Listen Here

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to rate and review on Apple or Spotify. When you rate and review the show, you help Jaime reach more people.

Ever wondered why waiting for divine intervention without taking action might be holding you back? Join me on the Jamie Luce podcast as we unpack common misunderstandings surrounding spiritual growth and our journey toward the Promised Land. By actively engaging with the Word and obeying God’s instructions, we can unlock the promises He has in store for us. As Pentecost approaches, discover how writing down and reflecting on scripture can illuminate our path and guide us through life’s challenges, ensuring we don’t remain passive in our spiritual walk.

As we transition from Moses to Joshua, let’s explore the profound lessons this leadership shift offers for our spiritual journeys. The metaphor of a three-legged race illustrates the necessity of staying in step with divine guidance, with the Holy Spirit as our ever-present companion. Understanding the significance of consecration and preparedness, we draw parallels between the Israelites’ journey and our own, emphasizing the importance of obedience and partnership with God, particularly when venturing into new territories where faith is paramount.

The transformative power of faith is a central theme, as we reflect on how reliance on God can yield miraculous provision in trying times. Inspired by stories like Hannah and Samuel, we emphasize the cleansing experience of rolling away past burdens through faith. This episode challenges us to examine the condition of our hearts and the generational patterns we might inherit, urging a personal responsibility in our spiritual, health, and educational growth. With a focus on consecration, we explore setting ourselves apart for God’s purposes, embracing the Holy Spirit’s role in aligning us with God’s covenant and opening the doors to His kingdom’s fullness.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:10) – Getting Ready for the Promised Land (7 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on the concept of spiritual sustenance through the Word of God and the personal responsibility involved in accessing the promises of God. We explore the misunderstanding prevalent in modern culture about waiting for God to act without taking proactive steps ourselves. By examining scriptural teachings, I emphasize that our spiritual growth and access to the promised land require active engagement with the Word and obedience to God’s instructions. The importance of writing down and reflecting on scripture references is highlighted, as they provide guidance and wisdom for life’s challenges. As we prepare for Pentecost, I urge listeners to recognize that while God has provided everything, we must not be passive but actively seek breakthroughs by listening to the Holy Spirit and taking necessary actions.

(0:07:39) – Preparing to Enter the Promised Land (9 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on the transition of the Israelites as they move from the leadership of Moses to Joshua, emphasizing the importance of obedience and partnership with God. We explore the concept of spiritual guidance through the metaphor of a three-legged race, highlighting the role of the Holy Spirit as a helper who walks alongside us. As we follow the story of Joshua leading the second generation of Israelites, we learn the significance of staying in sync with divine guidance, particularly when approaching new and uncharted territories. The chapter draws parallels between the Israelites’ journey and our own spiritual journeys, underscoring the necessity of consecration and preparedness for witnessing God’s wonders. By examining the instructions given to the Israelites regarding the Ark of the Covenant, we see the importance of maintaining the right distance to ensure clarity in following God’s path.

(0:17:07) – Rolling Away the Reproach (17 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on the transformative power of faith and how relying on God can bring about miraculous provision, especially in challenging times. We discuss the themes presented in the book “You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God,” emphasizing the notion that spiritual faith can address the economic and personal struggles many face today. Through a metaphor of water’s unstoppable force, we explore how God can roll away the burdens and reproaches of the past, offering a cleansing and freeing experience akin to a powerful wave sweeping away obstacles. By examining biblical stories like that of Hannah and Samuel, we highlight how God can remove disgrace and transform lives, providing a sense of hope and renewal.

(0:34:16) – Circumcising Our Hearts (12 Minutes)

This chapter explores the idea of generational cycles and personal responsibility through the biblical story of the children of Israel. We examine how the second generation of Israelites faced the challenge of breaking free from the confines of their parents’ experiences in Egypt and the wilderness. By drawing parallels to modern society, I highlight the importance of taking personal responsibility for one’s actions, whether in spiritual growth, health, or education. The discussion also touches on the value of self-discipline and consecration, emphasizing that these are personal journeys that cannot be outsourced to others. Additionally, we reflect on how societal shifts have led to the erosion of traditional values and practices, encouraging listeners to embrace their distinctiveness and remain steadfast in their faith.

(0:46:28) – Consecrate for God’s Kingdom (16 Minutes)

