October 22, 2025 • 10 mins
Martin and Craig talk about the physical and spiritual fruit from a fast.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Calling men of all ages from Boston, Massachusetts,
all the way to San Diego, andeverywhere in the week.
Welcome to the Purpose MenPodcast.
Discussing all things to help uslive a life of godly purpose.
(00:26):
Ten minutes at a time.
Here are your hosts, Martin andCraig.
SPEAKER_02 (00:36):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Purpose MenPodcast.
I'm Martin.
I'm Craig.
And I was definitely excitedabout today's podcast.
So Craig, I obviously we couldgo a lot of different directions
with this one.
But the subject on this podcastis fruit from the fast.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
From the fast.
And welcome back, everyone.
Yeah, so this has been on myheart because we're actually a
couple weeks behind.
I was I was wanting to talkabout this uh a few weeks ago,
but we we were kind of kind ofon hold because of that bug that
was going around.
But um I was on a 21-day fast,you and I both were day two.
(01:13):
Um well let's I might be jumpingahead, let's reset.
Um there's so you get you'veyou've got um a spiritual and
physical fruit from the fast,right?
And so physical is weight lossthat's gonna come with that,
which is you know kind of a niceperk, but ultimately the
spiritual fruit is the greaterfruit from this, and so that's
(01:37):
what we're gonna focus on today.
SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
I like it.
I know from from a obviouslyfrom a let's say a dietary
portion, right?
Because I I know for me, I've II want to say I probably have
done a fast probably the lastfive years-ish, maybe even a
little bit more.
Um, used to do it back when uh Iwas in Orange County at Free
Chapel, so we would do it everyJanuary.
But I know you know I wouldalways get on the scale at the
(02:00):
very beginning.
Right.
But I would never weigh myselfweekly, and this was just for
me, but I didn't want to get tothe point where for me it was
about weight.
Now, regardless of how you doit, I get that.
But for me, I I kind of weighedmyself at the beginning.
Maybe I shouldn't have.
Um, but I didn't want to likehave to check in every week and
be like, oh my gosh, I only lostfour pounds this week.
I didn't want that runningthrough my head.
SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Right, right.
And I just weigh myself for thefun of it, but but um ultimately
it's it's like that can distractfrom what you're really trying
to do, and that is draw nearerto God.
You're sacrificing things andbeing uncomfortable with the
purpose of drawing nearer toGod, but one of the fruits of
that is weight loss.
You know, hopefully it's morefat than muscle, but you know,
it's probably not.
(02:40):
So we definitely lose weight, soI I mean that's just a given.
Right.
So ultimately, um, as anexample, day this is only the
year two that I've done the 21days, but because of the the
experience from last year, whichwould be 2022's 21 day fast in
January, I started doing it fromMarch uh all the way to
(03:05):
December.
I did the first three days ofthe month because what we ended
up with is it was it was quitethe reset getting into that
first 21 days in 2022, and itreally allowed me to rein in my
eating habits, right?
So now we're kind of back to thephysical, but um so I started
doing that once a month becauseyou notice the rains get a
(03:25):
little looser, a little looser,and before you know it, you're
out of control again.
So so that is kind of nice.
SPEAKER_02 (03:30):
Good, good, good point.
So so let's jump in real quickon the, you know, obviously from
the spiritual standpoint, right?
Because there's all there's alot of spiritual benefits.
I I know one thing I'll kind ofI'll lead this off.
Uh you know, my wife alwayshears about, you know, there's
this book, and I don't know whatthe name of the book is, but
it's just kind of like how youknow men are kind of a they
compartmentalize things.
We're kind of like in littleboxes, like you know, and and
(03:53):
and kind of girls are all overthe place like spaghetti.
Right.
Right.
But what there's one of thethings for me is, you know, I I
I am definitely in a box.
It's just how it is, right?
I have a gazillion things to do.
I go box by box by box by box.
And one of the things is like,you know, sometimes, you know,
to be honest with you, sometimesI even do that, you know, with
God.
