“Day Twenty-seven”
10/27/2018 Elder Charlotte Stewart
Father God, we acknowledge You for Your “Manifold Goodness” (Nehemiah 9:5-20)
Father God, in the Name of Jesus, we enter into Your Gates with Thanksgiving this day and into Your Courts with Praise. We Thank You for teaching us to always give Thanks. Thank You for bidding us to the marriage feast. Thank You for dressing us with the proper wedding garments of Praise and Your Word. It is Your Word that is able to keep us in times of distress and despair. It is Your Word that comforts us in times of grief and heartache. It is Your Word that recalibrates us when we get out of alignment with the Standard of Holiness. Thank You, Jesus, for Your Spirit, which gives us Strength, when we feel like giving up, when the enemy comes in like a flood. Thank You for giving us a mind to serve You.
Truly, without You, we would be men and women most miserable. We would not know who You are on a personal level. The experiences that we have when You minister Your Word to us touches us in a place that only You know where we are in our minds. You are able to reach us in times when the pain is so great and we are numb. Your Spirit reminds us that You are still on the Throne and still in control, of Everything! Help us to acknowledge You for Your “Manifold Goodness” as the Saints did in Nehemiah 9:5-20.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
Father God, we will forever bless You, for You will forever be God. Your Name is Glorious! Your Name is magnificent! Your Name is Holy and Sanctified! The Name of Jesus is above all other names! O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Looking around in this room right now with all the objects that fill this room and all the detail that went into each piece of paper, every book, phone, flooring, ceiling, desk, chair, window, etc., these are only minute’ compared to all of the things, creatures, oceans, rivers, mountains, valleys and such like that You so meticulously made when You created this earth. You preserved the things that You made. Even more so, when You created man, You predestined who You wanted to come to You, and You are able to preserve us in Holiness. You are able to keep us alive in You and to for us see Your Face in Peace. Lead us in the path of righteousness for Your Name’s sake.
7 Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day.
Father God, keep us ever mindful that You did not have to choose us, and keep us ever grateful for the opportunity to serve You, and let our service to You be done with all of our heart, soul, and mind, in Jesus Name. Let not our faith fail through the trials and tests that we go through, but let us endure hardness as a good soldier. Let us serve You according to Your Righteousness and not establishing our own righteousness. It was not because I was so righteous that You saved me, for I was a sinner and You saved me. You brought me out of darkness into Your Marvelous Light. You opened up my understanding to comprehend Your Word. Thank You, Jesus, for deliverance from evil ways and evil thoughts. Sprinkle Your Blood upon my conscious every day that my thoughts will be Holy and Pure, even as You are. Forgive the ways that are not like You. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:7).
You are the Living God, and I have witnessed You drive out before me those that possessed the land (positions) that You gave to me. I have witnessed You give to me the wealth of the heathen. I remember when I was without hope and without God in the world. I remember the sins that You delivered me from. I remember when my refrigerator was a fold over top ice chest. O Lord, I acknowledge You for Your Manifold Goodness.
11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
Father God, I remember when You caused the sea of computers to divide so that the Saints could get needed transportation. I remember when those who persecuted me were thrown into the deeps of debt, sicknesses, and even death. I remember Your Healing Virtue in the Saints from the various sicknesses that were pronounced upon them, but You said, NOT SO! Thank You, Jesus, for the stripesYou took for the healing of the nation. O Lord, I acknowledge You for Your manifold goodness.
12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
Father God, we are the seed of Abraham. As You led the children of Israel in the day by a cloudy pillar and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go, You have given us Your Word to light the way wherein we should go. Let us walk as children of the Light and to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Help us to guard our mind from the temptations that come to pull us out of the Faith and help us to hold on to Your precepts, statutes and laws. Sanctify us by the washing of Your Word, and cause us to walk in the fear and admonition of Your Word by making right judgments.
15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.
Father God, the provisions that we have were given to us by You. When we entered into this world, we brought nothing with us. You provide our natural needs of food, clothing, housing, transportation, jobs, businesses, education, etc., and even more importantly, You make provisions for our Soul to be fed. Let us be careful what we eat that would damage our soul. Let us hunger and thirst after that which is Righteous. Let us be particular about what we eat, and try the spirits whether they are of God. Let us be mindful of the conversations that we partake in that will invoke the wrong spirit in us.
Father God, let us not hardened our necks and not hearken to Your Commandments. Let us not grow obstinate nor be more and more perverse and rebellious. To be obstinate is to stubbornly refuse to change one’s opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so. Let us not deliberately desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable, often in spite of the consequences, but give us a heart of flesh that can be touched by Your Word which will change us. Change us from walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit. Change us from a rebellious heart. Move any thoughts out of our heart to return to bondage. Let us not discount Your mighty Deliverance in our lives. We acknowledge You Lord for Your Manifold Goodness!!
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
Father God, You are a jealous God and You commanded us to have no other god before You. You are the Only One that saved us. You are the Only One that can give us a mind to serve You. Let us not find ourselves in our former state before Holiness; without God, in the world. You are the Only One that can break yokes in our lives and make us free indeed. You alone were worthy to be the Lamb sacrifice. We did not bring ourselves into Holiness, but it was You, Lord. It was not our jobs, our income, ourselves, material things or anyone else that saved us, but Only You! Thank You for Your manifold mercies and for not forsaking us. Help us to always remember Your Goodness unto us, and cause Your Goodness to lead us to repentance when we sin against You. Bread of Heaven, feed us, and let us eat the bitter with the sweet. Father God, we acknowledge You for Your Manifold Goodness, in Jesus Name. Amen.