This chapter explores the importance of consecration and sanctification in our spiritual lives, emphasizing the need to cut off old patterns and influences that hinder our growth and relationship with God. We reflect on the biblical teachings of Jesus, particularly his longing to gather his people and lead them into the promise of living in God’s provision and protection. The conversation highlights the significance of circumcising the heart, setting ourselves apart for God’s purposes, and living as legitimate Christians who truly embody the word of God. We also discuss the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, interceding for us and urging us to align with God’s covenant. By embracing the transformative power of consecration, we open ourselves to the fullness of the kingdom of God, where miraculous provision and healing become realities. The chapter challenges us to study the scriptures deeply, understanding the weight and meaning of words like consecrate and sanctify, and to actively participate in the work of God in our lives.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:10 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. You know, in this podcast I well, in every podcast, my goal has always been to give you something of substance out of the Word of God, to feed on the word. You know, the Lord, we are taught by the spirit of God through the word, through Jesus, through his examples, through his words, where he said that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And we have got a lot of words here that are what we are to be living off of. Yes, we are physically sustained in this world by food and water and those types of things and the natural, but our spirits are sustained by the word of God. We eat and feast on the word of God, on Jesus. He said of himself that he is the bread of life and that even when he was speaking of a form of communion, a form of understanding what he is to us, that in one of his teachings he said that if you don’t actually eat of me and drink of me, then you can’t have any part in me, and this saying was so hard. He said that many of his followers left him. There is a lack of understanding in our culture today of what it means to be a Christian. So today in this podcast I really want to talk about I’m going to be talking about going into the promised land, but I want to really discuss whose responsibility is it to get us into the promised land? We tend to walk out our lives thinking that I’m waiting on God, god’s going to do this big thing, he’s going to open this big door, I’m going to get that phone call, or or just the right thing is going to happen, or you know, I’m going to get that money, or I’m going to lose that weight, or I’m going to. And we put this um onus on something that is out in front of us but that is not in our control, and that it is God’s responsibility to do this for us, because we think, well, if it’s God’s will, then God’s the one who makes that happen, and that is a. It’s a shame that that we actually um kind of live and and eat and digest that type of theology, but that’s not what we find in scripture, that’s not the way it is, and so I this will be today. Um, I hope that this is comprehensive in in in its teaching for you, in in the amount of scripture. I pray that the Lord gives me the uh, the adequacy to be able to convey this to you today, because I can feel it so deep in my own heart, and it so has the power to change things, that if we are willing to truly see things the way that God has outlined them for us, and if we will take the personal responsibility of eating this word and obeying this word, then truly all things are possible to us. So today it would be a really good idea, even if you’re not a note taker, if you will at least write down the scripture references and go back and read them for yourself, the scripture references, and go back and read them for yourself.

Sometimes, you know, I personally, when I’m listening to something, especially if I’m in person and watching somebody, not necessarily where I can sit down and pause and take notes that’s a little bit different for me. But if I’m in someone’s presence, if I’m at church or I’m at a conference or a meeting of some sort, it’s difficult for me to take notes and listen at the same time. I’m just not very gifted that way. The minute I stop to take notes, I stop listening and I have FOMO, I have a fear of missing out. So I’m afraid I’m going to miss that.

Next important thing you say, if I stop listening, to engage and write it down. And so I love recordings because if it’s recorded then I can just listen the first time I can go back, I can take copious notes. I can stop when the Holy spirit starts speaking something personally to me that’s been said. Then I start writing that down. In fact, when I’m um, the listener, um, I tend to actually only take notes if I feel like the Holy Spirit has spoken something very specific to me about what’s being said. And I know if I don’t write it down I will forget it. And it’s important because the Holy Spirit has illuminated it to me.

So, because this is recorded, I say all that to say you have great advantage to be able to stop to write down, at least write down these references, and if you go back and look at them again, they will spark something in you, they will help to bring to the remembrance. It’s why King David said your word, have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against you? We hide these words, we put these words in us and all of a sudden, something prompts that word to come back up and it brings us answers, it brings us direction, it brings us wisdom for whatever we need for the circumstance that we’re facing today, and I want to see us all walk in the victory that Christ has purchased for us. We have just come out of an Easter season and getting ready for Pentecost and, folks, there is so much that God has. He’s done it all for us. But we can’t be lazy. We can’t be those who think, okay, god did it and now God’s going to keep doing it and there’s nothing that I have to do.

If you truly are needing to have breakthrough in your life, if you want to see the promises of God fulfilled in your life, if there is something that God has spoken to you and you can see that it’s in front of you, but you have not been able to somehow cross over and lay a hold of it, I’m telling you today I’ve got some great word for you. The Holy Spirit has instruction for you. Forget me, forget the way I say it, forget my delivery methods. Be listening with your spiritual ears. Tune them into the voice of the Holy Spirit, let him speak to you directly and he will give you what you need. And if you are feeling inadequate, I want to tell you today you are adequate, but there are things that we need to do to properly align us and make us ready. If you’re ready to get ready, I’m going to read you some scripture today. This is what Joshua had to tell the people of Israel before they went in to take their promise. And there was a get ready. So I’m going to tell you what I used to hear TD Jakes back in the day say get ready, get ready, get ready. There’s a getting ready that has to take place. So I want us to go to the book of Joshua to start off with. And really this whole teaching is coming from. There’s many scriptures I want to give you, but Joshua, chapters three through five. Now I’m not going to read the entirety of chapters three to five with you today, but I am going to give you some things out of it all the way along.

And this is now second generation Israel out of Egypt. Okay, second generation Israel out of Egypt. Okay, second generation Israel out of Egypt. And the first generation failed to go in. They failed to obey the commands that God gave them. They failed. They were over and over again called by God a stiff-necked people, a stubborn people. A stiff-necked people, a stubborn people, and because of that which sat inside of them, it was part of you know how we can say you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of the girl. Or they’ll say you know, we say that kind of saying for all kinds of things. Well, we had children of Israel who had been in bondage for 400 years in Egypt. So you could take Israel out of Egypt, but there was some difficulty getting Egypt out of Israel, and it wasn’t because God didn’t do his part. God did every deliverance that they, that they needed, that they were unable to give themselves.

And this is true of all of us. God will do the thing that you cannot do. God will bring the deliverance that you cannot do yourself. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. That is the necessary part. You need Jesus. You need the Holy Spirit, the unnecessary part. You need Jesus. You need the Holy Spirit, you need his spirit working in you in order to work out of you. But there is an onus on us. There is a partnership for us the Holy Spirit, one of the names and definitions of the Holy Spirit is that he is the paraclete, and the paraclete means that he comes alongside, he is the helper. He’s not the only doer, he is the helper. So he comes alongside us to help us.

