Walls Must Fall: Day 8: Burning Bridges to Embrace a New Beginning

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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

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to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

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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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And I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we are on day eight of our Wall Must Fall

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series, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication.

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Today's topic is burn the bridge back, no turning back.

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Our foundational scripture today is Joshua 6 25.

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It says, but Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute because she hid the spies and

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she lives among the Israelites to this day. Let's talk about Rahab for a minute.

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Rahab determined that she was going to burn her bridge first.

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Rahab hid the spies and they were able to tell her to hang out a scarlet claw

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so that we'll know where you live and that we will come and get you when we come.

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So think about Rahab when she was in the, she lived right on the Jericho wall.

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And you can, and you know, check this out. think about how exciting that was,

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When you peek out the window and you see that your life is about to change.

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So imagine what Rahab was doing. She had all her families.

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She protected the spies. And all she asked from them was that you would save my family.

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And so when they heard the trumpets, when they saw the Ark of the Covenant,

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she knew it was time for her deliverance.

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Amen. So she had burned her bridges of being a prostitute and cited that, I'm going with the Lord.

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But she also didn't just leave her family there. She says, I'm going with the

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Lord. Are you coming with me?

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And guess what? They said, we're going to go with you. So not only was there

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a great anticipation for the Israelites, think about Rahab and her family.

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That great anticipation, that she's getting ready to start a new life with a

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new God. She was no longer worshiping her old God.

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She decided to worship the God Almighty, the God of the Israelites,

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the mighty God that saves, delivers, and set free, the mighty God that is coming for her.

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Think about how much excitement that was. And that's what I want you to do today.

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I want you to think about some things about burning some bridges.

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Today is burn bridge day. We know we're talking about the walls must fall,

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but there before that wall fell for Rahab, she had to burn some bridges.

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She had to let some things go, let some people go, let some places go.

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And if you teach a class on addiction, let some addiction go.

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You know, people, places, and things go.

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And that's what we call that consecration and dedication, that we have to let some things go.

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Everything can go with us into our new.

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Now, a story that just came to mind, but not said they can't come later,

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but when God is moving you, you may not have time to grab everybody. But Rahab did.

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And if that's you, God said, grab your family, let's go.

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You go. No, because as we see in the world today, there's floods and there's

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famines in the United States.

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We're not talking about overseas. We're talking about things are happening in

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our backyard, but yet we're not paying attention. We're not paying attention.

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God is speaking. He's whispering. He's telling us, hey, things are happening.

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I need you to get ready. I need you to get ready.

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Right. But yet Rahab was ready. Her and her family.

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Let's continue. When the walls fell, the people didn't rebuild it. They moved forward.

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No one ran back to grab bricks.

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No one tried to resurrect what God destroyed.

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They burned the bridge back. And this is a funny side story is if you ever been

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to Israel or Jerusalem, it's a very old town and it's surrounded by stones and

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bricks and all kinds of things.

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And I remember I took a tour there and It was an exciting tour,

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but I wanted souvenirs to say I've been there. You know what I was collecting?

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Stones and little bricks and just to put in my little bag.

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And when I went to the airport, they have a big old, like, it's a big thing

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that they have people like me says, you know what? You can't take that with you.

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You can't take those bricks with you.

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You just can't take them with you. I thought that was so funny.

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I'm thinking, I'm remembering I went over here. I took a break there,

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took a little bit of bricks from my little tour, thought I would just go home

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and have a little Israel collection of stones.

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And they pretty much says, no, no bricks leave this place.

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Put them in this big bin. And you look over at the bin and there was,

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You weren't the only one. There's bins of bricks that people try to take.

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And God is telling us on day eight, he's saying, no, burn the bridge back.

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Where God's taking you, you can't turn back. I don't know if anyone out there

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who tried to go back, it's just not the same.

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Things are not the same. And so you must make a decision today that you are

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burning the bridge back.

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No turning back. These are things this fast is meant to end permanently.

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God is saying like, I want to change you permanently, you know?

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Cycles that must stay buried under rubble.

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Relationships, habits, excuses, and mindsets that you must choose to leave behind.

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Breakthrough is not just about what falls.

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It's about what you refuse to rebuild, what you refuse to let go.

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Even Rahab, a woman who once lived in the wall, got out and didn't go back.

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She aligned with a new life.

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It's your turn now. Let's pray.

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Lord, help me to return to what you've brought me out of. Help me not to return

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to what you brought me out of.

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Close every door never meant for me to reopen.

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Sever every soul tie, bad habit, ungodly pattern.

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Let my testimony be one of transformation, not relapse.

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I burn the bridge back and I move forward.

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Declaration, I declare that I will not be going back. I walk in freedom, not fear.

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The walls have fallen and I will not try to resurrect what God has buried.

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My steps are ordered forward.

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My past is over. My future is blessed.

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Philippians 3.13 reads, forgetting what is behind and straining forward for what is ahead.

