Overcoming Common Hindrances to Spiritual Growth

We are in week 16 of our study in the book of Nehemiah, studying the analogy laid out of the work of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem and the work of the Holy Spirit coming to rebuild and restore the human personality.

You have probably heard it said that we are own worst enemy, it has been my experience that many times the person causing all my problems is me! It isn’t so much that we set out trying to make bad choices or a calculated effort to do myself harm, it is more often the result of ignorance on my part.

The word says that “my people are in bondage because of ignorance…”

There are areas of my life that I have “unwittingly” come under the influence of other than the Holy Spirit…

I see people, good people, but they do things that are so destructive to their life and future, and sometimes you look at that and you wonder if they even realize what they are doing to themselves. The answer is sometimes we are doing things out of sheer ignorance to what is going to happen; I am saying we are dumb, I am saying we are ignorant of what and how to really live with choices that bring life and not pain…

In the past study of Nehemiah we saw how the city walls had been destroyed, the temple was rebuilt, they could worship, but the walls of the city had been destroyed and the ability of the people to live in safety and prosperity had been taken away…

So Nehemiah comes to rebuild those walls, and it is such an analogy of the work of the Holy Spirit in rebuilding the walls of my own personality…

The walls of the city were destroyed, really by the sin of the people in the past; so many times in our own lives the personalities have been so damaged by the decisions and choices we make resulting in sin.

Nehemiah is coming to see the ruined wall become restored and rebuilt and to do that he brings principles that they are to live by…