Think of a. Have you ever been to a picnic and seen a three-legged race where you’ve got two people and their two inside legs are tied together and put in like a potato sack, or they’re tied together in some fashion so that that is now one leg and then they have both of their outside legs and the race is to see who can win against all other teams in this three-legged race. And if you do not get in sync in that middle ground of those two legs that are one, if you do not come in sync with those legs, you’re going to fall down and you will not win the race. But if you can run with your partner as one with that center leg, you are guaranteed to win the race. There is a unity that comes. There is a working together that comes. That’s the picture I want to give you today. This is how we take our promised land. We’re in a three-legged race with the Holy Spirit and this is how we do it.

Okay, so go to Joshua, chapter 3, and I’m going to read the first few verses, probably through verse five. Okay, so then Joshua, now, just for background, moses, god has said to Joshua Moses, my servant is dead. And Joshua, now I’m going to be lifting you up. In chapter two, we see God say okay, from now on, joshua, I will be with you as I was with Moses, and the people will honor and fear you the way they did Moses. Only, you need to make sure and be doing and asking me for the directions on how to go forward. I would give the same advice to you, I take the same advice for me. God will do it with me, for me, as long as I am hearing him and following his commands, that will enable me to do what I’m going to do. We don’t see brand new pieces of information said all through scripture. We simply hear the same thing said over and over again, lesson I learned from my mother. Okay, chapter three, verse one.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out for Shittim and they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people Okay, this is the command the people are receiving. As soon as you see the ark of thevenant of the Lord, your God, being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. So there’s an instruction that the Holy Spirit, god Almighty himself, who rested with them, and the Ark of the Covenant. If you see the Ark move, you’re going to follow the Ark. That’s when you know to move. So, right off the bat, the instruction is you’re going to follow the ark. That’s when you know to move. So, right off the bat, the instruction is you’re going to be following the Holy Spirit’s leading. You’re going to be following God’s leading. You don’t go out ahead, you don’t lag behind. In fact, he gives instructions Look, listen to this. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way that you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. So he says you need to have the Holy Spirit’s leading out in front of you enough that you can see it to follow it, not so close that you’re not sure. Is that me Is that you, god, I’m not sure what to do. Who’s in front and not lagging so far behind that you have forgotten the instruction and lose the direction that you’re supposed to be going in. There is a proper distance to keep in, following the Holy Spirit Now don’t get bogged down in that. That simply means you wait till you see him move and then you move.

Verse five I really want us to look at verse five. This is kind of the seat of everything we’re going to talk about today. Then Joshua said to the people consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Okay, there are two parts here. Do you see this? Joshua says to them consecrate yourselves now. There’s something you’re supposed to do and we tend to think the work of consecration is God’s. Joshua is saying consecrate yourself now. We’re going to talk about what that means. And then he says and when you do your part, you consecrate yourself, for tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. So God is still going to do the signs, miracles and wonders that God does that only God can do, but God’s going to do them once you have consecrated yourself. Okay, so let’s, let’s think about this. I want you to let that sit for a minute. We’re going to jump over um because the the they’re getting ready to cross the Jordan, the the crossing of the Jordan is to.

Like I said, this is second generation. This is to be the picture of what should have been the first time children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea and they were supposed to go in. God was ready to take them in a very short amount of time to the promised land, to take them in. This was supposed to be a short journey, but because of their disobedience, because they did not get themselves ready, because they had gone back to the way of Egypt, so to speak and again, I’m going to take us through this but because of that, they had to spend 40 years in a desert, going around the same old mountain, not going into the promised land, waiting for that generation to die off so that their children could go in and do what they were unable to do themselves. Oh, how do I pray that we are able to go in and not expect our kids to have to do it for us, that they can jump on our shoulders and take even more ground and keep the fight going, but not that we were lazy or stubborn or refuse to do what God has called us to do and to do it our own way instead of following the ark.

Okay, so let’s jump to Joshua five, and I want to read to you verse number nine. This jumped out at me. I love this. This was so beautiful. This, this is the second seat of the scripture that I want us to get. In verse nine it says and the Lord said to Joshua today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you so many times. We think because of what’s in my past, because of what’s behind me, because of what I went through, because of what was done to me, because of what’s back there, I’m unable to lay hold of what’s in front of me, that was done to me. Because of what’s back there, I’m unable to lay hold of what’s in front of me. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is a lie. That is not truth. God delivers, he changes us, he helps to remake us. If we remain on the wheel, the potter’s wheel, there is a consecration that we are to go through, a sanctification, but there is a work that God continues to do. This is this coupled thing where there is work we must do, and then God says this is what I will do. And this verse today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

Hi, my name is Jamie Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision, and I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now. The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do, and so many times we think we need the money. But you don’t need money, I’m telling you. The answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we wanna teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers. Now you can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamielucecom. You can also find this book at youdontneedmoneyyoujustneedgodcom. This book is available today is available today.

Do you feel like there is any hanging things hanging on any? Uh, star Trek oh, if you used to be a Star Trek fan. The Klingons, right. Do we have any Klingons of the past hanging on us. Is there any reproach that you feel you bear because of things that are behind you? Do you feel like there are things that you still carry shame for, do you still carry guilt, do you still carry sorrow, do you still carry pain from yesterday and you need the reproach of that rolled away off of you? I love that.

