Returning to God with Your Whole Heart: A Beginner's Guide to Fasting

By Bishop Carl H. McRae

In this book, Bishop Carl McRae invites people to engage in a spiritual discipline in his powerfully informative new book, Returning to God with Your Whole Heart. In this Xlibris release, the author prevents readers from being ignorant of fasting, a commanding discipline that paves the way for spiritual growth. In it he speaks poignantly and with brutal honesty about what little he knew about the discipline of fasting even while serving as a pastor. He clarifies the true essence of fasting through this books threefold purpose: (1) to provide a practical overview and guide to various types, and to provide some important tools that will help anyone navigate through fasting with the Word of God as their fortress.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450058407

Bishop Carl H. McRae

Bishop Carl McRae has spent much of his professional life serving people with disabilities through various administrative roles in state and private agencies. He has a Master of Science in rehabilitation counseling from Fort Valley State College. Simultaneous to his secular career, he embraced his call into ministry and founded an alcohol and drug ministry. During his second year at Gammon Theological Seminary, he became senior pastor of County Line United Methodist Church in Ellenwood, Georgia. Nearly seven years later, along with 14 founding members, Carl and Brenda started Exousia Lighthouse International Christian Ministries in the basement of their home. Exousia worships at 2562 Bond Street, in the heart of Lithonia, Georgia. He and Brenda’s two children, April, a speech pathologist, and Antavious, an electrician, are active leaders at Exousia.

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by Bishop Carl H. McRae.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010903098

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4500-5839-1

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4500-5838-4

ISBN: Ebook          978-1-4500-5840-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

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Contents

Foreword

Preface

My Awakening

My First Full Fast

What Fasting Is Not

The Transition: From Church to Ministry

Strength during the Struggle

A Case for Fasting

Fasting in Jewish Tradition

Beyond the Fear

Avoiding Tricks

Avoiding What-Ifs

Health Benefits of Fasting

What about My Friends?

Dieting vs. Fasting

So What Is Fasting?

Should Every Christian Fast?

Opposition Will Come

Biblical Perspective

Ingredients of a Successful Fast

Fasting Results

Types of Fasts

Total Fast

Full Fast

Partial Fast

Daniel Fast

Self-Study

Following Your Own Conscience

Accountability Groups

Restricting Television and Entertainment

Important Exceptions

Ending Your Fast Safely

What I’ve Learned from Fasting

Forty Days of Fasting and Prayer

Foreword

This book is about spiritual fasting, plain and simple! Bishop Carl’s purpose in writing it is, first of all, to inspire spiritual people who have never engaged in the discipline to give it a try while providing a springboard to a different level for those who fast regularly. But even on a larger scale, it is designed to put light to our pathways. Fasting is not an argument, but a journey, an adventure. Fasting is an experiment in living, and this book provides the nuts and bolts for anyone to do it. While solidly steeped in Christianity, the author’s intent is less to be a proselyte than a witness to the power of fasting. If it doesn’t work, don’t take it. If it does work, then bet your very life on it. As soon as you really get hold of it—or better, when it gets hold of you—you will know that this is what God loves. Everything else will become irrelevant.

This book begins not with those who have attained, but with those who aspire to attain. The only thing the prodigal son needed to bring home with him was a good appetite, someone has said. All you will need to begin is to want to begin. For this book begins at the lowest rung of the ladder, where defeated men and women live. But it doesn’t stop there. It goes through the spiritual implications of the faithful and faith-filled life, and shows us how to mark that life by the victories won through fasting.

In this book, the author speaks poignantly and with brutal honesty about what little he knew about the discipline of fasting even while serving as a pastor. His compelling story about the power of fasting alone is worth the price of the book. He not only makes a case for fasting from a practical and spiritual point of view, but demonstratively shares how doing so equips the Christian heart to give without hopes of receiving while at the same time learning how to be a recipient of the abundance of God’s miraculous power with humility and grace. Is that not what we all really want to learn—to give sacrificially without strings and to receive blessing and empowerment without pride and haughtiness? Whenever we face a question, the author will give a ladder of practical steps on how.

That is what makes this book so extraordinarily refreshing. It’s personal without preaching, empowering but without grandstanding, and informative and practical without being too deep. This book has a threefold purpose: (1) to provide a practical overview and guide to fasting without losing you in facts, data and religiosity; (2) to provide a primer on various types of fasts, both in theory and practice, and to create the right motivation for you to engage in fasting; and (3) to provide you some important tools that will help you navigate through your fast with the Word of God as your fortress. All of these are wrapped up in a book that can be easily and joyfully read in one sitting. Read this book and you will grow! Live this book and your spiritual life and strength will grow exponentially!

This will be required reading for the leadership of the three churches that God has graced me to pastor. It is my hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.

Pastor Cleo Conaway

Nepsey Warren-Charge

United Methodist Church

Preface

I’ve been in church all of my life. In fact, the church I grew up in was named after my great-grandmother, and my family was, and still is, a fixture in that church since it began. My sister is currently the senior pastor in that United Methodist Church. Despite this history of being steeped in church, it was not until I became a minister that I began hearing about fasting, and only then, in very superficial ways. I had little appreciation of the fact that when John Wesley, whose work during the Great Awakening gave rise to Methodism, so embraced fasting that he would not ordain a minister who did not agree to fasting every Wednesday and Friday. I’m glad Wesley wasn’t around when I became a pastor because I probably would have never been ordained. I must sadly acknowledge that I was already a United Methodist pastor before I began studying about the power of fasting. It was years into my pastorate before I actually began to meaningfully engage in the discipline. One of the reasons I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to write this book is to prevent you from being as ignorant of this powerful discipline as I was. My desire is that as you grow on your spiritual journey, the power of fasting becomes as much a part of your life as prayer and meditation as you return to God with your whole heart.

Bishop Carl. H. McRae

Bishop Carl H. McRae is the youngest of seven sons of Milbern and Thelma McRae. He also has five sisters. He is a graduate of Fort Valley State University (FVSU), class of 1981, with a B.A. degree in criminal justice and English. Carl returned to FVSU and received a masters of science in rehabilitation counseling. He recently completed the course requirements for a masters of divinity from the Gammon Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center.

For many years, Pastor McRae worked in the field of rehabilitation for the State of Georgia. He was appointed the first statewide program director for traumatic brain injury and developed a comprehensive system for providing vocational rehabilitation services to survivors of brain injury. This program became a national