Walls Must Fall: Day 4: Carry the Presence: The Jericho Fast Series"

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Music.

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Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host,

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Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent.

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Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed.

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Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought

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was possible. Enlarge her territory.

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Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment.

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Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her.

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This isn't just a podcast. This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Hello, and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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Today, day four episode from our Walls Must Fall series, the 12-day Jericho

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fast of consecration and dedication.

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Today's title is Carry the Presence, Don't March Without the Ark.

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The foundational scripture is found in Joshua 6, verse 13,

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out of the NIV translation, and it reads, The seven priests carrying the seven

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trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing trumpets.

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The armed men went ahead of them, and the rear guard followed the ark of the

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Lord while the trumpets kept sounding. How powerful is that?

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Do not march without the ark.

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The ark of the covenant was not just a box. It represented the tangible presence of

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of God. Wherever the ark went, God went.

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Before Israel marched, they made sure God's presence led the way.

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So must you.

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God gave them an instruction.

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God gives us instruction. It does not meant for us to do it by ourselves.

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So we cannot go ahead of him and march without the ark, without the presence of the Lord.

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So just like Moses said, Lord, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go. You should do the same.

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And expect him not just to go with you, but to go before you and prepare the place you have to go.

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And I want to just share this story. So I had a meeting, there's some things

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happening in the office. If you work in the office, you know some things are

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always happening in the office.

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And so on this particular day, I want to share how God moved in this event.

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And this is so powerful only because in my own strength, you know.

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We'll be to mess some things up. Can I just keep it real?

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Because I think women, we are either so quick to, we're going to hurt somebody with our words.

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We'll hurt somebody with the looks we give. We can really just kind of hurt

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someone. but knowing that you're going to be in that office for 10,

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20, 30 years, you're going to have to live with these people.

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And so you have to find a way with the Bible says that be at peace with everybody.

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And sometimes it doesn't require you to always confront everything,

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even though you might have been wrong.

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So I teach a class. I won't go into too much detail, but I teach a class and

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I was preparing the material.

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And I created this nice little booklet for my students.

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And I was copying on the machine. It was colorful. It was beautiful.

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Don't get me wrong. And the.

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Apparently, she took what I was copying and took it to my, took it to person

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who used to teach the class that I'm teaching.

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And somehow I ended up in my main boss office. I have two supervisors.

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One's a media and one is the kind of the director that oversees everything.

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And pretty soon, you know, surely that same day, I was calling to his office.

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He said, well, kind of you can't use this material.

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I'm more like shocked. Like, where did you get this? this was on my desk or off the printer.

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And so I just said, okay, sir. And I was like, okay, I'm not going to be mean.

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I'm not going to say anything. But in my mind, I'm thinking like,

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how dare you, whoever did it, come in my office and take something off of my desk.

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And so over the period of from that day for a week, I had to just kind of deal

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with a lot of emotions. You know how we do ladies.

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And I was like, okay, do I stay? Do I go? How do I handle this.

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And so immediately I was looking for another job.

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Now, how many times we do that? We're like, I can't stay here. I got to go. I got to go.

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And then on the third day, because God seems to move on the third day,

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the Lord whispered in my ear and he says, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

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And I was like, okay. And when he said that, I knew exactly where it came from.

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Because if you read the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 8, chapter Nehemiah 8, 10.

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So if you're going through something like I went through, and I'm going to show

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you how God showed up, then we'll get back to, this is a side story.

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You know me, got a side story for everything.

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And I hope this does help you out.

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But the Lord whispered to my ear, he says, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

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And in my mind, immediately.

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I knew where that scripture was. The walls must fall.

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So Nehemiah, he was a cupbearer and he went before the king to ask to rebuild

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the walls of Israel and the Israel, right?

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And so he had an opportunity to rebuild the wall. But during the time he was

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rebuilding the walls, the haters came out and we're going to have a series on

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how to handle the haters.

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Throughout all his troubles, Nehemiah was able to build the wall.

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Even with all the haters, in record time, the Bible says he built the wall in 52 days.

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That's a note. But on this particular day, as I was getting ready to get on

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my knees, like I always do before the Lord,

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the Lord whispered, you know, in that still small voice, he says,

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The joy of the Lord is your strength.

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And I knew exactly what he meant because sometimes he can, God can give you a scripture.

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And if you read the Bible, you know, the whole story.

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So when he gave me that scripture, he was like, Connie, don't worry about the

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haters. I got the haters covered. You will be victorious.