This is the words. I’m going to give you the meaning of all of these words, because they have the same meaning that you would think they would have in other scriptures. Okay, so let’s look at this. What does it mean? That God wants to roll away the reproach, roll away the reproach of yesterday to get rid of Egypt, to get Egypt out of us, to dismantle the things that have been constructs that we were bound to before. It could be yesterday, it could be 10 years ago, it could be 30 years ago, it could be 50 years ago, but whatever’s back there, whatever’s back there, the constructs of the things that you went through, that the, the. I like the word constructs because it helps you to understand, if you know construction, that there were things that were built, that you made decisions based off of what you felt you were forced to live in the constructs you were forced to make um assumptions from um, this word to roll away from that.

Rolling away is the picture of waters flowing down. Okay, seeing water roll and flow. I live close to the beach and so you can picture the waves crashing on the ocean side right, just crashing on the beach. Or you might think of a river and watching that river just move with the current, the rolling of the river or the rapids. Or you might think of a river and watching that river just move with the current, the rolling of the river, or the rapids. Have you ever seen rapids and the water’s just rolling?

Literally, rolling away here means as water’s flowing down, and it means the rolling away like a stone from upon a grave or upon a well. This same word that was used for rolling here was the same word used for removing a grave rolling away the gravestone. It’s also the same thing as when Jacob went to impress Rachel at the well, he rolled the stone off of the well so that she could get water from the well. And so this is the picture of something very heavy, something difficult to move. You know water when it is moving, rolling.

I’ve told you and shared with you before the time that I almost drowned and the power of the water and the power of the waves. People don’t realize the weight. Water is very heavy and weighty. Just fill a couple buckets and try to carry that for very long and you’ll see how weighty that is and how difficult that is. Well, if you think of water in force coming in, rolling and waves, think of a tsunami, the power of water rushing in and rolling over, it literally takes and wipes away things that are in its path. It’s powerful, it’s very powerful, and God is using this word to describe to us what he is doing, the power of what he is doing. He is rolling away, rolling away when he takes them into, when they consecrate themselves, and he takes them into the promised land. He is literally rolling away. Think of the tsunami, rushing waters carrying away everything that was a hindrance in its path. It is now being just wiped away. Okay, today I have rolled away what. What is being carried away? What is being rushed out? What is being pulled away?

The reproach Well, what is reproach? Disgrace, shame, a taunt from an enemy, a reproach that is cast upon someone from somebody else or from something else scorn, slander, disgrace, barrenness, widowhood, hunger, disease, widowhood, hunger, disease, injuries of an enemy being laughed at All of these things are found in the word reproach. If you’ve ever gone through a season, as a Christian, of barrenness and you’ve been judged and there’s a reproach against you In scripture, think of people like Hannah who had a reproach against her for not having a child, but the time came when God would give her revenge against her enemies, in that he brought and did a work. Hannah didn’t take revenge. God removed her barrenness and gave her Samuel, samuel, one of the greatest prophets, samuel who God used to establish King David. King Samuel I mean the prophet Samuel was an amazing man. Do you know in scripture there’s not one thing said against Samuel that’s negative that as a child because he was raised in the house of God, he heard God’s voice as a child that God spoke his plans for literally all of Israel and he bypassed Eli, who was the sitting prophet, and spoke to a child the plans that God had for a nation.

It’s amazing when God rolls away a reproach, he completely does the miraculous that it’s so rolled away, it is so wiped away that you could not have pictured it being any other way. That is. There’s no memory of it any longer. Her reproach was so rolled away that there was never a memory of her being Hannah, who was barren. She was Hannah who birthed Samuel Jesus. When the stone was rolled away, there was never again the reproach of death, of the sting of death and the loss of kingdom and everyone in their sorrow. No, when the stone was rolled away, it was now resurrection, power forever establishing the kingdom of God and his power, forever, forever. So there’s never even the ability to go back when God does the moving and the rolling away of the reproach.

This going into the promised land, god says today. This going into the promised land, god says today and for somebody watching this is a very direct word today. Today the Lord is saying to you I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. You’ve been under the power and the weight and the shame and the reproach of something in your yesterday, something that was very difficult for you to carry, but today the Lord is rolling that away. You take that, you receive that, write it down, date. It Say today this is what the Lord has spoken to my spirit. Today he is rolling this away from me. Let’s continue. Now it says I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So there’s a specific act that God is doing the rolling away. There is a specific thing it’s rolling away, which is the reproach, but it is where that reproach came from. It came from Egypt. It came from Egypt.

What does Egypt mean here? Egypt meant the shame and disgrace of being slaves, of not circumcising their children in the wilderness wanderings. Now, this is taking a little bit of a turn. What do you mean? We understand the shame and disgrace of being a slave, of being in bondage. We know the shame and disgrace of being in bondage. Folks, if you’ve ever had an addiction, if you’ve ever had a tendency, if you have ever fallen into the same sin over and over again, if you have ever had to deal with things that just are a nagging problem they never go away then you understand bondage. But what is he saying here? This particular what God is saying in this particular verse is very particular indeed. He’s saying not only is the shame and reproach of Egypt meaning the shame and disgrace of being a slave, but it is that you did not circumcise the children in the wilderness wanderings. Now, where am I getting that from? Okay, let me show that to you? Uh, let me find exactly where that verse is.

