Godly Sorrow Leads to Repentance, Reconciliation, Rebuilding and Restoration of Lives

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Nehemiah 2: 4:2, 13-14

Nehemiah’s sorrow was due to:
 (i) The great affliction and reproach of the survivors who were left from captivity.
(ii) The broken-down of Jerusalem’s wall, and its gates burned with fire.

Sorrow in my heart! The reason is because of the broken-down of walls around my life, family, Judea, Jerusalem, nations, generation among others. The Lord wants this sorrow to lead to repentance so that the old waste places can be rebuilt and restored (Isaiah 58: 12; 2 Corinthians 7:10).This state cannot be taken for granted any more, since we are not apathetic to it.

Can God say I have been approved of this matter of rising to reconcile men back to God? What exactly am I living for? To make money in the king’s palace like Nehemiah and forget God’s people? Promotion in place of work until retirement or old age. Lord have mercy on us. God wants us to approve ourselves in that we are clear in this matter.

Nehemiah was in captivity when the burden was laid on his heart by the Lord (Nehemiah 2: 12-16). God also wants to wrought His wonders in our days (Nehemiah 6:16).  How desperate are we to bear the burden in our days? What have I been so occupied with until now? Have I arose to see the   depression in the hearts of men, the valley, the dungeon that the devil has put souls of men?

Prayers: 

• Father, don’t allow this time to pass me by Lord, count me in. Whatever level I am in you, take me deeper still in bearing Your burden. Let Your good hand rest on me. (Nehemiah 2: 18).

• I can’t continue this way, let me no longer take chances, cause me to act (pray, study, speak, go) when I need to (Nehemiah 1: 5 – 11, 2: 3, 5, 7,9, 13- 6:4-5).
• Lord, please rid me of worldly sorrow in any form. Give me only godly sorrow on this pilgrimage. Nehemiah was not living a double standard life.

• Grant me a constant burden; a burden that can be sustained until the broken walls (broken family, broken love for God, broken relationship, broken children, broken nation) around my Jerusalem is rebuilt; men are reconciled back to you; lives are restored. Lord, you sustained the burden in the heart of Nehemiah, do the same to my heart.
• Lord, let pleasing You be my delight. Let me indeed occupy for You in my family, profession, church, wherever you have located me. May You find me occupied until You come. Nehemiah got occupied for the Lord.
• Grant me Your help and grace to fortify myself through your word, sacrifice (pray, fast), make an end in a day, revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned. Bring comfort to the weary, afflicted, oppressed etc. (Isaiah 58; Nehemiah 4: 2).
• Lord, please, make me quickly into that vessel of gold – light enough to be carried or sent anywhere, any time, anyhow for Your divine purpose to be accomplished in my generation. I don’t want to be a vessel of wood, too heavy to carry or move on Your promptings.
• Lord strengthen our hands to build the broken walls of lives, homes, church. We will arise like Nehemiah and other labourers and build. Help us to man our portions and gates. We will occupy our position. Help us to arise and build.
• By the help of Holy Spirit, make me an answer and relief to my generation and generation beyond; comforting the weary, healing the sick, rescuing the perishing, loosing bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, to set free the oppressed and afflicted, breaking every yoke (Nehemiah 2: 17; Isaiah 58:6). Please let me live a sacrificial life in fasting, in praying etc. until a change comes.
• Father, let my life, profession, everything I do, be compatible with the new life I carry.  Nehemiah’s life and profession as a cup bearer in the king’s palace was compatible with his desires and longing for God and His counsels. He ensured the counsel of the Lord was established in Jerusalem again!

• Let me keep seeking, knocking and asking until these broken lives, homes, families, nations around my life, generation, Jerusalem, Judea and uttermost part of the world is built again in the name of Jesus.
• Use me to set lives after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. Please let me not deny my generation all that they need for their deliverance in Jesus name (Nehemiah 4:13-15).
• Everything that represents the Sanballat, Tobiah in form of grieve, distractions, manipulations, Lord I hand them over to You today. Disappoint all their craftiness, divinations, and enchantments. Nehemiah focus was not on the distractors, He took his stand.
• Lord use me, use even me, just as Thou wilt and when and where to reconcile, rebuild and restore souls and nations in Jesus name.

