Low Oil: Ep. 2: Where Is It Leaking? Find and Fix Your Spiritual Drains

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Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host,

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Connie Morris, and this is Faith on the Go, where you take the word with you on your drive to work,

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while you're getting ready in the morning, or even in those quiet moments before prayer.

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Real life, real word, and real growth, all while you are on the go.

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Before we get into today's word, let's take a moment to center ourselves with a familiar prayer.

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The prayer of Jabez.

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Oh, that you will bless me indeed and enlarge my territory.

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Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

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Father God, we come before you this day asking that you will indeed bless us,

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not just with what we have, but in who we are becoming.

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Enlarge our territory, Lord. Expand our capacity, our mindset,

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and our ability to receive what you have for us.

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Let your hand be upon us, guiding us, covering us, and leading us in every decision we make.

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And Father, keep us from harm, physically, emotionally, and spiritually,

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that we may walk in peace and not in pain.

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And Lord, just as you heard Jabez when he cried out to you, hear us now.

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Your word says that you granted his request, and we believe that you are the same God today.

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So we come boldly before you, knowing that you hear us, knowing that you see

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us, and knowing that you respond to the prayers of your people.

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Have your way in this moment as we sit, listen, and receive your word.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Hello and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host Connie

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Morris and we're on day two of our Low Oil Warning series.

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Today's title is, Where is it Leaking?

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Identifying what is draining you. Our anchor scripture is found in Ephesians

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4 verse 30, but for today I want to go a little further.

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430 tells us, it says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,

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whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption.

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But I want to go in a little bit more detail on what the Bible says about grieving the Holy Spirit.

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And I will start probably in verse 26, and I'll read to verse 32.

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So let's go. Ephesians 4, verses 26 to 32. It says, Be angry and sin not.

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Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

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Neither give place to the devil. Verse 27.

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Verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working

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with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that need it.

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Verse 29. Let no No corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,

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but that which is good to use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearer.

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Our foundational verse in 30, verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,

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whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

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Now, how do we grieve the Holy Spirit?

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First of all, we grieve the Holy Spirit

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in verse 26, that we're angry. Nothing wrong with being angry,

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but don't sin with your anger.

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We see here that verse 28 tells us to kind of put our foot down.

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Stop letting the devil steal from you. Verse 29 tells us that let go.

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Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

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Corrupt communication, as we know, is lying, cursing, a lot of things coming

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out of our mouth. But then verse 30 tells us, and grieve not the Holy Spirit.

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Verse 31 tells us how we cannot grieve the Holy Spirit.

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It tells us, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking

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be put away from you with all malice.

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32 reads, and he and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

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Even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

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So when we do not do those things, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

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So let's continue. Paul gives us a direct instruction.

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Grieve not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not just a power. He is personal.

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To grieve means to cause sorrow, distress, or heaviness.

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This is not about losing the Spirit. The verse clearly says that you are sealed,

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but it doesn't mean this.

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It does mean this. The flow of the Spirit can be affected by how you live.

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The verses leading up to the instruction, verse 25 to 31, list specific behaviors

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that grieve the Holy Spirit.

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Lying, uncontrolled anger, corrupt communication, bitterness,

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theft, and malice. These are not just moral issues.

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They are relational disruptions with the Spirit. When these things are present,

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the Spirit is not absent.

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But he's grieved. And his activity in your life becomes restricted.

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Let me read this list over.

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We do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit.

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That would be a major leak. That would be a major low oil warning.

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When you're lying, when you have uncontrolled anger, corrupt communication,

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bitterness, wrath, and malice, these are not moral issues. They are relational

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disruptions with the Spirit.

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Let's go to some more scripture. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians.

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Lonely ends 5, chapter 5, verse 19.

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See what he says. It's one verse, 19.

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It says, quench not the spirit. I like to read the verse before and the verse after so we get context.

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Verse 18 says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

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Quench not the spirit. And number 20 said, despise not prophesying.

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To quench means to suppress or put out a fire.

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The Spirit's movement can be resisted, ignored, or silenced when we choose not

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to respond to His promptings.

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When we start to run our mouth too much or talk too much, you can sense the

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Holy Spirit telling you to be quiet, telling you to stop, or telling you to go home.

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When we don't follow that voice, when we are pretty much walking in disobedience,

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we are quenching the spirit.

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Sometimes the spirit is quenched when you're in a room of people who like to

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use that corrupt communication.

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And it just grieves your spirit because we realize that, remember,

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it comes out of the vessel first.

