God Moves Hearts

God Moves/Shapes Hearts/Stirs Up Spirits (Ezra 1) Heb. Uwr, stirred up, awoke, roused (see Song of Solomon 5:2) Heb. Ruwach, the mind or spirit Why does God move hearts/stir up spirits? God used Ezra to call for reform and a return to a covenant relationship Why him? He was a "skilled scribe" of the Law, a trained teacher who had "set his heart to seek the law of God and to do it, and to teach in Israel" the statues and ordinances of the Law (Ezra 7:10) When we want to change something, we tend to work from the outside in. God tends to work from the inside out. God uses both the righteous and the unrighteous to accomplish His will. God has moved the hearts of: Kings (in general (Prov. 21:1, Ps. 106:46), Kings of Persia (Dan. 11:2), Cyrus, King of Persia (Ezra 1:1-2, 7:27, 2 Chron. 36:22, Isaiah 44:28), Pharaoh (Ex. 14:4, hardened his heart), Pul, King of Assyria and Tilgathpilneser, King of Assyria (1 Chron. 5:26) Priests & Levites and Family heads (Ezra 1:5) Why these? (2 Chron. 19:8) Their neighbors? (Ezra 1:6) Or they may have been responding to the edict from Cyrus which God put in his heart. Debra and Barak (Judges 5:7 & 12) Does God call women to lead only in the absence of male courage/leadership? (Judges 4:8) Prophets (Nehemiah (Neh. 2:12), Isaiah (Isa. 45:13), Zechariah (Zech. 4:1)) Are there still prophets of God today? Men in general (Prov. 16:1) Titus (1 Cor. 8:16) Christians in general (Phil. 2:13) Philistines & Arabians (2 Chron. 21:16) The Medes (Isa. 13:17, Jer. 51:11) The righteous man from the east and one from the North? (Isa. 41:2 & 25)

An assembly, a people from the north, a great nation (Jer. 6:22, 50:9 & 41) Zerubbabel and Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people (Hag. 1:14) Is their a “remnant” of God’s people on earth today? 3 men, including Cornelius, a Roman soldier (Acts 10:19) Lydia (Acts 16:14-15, whose heart the Lord opened) Do you think this is a sudden or a gradual process (shaping)? Consider the example of Moses Consider the example of David, called a man after God’s own heart. Can you think of anyone, other than yourself, that you know of, whose heart you believe God has moved? Has God ever moved your heart in the past? Or is He presently doing so? If so, how? What sorts of things move your heart? For what purpose(s)? How would you know? (Luke 24:32) Are you spiritually sensitive to God’s direction. Do you take/make time to/for God’s direction? Satan also moves hearts (Acts 5:3) Our human hearts can be deceitful (Jer. 17:9, Prov. 14:12, 28:26) God will give us new hearts (Ezek. 36:26)