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Most of us eat every day,
some of us too much because yesterday's food

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is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some

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of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly
manna the word of God to keep us

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through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all that.

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Let's experience God's words today and receive
the power we need to live healthy,

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vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily
Portion with your host, author speaker

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L. David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning. It

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is Sunday, September seventeen, twenty
twenty three. Hello, my name is

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L. David Harris. I am
your host, and this is your Daily

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Portion where we give you God's word
every single day, but today is no

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exception. We are continuing in our
lesson study series through the Book of Ephesians,

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and our caption for today is the
Church a unified army, the shirt

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a unified army. We'll get into
that in just a moment, but first

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I'd like to just say welcome,
Welcome, Welcome to everyone joining us,

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especially those who are joining for the
very first time. Please go over to

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your Daily Portion dot com and click
the joint budget so you can join our

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online community. Also, pick up
the Your Daily Portion book and type into

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the little form where you are in
the world, so that we can continue

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to build faith and fellowship. And
again the web addresses your Daily Portion dot

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com. Let's go ahead and pray
and then we will get underway. Father

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in Heaven, thank you for giving
us the blessing of being together by fellowship

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through your Holy Spirit. Thank you
for giving us the power that we need

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to endure. I pray that we
will be unified in You, and that

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we will be saved, and we
will bring as many people into holiness and

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salvation as possible. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and men again.

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The Church a unified army. Now, it's interesting that people can be

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unified on all kinds of things.
I wish I could really start to get

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into some of the evil that people
have been unified on. But it may

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trigger some of you and it may
get you distracted too. But we have

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seen in a dark and evil way
many things in the news over the last

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several years, and really many years, but over the last several years where

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people would come together and decide that
they were going to enact and do so

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much darkness, and they were successful. Why because they unified. Really,

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they unified. Now in the Bible, we can go there with no triggers,

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right, and think about the time
of Daniel when the people who were

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despising Daniel's leadership, right, they
were supposed to be on the same team

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in Babylon, and they all came
together, the presidents and the you know

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all of the big words that they
used for the people who led who served

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the king, and they went to
the king with a cooked up plan and

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said, we have all unified.
We have said that no one should worship

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any other god, but you,
o King. Well they were lying in

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one sense because Daniel didn't agree with
that. He knew nothing of it.

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But anyway, they on their evil
side unified, made up this plan.

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The king signed it into law,
and then Daniel, who was a consistent

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worshiper of God, got caught in
that net. But thank God God delivered

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him and the king dealt with those
wicked men the next day. Right.

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So it's a blessing to know that
there is a kind of unity, a

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brand of unity that leads to holiness, It leads to success, it leads

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to positivity, It leads ultimately to
salvation and the defeat of the enemy's kingdom.

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And so we are in a war. We have said it so many

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times before. The great controversy is
continuing, and I want to look at

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the Church as a unified army through
the lens first of Jesus. When Jesus

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was on earth, he prayed a
prayer we call the Christ the high priestly

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prayer. We can find it in
John chapter seventeen. But one of the

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things he wanted above all things as
he was praying to its father, was

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that people God's people would be one, even as God the Father and Jesus

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Christ are one. That's what he
wanted above all things. Right, And

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so in that vein we can see
these takeaways we're reading now from Ephesians chapter

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six and verse ten, because the
weapons of our warfare are not are not

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carnal, but they're holy. Right. We are not fighting again enemy that

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we can see. And so in
verse ten of Ephesians chapter six, the

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Bible says, finally, my brethren, so we know to whom Paul is

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speaking. He's speaking to people who
have said yes to God. Right,

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they are in the fellowship of believers. Right, Finally, my brethren,

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be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. You get

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that our strength as believers, we
want to get This takeaway lies not just

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an individual resilience. He didn't say, my brethren, in your personal time

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and your personal challenges and trials,
be strong. He said, my brethren.

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He wants to show that this is
an entire body of believers. In

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this case from Ephesus, our strength
is not just an individual resilience, but

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in our collective unity in the Lord. Our unity in the Lord. Remember

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Jesus, Terry, here, Terry
and Jerusalem. Until the Holy Spirit has

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come upon you. Right in the
Book of Acts, we see the outcome

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of that. So it's about the
collective. It's about the body. It

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is about the entire fellowship and not
about us as individuals. And in that

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same mindset, we're talking about a
shared battle front. The Bible reads in

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verse eleven of Ephesian six, put
on the whole armor of God, that

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ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. So the

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takeaway here is every member of the
family of believers is called to be equipped.

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All of us. He was speaking
to all of us to be equipped

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for the battle against evil, highlighting
the collective nature of warfare. Yep,

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they say united we stand, and
divided we You can type in the chat

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fill in the blank. United we
stand, and divided we fall. Okay.

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Number three praying for one another.
The Bible reads in verse eighteen of

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Ephesians chapter six, praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the spirit and

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watching their runto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints. And the takeaway

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here is in the face of evil, continuous prayer for and with fellow believers

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fortifies our unity and strength in battle. There are times that people used to

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come to my wife and I and
they still do. But there was a

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time that the battle seemed extra hot, right, couples who were suffering in

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their relationships, And one of the
questions that we would always ask, and

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really at the beginning of our discussions, was how is your worship life?

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We were talking about personal worship,
yes, but even more so, how

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is your family worship going? Because
as they say, it almost sounds cliche,

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but I agree, the family that
prays together stays together, right,

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So it is a united front.
We have to unify and know that there

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is power there is strength and unity
when we are running with God. The

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Bible does say whether two or three
are gathered together in His name. He

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is in the midst of us.
So when we are unified, he has

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promised his presence. You see why
this is important, right, So a

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unified to be unified against all cosmic
powers is our next focus. From verse

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twelve of Ephesians chapter six. For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood,

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but against principalities and powers, against
rulers of the darkness of this world,

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against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So the takeaway here is the churches or

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the Fellowship of believers fight is not
against earthly entities ha, but against cosmic

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powers, necessitating the unyielding unity of
all believers in this spiritual warfare. M.

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This is not against earthly entities,
but cosmic powers. That means that

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we have to focus our attention on
serving God and allowing him to fight our

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battles and a wonderful thing peace.
Thanks for joining us listening. Friends.

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Always remember we cannot live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes

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from the mouth of God. This
has been your daily portion with l David

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Harris, make it a great day,