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So if you're cursing, it's cursing you first. So you think you're calling someone

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else's name or cursing them out, but actually, you're getting cursed first.

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And the first one gets the most.

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Let's go to Galatians 5, 16 and 17. See what that says.

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Verse 5, verse 16 and 17. It tells us this, this I say then, walk in the spirit,

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and ye should not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

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Verse 17, For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

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And these are contrary one to another, so that ye cannot do the things that ye will do.

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Verse 18, But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

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Then it goes on to talk about what it is to walk in the flesh.

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Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery,

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fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,

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hatred, variance, emulations.

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Wrath, strife, sedition, hearsay, envying, murders,

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drunkenness, reveling, and such like, of the which I tell you before,

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as I have also told you in the past, that these which do such things should

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not inherit the kingdom of God. But I want to continue.

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,

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gentleness, goodness, and faith, meekness, temperance against there is no law.

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And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.

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So if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

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Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another and envying one another.

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There is a constant tension between the flesh and the spirit.

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And I just read out what the flesh likes and what the spirit likes.

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And you can see why there's such tension between the two.

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But when we follow after the flesh, we grieve the spirit.

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We grieve the Holy Spirit. When you grieve someone, it's a sad feeling because

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there's so much he wants to do in us, but yet our flesh is still screaming out louder than the Spirit.

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It says here, there's a constant tension between the flesh and the Spirit.

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Whichever one you yield to will...

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Determine the direction of your life.

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Isaiah 40, verse 29 to 31 tells us, he giveth power to the faint and to them

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that have no might, he increases strength.

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Verse 30, even the youth should faint and be weary and the young men should utterly fail.

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But they that wait upon the Lord should renew their strength.

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They should mount up on wings as eagles. They should run and not be weary,

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and they shall walk and not faint. So here we go.

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God tell us not to run low on our spirit, low oil warning, which is low spirit

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warning, but he tells us he gives us power to the faint, that God supplies strength,

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but only to those who remain connected to him.

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Waiting on him is what renews what life drains.

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Spiritual draining doesn't not always come from one major failure.

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Most of the time, it comes from small, consistent misalignment.

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It is not always what you do.

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Sometimes it is what you ignore, what you carry too long, what you refuse to

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release, and what you continue to entertain.

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Leaks are often subtle. They don't empty you overnight.

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They drain you slowly until the day you realize that you don't feel the same anymore.

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This is what leaking looks like in real life. You keep saying yes when you should have said no.

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You're carrying conversations, emotions, situations that God never assigned to you.

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You ignore conviction because it feels small and you delay obedience because it's inconvenienced.

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And over time, you feel tired, not just physically.

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You feel disconnected, but not completely lost.

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You feel drained, but you can't pinpoint why. That's a leak. The danger is this.

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You keep pouring out while something is quietly draining you at the same time.

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You cannot fix what you refuse to identify. As long as the source of leaks remain

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hidden, the condition will remain unchanged. God does not just want to fill you.

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He wants to show you what is draining you.

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So let's talk about this. Let's talk about steps to restore the flow.

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You have your Bible. Keep your Bible with you.

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Go to Psalms 139 verse 23.

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Through 24. It says, Wish me, O God, and know my heart.

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Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me.

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And lead me in the way everlasting.

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Ask God to keep you in alignment with Him. Because you may not see,

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you may not even know what's going on. You start to feel different.

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But God will show you when things are out of alignment. Amen.

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Remember, all we have to do is pray.

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Let's go to Matthew 11, verse 28.

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I believe I read that already, but we're going to read it again until you're hearing.

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Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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God says, come to me, come to me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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So we see where we will get comfort and maybe some good sleep if we learn how to rest in the Lord.

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Not everything you are carrying belongs to you. Some burdens are self-assigned.

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Let's go number three. Respond quickly to conviction. James 4 verse 17.

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Respond quickly to conviction. And I love this. I'm going to read verse 16.

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And I'm going to read verse 18. So I'd like to read before and after so we can

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get the full context of the scripture.

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James 16 tells us, Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed.

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The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

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Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are.

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And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. and it rained not on the earth

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by the space of three years and six months.

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Verse 18, and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.

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There's a lot in this. It's so good.

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That was, I'm sorry, that was 517.

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Oh, that was still good. 516, 17, and 18. That's supposed to be reading from verse 4, 17.

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Let's read that one too. And it says, Therefore to him that knoweth to do good

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and does it not to him is sin.

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So it says, Delayed obedience creates a distance.

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Immediate obedience restores the flow. So we're talking about the flow of the

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Spirit, not grieving the Holy Spirit.

