Low Oil Warning: Intro: When Your Spiritual Engine Runs Low

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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,

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where you take the word with you on your drive to work, while you're getting

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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. 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 the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host Connie Morris and we're starting a new series but before we go

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to what the new series is about I want to just kind of give you a little background

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of what we just experienced with the algorithm is not your altar and how it exposed a generation.

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We spoke about Mary and how she chose the better part, how she sat at the feet

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of Jesus, and how she had enough oil to pour out and worship.

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Because when Mary broke the alabaster box, that wasn't just perfume.

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That was sacrifice. That was intimacy, and that was overflow.

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She had oil to give. But here's the question we must ask today.

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What happened when you don't have enough oil to pour and barely enough oil to

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function? because now we're living in a time where people don't have oil to worship.

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They're trying to find oil or just to get up in the morning.

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And the condition of the world reflects it.

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People are tired, irritated, emotionally drained, depressed,

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angry, and easily triggered. Not because life is new, but because the oil is low.

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And scripture already warned us in Ephesians 5.18, says being filled with the

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spirit, which means it is possible to be saved, but not be filled.

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Connected, but not flowing. Functioning, but not full.

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And when the oil run low, come on now, life starts to feel heavier than it should.

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Just like what we're going to see in Matthew 25 verses 1 through 13 regarding

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the wise and the foolish versions. So I want to read this to you.

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Many maybe have not heard of this story, but it's a powerful story.

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On what happens when you run out of oil.

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Let's go. Matthew 25, verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto Jesus.

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Ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

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And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

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They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.

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But the wise took oil in their vessel with their lamps. So they took extra oil.

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While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

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And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.

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Yet then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lambs.

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And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us your oil, for our lambs are gone out.

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But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there not be enough for us and you.

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But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.

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And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went

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in with him to marriage, and the door was shut.

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Afterwards, also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open us, open the door for us.

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But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I do not know you, I know not you.

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Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour where is the Son of Man cometh.

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So we see here that in Matthew 1.

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Some was wise, some was foolish, and some just showed up with just enough oil,

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and the other one brought extra oil.

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But yet the ones that were not prepared, ask the ones that were prepared, give us some of your oil.

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And they say, no, unless we run out. We're both to be out of oil.

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And so we see you have to have your own oil.

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They had lamps. They both had oil at one point. when the moment came,

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they said, our lamps are gone out.

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They didn't lose connection. They lost supply.

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And many people today are living right there, still showing up,

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still going to work, still taking care of responsibilities, but internally running on empty.

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And the truth is, low oil, low oil doesn't always come from one big failure. It comes from leaks.

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Ephesians 4 30 says, grieve not the Holy Spirit.

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1 Thessalonians says quench not the Spirit. So we can be full of the Spirit,

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but if we grieve the Holy Spirit, that's a leak.

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If we quench the Spirit, that's a leak.

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And that means the flow can be restricted, not because God left,

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but because something is draining it.

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Distractions, overload, unforgiveness, disobedience, carrying what God never

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assigned for you to carry.

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So you keep pouring out while something is leaking at the same time.

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And over time, you go from Mary who had oil to pour at his feet to someone just

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trying to survive the day.

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But God never designed us to run our life like that.

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Romans 12.1 says, present your body

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as a living sacrifice, because oil flows where sacrifice is present.

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And if there is no sacrifice, there will be no sustained oil.

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So today's episode is not here to judge. Never am I ever to judge,

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because it comes through the vessel first.

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But because of the warning, because of the warning is not the end. It's an invitation.

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An invitation to identify the leak, restore the flow, and get your oil back.

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So let's get into it. Now let's talk about this new series.

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It's titled Low Oil Warning, Fixing the Leaks in Your Spiritual Life While You

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Feel Drained, Disconnected, and Spiritually Dry, and How to Restore the Flow.

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Wow, that title is a mouthful, but that's what we're going to cover in the next 10 episodes.

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We're going to fix those leaks. We're going to find out why you feel drained,

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why you feel disconnected, why do you feel spiritually dry, And then once we

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identify those areas, we're going to restore the flow. Why? Because Jesus is restoration.

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I never bring this to you without offering you restoration. Because this is

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not just a message. This is a condition that we live in.

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And if you've ever driven a car and that low oil light comes on,

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you know, it's just sitting there with that oil container and it's red.

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If you had older cars, it comes. And you already know that that's not a suggestion.

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It's a warning because oil that keeps the engine from drying itself out,

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from destroying itself.

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Oil reduces the friction. It keeps everything flowing smoothly.

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It protects the internal parts under pressure. Now, I'm not a mechanic,

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so if there's a mechanic listening or you have a husband that's a mechanic,

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he'll tell you that riding on low oil will destroy the engine.

