Commissioned

Day 5 Meditation (Revelation 5:7-10). You have been redeemed, purchased by payment of a price. In your own case, what kind of slavery have you been rescued from? Thank God, I have been redeemed, freed from the shackles of sin. Freed from addictions, from ****, from idol worship, from death. Christ purchased life for me. Amen! Does this inspire you to sing to the Lord, even while darkness still swirls around you? Even while darkness still swirls around me I can sing to the Lord because He has sealed my future in Him. Singing praises to Him, removes me from the present circumstances and I focus on Him. I can look to the day when I am at home with Him in Glory, never again to face life's troubles. Why do you think Jesus wants you to reign with him in the New Heavens and the New Earth? Jesus wants all the redeemed to reign with Him in the New Heavens and the New Earth as a reward for accepting His gift of redemption.

Day 4 Meditation (Revelation 5:1-8; 6:1). What does it say about you that Jesus, the Most Worthy One, died for you. That Jesus Christ the Anointed One died for me says that God loves me and that I have worth in this present world and in the world to come. Eternity. How does he value your worth? God values my worth by poritioning me in the Kingdom of God and uses me in ministry to be His witness on earth and to bring edification to His Church. How casual should you be before the Lamb who is Most Worthy? Before the Lamb who is Most Worthy, I would be fearful to give Him the highest honor. Never casual, as we know casual, but with grave respect to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What is the appropriate relationship with him? My relationship with jesus is to recognize that He is and will always be my Sovereign, Most Holy God. In what ways has he humbled himself to reveal himself to you? Jesus has humbled Himself to reveal Himself to me by permitting me to be in His presence. Insignificant me, He tells me He will never leave me nor forsake me. He is with me always. Hallelujah!!!

Day 3 Meditation (Revelation 5:6). How is the Lamb described in verse 6? The Lamb is described as alive, standing triumphant, conquering beside the throne of God, all-powerful, all-seeing, exercising the full power of the Holy Spirit. What does that tell you about his ability to help you now, in your present circumstances? Christ position in Heaven as the Conquering Lamb, triumphant and all-powerful tells me in that He completed the work at Calvary and stands in Heaven victorious over the enemy. As heir to the promises of God I too am victorious in preent-day circumstances. Considering the standing Lamb that was slain, how do the wounds you have experienced become your strengths? Compared to the wounds that Jesus the Lamb bore for the sin of the word, the wounds that I receive here on earth cannot be compared to His suffering. I can take encouragement, walk in faith and be strengthened, knowing that one day I will be with Him arounf His throne.

Day 2 Meditation (Revelation 5:5). How do humility and victory go together? Jesus shows us that we can gain victory through humility. Jesus ministry on earth brought Him to a place where He was beaten, bruised, a crown of thorns pushed down on His head, crucified, a sword plunged into His side and yet in humility He did not utter a scathing word to His enemies. In humility he was led as a lamb to be slaughtered. But victory would come and oh, yes, it came on the third day He arose Victor, Champion; our Redeemer. Victorious Champion, defeating the enemy. How do the Lion and the Lamb fit together? The Lion and the Lamb fit together because they fully describe the role of Jesus at a different stage of His rolership. How did Jesus humble himself? Jesus humbled Himself by submitting to the destiny God had for Him in the reconcilation of man to God. The path to get there was treacherous, but Jesus did not utter a word. In humility He suffered, bled and died for the sin of the world. Why is it necessary to humble ourselves before God will exalt us? As servants of God we too must humble ourselves before God to accomplish the destiny He has ordained for us. When we do, regardless of what we suffered, He will exalt us in due time.

Day 1 Meditation (Revelation 4; 5:6). Why is everyone around the throne worshipping? Everyone around the throne is worshipping God because they are, first of ll, worshippers and they are eternlly grateful to God for His awesomeness. They remembers all that God has done for them and not oly for them as an individual, but as a husbans, father, sibling, citizen; what God has don in the lives of his parents, relatives etc. They worship God for His sovereignty. They worshi God for everything that he is. They worship because theu are grateful and will let no one or nothing offer worship on their behalf. Why are they chanting and singing? They are chanting and singing because of the joy that is in their heart. It pours out in praise. Why do you think that we get bored with worship after a few minutes? We get bored with orship when we re doing so in the flesh. If we enter into worship with our spirit and our spirit connects with the Holy Spirit, we would not want to stop our worship. We'd be in an atmosphere that is divine, where the presence of the Lord is. What does that indicate about our hearts? This indicates that the heart is still clinging to the fleshly desires of the natural world. What can we do to change this? We can begin with intentional exercise of entering into the presence of the Lord daily and gradually build our time to the point where we do not care how long we've been there.

