Who Takes The Initiative?(Part 2)

I started out the topic of “Who Initiates” to explore who is supposed to take the lead in making changes in our lives, in the lives of those we love or in the life of our nation…..us or God?  For too long the church has been listening to the voices that say that “Whatever Happens” is God’s will because he is sovereign.

This mistake teaching has led vast portions of the body of Christ to assume if God wants something to happen it will happen. I have heard so many pastors say in funerals that God just wanted to take them home to heaven or it was their time, when in fact the person may have died of cancer, a car accident or some action that had high risk and the person paid for it with their life. I think this misunderstanding of what the sovereignty of God is has blinded many believers to inaction. It has taught us to just go with the flow of life and acknowledged that God is in charge when in fact he may not be. God is king of king and Lord of Lord, but people still have the freedom within this life to cooperate with God or be rebellious. Evil happens because of the freedom we abuse.

In the first article with this title was we discussed a man who was in a broken condition for 38 years because of some personal sin, not the will of God. Once he was healed Jesus warned him to stop sinning or something worse would happen. In other words, Jesus was saying we are responsible for where we are headed and for what we engage in. I believe the same is true not only about our sin and mistakes in life, but also for the good choices we make and the good things we pursue.

Remember Adam in the garden in the book of Genesis? God made man with the capacity to be creative just like our creator. We were never meant to be puppets on a string but rather free moral agents with the capacity of choice.

Genesis 2:19                                                                                                                                                                          

Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 

God designed man to be creative just like himself only in a smaller way. God waited to see what man would name the animal. He didn’t tell him their names, he let man decide. In the same way we have the ability and privilege to plot our path in life in both the larger than life long term things, as well as the small seemly insignificant things. By doing, we learn both our capacity and our opportunities.

So, in looking at taking the initiative, let’s look at a man in scripture that set a pattern for us to follow when considering our path, both great and small. The man’s name was Nehemiah and he was a man living the good life as a high ranking and trusted official. He heard about the condition of his home country of Israel and about the terrible conditions people were living in.  He then decided to do something about it. He didn’t wait for God to speak a word to him or give him vision, he relied on a sense of right and wrong he learned from scripture and acted accordingly. His initiative had three major levels of application when seeking God about this matter and I think we can benefit from investigating what he did because he was very successful with both God and man.

Nehemiah 1:4-11                                                                                                                                                              

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, “I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 

Nehemiah lays our three main levels in his prayer that can be applied in any major prayer.  We will look into the first level in this article and then the next two in the articles to come under the same title.

Nehemiah didn’t wait for God to tell him to do something. He saw the need and sought to change it. Being sensitive to the problems around us is the first step to “Seeing The Need“.  Too often we close a blind eye to things that make us uncomfortable instead of looking at the issue squarely in the eye. If we are walking with God we can afford to be uncomfortable because he sustains us each and every step of the way.

The second step he took was to “Weep & Mourned” about what he heard. I think it is easy for many of us to shut down emotionally to problems in our lives and of those close to us because we don’t like feeling badly.  However, our emotions are designed to motivate us to engage in things that are broken or wounded.  When we block our emotions we prevent a portion of our humanity that was meant to help us not hurt us.

Thirdly, Nehemiah “Reminded God” that he was a good God who keeps his word. Some of us have a hard time with such action because of the attitude:  who are we to tell God who he is?  The truth is Nehemiah was reinforcing his own belief, out loud, that this wasn’t God’s fault because God was and is a faithful God. This was the result of the people of God being unfaithful to God and each other and thus paying dearly for their choices. When we pray out our beliefs of who God is it pleases God that we are trusting His character more than our circumstances.

Nehemiah then goes into his request of the Lord. He has built his position on the goodness of God “Before” he asks for a favor. Jesus did the same thing when he taught his disciples to pray. They saw the power in Jesus’ prayers and wanted that same power. Look how Jesus taught the disciples to begin their prayer.

Matthew 6:9-11                                                                                                                                                                             

Pray, then, in this way:   Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name‘ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven…… Give us our daily bread!

Jesus taught that good prayer, powerful prayer, starts with honoring God and coming under His authority in a healthy way. How often do we just rush into prayer asking for things, even legitimate things without first starting out being thankful for who God is and submitting to his authority? I’m afraid it happens all too often and then our good prayers are cut short of having the power and authority to make a difference. Notice that Jesus then encouraged the disciples to ask for their daily bread and not before.

In the next article we will continue building on this first level of action from Nehemiah by examining the next two levels in Nehemiah’s prayer to God. May God grant us the wisdom to become powerful in our prayers and our action.

Questions:

1) Have you been waiting for God to move when he is waiting for you to take the first step? Read the word and discover how many saints before us have changed the world around themselves because they took the initiative.

2) Do you start your prayer request with honor and gratitude? God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Pursuing the will of God with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dale