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The Simple and Obedient Disciple

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    Esther 2 Amplified Bible (AMP)

• Esther was simple in her discipleship with Mordecai and the Eunuch, obedient to every instruction given to her without analysing instructions or proofing any point to have her way. (Esther 2: 10, 20)
• Esther desired nothing, except what was given unto her. (Esther 2:15)
• Esther found favour (Esther 2:9)
• To succeed in this walk, we must be totally and wholeheartedly submissive to God, our disciplers, elders, leaders placed over us and even those more spiritually matured and higher than us even though they are young.

• Psalm 32 : 8 - I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide  thee with mine eye.(KJV)
•  I will teach you and tell you the way to go and how to get there;I will give you  good counsel, and I will watch over you.⁹ But don’t be stubborn and stupid      like horses and mules who, if not reined by leather and metal, will run wild,    ignoring their masters. (The Voice)

     

      Prayers:

• Lord, thank you for bringing me into this way of Truth.
• Lord, help me to be obedient always to your instructions, whether it is comfortable for me or not.
• Lord, declutter me from my own knowledge, ways, taste and preferences.
• Bring me to the end of myself, conquer me and open my eyes to see my emptiness and   weaknesses without your presence in my life.
• Forgive me for grieving the Holy Spirit because of my sluggish obedience and disobedience.
• Lord, please let my only desire and hunger CONSTANTLY be JESUS nothing more, nothing less.
• Father, let the Life of Christ be fully formed in me. Until Christ be explicitly evident in me, give me no rest in quest for you dear Lord, so that it will no longer be I, but Christ working in me.
• Shepherd of my soul, I give you full control; help me to go wherever you lead.

          Shepherd of My Soul

          Shepherd of my soul I give you full control,

          Wherever You may lead I will foll-ow.

          I have made the choice to listen for Your vo-o-ice,

          Wherever You may lead I will go.

          Be it in a quiet pasture or by a gentle stream,

          The Shepherd of my soul is by my side.

          Should I face a mighty mountain or a valley dark and deep,

          The Shepherd of my soul will be my guide.

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Four Indispensable and Inseparable Ingredients for Effectiveness in Preaching the Complete Gospel

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1 THESSALONIANS:

Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:5 NIV
"Our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction." 

WORDS:

The instruction in 2 Tim.2:15 clearly shows the importance of the ability to communicate the scriptures effectively to others.

•  STUDY: This comes only through conscientious and consistent devotion to the  reading of the scriptures. To study is much more than merely reading, it requires commitment of quality time, desire to understand, if possible committing portions of the scriptures to memory. It requires burning the midnight candle.
• The complete gospel is the whole Bible, “All Scripture is God breathed, and PROFITABLE.” 2 Tim. 3:16. We must commit to the study of the entire Bible – Old and New Testaments, and not just portions of it. That would result in preaching a fragmented gospel.
• It is the words that we study that are profitable to us and make us approved unto God, the author of the words.
• Our ability to rightly divide the truth comes from our study of the words and this in turn makes us workmen / workwomen who are not ashamed, both in Heaven and in the camp of the enemy.
• So for us to be able to convey the message of the cross effectively like Paul, our ability to articulate it correctly through the study of the scriptures cannot be overemphasised.

POWER:

The Holy Bible is the only Book I know that confers upon those who study it divine power to obey its instructions.

• Our Saviour said, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, are spirit, and they are life.” John 6: 63. It is the life that is embedded in the written word that confers power when spoken.
• “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their  testimony.” Rev. 12:11. The power in the word is in speaking it. The words in the Bible placed under the pillow or portions of it displayed on our car screen or hung on the walls in our home will not protect or bless until it is spoken, articulated.
• The instruction of the great commission is; GO, PREACH! i.e say it, speak it out. The power in the words to convict, correct etc., is in the mouth of the speaker of the words. The words on the pages of a scroll or book is powerless until it is spoken.

