“Day Thirteen”
10/13/2018 Elder Avestine Ward
“Father God, help us to “REBUKE the Debt” that the Saints Have and SET them free!
(Nehemiah 5: 6-13)
Father God, it is in the name of Jesus that we come before You on day thirteen of our Holy Convocation of Fasting and Praying! We come before You, O’God, because we know who You are and we know whose we are! Praise God! You are The God that hung the moon, sun, planets, and the stars in the firmament! You are The God that created the waters, land, and the heavens! You are The God that created the dirt (earth), grass, trees, and flowers! You are The God that created the insects, fish, birds, and all of the animal kingdom! You are The God that created Man! You are The God that made everything to multiply! You are The God that made everything that was, is, and will be made to worship You! All creation was made by You to worship You just because You are God of ALL! Alleluia!
Father God, we want to be clean before we come before You to make our request known, therefore, forgive us of all impure actions, thoughts, and conversation. Forgive us of all our sins, iniquities, trespasses and transgressions we have committed since our last time before You! Purge us with hyssop that we might be clean! Create in us O’God as clean heart and a right spirit so we are worthy to even call on Your GREAT Name, JESUS! Thank You Jesus! We come before You today asking You to do for us what You did in Brother Nehemiah’s day: Help us to Rebuke the Debt in our lives and SET us FREE in Jesus Name! Nehemiah words and the condition of Your people came to our spirit man in the passage of scripture,
Nehemiah 5: 6-13
6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.
8 And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.
9 Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?
10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.
11 Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.
12 Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
13 Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise.
Father God, You made Nehemiah a man of character (mental and moral qualities), persistence (firm or continued course of action in spite of difficulty), and prayer. He was a planner, organizer, and motivator. Under his leadership the wall around Jerusalem was a rebuilt in 52 days. As a political leader, he led the nation a religious reform and spiritual awakening. He was calm under opposition (prolonged cruel and unjust treatment or control). He did not waver in his belief and trust in You The Mighty God. He was honest and was bold with what he observed in the sins of the nobles and rulers. Therefore, he got very angry and his first step was to pray (come before You and talk). When he prayed, You O’God set a chain of events that might have appeared impossible, begin to happen. Prayer is powerful! It is the key to all things. We realize LORD God, there are two actions we must perform if we are to have faith and believe in You O’ God for everything: 1) talk with and listen to You, and 2) obey by walking with You in Your plan for our lives.
Father God, just as Nehemiah was, help us to acknowledge our condition, that we are in fact, in debt. Let us get angry with our self. We now realize O’God that the world places unfair and enormous usury (the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest) upon us. Let us come to You and pray. Then Father, let us make our plan based on Your Word to become free of debt. Help us to be firm and continue the course of action in the plan You lay out for us in arriving in a “debt free state.” Alleluia!
Father God, help us to “Rebuke the Debt” that the Saints have and SET us free! Remove the opposition (my old way of doing things in my flesh and Satan) that hinders (set back, slow down, and hold back) us from being ‘debt free.’ Your Word tells us that You would give us the desires of our hearts. So, Father God, we desire to be SET free from debt! We start off this course of action by rebuking the debt in Jesus Name! We rebuke the personal debt (such as, but not limited to personal loans by or to family members, friends, and colleagues) in Jesus Name! We rebuke the secured (installment) debt (such as, but not limited to houses, automobiles, student loans, and business ventures loans in Jesus Name! We rebuke unsecured debt (such as, but not limited to medical bills, membership contracts, and signature loans) in Jesus Name! We rebuke revolving debt (such as, but not limited to credit cards and lines of credit which produces high balances coupled with enormous interest rates (usury) creating high monthly finance charges that we must pay.
Now, Father God, we know that high balances on revolving debt coupled with high finance charges takes us into a financial hole that we are faced with on credit card balances that appears to rise higher versus reduce lower on their balances each month! This is the world’s system and this should not be! This is the exact actions that the nobles and the rulers were doing to the brethren, when Nehemiah got angry and prayed to You! Praise God, You intended for us to be the lenders and not weighed down in debt to the point that we cannot help the ministry, the church or the poor! Praise God, You told us O’God that all the silver and gold, houses and land, belongs to You.
Father God, we come to You because You are the Almighty, All Powerful, and All Knowing! You are That God that created everything that was and that is created! You (Jesus) placed in Your hands all power both in heaven and in earth. You alone Jesus have the power to help us! O’God, our LORD, we rebuke the debt that we have inflicted on our self at this time in our lives. We know it should not be! In our flesh, we could try to justify why we are in debt, when we should be free of debt. We could stand here O’God and come up with reasons why we are weighed down with debt. But, LORD God it would not do any good because we know that all our choices carried consequences with them.