As Mary's firstborn, Jesus is legally responsible for her welfare, to ensure that she has a place to live and food to eat during her widowhood. Jesus entrusts his mother to John's care because He knew that John would take the responsibility of caring for Mary. This tells us that Jesus loved His mother and wanted to provide for her when He was gone. In our own lives we too should provide for the care of our parents.

How does the Holy Spirit make “the mind of Christ” available to us? The mind of Christ has been revealed to the Holy Spirit. This He makes known to us. How does this make you dependent upon the Holy Spirit? How does this relate to listening for God’s voice? Only through what has been revealed to The Holy Spirit can we know what God has revealed for us to know. To know what God is saying we must have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. If we're listening for God's voice, we'll hear Him by The Holy Spirit.

What promises concerning the Paraclete – Comforter – Counselor – Helper – Holy Spirit does Jesus give in John chapters 14-16? Jesus saith that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will be to us Paraclete, Counselor, Helper, and Guide. All this He will be to us. The Holy Spirit guides us in hearing God's voice because, like Jesus, He declares only what He hears from The Father. How do these relate to guidance? To “hearing” God? Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. This truth is God's will as He speaks.

God’s compassion is emphasized so strongly in Israel’s history because He never failed to show them, to reveal to them just how much He loves them. God’s compassion is present even in times of tough discipline (Hebrews 12:7-11) because He chastises with love. The compassionate God of the Old Testament relate to Jesus giving himself as a ransom for sinners (Mark 10:45) as He prepared a body for the Son of God to be ransomed for the people that He loves.

The reading of Scripture brought such sorrow to the people when they begin to understand the commandments of God and the grievous way that God's people have broken these commandments. This broke their hearts. Scripture reading is important in personal spiritual revival because the word of God brings.life to the reader, it is evidence of a true spiritual revival. It is the Spirit of God that indwells the Believer and brings understanding of the Word to the individual. The joy of the Lord is our strength and faith in God’s compassion and love will draw us to the place of joy.

Nehemiah’s enemies want him to travel away from Jerusalem to harm him. His enemies bribe the prophets because they sought every means to stop the rebuilding of the wall. They were hoping to hurt Nehemiah’s integrity, will, and authority by tempting him to break the mosaic law. My enemy that is trying to make me stumble is busyness and diverting time to temporal rather than eternal work.

Nehemiah doesn't wait until he isn’t so busy to deal with the complaints of the poor who are being oppressed because of his compassion for their plight. The chief motivation of their oppressors was the stress of drought in the economy. Nehemiah dealt with the issue by appealing to the lenders to reduce the interest charged on borrowings. He demanded the return of property taken from the poor, among other things. Church leaders sometimes are quicker to deal with the complaints of the wealthy than those of the poor because the richer ones give more to the church. They are motivated by mammon.

Nehemiah respond to his enemies’ ridicule by praying to God about words of the enemy. Nehemiah respond to military threats by praying and positioning men to guard the project twenty four hours. The work was hindered because of tiredness of the men doing double duty. Nehemiah respond to discouragement and fear in the people by encouraging them to fight for their families and remember that God was on their side. My respond to discouragement and fear is to trust God, my Shepherd. The “walls” of complete surrender need to be maintained in my life to protect me from temptation and sin.

Nehemiah need to build the walls quickly because of security reasons, the more delay in the project would give the enemy time to build forces against them. He assigns so many teams in order to make the work more manageable. They are motivate because they wanted the walls built and they wanted to keep at bay the enemy. The kinds of problems that Nehemiah would need to solve with so many teams working simultaneously range from personality clashes to insufficient material for labor.

Nehemiah was in a crucial moment. The king could have dismissed him from service and banish him forever from his presence. He prayed quickly and silently before he answered the king because he wanted God to intervene. This quick “arrow prayer” related to the four months of prayer he had just finished because it was an extension to the months of prayer.