THE HOLY SPIRIT:

•  In John 6:63, quoted above, we note in “it is the Spirit that gives life, “the capital S refers to the person of the HOLY SPIRIT the 3^rd person of the Trinity. He is the life giver.
•  John 16: 13 – He guides us into all truth, He will glorify Christ and declares the things of Christ to us.
•  John 15:26 – He is our Comforter, Counsellor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener and Standby. He is everything we need for life and Godliness, Hallelujah!

DEEP CONVICTION:

The Lord said of the leaders of the people of His days in Matt. 23: 2-3: “the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.”

• This is a clear indication of teachers of the law, pastors, leaders with no conviction whatsoever, men with mere big titles and no substance.

 How to recognise preachers with deep conviction like brother Paul.

• The first thing one observes in the life of a man deeply committed to a course is the willingness to lay down the life for the course.
• Our Saviour followed through His purpose on Earth (to lay down His life for us), and would not let Himself be distracted. He had to strongly rebuke His best friend (Peter) when he tried to persuade Him otherwise.
• Paul was so totally sold out to the preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles that he incurred the wrath of his people, the Jews, at the expense of his comfort, even his very life.
• He was divinely warned not to go to Jerusalem because death was waiting for him there, this brother was willing to go and die, as long as he was able to defend what he stood for.
• How many ‘men of God’ today are willing to go to areas hostile to the message of the cross to preach the gospel today?

LORD, please help us; deliver Your Church from empty religion that is several miles long but less than half an inch deep!

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A Glimpse into Nehemiah’s Heart- What is the Condition of your Heart

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Nehemiah 1:3-4 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” ⁴ So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Out of our heart flow the issues of life. How does our heart respond to information about persecutions; desperate situations; backsliding hearts; attacks within and without; widespread proclamation of errors; great misrepresentation of Christ and the faith and calamities?

• How many times did the news just slip by as INFORMATION instead of a BURDEN?

• Do you recall a time when your mouth simply exclaimed with pity and that was the end of the matter?

• What about instances when that news came to your attention but your heart did not skip a beat; didn’t shed any tear or even connect with the victims?

• How often did the news sprout a concern that grew into a burden but it soon died out because it had no real roots on the soil of your heart?

• When was the last time news from afar (with no direct ties to family or friends) struck the core of your heart; halted your business as usual; made you weep; and progressed to spontaneous fasting and prayer?

• How often do we stand aloof assuming others will pick up the burden of giving Jesus no rest?

• Is the ground of your heart full of junk, that even Jesus is unable to find space to place a burden there?

• When will you become available like Nehemiah to stand up and become solutions to matters that make the MASTER sad?

• Regenerated & Redeemed Heart

 An un-regenerated heart is incapable of carrying a burden. Its allegiance is to its fathers business (the devil). Even if a person desires to do a selfless work-he is born of the flesh and cannot please God.

•  I don’t want to receive a doctrine,  I desire a personal revelation of what transpired at Calvary. Gal 2:20

• I do not want a theoretical or historical Christ. I need the tangible JESUS that is able to take me to the other side (LIGHT). Phil 3:10

• Help me know that any man born of the flesh can only render services in the flesh, which CANNOT please God. Romans 8

• Holy Spirit, my Guide and Counsellor- help me now with the new creation life step into all the good works pre-ordained for me. Eph. 2:10

• I cannot conceive, birth or nurse a burden in my Adamic state, please Lord deliver me so that I can be the solution to the groans and cries in my generation.

• Repentant & De-cluttered Heart

·         Resurrected Jesus, please flush out of me all the relics of the old nature.

·         Help my heart to thirst and hunger for the Word of Life (JESUS) Matthew 5:6.

·         De-clutter all my vessels, veins, capillaries so that Jesus’ passion, mission, good works can permeate out of it.

•  Largeness of Heart

And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. 1 Kings 4:29

·        Lord Let the virtues of Christ (largeness of heart, wisdom and great understanding, compassion, selflessness) begin to pump out of my heart.

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