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It will actually stop the engine dry.

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Once it's dry, there's nothing else that that car can do. But here's the danger.

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The car doesn't stop right away. It can keep driving.

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And it can still get you where you're going. Everything may look good,

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working good on the outside, but internally damage has already started.

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Metal starts grinding against metal.

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Heats start building up. Pressure increases. And if you ignore it long enough,

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what was functioning will completely break down.

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Not because the car was designed to fail, but because it was run without what it needed to survive.

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And this is exactly how it works spiritually. You don't just wake up one day empty.

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You keep going, keep serving, keep showing up. But something on the inside starts to wear you down.

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Your patience gets shorter. Your peace becomes inconsistent.

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Your clarity starts fading.

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Things that used to flow now feel forced. And sometimes it just feels fake.

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You know, like you're just going through the motion like a robot.

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If you don't stop and refill, you don't just feel drained.

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You will eventually burn out. So if you don't take a refreshing time to get

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some more oil, you will burn out, just like the car.

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It'll just be on the side of the road. And once you ride it on low oil,

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it just don't start again. It's done.

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I had a car in my younger days and I was headed to the mall and I know it was low oil.

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It was not low oil. You didn't know that, but I didn't know if it's going to make it back.

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But lo and behold, it didn't. It died right in the parking lot.

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I had to get a ride back home. I think we called the bus home from the mall.

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And it sat there and sat there and it wouldn't start.

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And that's sometimes how we can be. We can be motionless.

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We can be so drained that we'll get to where we need to go, but we have nothing

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to add to the party, right?

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But scripture gives us an answer to the warning at the same time.

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Ephesians 5.18, like I read earlier, it says, filled with the Spirit.

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The word filled means continually.

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It means to keep being filled, stay filled, live filled.

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So when this is in the Word of God, we know that there's something that we have to do.

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So if you're feeling low, your oil light is low, you're spiritually low,

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you came to the right place because God never designed us, you, me, to run on empty.

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Proverbs 23 says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it flows the

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issues of life, which means whatever is happening on the inside of you,

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inside of you will eventually show up on how you live.

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So if your oil is low and it's low internally, your life is low,

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your life will reflect it internally.

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And that's why we can't ignore the warning because low oil doesn't just affect

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how you feel. It affects how you live.

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So let's go deeper. And this is what we're going to do.

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We have 10 episodes to help identify the elite and also help with restoration, right?

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And so sometimes warnings come that we can't ignore.

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There are warning signs in life that we just need to not ignore.

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And we know in nature, we talked about this, when a vehicle shows a low oil

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warning, It's not a suggestion, right? It's a signal of danger.

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Oil is low. Oil is low. And if you don't put some oil in it,

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even if you pull over at a gas station and tell my oil is low,

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it's leaking, can you give me oil to get home?

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You can get home with a little refill of oil.

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And sometimes when I had older cars, I would keep oil in the car, keep it in the trunk.

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Because when that oil light come on, I'll just put oil in it and get myself

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home because it's leaking somewhere.

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And in our life, we have to find out why it's leaking.

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And if we continue to ignore that, we might end up leading to greater destruction.

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I like when it says when the oil is low, metal starts to get hot.

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And so it looks at us as though we're easily angered because of that low oil.

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Because remember, everything is rubbing against each other. You're very sensitive.

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Now, what's to be functional...

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Is now inoperable. Not because the vehicle that was designed to fail,

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it because what it needed to survive is not being provided.

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You got to understand that we are spiritual beings. We live in a body.

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And so that means Christians running low on oil may still show up.

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They will still serve. They will still speak.

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They will still function externally, but internally something is breaking down.

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Without the consistent feeling of the Holy Spirit, there is increased friction

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in our lives. And we know when that happens.

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What once flowed with grace becomes difficult, and what once brought joy becomes exhausting.

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That what once felt clear becomes confusing. Left unchecked,

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the condition does not just weaken a believer.

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It can begin to affect their discernment, their decisions, their relationship.

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Their spiritual sensitivity.

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It's not that the spirit has left, but the spirit has been neglected.

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This is not a message of condemnation. It is a call to awareness because just

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as there is a warning, there is a solution.

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You know, God always gives us solution. And so I love this Ezekiel. I'm going to find it

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Ezekiel 37 talks about the dry bones.

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Let's see what it reads. Ezekiel 37, verse 1. And the hand of the Lord was upon

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me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst

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of the valley, which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them around about.

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And behold, there were very many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry.

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And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? live.

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And I answered, O God, thou knowest.

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Again he said unto me, prophesy upon these dry bones, and say unto them,

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O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

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Thus says the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter

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into you, and ye shall live.

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And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you.