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Our fasting focus is fasting from anything that tempts you to return.

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That might be a phone contact, a form of entertainment, a musical playlist, a certain voice.

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Delete, block, lay it down. Whatever you do, don't go back. The journal prompt.

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What are some things or people you've been tempted to return to?

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Sometimes it does take, sometimes you even forget that you have,

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our phone collects every number.

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And even when you get a new phone, those numbers transfer over.

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And sometimes once you have those blocked numbers, sometimes they unblock themselves some kind of way.

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You know, and you're trying to get your life together. All of a sudden this

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random person who you thought you blocked, you go, oh my gosh,

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I thought I blocked that number.

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That number don't really mean you have to answer it.

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Let it ring, go to voicemail, then block it, right? You're not going back. You're not going back.

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What was failed though during this time? And how can you protect that progress, right?

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So we are in day eight and this episode right here, I think they're all powerful

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episode, but this one really brings back kind of reminder of me.

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Of probably a lot of us. Lot's wife was a story of Lot.

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Lot, the angels came to deliver him from Sodom and Gomorrah and his family.

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And there were, I mean, we always have this saying, you only got one job.

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And Lot's wife, only job was not to look back. He said, don't look back.

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And for some reason, she looked back.

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And when she looked back, she turned into a pillar of saw.

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And many times people say that when you look back, you stay back.

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You stay back. You got forward movement, but your heart ain't in that forward movement.

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Your heart is in that, in that staying back.

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And what happened most of the time, I don't have a statistical study,

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but I do have just from living long enough, you have some stories where people

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who say were made professional basketball and they went back to see their boys

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in the hood and they were killed, right?

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They got delivered from any major addiction, but when they went back, they died of overdose.

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Girl went back to hang out with her friends who she thought were her friends

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and they ended up killing her.

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And so sometimes when God closes those doors, they close loud.

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They close very loud. And yet sometimes, I'm just saying sometimes a lot,

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we want to look back like lost wife, what happened to them?

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And sometimes he doesn't want you to look back.

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God wants you to go forward. Amen. He wants you to go forward.

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And so today is one of us, I believe it's not a serious episode,

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but sometimes we go so we can go so far with God, but we keep having,

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keep the same friends who don't really believe in God.

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Are you thinking like, I'm going to win them to Christ? God will need your help.

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If he did, he'll let you know.

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But if he didn't ask you, then you need to get out of his way.

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Same way with your children.

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Same way with those places. I'm going to go to the bar. I'm going to get some

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people saved. And you, who the one got drunk, get arrested for DWI on your way home.

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Who did you get saved during that process?

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You never, ever benefit from going back.

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We all have a story of going back to maybe an old relationship when you've been

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delivered and set free. and then somehow you got sugar talked into going back

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and that never works out.

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And so for this episode, I want to say, just like Rahab did.

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Rahab was a story of victory.

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She didn't look back. And her story wasn't like she was a master of anything.

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She was a prostitute, but she decided to follow Jesus.

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And it says in the same scripture, Joshua 6, 25, among the Israelites to this

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day, She never went back.

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She never went back.

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She never, ever went back.

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But then we hear the story of Lot's wife, where she was delivered same way,

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supernaturally, by angels of God sent to rescue her.

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A Psalm 91 moment, and yet she looked back, and there she still stands as a

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pillar of saw, As a reminder of those that want to look back, they stay, they stay.

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So just a reminder, burn the bridge back. Whatever you have to do, delete the contact.

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You know what you got to do. Don't go to that place. Whatever you have to do, start your new.

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Bible says he's doing a new thing. Can you not perceive it? You see,

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Rahab perceived it and she waited with anticipation on the promise that she

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was going to be delivered.

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Can you perceive your new thing? Can you perceive that during the walls must

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fall, that you will be free?

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That would you just stay going forward, keeping your face like a flint towards your future?

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That God has something greater for you that has nothing to do with your past,

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right? that God can use you in a mighty, mighty way to help somebody else. Do you believe that?

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I believe that for myself. And that's why I picked those two.

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You have the prayer of Jabez on the front end of this podcast,

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where Jabez, who was standing in the middle of genealogy in 1 Chronicles, and he cried out,

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Lord, bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory.

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Keep your hands upon me and keep me from evil so I won't sin against you.

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And then it says, God answered his request.

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That means he burnt that bridge. He did not go back. Jeremiah 29 closes out the podcast.

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It says, for I know the thoughts and plans I have for you. And what does it say in the end?

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To give you an expected end. expect it in. What if you don't go back?

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And so I just want to encourage you for this day eight episode, don't go back.

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Burn that bridge. Do what you got to do.

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Keep focusing on intimacy with God and consecration and dedication.

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And I'll see you on the next episode.

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

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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.

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So today we receive that truth.

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

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You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. So we pursue.

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You said you will restore us from captivity. So we declare freedom over every

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place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small.

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

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Music.