Nehemiah 9 (AMP)
1NOW ON the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth upon their heads. 2And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3And they stood in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day, and for another fourth of it they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.4On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
Nehemiah assembled all the remnants of the house of Israel and they cried to God using the following method which I am recommending to believers, pastors, ministers and preachers of the gospel: fasting, confession of sins, repentance, reading of the word of God, confession of the word of God and the worship of the Lord God. Today we will deal with the first three.
Nehemiah 9 (AMP)
1NOW ON the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth upon their heads. 2a And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners...
1. Fasting
In the book of Nehemiah 9:1 they declared a fast and separated themselves from strangers. Meaning they detached, set apart and removed themselves from the rest of the multitude and looked towards God. Their desire was to be with God and to be with Him alone. They gathered in one place where there would be no distraction from the vicissitudes of life at all. They chose a place where there would be a total focus on God Almighty.
Nehemiah 9 (AMP)
2b ...and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
2. Confession of sins
Next, they confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. Confession of their sins and those of their fathers and forefathers means acknowledging that they and their ancestors have sinned against God. These sins were the root of all their suffering and hardship. By implication it means that, whatever problem you may be undergoing today may not really be as a result of your sins or any evil you committed. It may be as a result of the sins of your ancestors.
Beloved let me remind you of the stark reality of life. Life is all about trying to SURVIVE. And people in their bid to survive tend to do all sort of things. Some have sold others in slavery thereby scattering God’s divine order and arrangements through dislocation, displacement and dislodgment. Some people are still trafficking humans and regard it as a legitimate business.
Some have killed, maimed and shed blood for no just cause. Forgetting that God says, “You must not shed blood for life is in the blood.” There is no reason whatsoever that warrants the shedding of blood.
Unfortunately, the modern world is full of examples of oppressors, from world leaders to bosses/line managers. They have oppressed others unduly and dehumanized them by using their positions to maltreat their fellow being. Why? There are two reasons. The first is POWER. And the second is what the bible refers to as the root of all evil. It is the LOVE of money, not the money that is the problem. Can money think? Is it a living entity? No. Money is a just a medium of exchange. The motive behind these atrocious evils is pecuniary. Money and power are amplifiers of what is already in a person.
So you see beloved, at times ancestors can commit acts that they enjoyed but that attract and bequeath a curse to their children and to their generation down the line. Again, note the sins you are enjoying today, can come to haunt you tomorrow if left untreated. Whatever you are doing to exert power and influence over others or to make ends meet usually comes back to say ‘Hi!’ tomorrow whether good or bad.
Nehemiah 9 (AMP)
3aAnd they stood in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day
3. The Word
Another method they employed was that they combined fasting with the studying of the Word of God. This lasted for 6 hours; that is teaching, learning and studying the word of God. This shows that in order to arrest the attention of God you must study his word to show yourself approved and fast and pray to Him. They go together. If you do not couple your fasting with prayer and the word [to feed your spirit man] it is just a hunger strike. You might as well eat that burger!
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