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And cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live,

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and you shall know that I am the Lord.

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So I prophesied as I was commanded.

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And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and a holding, a shaking,

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and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

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And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them,

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and the skin covered them about, but there was no breath in them.

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And then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man,

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and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds,

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O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

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So I prophesied as he commanded me.

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And the breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet,

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an exceeding great army.

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Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

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Behold, they say, Our bones are dry, and our hope is lost.

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We are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them,

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Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause

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you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.

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And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves,

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O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit

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in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.

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Then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

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And performed it, says the Lord.

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That ends at verse 14. And it goes on. You got to read Ezekiel 37.

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God told Ezekiel, what do you see? I see dry bones. I'll be very dry bones.

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He said, I want you to start prophesying. And then Ezekiel just followed instructions.

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He began to say what Spirit of God was telling him to say.

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And so what he did was he was carried by the Spirit into the valley of dry bones.

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These were not scattered randomly.

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They were described as very dry. indicating that whatever life once existed had long been gone.

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The scene represent complete depletion, disconnection and loss.

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Yet God did not leave them there and he will not leave you where you are today.

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But God asked, he's asking you today, can these bones live? And what did he say?

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Zeke said, only you know it. And then what followed was not instant restoration, but a process.

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The bones came together, structure returned, But even then, there was still

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no life until breath, the breath of God was breathed into it. And then it did.

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What once was dead stood up again as a living army.

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This is the hope of this devotional. No matter how long the warning has been

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ignored, no matter how long the oil has become, no matter how dry things feel,

00:18:19.332 --> 00:18:21.532
restoration is still possible.

00:18:21.532 --> 00:18:24.972
God does not just refill, he revives.

00:18:25.132 --> 00:18:27.712
He doesn't just repair, he restores.

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This devotion is the invitation to pay attention, to return,

00:18:31.712 --> 00:18:35.812
to receive what has always been available.

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A life filled, sustained and overflowing in his spirit.

00:18:40.012 --> 00:18:41.952
The warning light is not the end of the story.

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It is the beginning of restoration. Ephesians 5.18 tells us a life that must be refilled.

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And it tells us that do not be drunk with wine. We're in excess,

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but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

00:18:56.025 --> 00:19:02.965
So the first time that you are dry, dry literally, is that we want to go back to what was.

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So if you were drinking, if you were partying, you start to go back to your old ways.

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That's a sign that you are dry. This is still the intro, and I'm just sharing

00:19:12.845 --> 00:19:16.625
what's on my heart, and we're going to get right to the body of it.

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But right now, what I feel is like a lot of times we will feel empty,

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but we can't identify why we feel that way.

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But when you start to slip back and slide into your old ways,

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God has calmed you down. You're no longer angry, but then you become angry.

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You stopped eating a lot, but now you're eating a lot. Some of those are just

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simple signs that our flesh is crying out louder than our spirits, right?

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This verse is not a suggestion. It tells us, be not drunk with wine. It is a command.

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At first glance, it may seem like a simple instruction, be filled with the Spirit.

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But when we examine it more closely, the language reveals something deeper.

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The phrase be filled carries a continuous filling.

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In its original sense, it points to an ongoing action, continually filled.

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Keep being filled, remain filled.

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This is not a one-time experience. It is a lifestyle.

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The comparison Paul makes is intentional. He contrasts being drunk with wine

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with being filled with the Spirit.

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In both cases, the idea is influence and control.

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A person under the influence of wine is affected in their thinking.

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Speech, and behavior. In the same way, a person filled with the Spirit should

00:20:31.425 --> 00:20:35.845
be influenced in how they live, responded, and move.

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But here's a deeper implication.

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If the instruction is to keep being filled, it reveals that it is possible not to remain full.

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Not empty of the Spirit's present, but lacking the fullness of His active flow.

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This is where many believers live without realizing it.

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They have received the Holy Spirit, but they are not consistently yielding to Him.

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They are indwelt, but not overflowing.

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They are connected, but not continually being filled.

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I like this. It is so good that God identifies a challenge. and then he tells

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you why you're there. And then he says, this is what's happening.

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You're not continually being filled. And if you have a car or anything that

00:21:23.137 --> 00:21:29.597
runs by, anything that runs by other than maybe solar, you know that you have to fill that car up.

00:21:29.737 --> 00:21:32.657
You can ride it for a while and you might get lots of mileage,

00:21:32.857 --> 00:21:35.237
but eventually you won't have to have a refill.

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That's the same way what I'm hearing the Lord say. It's like when you're constantly

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running dry, right? And you're not in the overflow.

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The Bible says that there's an opportunity that you might go empty.

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And over time, this starts to show up and show out in our lives.

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If our lives are not continually filled, our spiritual sensitivity begins to dull.