It’s chapter five and we will start at verse two, so read along with me If you have your Bibles. At that time the Lord said to Joshua make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. So Joshua made the flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath I don’t know how to say that Haraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt, which God said they were going to do. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way, so during their time in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. So when they were delivered out of Egypt first generation miracles, signs and wonders 10 plagues comes through the Red Sea Moses immediately tells them all they have to circumcise themselves. So they did the initial cutting away of the flesh. We’re going to talk about that in just a second. But they did not circumcise their children who were born to them once they had come out of Egypt.

Okay, so the entire generation died in the wilderness of those 40 years of wandering. And now you have a brand new generation who has grown, and they did not. They were never circumcised, for the people of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who would come out of Egypt, perished because they did not obey the voice of the Lord. The Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua was circumcised for. They were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.

When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So he used the method of circumcision to cause this rolling away and the removal of the reproach of Egypt. Well, what is circumcision then? Because the wandering is over, the bondages, the shame, the barrenness, the diseases of Israel, the tauntings, the reproach, it’s over. It’s over. And so many times, folks, we are living anew today, and yesterday is over, but we are somehow still living in the reproach of something that’s over.

In the reproach of something that’s over, we have to understand we are the only ones who can remove that Our obedience to the circumcision. Now let me explain what I mean by that before you get nervous, because I don’t know. First of all, if you’re a female, you can’t be circumcised. And second of all, if you’re a male and you haven’t been circumcised, I’m not telling you to do that, but you need to hear what this means, what circumcision means. But circumcision is a spiritual sign of the covenant. It is coming to alignment with God and his covenant, and I’ll give you more on that.

But you have to understand that if you’re going to take your promised land, if you’re going to have that reproach rolled away, you are responsible for this cutting away. You are responsible to be the one to do and undergo the circumcision. That is not God’s doing, that is your doing. Please hear me, you’re not waiting on God, god is waiting on you. Okay, what is circumcision?

Why was circumcision necessary? If you go to Deuteronomy 10, 16, it says circumcised. Therefore, this is what originally Moses had told the children of Israel. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart. Okay, they had already been circumcised in the flesh. This is what he told them after Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn, stubborn, and be no longer stubborn, stubborn For the Lord. Your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribes. I love that. There’s no bribing him out of you going through this necessary process. Each of us has to circumcise our hearts, male and female alike. It’s our responsibility to circumcise, to cut away certain things, to remove certain things, to alter certain things that are a permanent alteration. Circumcision is a permanent alteration and, if we’re talking spiritually, it is a permanent covenant coming into covenant with God. Covenant with God. Circumcision represented a stubbornness, a will, a will that says I want to do it my way, when I want to do it, how I want to do it, with whom I want to do it, and if I even want to do it, okay.

We have to understand this was a major problem with this. The first generation of Israel, children of Israel and we are now talking to their children, who have watched and understood that, seeing their parents go through this wilderness experience. And now it’s their turn, their turn. Are they going to live and still sit in the confines of Egypt? It? Let me tell you this, it would be. You can’t think. Well, they weren’t coming out of Egypt, jamie, they were in the wilderness. If that were so, then God would not be saying to this second generation that today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt. If it wasn’t possible to still be living the second generation in the constructs of the first generation, if you are still living in the hangups of the generation before you, if you’re still living under the curses and the same issues and problems of the first generation, it’s possible. It is possible.

But there is something we can do, folks. We can circumcise ourselves, we can make ourselves ready, we can sanctify ourselves. Let me read you that verse again. Then Joshua said to the people this is chapter 3, verse 5, consecrate yourselves. Another word for that consecrate in other versions is to sanctify yourself, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

God is saying there are things I am expecting you to do, oh, things only you can do. No one can do this for you. I can’t work out for you to make you healthy. I can’t eat the right foods for you to make you healthy. I can’t give you and take the supplements for you. I can’t sleep for you. I can’t go to work for you. There’s that it.

This is the reason why it is so wrong in our society right now, how much we put everything on everybody else that we think it’s okay for an entire generation to go to college and ask somebody else, who may have already paid for their own college education or may not have wanted to go to college and didn’t, and expect them to pay your bill. They’re not coming out with a degree, they’re not coming out with a better job because of your education. Why should they be paying for you? It makes zero sense. That is the most illogical thing. To think that I can do something for you. I can’t do it for you. You don’t learn anything, you don’t gain what is necessary. You don’t even value.

The reason that people charge for certain things that they would love to give away as free is because people don’t value what’s free. Give away as free is because people don’t value what’s free. People don’t value what’s free. Do you know? Many churches will charge a very small nominal fee to participate in activities at church and the only reason they’re doing that is because people won’t value it and won’t come. But if you charge them, they’ll think it’s more valuable and they’ll come. And if they paid the money they don’t want to be out the money then they’ll come.

This is the same reason why you can be someone who has worked really hard to get in shape. You eat right, you’re exercising every day, and then all of a sudden you go somewhere and there’s a temptation to eat all the bad food and to to sleep in and not do. And you think it’ll take me so long to work this off If I eat this and you’ve already paid the price that, because you paid the price, you think it’s easier for me to say no, cause I know what it’s going to take, I know what’s this is going to cost me If I have to do this again. Folks, this is an understanding of sanctifying yourself. God isn’t going to do that for you. Why? Because if it’s not valuable to you, if you don’t do the work, then you will not give it the value necessary and you can easily walk away. You can easily walk away. We are to circumcise our own hearts. There is a consecration that comes because we have obeyed and cut things away and chose to live our life permanently different. The scripture says that he calls on us to to come out from among them and be separate. Don’t look like the rest of the world, don’t act like them. Don’t participate in the same things they participate in. You should look different.

