Jesus- a man of action! You may think you are a very busy person, maybe too busy to pray, but do you realize that Jesus had to carefully and creatively create time alone with the Father? Look at how Jesus prioritized time alone and let's think about His example of prioritizing fellowship with the Father.
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Adversity Matures our Love into Surrender
Last year the Lord began speaking to me about this word, “surrender”. It was as if a sharp needle poked a raw, open wound. We all use the word “surrender”, and we sing about it and speak of it as if it is normal and simple, but this encounter I had with the Lord over it proved different. In essence, what the Lord was saying to me was, “you don’t know the first thing about ‘surrender’.”
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The Foxes that Spoil
The setting is a garden. The season is the end of winter. An interesting picture. This is a time of year our gardens are not trimmed or tended to, having just come out of the winter. It’s the beginning of the season when the sun has barely poked its head and out of the dead and barren surroundings, small, green tender plants beginning poking their heads above the surface. It can be quite deceiving actually, the changing of the seasons. On one hand, it looks as if winter is over and you begin to see signs of spring, but the final frost hasn’t quite come.
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The Power of Invitation
I have found that people offended with God mostly are hurt because they believe God isn’t paying attention to them, so as human nature is, we would prefer to reject others before they have the opportunity to reject us. Many people do this with God. It is a strategy of the enemy to sow seeds of doubt in us that God is not involved in our lives nor does He really care about us. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Discovering His Trustworthiness
The opening chapter of the Song of Solomon reveals a facet of His character- a “face” of Jesus if you will, a tender-hearted shepherd. Getting to know Jesus in these different facets opens our eyes toward His character and His attributes in addition to forming a deeper relational bond to Him. The Shulamite begins by telling of her desire for her beloved and confessing her love and then we see that her love is directed toward this face, the shepherd.
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Journey into God's Heart
Why is it important to know the emotion of God towards humanity, specifically, toward me? Moreover, why does it matter to God that we are acquainted with His affection?
As a child I always desired to please my parents, in fact I am sure it is natural that children desire to know they are doing well and experience the joy of their parents toward them. For girls, usually its the approval of the Father that becomes a primary imparting of confidence in self worth and confidence to grow as a woman, and maybe for Song with their mothers it is similar; to feel the approval of your mother gives confidence in your success as a man.
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Reformation
Chapter 13 of Nehemiah shows how important it is to have strong leadership in the area of administration. Are you an administrator? God has a big plan for you! God has made all the parts of the body, and we each need each other to continually reform and reform and keep the fire burning until the return of our Lord.
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The Power of Thanks
And it is commemoration day! The city, the temple, and the new establishment of the Jewish people is being established with Thanksgiving! That's right, choirs of thanksgiving!! Find out how you can renew your mind with thanksgiving and the hidden secret God gave us in His word.
Read MoreInhabit the kingdom
Once again Nehemiah's amazing administrative skills shine through as he now orchestrates where all the families of the land will dwell. One-tenth will have the honor of living within the city walls, in the heart of Jerusalem. The new kingdom is being established with God's heart, yet under the Persian government… can you imagine?
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ALL OR NOTHING
When it was all said and done, Nehemiah gathers everyone together to put it in writing. All the people vowed from now on they would keep the Law of the Lord and take personal responsibility in the upholding of the spiritual foundations that had now been re-laid. This required everyone to be onboard, committed, ALL IN.
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THE SPIRIT & THE WORD
The Word is alive and active, powerful and spiritual. When we read the Word do we believe it will teach us, fill us, carry us and lead us in our day? We should! We should be leaving room for God to speak to us when we read the Word each day so it can launch us into the Spirit and guide us into times of repentance, renewal and reset.
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For the love of the word
NEHEMIAH Chapter 8 is the beginning of the spiritual revival and the people were renewed in their reverence for the scripture, worship, and understanding of the law, for starters. With every revival, there is always a "rebible"- that is, a heightened hunger and release of the Word of God.
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Trust the Process
There was a lot more to the rebuilding of the walls than building them. We are talking about administrating and entire city of people, getting them to work together, and having a plan that would ensure the future success of the protection of Jerusalem. How was Nehemiah going to be sure that these walls didn't get torn down again? He trusted the process even when he couldn’t see the full picture.
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Consistency
In Chapter six we see Nehemiah once again battling opposition. Gossip, attack on his character, his motives, false prophets... OH MY! The key to staying strong in the midst of accusation consistent focus. "Whatever God has called us to do, beware of being sidetracked with fruitless issues." - D.K. Campbell
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The Generous Leader
Funny isn’t it, when there is something from the outside coming at you, you tend to band together and get over your differences pretty quickly. But, when there is little or no outside opposition, you start to see the small things right on the inside of your own home/family/community and even nit-pick.
In chapter 5 Nehemiah learns that the Jews were charging each other interest when lending to them, and this brought about a whole lot more findings…
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God Will Fight for You
IF THE ENEMY CAN’T GET YOU, HE’LL GO AFTER THOSE CLOSEST TO YOU
The enemy always uses fear tactics. If he cant get to the leader, he will hit the people around the leader to get the leader to stop and force him to engage and address the people. Even this tactic of the enemy always futile because the leader will then pastor the people, bring them into unity and end up with greater strength than before as is the case with most challenges life brings us.
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Do Something, Together
In Nehemiah verse 4, The “rubbish”, in Hebrew, it’s the only occurrence of this word. The next nearest translation means “rubble”, “dust”, “debris”. The picture in my mind is like what ground zero looked like after 911. There was so much, that it took so many, many people so long to clear it. I imagine the workers at the beginning full of strength and patriotism for their country. Then after months, and years, see the heaps upon heaps still staring at them in the face can feel like a dent has hardly been made.
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The Action of Watchmen
In verse 3 we see action. "prayed" and "stationed guards". This is a two-fold, double barrier strategy. While I am praying, you stand guard. There is a misconception that prayer, waiting or watching is “passive”- that couldn’t any farther from the truth! Have you ever stayed up all night waiting for your teenager to get home?Technically that is waiting and watching. How does your mind and emotions feel? Are they at rest? How does your body feel losing sleep? Watching and praying is work. It is very active…
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Nehemiah's Opposition
Opposition! Ugh! No one likes opposition, but I’ve heard it said that as surely as you set out to do something for God, someone will surely come to oppose it. Opposition gets us into a place of considering, or reconsidering, if what we are doing is a good idea or a God idea. (Thank you "opposition"!)
There is a difference between "good" and "God". I have good ideas all the time, seriously, I do. I have great ideas, in fact the problem is that I have so many ideas I have to really sort through them and ask, “Is this a good idea, or a God idea?” all the time. Nehemiah prayed, fasted, went to his leader, and had much confirmation before the opposition came.
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Jesus Interceded
What keeps Jesus praying all the time? Jesus always has been and always will be an Intercessor. This is part of His eternal identity in the Godhead. It’s the same as breathing- you don’t have to think about it or feel like doing it, it’s just what you do. Did you ever think about the job title Jesus was given?
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