We confess that we made some bad choices which caused us to be in debt. Instead of seeking You O’God by going to Your Word (seeking Your plan for us), hearing wise counsel, and waiting patiently for our answer from You through fasting and praying, we plowed right into this spiral of bills (debt, debt and more debt)! We confess O’God in some cases we became lenders to others, thinking we were doing the righteous thing, when in fact it was impossible and it was not Your plan for us to help in that capacity. We deceived our self that we had the power to solve the cures of their debt. We were so wrong O’God! Forgive us today for taking matters in our hands! We chose to lean to our own understanding. We now realize ‘leaning to our own understanding” is not a good thing because You told us, “ in all our ways, acknowledge YOU and YOU will direct our path! LORD Jesus, lord over us and direct our path; help us O’God to “Rebuke the Debt” and set us free!
Father God, because of Your gracious and mighty hand upon us, let us start rebuilding our finances, as Nehemiah started rebuilding the temple, and impart in us to start this work today! Alleluia! We know LORD Jesus, what seems to be an impossible task with man, can be accomplished with You O’God if we honor You and when our efforts are unified. There is strength in Unity! There is great strength when we are unified in Your WORD to be SET free from this debt! Now LORD, we are ever so careful not to call this debt “our debt” because we no longer want to walk in this debt. Yes, O’God we brought this debt upon us by choices we made. But, today O’God, today O’God, we “rebuke the debt” from our households in Jesus Name!
When we are in debt we become defenseless and vulnerable to the world and its devices to place us back in bondage. When this occurs it hinders or perhaps stop our will and ability to give for the upkeep of the ministry and the upkeep of our physical (church) building. When we are bound by deed, the church and the ministry suffer. Therefore, Father God, we simply ask You today to SET us free of debt in Jesus Name! Alleluia! Thank You Jesus!
Father God, mobilize us now by giving us YOUR WISDOM and the plan to be SET free of this debt. Supply us O’God with the knowledge (facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education) and understanding (the ability to having insight, to comprehend and make good judgement) in how to apply the wisdom (a spiritual gift from God to make wise choices) to YOUR PLAN for us to be SET free!
Father God, through this prayer today, the knowledge, understanding and wisdom that comes Only from You when it comes to how to handle money and a credit, let us plainly see how we are to handle our finances, so that we never again be enslaved to this spirit called, “debt.” Nehemiah boldly confronted the nobles and rulers. Today, we have boldly confronted the ‘spirit of debt” in Jesus Name! Now, Father God, we believe and trust that You have already answered this prayer, made our plan to be debt free and set the course of action in place for us! Help us to set aside the time with You and write down that plan and make it plain (understandable, easy to see, and follow) on the road to “debt freedom” in Jesus Name!
Father God, we know that money is the answer to all things. We dare not lie to our self and say that we do not need money and credit. When in fact the world system is setup to have it. But, we know through Your Wisdom, there is a righteous way to handle money and credit. Help us O’God to spend our money wisely. Place back in us the will and desire to give to You our first-fruit! Then, LORD God, Help us to pay our “mandatory monthly obligations (such as, but not limited to, utilities, insurances of all kinds, co-pays, and prescriptions bills) on time each month. Let us ‘Thank You” for the ability to pay our monthly obligations! Let us be excited that we are simply able and have the monies to do it, because we know, after being in debt, it is a blessing to have the money to paid for what we need each month! We need water, electricity, and gas in our homes! We need food, water, hygiene products, and cleaning supplies every day! We need automobiles and gas in them to get from place to place! We need savings and emergency funds when we want to enjoy an occasional trip or something unexpectedly comes up. Through Your plan for us O’God, we can have all of this for our households. Alleluia! Thank You Jesus, for The Plan and for Your Wisdom!
Finally, Father God, just like You did in Nehemiah’s day, restore back to us “debt freedom” and make us use our money & credit as Your Will be done! There was a promise that was made not to ever return back to this unrighteousness method. Therefore, when You free us, we will not return to “bondage in debt” again, in Jesus Name! Let credit cards be a good thing for us by using them as a ‘cash advance” or “cash” for us instead of carrying cash on us! Give us the understanding and the ability to pay off in full all credit card balances each month. We know by doing this our credit scores at the three credit bureaus will continue to rise higher each month! Praise God! We will forever be creditworthy and financially sound with a “good name.” We know through Your plan, this process we cause us to be the lender for our people. Praise God! Therefore, we “thank You” in advance for SETTING us debt free in Jesus Name! Amen and amen! Alleluia Jesus! You are so good! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Jesus!