayer denotes making requests or asking petitions of God and there’s a place for that. We have many scriptures that verify the necessity and the pleasure and joy of asking God for things and then receiving. But waiting on the Lord is a little bit different. Waiting on the Lord is just being with the Lord, not in the sense to ask for something, but just to hang out with God and get to know Him and sense what on His heart.
Sid: Alright there’s something that I do and we’ve taught on it for quite a while it’s called soaking. Where you just play some anointed music and no agenda, and you just lay on the floor, or you sit in an easy chair. And you just open, at least with me I just open myself up to the Lord, is this what you’re talking about?
Steven: It is but I’ll share a secret that will amplify that to a whole new level, and that’s waiting on the Lord in the night. In other words, it’s something sacrificial, it’s something where maybe you wake up at 2:30 or 3:30 in the morning because maybe you have to go to the rest room, or maybe you just wake up and you’re not sure what to do. Well, just give the Lord thirty minutes, not asking anything, but just waiting with the Lord.
Sid: How do you stop from falling asleep?
Steven: Well, that’s part of the sacrifice. You’re right.
Sid: I’m serious though.
Steven: Your right, that’s part of the sacrifice, but sometimes there, seems to be an anointing where for some reason you’re not tired.
Sid: And you know what that’s happened to me, Steven and I’ve done that and it’s the most amazing thing, the minute I go back to bed I fall asleep, that second, but I didn’t while I was waiting on the Lord.
Steven: Well, there’s a verse in the Psalms that says “The Lord will enlighten your darkness.” And darkness in that reference means sin; it just means areas in our life that we don’t have understanding. “Lord, where do you want me to go to college at?” “Lord, who do you want me to marry?” “Lord, which job career am I supposed to choose?” And all of these different things sometimes we need more illumination and those very, very quiet times not asking anything, but just waiting on the Lord, He come and He illuminates these areas of our lives where we need more light and understanding.
Sid: Now, you get into some of the basics of fasting that people just don’t know, unless they read about it, and that is your body, especially today more so than I think 2,000 years ago, is loaded with toxins and it makes it more difficult to fast. What should someone do who like, someone that drinks coffee every day, and they stop drinking coffer all of a sudden? Oy vey they get headaches etc.
Steven: Right, that’s why it’s wise to do a little preparation before you make a commitment that way you’re not discouraged if you end up pulling out. And even if you end up pulling out let’s say you want to fast three days, and you only make it one, it’s not a failure, you succeeded it at one day so there’s always grace involved. But if you really want to finish it then prepare yourself, and understand the physiological reactions that your body will have which is so amazingly made and created by God. But we do live in a different culture Sid than what the Lord had in His day. In His day the Lord’s walking around eating fresh fish, they’re eating figs, their eating natural honey, their eating things that today is a very different world all the preservatives that we have in our food.
Sid: Oops, we’re out of time.
