Enemy Ousted!
Greetings in the Lord!
Sometimes I really have to laugh at the dreams God gives me! Like this morning's dream, for example. At the start I was out in an open field watching in disbelief as a huge gold and silver/white spaceship was coming down to land. Three giant landing arms unfolded to support the ship on the ground, and one of those landing-pad arms nearly crushed me! No sooner had it landed, gold and silver beings rushed out from the ship and started zapping everyone--people were fleeing everywhere. I immediately played dead, as if I had been crushed by the ship's landing-pad arm and watched the scene unfold.
As I was watching, I recalled reading a book about this event already and that survivors had sought refuge in a secret room in a building. The room was discreetly hidden in back of another room, so it looked like nothing more than a small storage room. Now I was naked (only in a dream!) and decided to flee there. To my surprise, when I got there the secret room had others in it, all of them surrounding little lamps that illumined the room. I listened as the space invaders searched the building for us, and recalled with fear that eventually the "survivors" in the book I read were found out...surely that would happen to us as well. In no time that was the case--we were caught!
After I woke up I wondered about the meaning of that dream. I turned to Nehemiah 13 and started to understand: that chapter was about Nehemiah's final reforms for Israel. First, he discovered the secret storage room that Tobiah--his arch enemy--was using in the temple and promptly cleared it out and purified the room. Interestingly enough, Tobiah had used his influence to persuade a priest to give him the room! Next, Nehemiah called the Levites back to their posts and put honest men in charge of giving them their portions. Many had abandoned their priestly duties because they had not been receiving anything for their work and all had families to support. So, Nehemiah made sure they did their jobs and were paid accordingly. After that, Nehemiah had the gates closed on the Sabbath so no buying or selling could happen, in accordance with God's law. Lastly, he chastised all the men who had married foreign wives and even drove away one Israelite because he was the son-in-law of Sanballat, an enemy of Israel.
He reminded them of the great sin of Solomon who was lead astray by foreign women and how that led Israel to the destruction and exile of Israel at that time.
"So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the first fruits." Nehemiah 13:30-31
Nehemiah restored God's law among the Israelites and re-dedicated the newly purified priests back into service of the Lord. Isn't God good? Through the actions of Nehemiah, God sent tough times of discipline to Israel, intending to bring them all back into rightstanding before God. God's desire was a pure priesthood to do His will. The dream and this passage have the same meaning: this is a season of God's strong hand coming down and invading our lives to expose the strongholds of the enemy at work and to release us from its oppression--freedom in Christ. A time of re-dedication for God's plan for our lives and for sweeping away the enemy's influence and presence from our midst. Secretly, for many Christians, they had allowed the enemy a secret room in their "temple" and had been in union with ungodly practices. It is important to note that Tobiah used his popularity and influence to gain this secret room in the temple--the temple which he sought to desecrate and keep in a weakened state so he could have control there. That is a demonic ploy. Also consider Sanballat. He offered his daughters to Israelites to exercize influence and authority over those Israelites--all while he worked to prevent Jerusalem from prospering! We must recognize those influences in our lives, people that we have given special trust to that are leading us astray--these people are not doing God's will, just like the priest who gave the secret room to Tobiah. But they will be cut off in Jesus' name.
This is the time for those things to be ousted from our lives and us put on the right track again with God. Praise God for His mercy and divine intervention!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
Sometimes I really have to laugh at the dreams God gives me! Like this morning's dream, for example. At the start I was out in an open field watching in disbelief as a huge gold and silver/white spaceship was coming down to land. Three giant landing arms unfolded to support the ship on the ground, and one of those landing-pad arms nearly crushed me! No sooner had it landed, gold and silver beings rushed out from the ship and started zapping everyone--people were fleeing everywhere. I immediately played dead, as if I had been crushed by the ship's landing-pad arm and watched the scene unfold.
As I was watching, I recalled reading a book about this event already and that survivors had sought refuge in a secret room in a building. The room was discreetly hidden in back of another room, so it looked like nothing more than a small storage room. Now I was naked (only in a dream!) and decided to flee there. To my surprise, when I got there the secret room had others in it, all of them surrounding little lamps that illumined the room. I listened as the space invaders searched the building for us, and recalled with fear that eventually the "survivors" in the book I read were found out...surely that would happen to us as well. In no time that was the case--we were caught!
After I woke up I wondered about the meaning of that dream. I turned to Nehemiah 13 and started to understand: that chapter was about Nehemiah's final reforms for Israel. First, he discovered the secret storage room that Tobiah--his arch enemy--was using in the temple and promptly cleared it out and purified the room. Interestingly enough, Tobiah had used his influence to persuade a priest to give him the room! Next, Nehemiah called the Levites back to their posts and put honest men in charge of giving them their portions. Many had abandoned their priestly duties because they had not been receiving anything for their work and all had families to support. So, Nehemiah made sure they did their jobs and were paid accordingly. After that, Nehemiah had the gates closed on the Sabbath so no buying or selling could happen, in accordance with God's law. Lastly, he chastised all the men who had married foreign wives and even drove away one Israelite because he was the son-in-law of Sanballat, an enemy of Israel.
He reminded them of the great sin of Solomon who was lead astray by foreign women and how that led Israel to the destruction and exile of Israel at that time.
"So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the first fruits." Nehemiah 13:30-31
Nehemiah restored God's law among the Israelites and re-dedicated the newly purified priests back into service of the Lord. Isn't God good? Through the actions of Nehemiah, God sent tough times of discipline to Israel, intending to bring them all back into rightstanding before God. God's desire was a pure priesthood to do His will. The dream and this passage have the same meaning: this is a season of God's strong hand coming down and invading our lives to expose the strongholds of the enemy at work and to release us from its oppression--freedom in Christ. A time of re-dedication for God's plan for our lives and for sweeping away the enemy's influence and presence from our midst. Secretly, for many Christians, they had allowed the enemy a secret room in their "temple" and had been in union with ungodly practices. It is important to note that Tobiah used his popularity and influence to gain this secret room in the temple--the temple which he sought to desecrate and keep in a weakened state so he could have control there. That is a demonic ploy. Also consider Sanballat. He offered his daughters to Israelites to exercize influence and authority over those Israelites--all while he worked to prevent Jerusalem from prospering! We must recognize those influences in our lives, people that we have given special trust to that are leading us astray--these people are not doing God's will, just like the priest who gave the secret room to Tobiah. But they will be cut off in Jesus' name.
This is the time for those things to be ousted from our lives and us put on the right track again with God. Praise God for His mercy and divine intervention!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
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