Walls Must Fall: Day 9: Renewing the Covenant: A Journey Beyond the Walls

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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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day nine of our Walls Must Fall series, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication.

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And today's topic is Renew the Covenant Rededication and Recommitment,

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coming from our foundational scripture of Joshua 5.2 and Joshua 8.30 and 31.

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Joshua 5.2 reads, it says, at that time, the Lord said to Joshua.

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Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.

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Okay. Okay, Joshua 8, 30, 31 reads, it says, Then Joshua built a mount built

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on Mount Ebal, an altar to the Lord, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses.

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We see here that Joshua 5 happened before Joshua 6, right?

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So we know that before they began to march around the Jericho wall,

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that the Lord asked them again for a recommitted, a rededication,

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a consecration, and he asked them to circumcise the Israelites again.

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Could that be the reason that they were quiet?

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Hello, I don't know. But we also see that after they had destroyed the wall,

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not even destroyed the wall, when God supernaturally made the walls fall down

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and they finished the war,

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you see here that there was another time in Joshua 8 that Joshua built a

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built on Mount Ebal, an altar to the Lord.

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So there were some consecration before with a circumcision, then afterwards,

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there were an altar built.

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Okay, so let's continue and see what God is up to today.

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The title again is Renew the Covenant, Rededication and Recommitment.

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After the wall fell, after the battle was won, God didn't say, you are done.

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He said, come closer, let's renew the covenant.

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Before the conquest continued, God required consecration again.

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Through circumcision, a sign of the covenant, and worship, Joshua built an altar

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not to ask for victory, but to thank God for victory and to reaffirm loyalty.

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This is where many people stop too soon.

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They receive a breakthrough, but fail to go deeper with God who gave it.

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But you, you're invited to renew your covenant, to return to your first love,

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to commit your heart, your body, your time, and worship, and lifestyle to the

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one who brought you through.

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You don't just tear down the wall.

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He tore down that separated you from him.

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Now it's time to rededicate your life on the other side of the rubble.

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We see here that everything God does in our life is to bring you breakthrough,

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but to also bring you closer to him, to destroy the walls that seem to come between you and him.

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And I love that verse that says, and he asks them to circumcise the Israelites again.

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Now, we know what circumcision is, and it's not an easy task to circumcise again,

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like to remember me in your circumcision.

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Circumcision. Let's pray.

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Father, I rededicate myself to you, my heart, my mind, my body, and my future.

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Renew my covenant to live holy, to walk in obedience, and to serve you with gladness.

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This fast is not about what I wanted from you.

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It was about what you wanted from me. I'm yours again.

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I think sometimes we get it twisted. I say that a lot sometimes.

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Many times we get it twisted. We think the walls are fall. We always hollering out a breakthrough.

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You know, we got to get our blessing and all God is saying, I just want to get close to you.

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And sometimes in order to get close to you, I might have to break down some walls.

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I might have to tell you to burn some bridges. I might have to tell you to sound and worship me.

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I might have to tell you to endure the process.

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I might have to tell you just to stay in my presence. I might just have to tell

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you to do that because I so desire just to be close to you.

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And so I'm asking you this day, would you renew your covenant with me?

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And the Israelites, they did.

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And we see that when they did, there was victory, that they did not have to fight.

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Yes, they did. The walls fell down. They went in and destroyed everybody in that Jericho.

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Well, they didn't save anybody but Rahab and her family.

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And so when God asks you, I want to bless you.

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We always think of the blessing, but we never think that God is trying to get close to us.

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Isn't that something? When you're in a relationship and someone gives you a

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beautiful gift that you ask for, and that makes you feel close to them.

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And so that's how God does it some ways, right? He'll say, hey, I'm going to bless you.

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Sometimes we begin to worship the blessing. We forget that God wants to

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us. He doesn't care about the blessing. He owns everything.

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He owns everything, but he gives us a chance to kind of have fun with it and

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enjoy it. Let's go over the decree.

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It says, I decree that I'm in a covenant with the living God.

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My life is consecrated. My heart is committed.

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I walk in divine alignment and I live to please God.

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I will not return to shadow living. I will go deeper in devotion.

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Romans 12.1 says, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

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This is your true worship.

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I love it in the message translation. It reads, it says, so here what I want

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you to do, God helping you take your everyday ordinary life, your sleeping, eating.

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Going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering.

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Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

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Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out,

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readily recognizing what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.

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That's what God wants. God wants us. God wants us.

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The walls falling down is that supernatural miracle in our lives,

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but it's to draw us closer to him.

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How powerful is that? So think about that for a moment, that sometimes we get

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it twisted, and I meant that I get it twisted too.

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But Lord, thank you for this. Oh my gosh, this is so good. This is so good.

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Now realizing that he wants you to notice him.

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He wants to get the praise. He wants to get the glory.

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He wants you to come closer to him. So good, right?

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So let's focus on our fasting focus today. I think there might be some more I want to cover.

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Today's consider fasting from physical comforts or convenience that has become

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routine, long full scrolling, excessive screen time, and comfort eating or unnecessary spending.

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So a lot of times when we fast, we think it is about us and the food.

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We're not realizing that God wants to spend some time with us.

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God is such an intimate God, right? So we think like, oh, I got to give up this.

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No, but look what you get.

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You get God's time. So I want you to.

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Just consider like sometimes like you can get caught up in like it's so easy

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because sometimes our brain wants to just daydream.

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And so you turn on that. You do the scroll and you're in that scrolling for

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like hours because everything is just a couple of minutes. You go,

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oh, that's interesting.

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And then they know how to catch it because it's the same thing over and over.

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And so if you have that addiction, I would say, then put it away and fast it.

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If you have addiction to anything, put it away and fast it. the comforts of your flesh.

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Let it go and renew your covenant with God. You have a communion cup or so.

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Go ahead and recommit your time with God. Remember, this is our 12-day Jericho

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fast of consecration and dedication.

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Do something you never thought you would do. Make it fresh.

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Make it new. So you can, instead of doing that, you can dedicate some time.

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We already covered a lot of this to worship. You can write down a covenant prayer.

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You can take communion, like I said. So let's talk about what we can kind of

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write in our journal. Where is my life?

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Have I withheld full? Where in my life? Where in my life as I withheld full devotion from God?

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And you can always tell when, say for instance, how excited do you get about a sport game?

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How excited do you get about item that has no, that can't give you no love back,

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like a pair of shoes, an outfit?

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How excited do you get about material things? How do you compare that to your relationship with God?

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And then how does a rededication look like for me after this fasting,

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after this 12-day Jericho fast?

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Spiritually, how would it look for me emotionally?

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How would it look for me physically? When I finish this time with God,

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dedicating time with Him, what would that look like afterwards?

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Do I go jump back in the dirt like a little piggy? Wiggy, wiggy.

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Or do I find like, wow, that was good. I need to do that again.

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Or I really need to change some things. Just something to reflect on.

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And are you doing your full devotional to him?

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You know, it always changes, right? It's always, always changes.

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It's always a fight for that intimacy.

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It's always a fight for that intimacy. So I just want to encourage you today

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to renew the rededication and recommitment.

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And I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode.

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And before we close out, 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 received that truth.

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

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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.