Title Let's become a thirsty spirit
Contents
Let's become a thirsty spirit. (Nehemiah 1:5 -11)
A true believer is thirsty for religious work, and in that thirst, he receives God's grace and blessings and lives. In other words, it refers to the state of having a deep heart in reading the Bible, singing songs, praying, and evangelism. Are you now thirsting for faith in your heart? God really wants the saints to be thirsty. Like Nehemiah, who is thirsty for the problems of the country and faith, our hearts must also be thirsty.
What is the state of hunger?
Craving is thirsty. A person who meets Jesus develops a longing for faith and develops deep interest in faith. Just as a thirsty deer is only interested in water, I, my family, and others are also deeply interested in matters of faith. If you only talk about religious things, your heart will be opened. David said in Psalm 25:5, “All day long I wait for you,” and that is the feeling of longing. Ladies and gentlemen, we must do that.
Another craving is hot. When you meet Jesus, your lukewarm faith will become hot. Pouring hot water also makes the drinking cup hot. Heat is meant to be transferred.
If you have this kind of strong faith, you will overcome difficulties, and you will be able to transmit heat and influence others in the cold world. Next to the desperate saint, the people around them feel the religious heat and are affected, and they are heated with deep interest in faith together. The Israelites are said to be “pierced to the heart” in Peter's preaching. (Acts 2:37) - A stinging sting is also associated with a hot experience.
A life of sharing the passion of faith! Our saints should do that.
Craving is also a state of love. When you meet Jesus, you will come to know love and become thirsty. Because we have been loved, we long to get more of that love, and because we are overflowing with love, we long to give to others. When you love physically, your heart beats faster, the world becomes ecstatic, and you overflow with gratitude and joy in any circumstance. No matter how hard it is, you don't know how difficult it is, and no matter how difficult it is, you don't know how difficult it is. Therefore, the problem is not that our current environment is difficult, but that we do not know the love of God. A life of being loved and sharing that love! We believers should live like that. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Are you living with a thirsty faith?
What should I do to become thirsty for this kind of faith? In order to become thirsty, we must now know the heart of God and repent of the past. The heart of God is realized in the Word, and the repentance of the past is confessed in prayer. This place should be like that.
Such is the heart of Nehemiah. “(Verses 6, 7) Me and my father’s house have sinned, and have done exceedingly evil toward the Lord ”
Everyone, have you recently repented of your shortcomings and sins before God? If not, it is more likely that I have become spiritually dull than because I lived a clean life. Ladies and gentlemen, no matter how clean we live, those who stand before the Lord always see their own filthiness and wash it away.
You know this story from the Talmud, right? If a grain of rice gets on one person's face between two people, who will touch the face first? The person who saw the grain of rice on his face. Repentance is something that those who understand first do it.
In Isaiah 57, it is written, “I dwell on high, and I also dwell with the contrite and humble of heart, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.” A person who is awake to repentance, for such a person, regrets the past and thirsts to live for the Lord.
According to the story, Peter denied three times and lived a new life of forgiveness. In the case of Paul, he repented of himself, calling himself the chief of thieves.
Guys, it's not just Peter. Not just Paul. We didn't just deny Jesus three times! Therefore, we too must repent and live without regrets.
Also, in order to be thirsty, we must have the Holy Spirit and open our spiritual eyes.
In verses 4-5, it is written, “When I heard these words, I sat down and mourned for several days (actually, it was four months), and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, saying, “…” It is Nehemiah who is now praying in Babylon, far from Jerusalem. The area is full of many idols. But he clearly confesses who God is. “God of heaven, great and dreadful God!” We also see that we are praying before “I am a creature, the great God”. Also, he continues to pray. “To those who love the Lord and keep His commandments . . .” In verses 4 to 11, the expression referring to God is confessed 44 times. What does it tell you? Although the nation is in trouble, he is with the Lord in a rich spiritual state.
Romans 8:5, 6 speaks very clearly about the difference between the flesh and the spirit. “Those who are after the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and those who are after the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Who are you evangelizing? Although it is a duty, it is to be preached with a sad heart when we have the eyes of the spirit to see the souls to be evangelized.
In James 4:7-10, “You double-minded, purify your hearts. Mourn and mourn and weep; turn your laughter into mourning, and your joy into sorrow. Humble yourself before the Lord, and the Lord will exalt you.”
By what does the Lord exalt us? Eyes of high faith and discernment.
As Joseph Hall said, "No matter how great the devil's interference may be, the Holy Spirit-guarded church still exists." The man of prayer, E.M.Bounds, said, "What the church needs today is not good machines, new organizations, or noble theological knowledge. It just needs the Holy Spirit." said That's right. The Holy Spirit must also open our eyes.
I hope that you too will open our eyes to know God's heart and realize the power, blessings and gifts of the spiritual and spiritual world, just as the eyes of a flower fall in spring or scales fall from Saul's eyes.
Another thing is that in order to become thirsty, you must hold on to the final mission of your life.
In the text, Nehemiah prays, “Now, I beg you, remember what you once said to your servant Moses, saying, . . .” (1:8, 9). The commentator says that Nehemiah was praying while holding on to the words of Deuteronomy 30:2 and below. The content is the promise, “If the people of Israel obey the Word with all their heart and soul, the Lord will change their will and, even if they are in heaven, they will bring them back and gather them.”
In Nehemiah's prayers and confessions, the words "God's will, God's plan, God's servant" are frequently used. These words are a confession of conviction as a missionary, saying, “You have promised, so please fulfill your promise.” A thirsty soul is living resolutely against this sinful world, while the heart and soul live by fulfilling God's Word and will.
Ladies and gentlemen, thinking about the Lord, thinking about the Lord's work, and trying to accomplish the Lord's will, this is our mission.
A.W. Tozer said: “Faith is at the level of what you think of God. The most important thing in faith is God. So what are we doing? What is more important than what can be said and done is what is thought of God in the depths of our hearts.”
All the people of the Bible focused on looking at God like this. Moses tells you to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5) David says: “I love you, O LORD, my strength” (Psalm 18:1). Paul says that he does not spare his life when he carries out his mission, the way he runs and the mission he received from the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:23).
The mission of the saints is to love the Lord more and do more His work.
Only when we have this thirst we can carry out the Lord's work properly, much and without regret. Finally, we introduce a conversation between an old man and his young grandson.
A young grandson asked a grandfather. “Have you seen God?” Then Grandpa replied with a strong voice. “Now that I am getting older, I can only see the Lord more and more.”
If you still have the strength, I bless you that you can confess, “I see only the love of the Lord and the work of the Lord.” And I hope that I can live for the Lord with a more thirsty heart.