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He didn't say that. He didn't have to tell me that. He said that just joy of

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the Lord is your strength. Just don't focus on the haters.

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Focus on me. So I went to work that day.

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Nothing has changed. I, in my own mind, was still a little perturbed about what happened.

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But the joy of the Lord filled me so full that I no longer thought about the haters,

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nor thought about leaving the job, nor thought about any negative things that

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you might want to do to that person for just being just that person,

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right? You know how we do.

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And I was like, wow, Lord, I was so full of joy from the moment he said that

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from 5, about 4.30 in the morning until that evening.

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And I was just bubbling over so much that I really couldn't even sleep that day.

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But I realized the Lord was just telling me like, don't worry about the haters.

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Don't worry about the haters. And that reminds me, because when you think about

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the joy of the Lord is your strength, and we're talking about don't march without the ark,

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that means God wants to be part of your good, your bad, and your ugly, right?

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Because he knows how to handle each and every part. But we always invite him

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in when it's our bad and our ugly.

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Invite him in when it's your good, right? Let me tell you what happened.

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He took away all of that, all of that.

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He took away that ugh out of my heart.

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And what really took it away was some incidents that happened And that particular

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day I had training and I had training, so I wouldn't be able to teach the class

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that I usually teach. But guess what?

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The students showed up anyway because they forgot the class was canceled.

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And some of the students who never brought their book, who never did their homework,

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they said, we here for class.

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I said, well, class is canceled because I have training.

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They said, well, I got my book and I got my homework done.

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And I'm like, man, that made my heart just melt. And I said,

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well, bring it next week.

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Now, these are not kids. These are not college students that I used to teach.

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These are adults with addiction who I'm teaching. I'm going to tell you what

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I do. I teach an addiction recovery class.

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Think about what that made me feel like. I was getting ready to vacate the premises,

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leave a job because of the haters when I'm supposed to be here for the people who need me.

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You see how the devil will do you, uproot you from where you call to do because of some haters.

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But Nehemiah did not let the haters hate. He let them hate because that's what they do.

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Haters hate, don't get me wrong. But he continued his journey.

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He had a sword in one hand. You have to read the book of Nehemiah.

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I will cover it probably for the month of August, but Nehemiah had a sword in

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one hand and he had the bricks and mortar and stuff in the other hand.

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He worked and kept doing what he was called to do in the middle of the haters.

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And that's what I was doing that day. I was still doing my work.

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I wasn't moved by what they were trying to do to distract me.

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I was still doing what I was called to do.

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Because when you have the joy of the Lord as your strength, it only comes from the Holy Spirit.

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And you know, the Holy Spirit is with you every, everywhere you go.

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He's with you. So he filled me with strength.

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And then, check this out. Now that's.

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Third day. And then the weekend happens and then it came close and you're doing your regular routine.

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You're thinking like, okay, Laura, thank you. I wrote up a statement because

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I was going to meet with my boss regarding this incident, but I didn't want

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to go into my boss presence just rambling off of rambling.

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You know how we get in there and she said, and he said, and they said, and I said.

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I wanted to go in there professionally and I wanted to make

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sure I had my words right my words tight and just

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present the case as is and tell them what my

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options was because my option was if you're not

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going to protect me from the

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haters you know I'm just being funny but if you're not going

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to you're gonna allow this behavior to continue then

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this is not the office that I want to work in and I don't want to teach this

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class because it's causing a lot of you know I said drama but unethical things

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to happen and I can't even use the printer unless somebody's going to grab my

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paperwork and run it to you like a little kid? I think I shared that part.

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And I was trying to keep it as real as possible, but not so professional that

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he couldn't understand it. Come on now.

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And I just kind of went through a story of why I do what I do,

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because I had it all written out.

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Whenever I want to share this with you as a professional tip,

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when you go before your boss, make sure you take time to write out some notes.

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Even write out what you're going to say, type it out nicely,

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because you don't want them spending all day writing down notes.

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I wanted him paying attention to me. I wanted him to pay attention to my words.

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And that's what he did. I said, sir, I have everything written down.

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And then you don't have to write

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notes. I got everything written down and I'm going to give you a copy.

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And that's what he did. He paid attention to me and he listened to all my words.

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He says, honey, I apologize for that.

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And after that, I don't think I heard anything else, right?

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Because I came in with one plan in mind. But before that, I want to share that.

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The Lord said, kind of already went before you. And that's in Exodus 23,

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20. I already went before you.

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I want you to just count on me. Open your mouth and just speak what I tell you to speak.

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And I went in there. I didn't have a pre-written script. I didn't even probably

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look at the notes I had in my paper.