I'll I'll I'm I'm you know, I'mgonna spend my time in the
(04:15):
morning, I'm gonna do my thing,and then I get into these other
boxes.
And and I think for one of thethings for me is, you know, when
I'm fasting and I'm constantlyhungry, my stomach's crawling,
it just allows me to stop andthink about you know, think
about the Lord and not stay inthat box.
So even that one little pieceright there like changes up my
entire day.
SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
Right.
And that that is one of the uhthe benefits to fasting.
I ended up on the way when I wasleaving work today, sure enough,
you know, I repented for beingaway from God from this morning,
and then you know, it therewasn't much consideration, which
is so easy to do, right?
So sometimes at lunch, if Iremember I have a devotional,
I'll read and and uh talk to Goda little bit, but today was not
(04:58):
one of those days, and usuallyit isn't, you know, if I'm being
honest, during the day he's kindof forgotten.
And when you're hungry, it r itit brings you back as to why
you're doing this.
Yeah.
And speaking of that, so thisthis uh January, day two, it
would have been January 10th, Ithink.
(05:19):
Um if anyone well what Iexperienced was that morning I
was I was on the couch earlypraying, and what I got was this
um there was a there was astruggle I was having, and it's
easy to pray to God for him totake it from you.
Oh Lord, just take this, like umlike Paul said, just take this
thorn from me.
(05:40):
But a lot of times that's notgonna happen, especially without
your participation.
Just praying for it to beremoved is usually not how it
goes, but the revelation I got,like a clear unction, if you
will, like a like uh Godspeaking to me without an
audible voice was it's myresponsibility, is what I got.
Meaning that I'm to speak theword, his truth, over the
(06:04):
situation that I'm in.
And so day two, early on, like28 hours into this boom,
revelation right off the bat.
SPEAKER_02 (06:11):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I think that's great.
A lot of times, you know, I'veI've talked to people where you
know they'll go through thewhole thing and um you know they
they didn't even get revelation,or at least that you know, maybe
it wasn't totally aware to them,right?
So, you know, that's awesomethat it it came right away.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Right.
And I think that there was morethat I don't necessarily recall
right now, but I think uh whenyou say they don't they didn't
get revelation or they weren'taware of it, it's probably they
weren't aware of it becausethey're not that in tune yet.
And um last year doing these umdoing this fasting, we went to
Texas to visit Grace's um umsister, and and we ended up I it
(06:52):
was uh you know it's likevacation, but it just happened
to fall on the days uh the firstof the month, which i uh you
you'll find it a lot of stuff.
It's not the most um convenienttime, which I think is perfect,
right?
Because it requires more of you.
And so uh I was reading a bookabout it it was the weirdest
(07:13):
thing.
This was more revelation.
I was reading his book about umatheism, and they weren't saying
that this guy when he died thathe gave his life to Christ, but
he um they were alluding to thefact that he felt that there was
something greater, and justthat, which really isn't you
know open for your interinterpretation, whatever this
(07:34):
means, but before he died, and Igot choked up during that.
I don't know who this guy is,but and I you know what right
then, and this was wrapping upday three, you know, which is
what I was doing, three daysworth.
And you know, I thank God forthat revelation, that softening
of my heart, right?
Uh, for someone I don't knowthat's long dead.
You know, and so more fruit fromthat.
And you know, it's aninteresting thing bouncing into
(07:57):
this softening of the heart.
Um, it really has been uh, youknow, a couple years ago I said
softening the heart.
I said, nah, come on, what areyou talking about?
That sounds like something forgirls, but man, this is uh in
submission to God, you know, thehis love pours into your heart
and it's got no like all thehardness, it gets chased out if
you're willing to let his lovecome in.
SPEAKER_02 (08:18):
That's the hard part, right?
Yes, yes.
At le at least for for me it itdefinitely is.
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Well it is, but if you're focused and paying
attention, you see what it doesfor you.
If you've ever had a difficultperson in your life that you've
prayed for, uh you can you seethe change.