I heard a message this past Sunday by a minister. I wish I could remember his name. I heard a message this past Sunday by a minister. I wish I could remember his name. I don’t remember his name, um, but he said stay Um. And I loved it because it’s so ministered to me. Stay weird.

People think Christians are weird, not because we’re doing weird things, but because we’re not doing what they’re doing. If they’re all out partying and you’re like, no, I’m not going to go, do that. Stay weird. Don’t do that. If you’re sitting at a restaurant and your family prays before a meal pray, don’t be embarrassed, don’t whisper your prayer, just pray. Be weird, be separate. There’s nothing weird about praying over a meal, do you not? Just 50 years ago, just 50 years ago, almost every household prayed before their meals. Almost everybody went to church regularly. It wasn’t weird.

Culture has let go. They quit paying the price. They wanted an easy doctrine. We allowed fake, we allowed the enemy to speak false doctrines to come into our churches, that you don’t have to do that. All that isn’t necessary. We took away all the things that helped us to be consecrated and sanctified and holy before God and we removed them all. And because we removed them all, it was easy to walk away from it.

And now you can’t find a church that looks like a church that we used to attend. You can’t find one. It is hard to find a church anymore where a preacher actually preaches. I mean, think about this for just a moment. You go, you can watch on television, you can go to churches all over, you can watch them on YouTube, you can go visit them. People now they all teach what used to be our midweek Wednesday night. You know and I’m picking the night that yours could have been different, but churches had midweek services because they understood you can’t live off of one meal a week. You need to be with the people of God to encourage you to keep you going. So we at least met twice a week and then there was probably a prayer meeting that you attended as well, if not two, and then church activities where the family got together and did stuff together. We were at church all the time, but in those Wednesday night meetings we called that Bible study or Bible class and you taught, you went in depth with things and there was teaching that came.

But on Sunday. On Sunday you’d get the pastor up there and he preached. He would preach that word. He’d preach with fire and conviction and it would. The Holy Spirit would then convict you and you’d hear that word, you’d catch that conviction, you’d catch that fire and it would set you on fire.

It’s a challenge now to find any churches where, on Sunday, you actually hear a preacher who preaches, you hear a teacher who teaches. And why did we do that? Because everybody from the world around us told us well, we don’t want to come visit because that’s too harsh, they just sound mean, that’s just too hard. I don’t like that. And we let the world tell us what they liked and they wanted you to just tell us nice, can you just tell me, can you just say it, not yell it? The things I’ve heard, I’m sure you’ve heard them too. But I got to tell you I miss preachers, I miss the fire of God, I miss the power of God manifested in church services on Sunday. God was. You saw how powerful God was, because powerful things happened. The people of God.

It wasn’t hard to find people who would pray with you and pray you through. It wasn’t hard to find that. It is hard to find people who will pray you through. Now. They’ll say my thoughts and prayers are with you and you’ll be lucky if they even said a three little word prayer Jesus, help them. You’ll be lucky if they actually prayed and you’ll even be lucky if they keep their thoughts on you Like that’s going to do anything. My thoughts and prayer thoughts are nothing. So what if my thoughts are on you? That doesn’t help you. I can be thinking about you unless I have words that go with those thoughts, because I can encourage with words. I can be someone who empathizes with words, encourages, corrects, all the things. You need words for that, and all that prayer is is me using all them words to talk to the one who can do something about it. That’s what prayer is.

Folks, we have got to understand the onus is on us. God has done everything he said. It is finished on the cross because he did it all already. The new covenant was established. But there is a consecration that’s got to take place in us, something we’re responsible for, something we need to do.

When God spoke this word through Moses about circumcising their heart in Deuteronomy 9, 12, this is what had just happened. This is when God had spoke to Moses, given him the 10 commandments, and this is what God says to Moses. He says then the Lord said to me arise, go down quickly from here, for your people, whom you have brought from Egypt, have acted corruptly, so Egypt was still in them. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made themselves a metal image, a golden calf. So this whole process was that God had taken them and did powerful works to remove them and deliver them from Egypt. But it’s up to you whether you still live in Egypt in your heart. It is up to you if Egypt is still in your heart. Are you still living in Egypt? Are you still living in Egypt? In Egypt, are you still living in Egypt? The command was not just a physical circumcision, but spiritual.

We must deal with our hearts and its desires. If you struggle with the desires that are in your heart, if those desires are for the things of Egypt, for the things of yesterday, for old things, old sins, old hangups, old strongholds on your life, then you need to be very often quoting the word of God in prayer, claiming for yourselves scriptures like like um that in the Psalms, when when David says, lord, give that, he will give us the desires of our heart. So you need to know, lord, I want your desire, your desires, given to me. I want your desires put in my heart. Plant them in my heart. Plant your desires in my heart that you can give me the desires of my heart, that I might live and walk out those desires, that I could live in those desires, that I can accomplish those desires and have those desires. Make them a part of me, put them in my heart. Or maybe you need to pray, lord, you said that you would take out the stony heart that I have. If you have a stubborn, stony heart that’s from Egypt, they say Lord, you can replace it with a heart of flesh. That’s Bible. You can ask him give me a heart of flesh, father, take this stony heart, this stubborn heart, this hard heart, remove it from me. Oh God, give me a heart of flesh, give me a heart that feels what you feel, wants what you want, wants to accomplish and does what is in your heart to accomplish.

