Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good
morning. It is Friday, December one, twenty twenty three. Hello,
my name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is
your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today
is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series. God's mission,
my mission, and our caption for today is just, minister, don't
make it complicated. Just minister, make it complicated. We'll get into that
in just a moment, but first i'd like to say welcome to you and
happy preparation day. Please please go over if you've not already done so to
your Daily Portion dot com, join our online community. Pick up your Daily
Portion book and also click into the little box the form that says where are
you in the world? Type in there, let me know where you are
in the world, and that way I can continue to build like a map.
Josiah and I have a habit of looking at where you are. And
really some of your names are very interesting to us, considering some of our
cultures are different than yours, and it just helps me to build faith and
fellowship with you. In another way, I'm like, why do you care,
Dave, Well, I don't know. I've always been obsessed by culture
and different languages and that kind of a thing, and this just gives me
another opportunity to see how God is spreading his word throughout the world. All
right, so let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.
Father and Heaven, thank you for giving us this privilege to come to
you and to learn from your word on this preparation day. Please open up
our minds and understanding, keep us to simply minister in the power of the
Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, I pray a men and a man again.
Yeah, so some people might be saying, well, that's easy for
you to say, Just minister, what does that even mean. The fact
is, brothers and sisters, that we do not have the capacity to do
anything good on our own. No growth, no power, no leading people
to Jesus can be effective if we don't have the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
For us, we need the Holy Spirit. They're people who do what
looks like a good job at certain things that look like ministry, right,
giving food to the poor and serving those who are it's enfranchised, right,
people who are in the prison system and other people. Right. Ah,
but if God has not given you given me the Holy Spirit, and really
the only barrier to receiving the Holy Spirit is submission to God's will. We
submit to him and he gives us the Holy Spirit. Yeah, I'm leaving
some things out, but that's really what it boils down to. Yeah.
So there are things that we can do that look good, but their effectiveness
will be limited if we don't have His Holy Spirit. If you are able
to reach one hundred million people, I'm giving some strange and hyperbolic example,
yes, but if you're able to reach one hundred thousand people without the Holy
Spirit, or at least it looks like that, I said, looks like
that, then imagine if your will is submitted to God's will. Imagine if
you do what we said yesterday and to ask God for wisdom and opportunities to
reach other people for the kingdom. Imagine if we would cooperate with God,
how effective what we do would be. There is a lot of time we
would not have wasted. There is a lot of money we would not have
wasted. There are arguments in long meetings that we would not have had if
we simply asked God, what would you have us do? And please show
us the opportunity. Now, I promised you I would read this passage from
the Ministry of Healing again today. Let me go ahead and do it,
from page two hundred and ten, and it reads, is much is said
concerning our duty to the neglected poor, should not some attention be given to
the neglected rich? Many look upon this class as hopeless. And I find
that unfortunate brothers and sisters do not mistake some of the things that God has
said about rich and wealthy people as a condemnation. That's insane, Like if
that were true, that is insane. No. In fact, in Deuteronomy
chapter eighteen, you see for the first fourteen verses, God promises prosperity to
his people. Did I say what chapter? Did I say? I should
have said twenty eight? I don't know what I just said. Deuteronomy,
Chapter twenty eight. The first fourteen verses show that God is not only interested
in but he has promised that he would bless his people if we would keep
his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments. And then the remaining passages
show us or versus show us what happens when we turn our backs on him.
So we should not stigmatize people who are powerful, or affluent, or
prosperous in whatever way. We should know that they are people that God loves
right and has given Jesus Christ his son in order to save, just like
everybody else. Okay, thousands of wealthy people have gone to their grips raids
unwarned, but in different as some of them may appear. Many among the
rich are sole burden. That's the end of the quote. That means that
they have needs just like you have needs. They are sad when they lose
spouses or when people they love have passed away. Right, they are sad
and need someone to pray for them when they haven't reached the level of success
that they had hoped, and you could be looking at them and say,
well, what more do you need? But in their sphere of influence,
their sphere of success, then they are pursuing even more success. And maybe
it's not working out. They're not attached to the right community, right.
They've bumped their heads on the glass ceiling, and some who've broken through the
ceiling find that there is cement just above that, and they're not able to
get to what they consider to be their full full potent. And so all
humans have more in common than we have indifferences. Yeah, and so they
appear that everything they have is going on. They got it going on.
So I'm a peer like they don't need nothing, but all of us,
all of them, many of them, i should say, are soul burdened.
All of us are human and can be subject to that burden of soul.
Right, And so please, please, please, do not stigmatize people
who are of a certain socio economic class, just minister, don't make it
complicated. Don't make it complicated. So again, I'm going to read a
few passages of scripture that will make sense right right here. Let me read
from Let's go with James, Chapter two, verses one through nine. Just
I'm going to summarize some of those. Right, my brethren, have not
the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, respect of
persons. I want you to read all nine verses, but don't do it
with respect of persons. Don't give, don't give deference to some people and
disdain to others. Reflect on spiritual equality. All of us were created by
the same God. All of us are, and Jesus died for all human
beings, every nation, kindred tongue, tribe, people, every class,
strata, or whatever other artificial measure that people have placed upon other humans.
Jesus died for all of us. And let me just run through a few
more pointers. Pray for insight. We did talk about this yesterday, asking
God for wisdom wisdom to do his will. We touched this also yesterday.
Cultivate genuine relationships. Embrace what Luke chapter nineteen, verses five and six says,
where it says, make haste as Jesus was in having an encounter with
Zachias. Come down for I. For today, I must abide with THEE
and thy house. So strive to build connections like be in the space and
community environment atmosphere with people, no matter what the class is. Yes,
share testimonies, conduct Bible studies where that is appropriate, and volunteer to invite
yourself into community situations and services where you can rub shoulders with these same people.
Make ministry simple. Thanks for joining us, listening to friends. Always
remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with El David Harris.
Make it a great day. Yeah,