So I have seen that praying forsomeone that's difficult and uh
(08:45):
you actually see the change inyourself.
It's not like you're praying,Lord, fix them.
It's it's my prayer usually goessomething like this help me to
love them the way you love me,Christ, because we're all worthy
of his love, and why should Inot love him the way Christ
loves me?
SPEAKER_02 (09:01):
Yeah, that that's so good.
And and that and I'd say that'ssomething that you know we
definitely don't think about.
We always think about you know,the other person, right?
You can fill in the blank whothat person is, but we don't
realize that at the end of theday, if we were to like kind of
take a view from like God'sperspective, the the change
isn't always just in the personthat we're dealing with or we're
praying for.
A lot of times even more changeis in us, right?
(09:23):
If we're um you know, if we'reobedient in that.
So I agree with you definitely.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
Well, that's it.
Ultimately, the change is inyou.
Because when when I was younger,not not to go too long on this
topic, but when I was younger ora let's say a less mature
Christian, I uh didn't reallyunderstand praying.
If God knows, it knews every andknows everything I was gonna do
before I was born, what do Ineed to pray for?
And I never really got solidanswers, but I had a revelation
once that prayer changes you,you see, and like you see signs
(09:51):
on the freeway that says prayerchanges things.
Ultimately, it changes yourheart first, and that's what
changes.
Your life will be differentbecause your heart is changed.
SPEAKER_02 (10:00):
That's good stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (10:01):
Very good.
It's it's it's it's worth doing,submitting to Christ and
allowing his love to flow in,and then of course let it flow
out.
SPEAKER_02 (10:08):
I love it.
Amen.
Love it.
So, how about we end on thatnote?
SPEAKER_01 (10:11):
That sounds good.
All right, guys.
SPEAKER_02 (10:13):
So, until next time, I'm Martin.
SPEAKER_01 (10:15):
I'm Craig.
Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
Thanks for listening to the Purpose Men Podcast.
Be sure to visit us on the webat www.purposemenpodcast.com for
some super cool stuff.
Calling men of all ages from Boston, Massachusetts,
all the way to San Diego, andeverywhere in the week.
Welcome to the Purpose MenPodcast.
Discussing all things to help uslive a life of godly purpose.
(00:26):
Ten minutes at a time.
Here are your hosts, Martin andCraig.
SPEAKER_02 (00:36):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Purpose MenPodcast.
I'm Martin.
I'm Craig.
And I was definitely excitedabout today's podcast.
So Craig, I obviously we couldgo a lot of different directions
with this one.
But the subject on this podcastis fruit from the fast.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
From the fast.
And welcome back, everyone.
Yeah, so this has been on myheart because we're actually a
couple weeks behind.
I was I was wanting to talkabout this uh a few weeks ago,
but we we were kind of kind ofon hold because of that bug that
was going around.
But um I was on a 21-day fast,you and I both were day two.
(01:13):
Um well let's I might be jumpingahead, let's reset.
Um there's so you get you'veyou've got um a spiritual and
physical fruit from the fast,right?
And so physical is weight lossthat's gonna come with that,
which is you know kind of a niceperk, but ultimately the
spiritual fruit is the greaterfruit from this, and so that's
(01:37):
what we're gonna focus on today.
SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
I like it.
I know from from a obviouslyfrom a let's say a dietary
portion, right?
Because I I know for me, I've II want to say I probably have
done a fast probably the lastfive years-ish, maybe even a
little bit more.
Um, used to do it back when uh Iwas in Orange County at Free
Chapel, so we would do it everyJanuary.
But I know you know I wouldalways get on the scale at the
(02:00):
very beginning.
Right.
But I would never weigh myselfweekly, and this was just for
me, but I didn't want to get tothe point where for me it was
about weight.
Now, regardless of how you doit, I get that.
But for me, I I kind of weighedmyself at the beginning.
Maybe I shouldn't have.
Um, but I didn't want to likehave to check in every week and
be like, oh my gosh, I only lostfour pounds this week.