We must cut off Egypt and all its ways and effects, its mindsets, its patterns. They all lead back to the place of bondage and slavery. What did Jesus say in Matthew 23, 37? Jerusalem, jerusalem. How oft would I would have gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks. But you would not. You would not that his desire is to bring us close. His desire is to take us into the promise, to live in his protection, to live in his provision, to live our promised land, totally reliant on our good shepherd. He said and I would have done it over and over again the problem wasn’t me, the problem wasn’t what I provided. The problem is you won’t circumcise your heart. The problem is you won’t cut off Egypt.

If you’ll do the consecration, consecrate yourself. If you’ll do that, then you will have the reproach rolled away from you. You will have that done for you. So what does it mean to consecrate? It is the act or process of officially making something holy and able to be used for religious ceremonies or for God, for what God’s purposes are. Back then, this was to be able to do things according to the tabernacle, but now, today, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So this is the things that we do, that we are able to do for the Lord, whether that’s in church or at work, or with your family or at school or in ministry, jobs, whatever.

Consecrate and sanctify are basically interchangeable. Sanctify is to set apart or declare holy, to consecrate, to make legitimate. I loved that because I thought a legitimate Christian, a legit Christian, someone who is really living the word of God, a legit Christian, someone who is really living the word of God, a legit Christian. Make up your mind today and do a self-examination. Am I living like a first generation children of Israel that didn’t go into the promised land because I refused to circumcise my heart, that I didn’t listen, that I was stubborn and I wouldn’t cut off and cut away the things that were unnecessary? Because to circumcise literally means to cut away. It’s the cutting away of the flesh. Well, that was which is unnecessary, or that which, for many people, they see circumcision, um, medically, is a cleaner way to live, because you will have less infection and less dirt and and less bacteria that is held in a very sensitive area, in the area that that causes you to reproduce. So we want to cut away what is unnecessary and to make healthy and to be pure and to not be contaminated. I hope you’re getting this.

People today don’t worry about these terms anymore. They read new versions of the Bible. We don’t like words like consecrate and sanctify and they don’t want to. They don’t care what they mean, they don’t bother to look them up, they don’t see how, how that affects their life to not have them. I challenge you today it’s okay to read a new version that’s easy to read, that’s fine, but I’m challenging you to get an old version too and then compare them and start doing some biblical study and look up some of these words. Get you a good Bible program or get you an old Strong’s Concordance. You can literally look up that very scripture by line and the word and it will tell you a number. You look up the number and it’ll tell you what that word means and all the different places that that word is used and all the different meanings that it could have.

You could learn so much by taking this word so seriously for your life understanding it is your consecration, it is your sanctification to make you into the image of his son, a legit Christian who lives in the kingdom of God, who has everything available to them. Everything Jesus taught was about the kingdom of God and he said you could ask anything in my name and it would be yours. I want to live in that kingdom. I want to be able to declare what God says I can declare and have what God says I can have. That I can do the miraculous when my friends are sick, I can pray for the sick and they will recover. That I could pray for the brokenhearted and their heart will be mended. Folks that I can pray for provision. And then, all of a sudden, whatever is needed, it’s there. It’s there. It’s there at the moment that it’s needed. It’s there Whether it’s healing or finances or growth or maturity, and whether it’s relationship and your marriages and friendships and family relationships, no matter what this is.

We need more of the working of the Holy Spirit. Do you know that scripture says that the Holy Spirit is ever making intercession for us, that he is inside of you, groaning, groaning in prayers for you? It’s the reason why you keep feeling like you just can’t quite walk away from God all the way, because that spirit is interceding for you. Because that spirit is interceding for you. But there’s only so much that God can do without you coming into covenant with him. In cooperation with him, consecrate yourself to his plan and to his purpose.

When I was growing up, we used to hear these terms actually all the time. And if we do, we tend to think that God is. If we don’t know what these words are and don’t tend to care what they mean, then we just tend to think that these things were just old things and it’s Old Testament and it doesn’t really affect my life. And if these words did mean something to you, we tend to now think, because of the way that our culture has gone, that somehow magically, god’s going to do this consecrated work in me, for me. He’s going to do the work for me. There’s, there’s not a work I need to do. God’s going to do that work. Oh, child of God. This, that’s so backward. It’s so not right.

The confusing part seems to be that we understand that there is a work of the Holy Spirit that does happen in us. That is true, but we leave off the part where it only happens if we partner with the Holy Spirit. He is our paraclete, in fact, this will never happen in you if you don’t think that there’s a need for you to be involved in the process. It will never happen. The Holy Spirit is not going to make you do anything. You’re not a robot. He can speak to you, he can convict you, he can remind you, he can be coming up in you all that intercession that’s going on inside of you and you can hear the Lord. You can hear, and you just keep quiet down, quiet down. Do you know what the Bible says? That at some point he will quit talking to you. You tell him no enough, you ignore him long enough. At some point he says, okay, have it your way, and he won’t say anymore.