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But I read 5, James 5, 17 to 16 through 18.

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Verse 16 tells us to confess our false. But when we don't want to do that,

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you know, when we don't want to just say I was wrong, then things get stopped up too with the Spirit.

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But we see Elijah was a man like us.

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When we were women, but he was subject to passions that we are.

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But yet when he prayed the effervescent prayer, he was able to stop the rain

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for three years and six months.

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But then again, he was able to pray again and it gave rain.

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That's the power of the flow. That's knowing your strength and your power.

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This man was like us and he said, okay, I'm going to pray that it doesn't rain.

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Remember, he has to live in that dry season too. So sometimes we may have a dry season.

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God may call us to a dry season, but yet you see what happens.

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He prayed again and it rained. And so if you're in that dry season,

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God is saying, hey, I'm back. I got some rain for you.

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Let's go to verse number four. It's found in four set boundaries where necessary.

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And so we go to Proverbs, Proverbs verse 4, 23, it says, keep thy heart with

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all diligence for all of it flows the issues of life. I always say flow.

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That's probably a translation I like, but here in the King James,

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it says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.

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And so when we grieve the spirit, when we are not instant obedient,

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when we run low on oil, we have a tendency to, verse 23, have issues of life start to show up.

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What once was no issue to you, now is showing that there's something stopped

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up in you. There's no oil flowing.

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And so now those issues of life flows out of thy heart.

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And so let's do a quick review. To restore the flow, you want to ask God to

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reveal the source, release what was never assigned to you, respond quickly to

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conviction, and set boundaries where necessary.

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Guarding your heart is not selfish. It's necessary for sustaining your spiritual life.

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Let's decree, I will no longer ignore what is draining me.

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God is revealing every hidden leak in my life.

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I release what is not assigned to me, and I respond to His Spirit with obedience.

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My life is aligned, protected, and sustained by the flow of the Holy Spirit.

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Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for your Spirit that lives within me.

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I ask that you search me and reveal everything that is grieving or quenching

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your presence in my life. Show me what I've ignored.

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Show me what I've carried and what you did not assign for me to do.

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Show me where I have delayed obedience.

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Give me the courage to release it and discipline to respond.

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I will not continue in a drained state when you have made provisions for me to be filled.

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Restir my heart and align my life with your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Let's do a heart check. Think about this. These are questions you ask yourself honestly.

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Where in my life feel draining, but I have not addressed it? And what have I ignored?

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When have I ignored conviction or delayed obedience?

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Help me to be obedient, instantly obedient, whether I understand it or not.

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Pay attention to what consistently drains you. Not everything that demands your

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attention deserves your energy.

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Protect your flow. So protect the Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of us.

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We do not want to grieve Him.

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And many times when you're instant obedience, you might not understand the full plan.

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That's the plan. That's show that you trust in God with your whole heart.

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He won't lead you down a dark alley. But if He does, He will bring you out on the other side. Amen.

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And so I want to encourage you as we continue our series, Low oil warning is

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to ask God to reveal the source, release what was never assigned.

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Respond quickly to conviction, and set boundaries where necessary.

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Go to Him in faith and just ask Him to fill you, fill me, find out what the

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leak is, fix the leak, and then get filled to the brim.

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Next episode of day three, clogged but not empty, when the flow is blocked.

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I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

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Family, thank you for spending time with me today.

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To every woman listening who has ever felt hidden, overlooked,

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or pushed aside, hear me clearly.

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God has not forgotten you, and neither have I.

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Now let's go before the Lord and close this out with a word from God,

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because someone out there needs this reminder today.

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Jeremiah 29, 11, verses 11 through 14.

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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you

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and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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Then when you call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you,

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you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

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I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity.

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Father God, we thank you for your word, that it is true, that it is living, that it is for us.

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You said you know the plans you have for us, plans to prosper us and not to

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harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.

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So today we receive that, not just in our minds, but in our hearts.

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When we feel overlooked, remind us you still see us.

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When we feel forgotten, remind us you still have a plan. And when we feel hidden,

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remind us you are still working.

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Your word says that when we call on you, you will listen. So we call on you now. Hear us.

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Strengthen us. Guide us. Help us to seek you with our whole heart,

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not halfway, not sometimes, but fully.

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And as we seek you, let us find you in every season, in every place.

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Even the hidden one. Restore what was lost, renew what feels broken,

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and remind us that nothing in our lives is wasted in your hand.

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Lord, we trust you, we believe you, and we stand on your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

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This is Diary of a Black Woman podcast, and I'm your host, Connie Morris,

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and I'll see you on the next episode.