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 Tuesday, November seven, 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 Waiting and Mission. We'll get
into that in just a moment, but first i'd like to say welcome to
you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com, join
our online community, and there you can ask your questions, make your comments,
and share concerning the Lesson Study and we can all be engaged together at
your Daily portion dot com. Also pick up the your Daily Portion book there
and we can build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and
then we will get underway. Thank you, Father, Thank you for waking
us up this morning. And I appreciate the fact that you have given us
this facility to guide us into all truth. Please give us your Holy Spirit
and teach us what it means to await your power. In Jesus's name,
I pray, Amen and amen again. Let me just say this as we
begin, that some of us are just entirely too impatient, too impatient,
like there are times that we've run out ahead of God because we are not
patient enough or I should say even humble enough to await his power and his
guidance. And so when we are doing his mission, some of us,
this is what it looks like. Some of us get up in the morning
and rush out to do his business. Are you leading a prayer group online
or in some other facility. Do you run out before you pray yourself?
Are you a Bible teacher or some other kind of religious leader who does something
to pour into people on a daily basis? What I do I do,
It's not just your daily portion there's another community that I pour into at around
the time that you see me. We are also pouring into the UOU Mastermind
community with doctor Eric Thomas. Right, there are a number of people who
are counting on me to be ready and to what share whatever we are supposed
to do to move the need, whether it's spiritual, whether it has to
do with our finances, whether it has to do with our personal relationships and
so forth. Right, And what if we who do those kinds of things
run out into that without first coming aside and resting awhile with God. What
if we don't follow the guidance that Jesus gave by his example that he went
away a great while before pray before day. He went into a solitary place,
and there he prayed. What if we just go into our day thinking
we're going to change the world. But we're in our own strength, you
see. And so what God wants us to do is make a decision.
And of course he wants us to choose a right first, wait for power,
that is the power of the Holy Ghost, or rush for weakness,
wait for his power, or rush for weakness. So Jesus told the disciples
or his people, really where how and why to wait. So let's go
into this now. Based on Acts chapter one, verses twelve through twenty six,
we have a few action items. Okay, let's read verse fourteen of
Acts chapter one, and the Bible reads these all continued with one accord in
prayer and supplication with the women and Mary and the Mother of Jesus and all
brethren. So what we want to do is to dedicate specific times to come
together as a community or a group to fervently pray. Now we're talking about
mission. I've already talked about what we need to be doing by ourselves,
right before we join with anyone, before we run out into the battle,
right before we try to pour into anyone. Now we're talking about the collective
we're going into the mission. Engage and united prayer, right, fervently pray,
seek God's wisdom, strength, and courage for the mission. That's what
the people of God did at that time. Now we're going to move down
to verses twenty one and twenty two of Acts chapter one, Wherefore, of
these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same
day that he was taken up from us. Must one be ordained to be
a witness with us of his resurrection? You see, sometimes people people move
forward in ministry who have not had the encounter that they need with Christ.
Can I just pause right here and say that if you are not having an
encounter with Christ, you are not praying, not receiving His words into your
heart from these sixty six blessed books of the Bible through inspiration, if you
are not asking Him for his Holy Spirit, if you are choosing not to
be in agreement with God, which the Bible style of confession is agreement with
God. If you're not turning the shoulder, turning away from sin, having
godly sorrow for sin, and turning your face toward Him, then this is
the time to repent, like to become that person who receives all that I
just said, in more receives the mind set of Christ, so that when
you go forward with these organized plans, right when these organized plans go forward,
you need to be going forward as a true disciple of God. There
are a lot of impostors out here. In fact, Jesus when his disciples
asked him when he was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem that would have come
in seventy a d right, and some other things. He said. They
said, when shall these things be like? When shall what shall be the
sign of thy coming and of the end of the world. And Jesus begins
the discussion by saying, be not deceived. There will be false christs.
Right, there will be wars and rumors of wars, all kinds of other
things. And then a few verses later, he said, there will be
false prophets who will say all kinds of things that don't agree with God.
And so God is saying that when we are moving forward with his mission,
in order not to be a deceiver or to be deceived, In order not
to be a deceiver or to be deceived, we have to have our own
encounters with Him on a daily basis, and then move forward with these organized
efforts to lead people into a right relationship with him. Number three, We're
going to seek God's guidance in decision making. Let's go to verse twenty four
of Acts, chapter one, and the Bible reads and they prayed and said,
thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of
these two thou hast chosen. Now this is related to what we said a
moment ago, but I didn't identify that we were talking about somebody coming into
the mission for a particular purpose, because of course Judas. Judas, you
know the story of Judas. He basically sold his soul and he died because
he killed himself instead of repenting like Peter, he killed himself and then he
died. He had the enemy entered into him as he left the table that
we call that has to do with the Last Supper. He got up,
he went, he came back, He betrayed Jesus at the time that we
know, and then hopelessly, helplessly he went in and destroyed himself rather than
than to repent. And so they needed a replacement. They needed more than
just a replacement, like they needed people who would would God would be guided
by the Holy Spirit, who would be guided by the Holy Spirit to do
his work. And so God is saying that we must seek his guidance in
decision making fully that so that we could do his work and then finally finally
encourage one another in faith and in good works. And Versus twenty four and
twenty five of Hebrews chapter twenty four, Hebrews chapter ten. We see that
we should regularly meet with fellow believers, so that we can have the courage
that we meet for this mission. I hope that this was of benefit to
you. Of a wonderful day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening.
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,