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And when we begin to dull, we revert back to old tricks and games.

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What we used to do. And then everything was resolved from, even though you lived

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that life for a long time, you just stopped being filled and you're going to

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start to feel spiritual dull.

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Response becomes more flesh-driven than spirit-led. God might have delivered

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you from cursing, but yet you are cursing again.

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God might have delivered you from fornication, but yet you're fornicating again.

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God might have delivered you from any type of drinking, alcohol or drugs,

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but yet you are back drinking and using drugs again.

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He might even deliver you from a crazy boyfriend, but yet when you're sitting

00:22:43.215 --> 00:22:48.435
there dry, that's the only thing that's barking at you now, and you're back in your same situation.

00:22:49.015 --> 00:22:53.435
Responses become more flesh-driven. Be careful of that.

00:22:53.755 --> 00:22:57.295
Joy becomes inconsistent. Remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

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You're not happy anymore.

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Strength begins to fade under pressure. You're feeling weak and lost.

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And this does not happen all at once.

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It happens gradually, just like the oil running low.

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The engine is still running. The vehicle is still moving, but something is missing.

00:23:15.275 --> 00:23:19.475
Ephesians 5.18 exposes this reality and corrects it at the same time.

00:23:19.615 --> 00:23:24.275
It calls believers back to a posture of continually receiving,

00:23:24.555 --> 00:23:31.235
not striving, not yielding, not forcing, but making room, not relying on yesterday,

00:23:31.615 --> 00:23:33.135
but engaging with the God.

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Of today. To be filled is to live in a state of openness where the Spirit is

00:23:39.115 --> 00:23:43.135
not only within you, but actively flowing through you.

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And this is why the very next verses describe what life looks like.

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Speaking with spiritual awareness, when you feel you're alert,

00:23:53.415 --> 00:23:56.895
you're speaking with spiritual awareness, God's giving you visions and dreams.

00:23:57.095 --> 00:24:00.855
He's just keeping you informed of what's to come and what he has for you.

00:24:01.195 --> 00:24:04.735
Worship flows from the heart. Gratitude becomes consistent.

00:24:04.995 --> 00:24:10.295
Relationships reflect humility and reverence. These are not behaviors you force.

00:24:10.475 --> 00:24:14.295
These are evidence that you are continually being filled.

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So when these things begin to fade, it's not a sign that God is left.

00:24:18.635 --> 00:24:21.075
It's a signal that you need to be filled again.

00:24:21.791 --> 00:24:27.211
Ephesians 5.18 does not just give instruction, it gives permission,

00:24:27.511 --> 00:24:34.671
permission to return, permission to refill, permission to live from the overflow instead of depletion.

00:24:34.791 --> 00:24:41.611
Because the life in the Spirit has never meant to run low. It is designed to stay filled.

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Glory to God. And so I'm looking forward to us joining in the next 10 episodes

00:24:48.731 --> 00:24:53.271
on low warning, fixing the leaks in your spiritual life.

00:24:53.371 --> 00:24:59.791
And it really triggered me after the last episode and when Mary had enough oil

00:24:59.791 --> 00:25:05.571
to actually give it away to Jesus, right? And that's what we need.

00:25:05.751 --> 00:25:12.591
We need an overflow of oil, not just running on full, but running in the overflow, right?

00:25:12.671 --> 00:25:19.331
So that we represent Jesus, that we're not sometimey, that we are consistently

00:25:19.331 --> 00:25:25.111
filled so that we can be able to be representative of Jesus in this earth today.

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I'm looking forward to our episodes.

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The next one for day one is low oil warning, recognizing the signs before the breakdown.

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I'll see you on the next episode.

00:25:49.050 --> 00:25:52.190
Family, thank you for spending time with me today.

00:25:52.450 --> 00:25:56.170
To every woman listening who has ever felt hidden, overlooked,

00:25:56.230 --> 00:25:58.590
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. For I know the plans I have for you,

00:26:20.590 --> 00:26:24.210
declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

00:26:24.590 --> 00:26:26.870
plans to give you hope and a future.

00:26:27.110 --> 00:26:31.970
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.

00:26:43.950 --> 00:26:49.890
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

00:26:55.210 --> 00:26:58.010
harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.

00:26:58.270 --> 00:27:02.630
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,

00:27:12.330 --> 00:27:14.570
remind us you are still working.

00:27:15.010 --> 00:27:19.730
Your word says that when we call on you, you will listen. So we call on you now.

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Hear us, strengthen us, guide us. Help us to seek you with our whole heart,

00:27:25.290 --> 00:27:28.290
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 mind. 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,

00:27:54.576 --> 00:27:57.476
and I'll see you on the next episode.