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I just allowed the Lord to speak through my heart regarding why I teach,

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why I like this class, why I handle things the way that I do with my students.

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But this particular day, my boss was present in the room and he was paying attention

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to every word that I was saying.

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Connie, I am listening. I am paying attention. I want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

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You are one of our best employees. He realized that I wasn't the problem,

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that the problem was the people who was bringing the problem to him. You get what I'm saying?

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Look how God turns things around when we come in his presence first,

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and then we carry his presence with us wherever we go.

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Remember, it's God moving for us, moving with us, helping change things right before our eyes. Amen.

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That's how we handle it. Can I keep going, y'all?

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It's so good. so you can't fast without

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his presence you can't pray without his presence

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come on you can't be go before your boss without his

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presence matter of fact you can't even work a job without his presence you can't

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drive without his presence i wouldn't even eat the food if you're going through

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a drive without his presence you're gonna need god's presence everywhere you

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go and so if you can you can expect walls to fall.

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How can you expect walls to fall if you leave his presence behind?

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So in this walls must fall series, I can guarantee you that walls are falling

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in my life because I'm carrying the presence of the Lord. I am consecrated and dedicated.

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Remember I told you, he says, Connie, I need you to fast.

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It says not about the food. It's about your consecration and dedication to me.

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Yes, food is involved. I'm not out here gorging on everything.

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I've set a set of time, right?

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But it's not about the food. Remember, sometimes people fast and they're making

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all these fancy fasting meals and they totally left out God.

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There's no presence there, right?

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So the ark was the center of their formation, the Israelites,

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just as God's presence must be the center of our formation. Amen.

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So don't carry the weight of this consecration, dedication, this 12-day Jericho

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fast without carrying the weight of his glory.

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Remember, I told you, this is not about rules. It's about relationship.

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God isn't moved by effort or long. He's moved by intimacy.

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What is intimacy, right? When you think about intimacy with a male and a female,

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it's not always about the sexual relationship.

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It's about the conversations you can have without even saying anything to each

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other, the looks you give, the touch you give, right?

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God whispers in your ear and you move. You don't even see God.

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He's not even visually presence, but you move him because he spoke to you. That's intimacy.

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And when you invite his presence, you carry power.

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So when I walked in the room, he was ready. He was ready. He said,

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Connie, you called this meeting.

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I was like, what? I forgot I did call this meeting.

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So I got the floor. I got the floor and I didn't waste any time. I cut.

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I didn't make a long story short. I didn't make it longer like I do on this

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podcast. I kept it reasonable.

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And if I made it longer, guys, it'd be about 30, 40 minutes for every podcast.

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But I keep it within 20 minutes. I try to. You know that.

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So the power to walk in silence. Come on now.

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God has given me the power to, if this person, like Nehemiah did,

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is going to be a hater, steal stuff off of the printer, and run and tell.

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This lady is like 30-something years old.

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And I'm a lot older than her.

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And she did a kid-like move. So she ain't ready.

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Because I wouldn't want to address her in a way that as a professional,

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she would address me in a kid-like attitude.

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And a lot of times when that doesn't equal out, I usually require somebody who's

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going to be fighting because it's going to be a disrespect.

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And that's why for me, I rather just, I handle it as professional.

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I was like, I've got your back.

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I got you. I can understand you. You're about the same age as my children.

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I'm not going to be having a verbal kung fu with you, but I know I'm going to

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watch you and I got my eye on you.

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Matter of fact, I don't even have to watch you because God is the one that fights for me.

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And that's how he showed me. Let me tell you how I found out who it was.

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I was in the office and he said, no, someone took it off the printer.

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And then right before my eyes, God showed me the vision of the girl who did it.

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Come on now. Oh, and I said, oh, I know who it is. I had closed my,

00:17:12.115 --> 00:17:14.175
I know who it is now. Oh my gosh.

00:17:14.335 --> 00:17:19.455
So God, you can't, you're messing with the wrong one, you guys, right?

00:17:19.575 --> 00:17:23.935
Come on. We hold the power when we consecrate and we dedicate,

00:17:23.935 --> 00:17:28.195
when we walk by faith, when we trust God, we have intimacy with God.

00:17:28.315 --> 00:17:29.915
Think about the intimacy with God.

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God is saying like, when we're going to talk about the touch,

00:17:32.795 --> 00:17:33.975
it's the look, it's the whisper.

00:17:34.315 --> 00:17:38.695
You're doing it with intimacy with God. He's whispering to you.