I didn't want that runningthrough my head.
SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Right, right.
And I just weigh myself for thefun of it, but but um ultimately
it's it's like that can distractfrom what you're really trying
to do, and that is draw nearerto God.
You're sacrificing things andbeing uncomfortable with the
purpose of drawing nearer toGod, but one of the fruits of
that is weight loss.
You know, hopefully it's morefat than muscle, but you know,
it's probably not.
(02:40):
So we definitely lose weight, soI I mean that's just a given.
Right.
So ultimately, um, as anexample, day this is only the
year two that I've done the 21days, but because of the the
experience from last year, whichwould be 2022's 21 day fast in
January, I started doing it fromMarch uh all the way to
(03:05):
December.
I did the first three days ofthe month because what we ended
up with is it was it was quitethe reset getting into that
first 21 days in 2022, and itreally allowed me to rein in my
eating habits, right?
So now we're kind of back to thephysical, but um so I started
doing that once a month becauseyou notice the rains get a
(03:25):
little looser, a little looser,and before you know it, you're
out of control again.
So so that is kind of nice.
SPEAKER_02 (03:30):
Good, good, good point.
So so let's jump in real quickon the, you know, obviously from
the spiritual standpoint, right?
Because there's all there's alot of spiritual benefits.
I I know one thing I'll kind ofI'll lead this off.
Uh you know, my wife alwayshears about, you know, there's
this book, and I don't know whatthe name of the book is, but
it's just kind of like how youknow men are kind of a they
compartmentalize things.
We're kind of like in littleboxes, like you know, and and
(03:53):
and kind of girls are all overthe place like spaghetti.
Right.
Right.
But what there's one of thethings for me is, you know, I I
I am definitely in a box.
It's just how it is, right?
I have a gazillion things to do.
I go box by box by box by box.
And one of the things is like,you know, sometimes, you know,
to be honest with you, sometimesI even do that, you know, with
God.
I'll I'll I'm I'm you know, I'mgonna spend my time in the
(04:15):
morning, I'm gonna do my thing,and then I get into these other
boxes.
And and I think for one of thethings for me is, you know, when
I'm fasting and I'm constantlyhungry, my stomach's crawling,
it just allows me to stop andthink about you know, think
about the Lord and not stay inthat box.
So even that one little pieceright there like changes up my
entire day.
SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
Right.
And that that is one of the uhthe benefits to fasting.
I ended up on the way when I wasleaving work today, sure enough,
you know, I repented for beingaway from God from this morning,
and then you know, it therewasn't much consideration, which
is so easy to do, right?
So sometimes at lunch, if Iremember I have a devotional,
I'll read and and uh talk to Goda little bit, but today was not
(04:58):
one of those days, and usuallyit isn't, you know, if I'm being
honest, during the day he's kindof forgotten.
And when you're hungry, it r itit brings you back as to why
you're doing this.
Yeah.
And speaking of that, so thisthis uh January, day two, it
would have been January 10th, Ithink.
(05:19):
Um if anyone well what Iexperienced was that morning I
was I was on the couch earlypraying, and what I got was this
um there was a there was astruggle I was having, and it's
easy to pray to God for him totake it from you.
Oh Lord, just take this, like umlike Paul said, just take this
thorn from me.
(05:40):
But a lot of times that's notgonna happen, especially without
your participation.
Just praying for it to beremoved is usually not how it
goes, but the revelation I got,like a clear unction, if you
will, like a like uh Godspeaking to me without an
audible voice was it's myresponsibility, is what I got.
Meaning that I'm to speak theword, his truth, over the
(06:04):
situation that I'm in.
And so day two, early on, like28 hours into this boom,
revelation right off the bat.
SPEAKER_02 (06:11):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I think that's great.
A lot of times, you know, I'veI've talked to people where you
know they'll go through thewhole thing and um you know they
they didn't even get revelation,or at least that you know, maybe
it wasn't totally aware to them,right?
