Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is Sunday, November nine,
twenty twenty five. 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 Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and our caption
for today is Covenant First. Covenant First. Will 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. Please join our online community.
Pick up the Your Daily Portion Life application guide. Also
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app at your Daily Portion dot com. This is one
of the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
Let's pray, Father, thank you for this day and for
the privilege you have given to us. Thank you for
the covenant that you have kept with us and kept
for us. Please teach us covenant today in Jesus name
I pray, Amen and Amen again Covenant. First, I'm going
to read from the Bible Book of Joshua, chapter five,
beginning at verse one, and then we will have a
little bit of discussion here. Okay, Joshua chapter five, and
that is beginning at verse one from the New King
James version of the Bible, and the Bible reads. So
it was when the kings of the Amorites, who were
on the west side of the Jordan, and all the
kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard
that the Lord had dried up the waters of the
Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had
crossed over, that their heart melted. There was no spirit
in them any longer because of the children of Israel.
And that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint
knives for yourselves, and circumcise the sons of Israel again
the second time, So Joshua made flint knives for himself
and circumcised the sons of Israel. And the hill of
the foreskins at the hill of the foreskins. And this
is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. What is it?
All the people who came out of Egypt, who were males,
all the men of war, had died in the wilderness
on the way after they had come out of Egypt.
For all the people who came out had been circumcised.
But all the people born in the wilderness on the
way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.
For the children of Israel had walked forty years in
the wilderness. To all the people who were men of
war who came out of Egypt were consumed because they
did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom
the Lord swore that he would not show them the land,
which the Lord sworn to their fathers, that he would
give us a land flowing with milk and honey. Then
Joshua circumcised their sons, whom he raised up in their place,
for they were uncircum sized because they had not been
circumcised on the way. So basically this is saying, this
is saying that the grown men, the grown men among
the people of God who originally came out of Egypt,
had already taken the right or the symbol of their
covenant called circumcision. Right, they had all done that, but
the children, the young boys who were of twenty years
and younger, had not. And the Egyptians who came out
of Egypt too with the people of God, those had not,
And so that entire first generation was wiped out except
for Joshua and Caleb. So that means that the individuals
who were going into the Promised Land, as they had
gone through the Jordan and eventually obviously beyond Jericho and
inhabiting the Land of Promise, they would need to be circumcised.
That was a symbol. That was a symbol. Moses said,
We're going to circumcise your heart to love the Lord
your God. I said. Moses said that Paul borrowed it.
Moses said that circumcision was the circumcision of the heart.
So without covenant, the covenant to love the Lord Thy
God and serve him, then there's no inheritance of the promise.
And so what is the symbol of your covenant with God?
In twenty twenty five? What is the symbol of your
covenant with God? And so let us just learn a
few lessons here. Let's learn a few lessons here. Lesson
number one, there is renewal before victory, renewal before victory.
The insight is that sometimes God asks us to pause
when progress feels urgent. We are building momentum. God, how
can you be asking us to pause to do these things? Well,
it's in these moments that God is not delaying our victory.
He is deepening our dependent Sometimes we have confidence in
our momentum when our confidence should be in God. Father,
I'm finally starting to taste the level of success. Okay,
I need you to pause right here. Before we can
conquer anything external, we have to first conquer what is internal.
Because God knows what's coming ahead. He knows the strength,
the internal fortitude that we're going to need in order
to make it to the next level. And so there
are times that God instills a pause to establish or
reestablish covenant with us so that we will be prepared
for whatever comes next. And so, before fighting your next battle,
make and invest the time to renew your covenant with
God through prayer and surrender. And you are aligned with him,
he will secure the victories that you by yourself cannot. Now.
Let me read from the book Patriarchs and Prophets, page
four hundred and eighty five. Before they could hope for
the Lord to be with them in battle, God's people
must take a decided stand on the right. They must
renew their covenant with God. They must renew their covenant
with God. In that case, that's the end of the quote.
In that case, we know that they were siding with God.
We know that they were accepting Jesus as even though
they wouldn't have called him that, but Jesus as the captain,
the commander of the Lord's armies, and he would fight
their battles and they would not have to fight alone.
And so we're grateful that God, still in twenty twenty five,
is willing to allie with human beings who are submitting
our wills to him to overcome all of our maladaptive behaviors,
to overcome our addictions to drugs and alcohol, to overcome
our addiction to pride and self focus, to overcome a
need besetting sin. Some of the things came through our bloodline,
and then we practice it because you know, we had
a predisposition to these certain things that our fore parents
had done. And God is saying through covenant, I'm going
to cancel all of that. Make a covenant with me
and I will cancel all of that. And so and so,
the reflection that I want you to take on this
point is what might God be calling you to pause
and renew before you move forward into the battle. What
might God be asking you to pause and to renew
before you go into the battle so He can protect you?
And so the Bible reads in Exodus, chapter fourteen and
verse fourteen. We talked about this the other week. The
Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
God's people. Circumcision before the conquest reminds us that God
prepares his people for victory through obedience. The covenant must
always come before the conquest. You see, sometimes we want
to fast track victory. We want to fast track those
things that make us feel good about ourselves. When God
is saying nope. I want you to pause right here,
renew covenant with me. I will fight your battles, you
will hold your peace. I will get the glory, you'll
get the benefit peace.
Speaker 1: 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,