00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.260
And you're moving. And they're like, how do you know what to do?

00:17:42.360 --> 00:17:45.080
Because my God is talking to me.

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So when you invite his presence, you carry power, power to walk in silence.

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I just said that again. Why did I say it again? Because many of us,

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and today, if you watch, I don't watch a lot of this crazy social media stuff.

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It's just people think about it. Cameras everywhere, really.

00:18:03.320 --> 00:18:06.740
So you stage and most of this stuff. So you get all stirred up over some staged

00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:09.860
event. But meanwhile, the power to walk in silence.

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:17.840
I mean, the power to pray when you feel nothing, the power to believe when you see nothing move,

00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:23.680
the power to believe the whisper that God said, I got you on this one.

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I'm already went before you.

00:18:26.120 --> 00:18:30.940
But not just that, the power not to go punch somebody out, to tell somebody

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off to do something, to keep your routine as though nothing happened.

00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:41.060
That messes other people up when you don't walk in a fence, when you're not

00:18:41.060 --> 00:18:44.940
loud in the office saying, I know somebody took something off my printer.

00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:50.480
You know how people do. You don't have to be loud. You just still keep it professional. Why?

00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:54.560
Because they don't know how to respond to that. They're ready to respond to

00:18:54.560 --> 00:18:58.760
loud black girl, but they ain't ready to respond to a professional.

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And so ladies, we walk with Jesus. We're queens.

00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:08.420
We cannot be in the office acting like we don't have a crown on our head. Amen.

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That we don't have an intimate affair with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

00:19:14.520 --> 00:19:18.380
As though he does not talk to you and tell you to quiet down.

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Don't be walking in disobedience. How about this one?

00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:26.540
The power to believe when you see nothing moves, nothing is moving.

00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:32.060
Today is a call to realign your focus, not on the wall, not on the hunger pains

00:19:32.060 --> 00:19:37.700
you feel when you're fasting, but on the one, capital O, who goes before you.

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Let's pray. Lord, I don't want to take another step without your presence.

00:19:41.840 --> 00:19:46.160
Be the center of this consecration and dedication fast.

00:19:46.540 --> 00:19:51.240
Fill every room I walk into. Fill my thoughts, my prayers, and my worship.

00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:57.560
Talk to me. Teach me how to wait on you, to listen to you, and to follow where you lead.

00:19:57.800 --> 00:20:02.220
I decree that I am a carrier of God's presence. I do not walk alone.

00:20:02.540 --> 00:20:09.560
Every step I take is led and surrounded by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the living God.

00:20:09.820 --> 00:20:14.820
I will not fasten the flesh. I will not consecrate and dedicate in the flesh.

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I walk in the fullness of His power and His presence.

00:20:18.620 --> 00:20:24.860
And if your presence does not go with me. Do not send me from here. In Jesus' name, amen.

00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:27.520
So today, focus on prayer. Focus is.

00:20:28.326 --> 00:20:33.626
Go beyond a staining, but intentionally create space for God's presence.

00:20:34.046 --> 00:20:39.326
Turn off distractions, play worship music, sit in silence, invite him to fill

00:20:39.326 --> 00:20:41.926
your home or car in your heart.

00:20:42.166 --> 00:20:46.166
You know, what I've done is I like my same kind of worship music.

00:20:46.286 --> 00:20:51.326
I know we have our favorites, but I've been listening, trying to find new worship music, you know.

00:20:51.686 --> 00:20:55.346
And so I found this kind of listening to like Spotify.

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And I'm like, wow, I'm finding some music from Nigeria and Africa,

00:21:00.626 --> 00:21:04.306
different kind of worship music, people who know how to worship God,

00:21:04.486 --> 00:21:07.286
that can shift the atmosphere in your room.

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Isn't that what we're trying to do? We want to bring God in the room with us.

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Where in your life have you been moving ahead of God without his presence?

00:21:17.186 --> 00:21:21.306
He tells you something and you run ahead without him? And how can you reenter

00:21:21.306 --> 00:21:24.646
his presence in your daily walk today?

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I thank you for this time with me and our series, Walls Must Fall.

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So until next time, see you on the next episode. Goodbye.

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Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out,

00:21:37.526 --> 00:21:43.566
I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

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Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper

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

00:21:54.066 --> 00:21:56.446
So today we receive that truth.

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You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray.

00:22:01.006 --> 00:22:06.326
You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. So we pursue.

00:22:06.546 --> 00:22:09.606
You said you will restore us from captivity.

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So we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, are small.

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Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen.

00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:32.862
Music.