Tag: #Nehemiah 6:3 ESV

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Included

Included

God’s bridal invitation to us is to be with Him and others in His fullness of revival. To choose yes is to be included. 

For Him to even include us in His invitation means He desires that we be “part of the whole” and “covered” (Dictionary.com).

There’s power, protection and blessing for those included in His fold. And who wouldn’t want Jesus as an escort throughout life, especially right now? He longs to pour out Himself as goodness to us—in His best ways.

Inclusion Offers Abundance

Our run to Him and what He calls us to offers us abundance in various forms.

In Philippians 3:12 TPT Paul says, “I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own.”

God has need of us in this hour and His heart’s desire is to include each of us. But His kind of inclusion isn’t like the world’s. No, it’s for anyone who is willing and yields their heart to Him; because this kind of inclusion involves personal faith that God’s revealed Word will come to pass, as well action to His directives. This kind of inclusion requires our full embrace of Holy Spirit and our involvement in how He leads.

He is inviting us to be all in. Our progressive yeses to Him require that we get good at letting all else go and entrust Him to take care of it on our behalves. His invitation requires us to say no to that which is not for us at this time, entrusting it with Him completely.

Where many have gone through years of stripping to receive more of Him, Holy Spirit revealed to me that He’s pouring out, in a new way, to these submitted ones. He’s adding more fulfillment now for His purposes in more than one area. And it’s just the beginning. 

He’s giving them all they need to do what He has called and assigned them to do. He’s building upon their foundations He restored in the secret place, multiplying good fruit in order to fulfill divine purposes.

Wisdom as Life

These submitted ones know what to do, because they received instructions from Him over time and they learned that God’s wisdom brings life.

Proverbs 4:13 MSG says, “Hold tight to good advice; don’t relax your grip. Guard it well—your life is at stake!”

When God calls us into the impossible, which can even be our everyday Christian walk, the best we can do is take His hand, His arm and live forward with Him. We can do what He says and marvel at Him and what He does, even in specific areas.

Jesus’ invitation requires that we walk closely with Him—in His Glory Presence, within our assignments, as true inclusion involves boundaries. These are the safest places to be and we cannot go wrong. We can remember this when we hear invitations to step out otherwise.

Processing Opposition

Opposing or controlling voices may invite you to cross over into false lands-for-you. So, discern them and just don’t go there. It’s swampland for you. You don’t need it and it won’t serve you or God in the best way. Keep walking and bypass all that’s not for you in this season. 

Be like Nehemiah—committed to his cause. “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down,” Nehemiah said to those through whom the enemy influenced to try to provoke him to cross boundaries he worked to rebuild (Ne 6:3 ESV). “Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

Like Nehemiah, don’t let the enemy undo what God has built and is building when He sends you out. Anything that requires we leave our post to lower ourselves to engage in something less is not of God. So, just don’t go there. 

We can cast our cares and keep moving forward. We can keep our eyes straight forward on the prize, which is Jesus. We can focus on Him and His mission for us and we will experience His best reward. We can pray for others and move on quickly. This is God’s way for you and I. 

Be the Head

God’s invitation offers us a head start—to be the head, not the tail of what He’s doing in this hour. But this doesn’t mean we will be alone. No, we will be with Him and others whom He brings along. And won’t it be fun to find out who He assigns with us along the way?

Pray with me, if you will…

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for including me in Your place and time for a great adventure with You.

I choose to run to You with a resounding, “Yes,” to Your invitation.

Help me remain close to You and embrace all You have for me and nothing that’s not of You. 

In Jesus’ Mighty Name.

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Righteous Dedication 

We’re shifting into a place where God is making things in our lives more right (Is 46:13).

Where we have awakened to God’s wisdom and known Him more, where we’ve chosen more true justice above self-justification, more God dependence over self-reliance and more selflessness in general over selfishness, God is bringing His beloved into an abundance of manifest righteousness (Is 61:11).

The verse Holy Spirit highlighted to me is Isaiah 43:7 TPT, which says, “Bring me everyone who is called by my name, the ones I created to experience my glory. I myself formed them to be who they are and made them for my glory.”

Even as I write, I have a sense that this manifest righteousness will touch every area of our lives and some areas in particular more than others.

This is a recompense, yes, a reward for faithful commitment and even more. It’s an expression of God’s faithfulness. A reflection of Him in our inward state of being. A gracious revealing that Holy Spirit has grown His willing ones to receive better. It’s answer to prayer and markers of destiny. It’s gracious blessing of making so many full of His joy to bring Him glory and overflow to others (Is 43:7 TPT).

HELPS Word-studies says of these righteous ones “…they are justified (…”made right, righteous”) by God’s grace each time they receive (obey) faith” (Strong’s #1344).

The Word righteous means what’s just in character and ways, according to God (Vine’s). It’s what’s approved by God and judged as right, just and holy in His eyes. 

Righteousness works in tandem with justice as a governing rule of divine authority. So much so that they’re the foundation of God’s throne (Ps 89:14). Therefore, anything that is truly righteous is supportive of God’s reign.

To be dedicated to this, means one must submit to God’s heart, His nature—His holy character and ways.

By grace through faith, Christ makes us righteousness in spirit. To choose to be dedicated to Him in soul and body requires us to align with His Spirit in character and principles, trusting Him enough to follow His lead and sacrificing whatever is necessary along the way as we grow in Him.

Therefore, a righteous walk requires us to conform to Him and His will consistently. And we can only do this with Holy Spirit’s help. As we know Him and yield to Him increasingly, He lifts us out of dis-grace and builds us in what’s right in His eyes by His grace-power. 

In this way, God restores honor. 

As God does this, He will alert His willing ones to any diversion(s) as attacks against them and their path to get them off-course.

These diversions are efforts of the enemy that oppose God’s righteous direction for His beloved. They often work through a well-meaning, but self-righteous person, full of their own opinions; or through an envious person, who’s under demonic influence, such as Saul toward David.

Holy Spirit especially highlighted this to remind His people to be alert as we build forward with God’s anointing to restore His people (1 Pe 5:8).

This reminds me of Nehemiah and his famous message: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you” (Ne 6:3 ESV)? In other words, don’t bow to the enemy.

What’s right in God’s eyes often doesn’t make sense to many of us, including loved ones who desire God’s best for us and, yes, especially to those who work against us and God. Therefore, it’s critically important to discern what’s truly of God by listening to His voice above every other, and follow His instructions, even if they seem new to us or unusual.

Remember, too, that a person cannot dedicate themselves to God and evil simultaneously. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:14 TPT, “Don’t continue to team up with unbelievers in mismatched alliances, for what partnership is there between righteousness and rebellion? Who could mingle light with darkness?”

Sadly, this can even mean those close to us, whom we love, even believers who still have unbelief in one or more particular areas.

Therefore, we must make wise choices on the right path in God’s eyes, even if others close to us don’t understand. To do this, we must have a closer relationship with God than anyone else. We must hear from Him for ourselves and study His Word. 

We are coming into a time of Psalm 30:1 and we need to continue to stay on course and be strong in our Lord. 

The TPT version of this verse says, “Lord, I will exalt you and lift you high, for you have lifted me up on high! Over all my boasting, gloating enemies, you made me to triumph.”

So, let’s discern His best for our lives.

Pray with me if you will . . . 

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for your rich mercy, for choosing us and for building us by Your grace-power (2 Ti 3:16). Please continue to help us by expanding our hearts of dedication to You, as our superpower (Ja 1:12).

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen. 

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.