The Potter's House Podcast

Episode: The 10-Day Challenge
Guest Speaker: Pastor Don Johnson
Date: January 22, 2026

Episode Overview

In this impactful sermon, Pastor Don Johnson explores the story behind the Daniel Fast and presents “The 10-Day Challenge” as more than just a dietary event—it's a call to spiritual resilience, personal transformation, and alignment with God’s will. Drawing deeply from Daniel chapter 1, Pastor Don weaves together biblical insight, personal anecdotes, and energetic exhortation, challenging listeners to pursue a life set apart, even when it means being uncomfortable.
Themes include spiritual discipline, resisting cultural assimilation, identity, spiritual warfare, and the reward of obedience.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Scriptural Foundation: Daniel’s Resolve

• Reading: Daniel 1:8-17 (01:53)
• Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, requesting only vegetables and water.
• The test: After 10 days, Daniel and his friends are visibly healthier and more nourished than others.

“But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine… 'Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.”
— Pastor Don (01:53)

2. Being Comfortable with Uncomfortable Faith

• Growth requires a willingness to stand out and face discomfort.
• Quote: “You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable… Sometimes the contradistinctive thoughts that you have in your mind, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Because most of the times we want God to do something and do it in comfort.” (03:57)
• The notion that blessings often arrive with challenges and that spiritual maturity develops through adversity.

3. Participating in the 10-Day Fast

• Practical instructions for the “10-Day Challenge” (vegetables and water).
• Encouragement for late starters: “And the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. You can get in right now… God will honor it in the same way.” (06:08)
• The Daniel Fast is a physical metaphor for spiritual discipline.

4. Understanding Daniel’s Real Struggle

• Focus is on the life of Daniel, not just the fast.
• Daniel faced captivity, attempts at indoctrination, and loss of identity—parallels to modern spiritual and cultural challenges.
• “Most people look at you and they don’t know what you’ve had to go through to be like you are right now… If I told you what I had to go through, baby, you have no idea.” (07:55)

5. God Allows Discomfort for Greater Purpose

• God allowed Jerusalem’s captivity—but only the best and brightest (Daniel and friends) are chosen by the enemy, showing God’s providence and plan in hardship.
• “God took his people and turned them over to the enemy… God allows them to be attacked, but the enemy chooses who he wants to pull out of the attack. The reason you’re being attacked is because you’ve been chosen.” (11:30)

6. Resisting Systemic Indoctrination

• The enemy seeks to change our minds before our behaviors.
• Warning against letting “the system” (culture, social media, negative influences) get inside you:

“You can say, I’m gonna do better… but behavior doesn’t change if your mind doesn’t change… The problem with the system is the system does not need to get in you.” (15:40)

7. Spiritual Warfare: Identity & Resilience

• The enemy tries to neutralize your fighting ability and steal your identity.
• Story of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—given Babylonian names to reshape their purpose and legacy.
• “Once the enemy realizes I can take your fight… I’m going to change your name. Because I’m not really after your home, I’m after your identity.” (24:38)

8. The Power of Association & Influence

• Importance of community—“make sure you’re rolling with the same people who are on the same diet plan.” (32:13)
• Avoid the toxicity of people who aren’t aligned with God’s instruction for you.

9. Comparison: Divine Discernment, Not Rivalry

• Daniel asks for a direct comparison after 10 days, not for condemnation but for demonstration of God’s faithfulness.

“Compare us to the other ones. I didn’t say condemn us. I said compare us. Let them eat your food, and I’m going to eat the food that God told me to eat. Come back in 10 days…” (41:18)

• God’s blessings are tied to participation, not favoritism.

10. Deliverance Through Commitment

• Deliverance is determined by decision: “Your decision determines your deliverance.” (39:14)

11. Identity, Names, and Legacy

• The renaming of Daniel and his friends is an attack on identity and generational influence.
• “If the people’s applause fuels you, their silence will kill you… Know your name, and know whose you are.” (26:15)

12. From Survival to Flourishing

• God is not just promising preservation, but transformation—you’ll look better than your past.
• “It’s not about comparing yourself to them, it’s about comparing yourself to you. You’re going to be a better version of yourself.” (50:48)

13. Hidden Protection in Spiritual Discipline

• Daniel’s fast not only preserved him physically but protected him spiritually (e.g., in the lion’s den).
• Remarkable insight: Lions hunt by scent; his fast may have concealed him because he “didn’t smell like meat.”
• “Is it possible that God tells Daniel to keep fasting and praying because the danger that’s coming, I don’t need the enemy to smell you?” (54:17)

14. Encouragement to the Broken & Faithful

• Both men and women are needed in God’s plan—each is called, even in brokenness.
• “Even broken crayons still color.” (77:50)
• For every seed and word spoken over listeners, crop failure is declared for every bad seed, and harvest over the good.

15. Closing Prayer and Charge

• Powerful altar call and prayer for deliverance, restoration, and spiritual boldness.
• Call to sacrificial giving as an act of alignment and expectancy.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On participating now:
  “The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. You can get in right now… God will honor it just like you did the full 10 days if you start on it right now.” (06:08)
• On spiritual resilience:
  “When I don’t feel like it, fight. When I’m tired, fight. When I think I can’t take anymore, fight… The devil has tried to knock you down, but you say, baby, I can take a licking and keep on ticking.” (19:45)
• On identity:
  “You can change my name but you can’t change my character. You can’t change my integrity.” (25:43)
• On deliverance:
  “You have the responsibility. I am so sick and tired of people leaning on God’s divinity while neglecting their human responsibility.” (43:46)
• On transformation:
  “You’re going to look better than your past. You won’t even look like you’ve been through anything.” (50:48)
• On vision:
  “Sometimes the look is not always existentially. Sometimes the look is—the look—I’mma look different.” (52:00)
• On hidden spiritual protection:
  “It’s a lion’s den for the king. It’s a hotel for Daniel. We have to find ourselves being comfortable being uncomfortable.” (58:21)

Key Timestamps

• 01:53–10:00: Setting the scriptural context, Daniel’s resolve, and “The 10-Day Challenge” explained.
• 10:00–20:00: Spiritual comfort vs. discomfort, God’s purpose in captivity, and the meaning of being chosen.
• 20:00–33:00: Indoctrination, resisting cultural and spiritual assimilation, importance of fighting back, and not letting the system in.
• 33:00–43:00: Association, influence, “spiritual diet plan,” pitfalls of comparison, and test of the fast.
• 43:00–52:00: Outcomes of faithfulness, favor, prophesies on transformation, and vision meaning.
• 52:00–59:30: Daniel in the lion’s den, spiritual implications of fasting, protection from the enemy.
• 59:30–68:43: Closing prayer, altar call, identity restoration, encouragement to both men and women.
• 68:43–end: Final encouragements, sacrificial giving, and prophetic declarations.

Conclusion

This episode delivers an energetic and nuanced teaching on the Daniel Fast as “The 10-Day Challenge,” going far beyond food to address identity, discipline, community, and spiritual transformation. Pastor Don inspires listeners to choose sanctification over assimilation, to embrace being different, and to trust God’s hidden work—even in discomfort. The ultimate message: Participation and obedience unlock divine strength, wisdom, protection, and generational blessing.

For anyone seeking renewal, courage to stand apart, or guidance on how to walk out their faith with boldness, Pastor Don’s message is both a roadmap and an invitation to look, live, and believe differently.