Daily Devotion February 6

February 6: Nehemiah 9:30-31

NIV Key Verse: Nehemiah 9:30
For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples.

Devotion:
Be honest. Have you ever thought about how great it would be to be a prophet who was given commands directly from God and gave them to the people? Yes it would be fantastic to share the good news and the truth in such a way others would believe you without question; to give them a few words which would go directly into their hearts so they knew they came from God! But then you would also have to look on the other side of the coin… what would it be like to have to tell your friends and family God was not happy with them and they were about to go into a terrible war which would mean many people being left dead?

I think it is just the power that would seduce us and not the fact we are a prophet. It is the ability to tell people and they listened! At the moment we try to reach out to people and we are faced with empty church buildings, groups who want anything but the word, places where the world is lifted up instead of God. Nehemiah may have got these words from God and may have had the terrible task of relaying them to his people… but this is what we face nowadays too. We may not be hearing God talking directly to us but we do know what He is saying…

Once again so many around us are leaving behind God, leaving Jesus out of conversations, hiding the Holy Spirit… and still expecting revival to come to their land! This is not going to happen until people realise they may well be the ones blocking the Holy Spirit to start with. It sounds terrible that God would leave us to the mercy of the people around us instead of protecting us – but if that is our choice, what should God do?

God will not allow us to be utterly consumed by the world around us – but as long as we invite it in we are squeezing God out. It does not mean we have to all start acting like prophets or priests; but it should mean us inviting God back into the centre of our lives. God can do so much more when we do invite Him in!

Points to Ponder:
Are you squeezing God out?

Will you invite the Holy Spirit in?