So, you know, that's awesomethat it it came right away.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Right.
And I think that there was morethat I don't necessarily recall
right now, but I think uh whenyou say they don't they didn't
get revelation or they weren'taware of it, it's probably they
weren't aware of it becausethey're not that in tune yet.
And um last year doing these umdoing this fasting, we went to
Texas to visit Grace's um umsister, and and we ended up I it
(06:52):
was uh you know it's likevacation, but it just happened
to fall on the days uh the firstof the month, which i uh you
you'll find it a lot of stuff.
It's not the most um convenienttime, which I think is perfect,
right?
Because it requires more of you.
And so uh I was reading a bookabout it it was the weirdest
(07:13):
thing.
This was more revelation.
I was reading his book about umatheism, and they weren't saying
that this guy when he died thathe gave his life to Christ, but
he um they were alluding to thefact that he felt that there was
something greater, and justthat, which really isn't you
know open for your interinterpretation, whatever this
(07:34):
means, but before he died, and Igot choked up during that.
I don't know who this guy is,but and I you know what right
then, and this was wrapping upday three, you know, which is
what I was doing, three daysworth.
And you know, I thank God forthat revelation, that softening
of my heart, right?
Uh, for someone I don't knowthat's long dead.
You know, and so more fruit fromthat.
And you know, it's aninteresting thing bouncing into
(07:57):
this softening of the heart.
Um, it really has been uh, youknow, a couple years ago I said
softening the heart.
I said, nah, come on, what areyou talking about?
That sounds like something forgirls, but man, this is uh in
submission to God, you know, thehis love pours into your heart
and it's got no like all thehardness, it gets chased out if
you're willing to let his lovecome in.
SPEAKER_02 (08:18):
That's the hard part, right?
Yes, yes.
At le at least for for me it itdefinitely is.
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Well it is, but if you're focused and paying
attention, you see what it doesfor you.
If you've ever had a difficultperson in your life that you've
prayed for, uh you can you seethe change.
So I have seen that praying forsomeone that's difficult and uh
(08:45):
you actually see the change inyourself.
It's not like you're praying,Lord, fix them.
It's it's my prayer usually goessomething like this help me to
love them the way you love me,Christ, because we're all worthy
of his love, and why should Inot love him the way Christ
loves me?
SPEAKER_02 (09:01):
Yeah, that that's so good.
And and that and I'd say that'ssomething that you know we
definitely don't think about.
We always think about you know,the other person, right?
You can fill in the blank whothat person is, but we don't
realize that at the end of theday, if we were to like kind of
take a view from like God'sperspective, the the change
isn't always just in the personthat we're dealing with or we're
praying for.
A lot of times even more changeis in us, right?
(09:23):
If we're um you know, if we'reobedient in that.
So I agree with you definitely.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
Well, that's it.
Ultimately, the change is inyou.
Because when when I was younger,not not to go too long on this
topic, but when I was younger ora let's say a less mature
Christian, I uh didn't reallyunderstand praying.
If God knows, it knews every andknows everything I was gonna do
before I was born, what do Ineed to pray for?
And I never really got solidanswers, but I had a revelation
once that prayer changes you,you see, and like you see signs
(09:51):
on the freeway that says prayerchanges things.
Ultimately, it changes yourheart first, and that's what
changes.
Your life will be differentbecause your heart is changed.
SPEAKER_02 (10:00):
That's good stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (10:01):
Very good.
It's it's it's it's worth doing,submitting to Christ and
allowing his love to flow in,and then of course let it flow
out.
SPEAKER_02 (10:08):
I love it.
Amen.
Love it.
So, how about we end on thatnote?
SPEAKER_01 (10:11):
That sounds good.
All right, guys.
SPEAKER_02 (10:13):
So, until next time, I'm Martin.
SPEAKER_01 (10:15):
I'm Craig.
Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
Thanks for listening to the Purpose Men Podcast.
Be sure to visit us on the webat www.purposemenpodcast.com for
some super cool stuff.
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