HOLY MOMENTS

Day: Day 16
Date: January 23, 2024

I pray all of you are receiving individual revelation from this fasting guide. I am so grateful for all of you who have joined me in this fast and are hungry for what the Lord is saying and doing.

In this day of the fasting guide, it is so important to understand the significance of this moment—this holy moment—as we follow Nehemiah in his journey to bring forth the desires of God’s heart.

Yesterday, we found that the people gathered AS ONE MAN and as they did, Ezra was brought forward.

Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries, and they were both vitally used to bring about the rebuilding of the Temple.

I don’t want to go into all that Ezra did, but you should read Ezra as homework today.

Ezra was not only a godly leader with a steadfast loyalty to God; he also had a deep passion for God’s Word.

Nehemiah 8:2-3 NKJV

2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.
3 Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

God’s Word captured the people’s attention because God’s presence and His love was there to watch over the Word to make it come alive.

They were impacted because God was RE-ESTABLISHING the importance the Word makes in people’s lives.

This is still happening today. When we came into the fast, we didn’t do it as a diet plan. We are doing it because we know we need to have a private revival of worshipping God with a commitment to His Word.

Throughout the fast, we also allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts, and we are repenting for any unfaithfulness before our God.

Nehemiah 8:5 NKJV

And Ezra (the priest) opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.

When Ezra stood in his positional authority under the anointing of God, there was an immediate impact in the people concerning the reading of the Word. They stood up! It was an automatic response from their hearts as they acknowledged the power of the spoken written Word.

God honors His Word above His name.

Psalm 138:2 NKJV

I will worship toward Your holy Temple,
And praise Your name,
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your Word above all Your name.

God has magnified His Word above His name because His name reveals His character and attributes to us, but His Word reveals His desires for relationship. His Word is continuously revealing and expanding our ability to increase in our relationship with Him, as it impacts our emotions and our souls with truth.

When His Word comes alive to people, honor is present and then something else happens too! Worship comes as an automatic response from the inside out.

Ezra began to bless the Lord and acknowledge Him, and the people responded.

Nehemiah 8:6a NKJV

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.

We struggle so much in trying to bring unity to the Body of Christ, yet there is a way provided by God to make it happen.

Listen to the reality of what the Word is saying. Then allow the move of the revelation from the Spirit of God to bring forth from inside this desire to lift up His name, and then bow in holy reverence before Him.

Oh, I am praying that we will experience these things, not only at Liberty but throughout the Body of Christ worldwide!

We must allow the Word to take pre-eminence in our lives and in how we conduct ourselves.

We must also allow the move of the Spirit to bring us to our knees before Him,
where the main thing becomes the main thing again in our lives knowing HIS love
and giving Him honor.

Oh, let us pray right now before I continue:

God,

Help us to understand the importance of an assembly that takes the holy moments of the reading of Your Word seriously.

We are desperate for the life Your Word brings to our broken souls.

We are desperate for Your light to shine on what is needed to bring change in us and through us.

We are desperate for the move that only You can bring, as we reverence You in the way You deserve to be reverenced.

We repent for any distractions that have taken us away from Your important truths found in the pages of our blood-bought Book.

We want to love Your Word like You love Your Word. We want to worship You as You deserve to be worshipped.

We come together with every part of us acknowledging You and without caring how it looks. We care more about being with You and responding properly to You.

Thank You for this set apart time with You, God.

Please help us to receive all that You have prepared in advance for us in this season of RE-ESTABLISHING.

RE-ESTABLISH Your Word in our hearts and lives as the most important over everything else.

May we automatically lift our hands and bow before the King of kings and Lord of lords, showing You reverence for all You are and all You have done.

With love for You, Father, with love for Your Son, Jesus, with love for Holy Spirit, and with love for Your Word, we say AMEN, AMEN.

I hope you spend some more time in prayer before we move on.

Nehemiah 8:6b NKJV

Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Now, look at what God released into Nehemiah’s day!

Nehemiah 8:9 NKJV

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.

Notice that Nehemiah brought together governmental authority, with priests and scribes to bring understanding to what God desired to do in these precious moments of interaction with Heaven!

They had been together for 67 days, 6 hours each day and they had developed a spiritual hunger to hear, read, and apply God’s Word to their personal lives.

This was a holy moment.

They had wept as they had been convicted of their sins.

Revelation, repentance, revival, and rejoicing are all waiting to be released by the Holy Spirit when God’s Word is powerfully and passionately released.

We need to understand how BIG this FAST is and how BIG our GOD is in our lives!

It is time to worship now!

WORSHIP/VIDEOS

Take You At Your Word – Cody Carnes, Benjamin William Hastings

All Is For Your Glory – Jeremy Riddle