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

0:00 Music. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent. Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought was possible. Enlarge her territory. Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment. Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

0:49 This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen. Hello, and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast, day nine of our Walls Must Fall series, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication. And today's topic is Renew the Covenant Rededication and Recommitment, coming from our foundational scripture of Joshua 5.2 and Joshua 8.30 and 31. Joshua 5.2 reads, it says, at that time, the Lord said to Joshua. Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.

1:32 Okay. Okay, Joshua 8, 30, 31 reads, it says, Then Joshua built a mount built on Mount Ebal, an altar to the Lord, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses. We see here that Joshua 5 happened before Joshua 6, right? So we know that before they began to march around the Jericho wall, that the Lord asked them again for a recommitted, a rededication, a consecration, and he asked them to circumcise the Israelites again. Could that be the reason that they were quiet? Hello, I don't know. But we also see that after they had destroyed the wall, not even destroyed the wall, when God supernaturally made the walls fall down and they finished the war, you see here that there was another time in Joshua 8 that Joshua built a built on Mount Ebal, an altar to the Lord.

2:35 So there were some consecration before with a circumcision, then afterwards, there were an altar built. Okay, so let's continue and see what God is up to today. The title again is Renew the Covenant, Rededication and Recommitment. After the wall fell, after the battle was won, God didn't say, you are done. He said, come closer, let's renew the covenant. Before the conquest continued, God required consecration again. Through circumcision, a sign of the covenant, and worship, Joshua built an altar not to ask for victory, but to thank God for victory and to reaffirm loyalty.

3:24 This is where many people stop too soon. They receive a breakthrough, but fail to go deeper with God who gave it. But you, you're invited to renew your covenant, to return to your first love, to commit your heart, your body, your time, and worship, and lifestyle to the one who brought you through. You don't just tear down the wall. He tore down that separated you from him. Now it's time to rededicate your life on the other side of the rubble. We see here that everything God does in our life is to bring you breakthrough, but to also bring you closer to him, to destroy the walls that seem to come between you and him.

4:13 And I love that verse that says, and he asks them to circumcise the Israelites again. Now, we know what circumcision is, and it's not an easy task to circumcise again, like to remember me in your circumcision. Circumcision. Let's pray. Father, I rededicate myself to you, my heart, my mind, my body, and my future. Renew my covenant to live holy, to walk in obedience, and to serve you with gladness. This fast is not about what I wanted from you. It was about what you wanted from me. I'm yours again. I think sometimes we get it twisted. I say that a lot sometimes.

4:55 Many times we get it twisted. We think the walls are fall. We always hollering out a breakthrough. You know, we got to get our blessing and all God is saying, I just want to get close to you. And sometimes in order to get close to you, I might have to break down some walls. I might have to tell you to burn some bridges. I might have to tell you to sound and worship me. I might have to tell you to endure the process. I might have to tell you just to stay in my presence. I might just have to tell you to do that because I so desire just to be close to you. And so I'm asking you this day, would you renew your covenant with me? And the Israelites, they did.

5:35 And we see that when they did, there was victory, that they did not have to fight. Yes, they did. The walls fell down. They went in and destroyed everybody in that Jericho. Well, they didn't save anybody but Rahab and her family. And so when God asks you, I want to bless you. We always think of the blessing, but we never think that God is trying to get close to us. Isn't that something? When you're in a relationship and someone gives you a beautiful gift that you ask for, and that makes you feel close to them. And so that's how God does it some ways, right? He'll say, hey, I'm going to bless you. Sometimes we begin to worship the blessing. We forget that God wants to us. He doesn't care about the blessing. He owns everything.

6:21 He owns everything, but he gives us a chance to kind of have fun with it and enjoy it. Let's go over the decree. It says, I decree that I'm in a covenant with the living God. My life is consecrated. My heart is committed. I walk in divine alignment and I live to please God. I will not return to shadow living. I will go deeper in devotion. Romans 12.1 says, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your true worship. I love it in the message translation. It reads, it says, so here what I want you to do, God helping you take your everyday ordinary life, your sleeping, eating.

7:06 Going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out, readily recognizing what he wants from you and quickly respond to it. That's what God wants. God wants us. God wants us. The walls falling down is that supernatural miracle in our lives, but it's to draw us closer to him. How powerful is that? So think about that for a moment, that sometimes we get it twisted, and I meant that I get it twisted too.

7:50 But Lord, thank you for this. Oh my gosh, this is so good. This is so good. Now realizing that he wants you to notice him. He wants to get the praise. He wants to get the glory. He wants you to come closer to him. So good, right? So let's focus on our fasting focus today. I think there might be some more I want to cover. Today's consider fasting from physical comforts or convenience that has become routine, long full scrolling, excessive screen time, and comfort eating or unnecessary spending. So a lot of times when we fast, we think it is about us and the food. We're not realizing that God wants to spend some time with us.

8:32 God is such an intimate God, right? So we think like, oh, I got to give up this. No, but look what you get. You get God's time. So I want you to. Just consider like sometimes like you can get caught up in like it's so easy because sometimes our brain wants to just daydream. And so you turn on that. You do the scroll and you're in that scrolling for like hours because everything is just a couple of minutes. You go, oh, that's interesting. And then they know how to catch it because it's the same thing over and over. And so if you have that addiction, I would say, then put it away and fast it. If you have addiction to anything, put it away and fast it. the comforts of your flesh. Let it go and renew your covenant with God. You have a communion cup or so.

9:15 Go ahead and recommit your time with God. Remember, this is our 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication. Do something you never thought you would do. Make it fresh. Make it new. So you can, instead of doing that, you can dedicate some time. We already covered a lot of this to worship. You can write down a covenant prayer. You can take communion, like I said. So let's talk about what we can kind of write in our journal. Where is my life? Have I withheld full? Where in my life? Where in my life as I withheld full devotion from God? And you can always tell when, say for instance, how excited do you get about a sport game?

9:56 How excited do you get about item that has no, that can't give you no love back, like a pair of shoes, an outfit? How excited do you get about material things? How do you compare that to your relationship with God? And then how does a rededication look like for me after this fasting, after this 12-day Jericho fast? Spiritually, how would it look for me emotionally? How would it look for me physically? When I finish this time with God, dedicating time with Him, what would that look like afterwards? Do I go jump back in the dirt like a little piggy? Wiggy, wiggy. Or do I find like, wow, that was good. I need to do that again.

10:38 Or I really need to change some things. Just something to reflect on. And are you doing your full devotional to him? You know, it always changes, right? It's always, always changes. It's always a fight for that intimacy. It's always a fight for that intimacy. So I just want to encourage you today to renew the rededication and recommitment. And I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14. Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

11:24 So today we received that truth. You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found, so we pursue. You said you will restore us from captivity, so we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small. Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Music.