And if you’ve ever felt like that the desperation that people feel when they feel that God’s not speaking to them anymore, and how they want to hear his, because they get so desperate in their circumstance that they took themselves in, that they went headlong in themselves with their own little, stubborn, unsanctified heart, that now they desperately want God to get them out of trouble. The problem is, folks, we can’t constantly expect God to do all the work. We are in a relationship with him. If you’re in a marriage, you understand this. You can’t expect your spouse to sit back while you do everything and that spouse can’t sit back and expect you to do everything. You both came into that covenant relationship and you both have things that are necessary for you to do. Basically, he’s saying make yourselves ready. Joshua tells him. God tells him, moses had told him make yourselves ready. In the, in the scripture I gave you, joshua said get ready. Chapter three make yourselves ready.

This culture is so lazy. We’ve never had more input from influencers and coaches and counselors and people who call themselves all those things, even though they have no criteria for doing so to be healthy, to be a leader, to be a mover and a shaker I mean, my feed’s full of them and they could be godly people, good people, and they are actually doing the work. But we tend to think, because we live in this little society of scrolling, that because I scrolled through it and I read it and I agreed with it, that I did it. You didn’t do nothing. Did you get up at 5 AM and do your exercise and eat, do your protein drink and get all your grams of this and grams of that and then go and make sure you did your so many minutes of meditation in your you know? I mean, did you lead? Did you lead yourself?

Today there’s a really good um? Uh, doctor of psychology who I follow. Um, his name is Dr Andy Yarbrough uh, out of new Orleans. You can find him on Instagram if you’d like, and he teaches self leadershipleadership that you come into agreement with the Holy Spirit to lead your life in the direction it’s supposed to go, with Holy Spirit leading first, like I gave you at the beginning, when you see the arc move, that’s when you move, you take your instructions from the Holy Spirit, but then from that place of consecration with him, you lead.

No matter what part of you comes up and disagrees with that through the day, no matter what part of you comes up that doesn’t like it, that argues with it, that feels hurt by it. God, why are you going to make me do that? I don’t want to do that. That hurts when I do that. Well, cutting away of the flesh does hurt, consecration does hurt, but it’s that painful part of doing the work that makes us stand. We know what the work we’ve done. We know the work we’ve done. We’ve earned that and we don’t want to turn loose of that. We want to see God use that in our life and produce what we want to see produced in our life.

Self-leadership is necessary for the Christian life and our role in seeing God take us into our promised land. Joshua 3, 5,. Let’s read it again. Then Joshua said to the people consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. If you are waiting to see the mighty hand of God move on your behalf, he will, but he’s waiting on you to consecrate yourself. Make yourself ready. You have a part to play. If you want to see God do wonders on your behalf, you must consecrate and sanctify yourself. Are you circumcising your own heart? Have you cut away the unnecessary, the things that hinder? Do you know what God’s instructions for you are? There are only three ways to know. There are only three ways to know, and that’s either the word of God, by reading it yourself.

Read this word, the word of God being preached, and you’re listening and hearing that word still the word. And by prayer, being in relationship to hear what the Lord is saying. And every single time you hear a prayer or a word from somebody preached, just be understanding this. It always has to line up with the word. If it doesn’t line up with the word, it’s garbage. Just toss it out. Don’t take that word as your word. If what somebody’s telling you doesn’t line up with the word of God, that is not a word from God. It’s just that simple.

But, folks, part of the consecration process, part of that self-leadership, part of that sanctification, what is the onus on me? I need to be in this word and I need to be a person of prayer. I need to be in this word and a person of prayer. I need to pay the price. I need to circumcise my heart. I need to be the one who’s cutting away.

Joshua said make flint knives. And they all made flint knives and they all had to do the circumcision and they all had to cut the flesh away. But when they did, what was God’s answer? Today, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. If you want to cross over into your promised land and you need your yesterday rolled away, come today into the place of circumcision of the heart. Come today into consecration with the Holy Spirit. Enter the three-legged race with the Holy Spirit and watch what God will do. His wonders will never cease to amaze if you will come into a consecrated place with him.

Let me pray for you, heavenly Father. We just thank you that you are the God of gods, the Lord of lords, as we read you are. Pray for you. Heavenly Father, we just thank you that you are the God of gods, the Lord of lords, as we read. You are king of kings and Father, your power is unlimited, but you have chose to work with us, to not overpower us, but to come alongside and take that power that you have available to us and allow us access to that power.

Father, I pray that the conviction of the Holy Spirit go forth out of my mouth today. That we are ready today to roll away the reproach of Egypt from among us. That we are taking the flint knives, so to speak, to ourselves and we are doing the circumcision of our hearts and cutting away every unnecessary thing. That we take the circumcision, that we take consecration and sanctification seriously. That we would become true, legitimate Christians, those who hear and follow your commands and take our promised lands.

Father, I ask for your help for those who are needing the deliverance of their Egypt out of them. That you would come alongside them. That they would hear words of encouragement, that they would know today is their day. If they will do what you have called them to do if they will look for the Ark of the Covenant ahead of them. Look for the moving of the Covenant ahead of them. Look for the moving of the Holy Spirit ahead of them. Get the instruction of the Lord ahead of them that they follow you and you will take them into their promised land. Father, I thank you for the work that you’re doing. Even now, we give you all the glory and all the praise for what you have done and are doing, and it’s in your Son’s name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen, amen. Thank you so much for taking time to get into the word today. Now do something with it. Use this word today, consecrate yourself today and let’s proclaim the wonderful things that God does on our behalf because of it. Thanks again. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.