Iron Man Oikodome - "break Me And Make Me"

Dear Bros in Christ, Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Brothers in Christ, this monthly devotional is sent and meant to be an encouragement to all and to build up and edify in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oikodome means "Builder". The Lord has put this on my heart to send out a monthly Iron Man Oikodome {oy-kod-om-ay'} to build up and encourage the men who love and follow Jesus Christ in their walk with Him. Hebrews 3:13 "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." PRAYER REQUESTS: If you have any prayer requests please send them and I will send them out to the bros for prayer, if privacy is needed I will send in a discreet way. JUNE 2009

“BREAK ME & MAKE ME” Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise. Bros, that scripture taken from Psalm 51 was the aftermath of David’s sin with Bathsheba. God used Nathan to bust him about his sin with Bathsheba. How David must have felt so broken at that moment when it all came rushing home. How tragic, but also how God used that to break him, love can be painful… Now my prayer has always been to make me but never to break me that never has it been my prayer and I know probably not most of yours as well ever since coming to the Lord, but always that God would make me the man of God He desired me to be; I never really prayed much to ask Him to break me though. I always thought oh the Lord is going to use me to do this or that because I am serving Him and doing all these wonderful things for Him…. But how can God use me or any of us if we haven’t let go of our fleshly ways or our flesh has not been burnt away or put into check or we are not practicing self control, so that God can perfect that which He desires in us. I can tell you from first hand experience it is a shock when you come to the place in your walk with the Lord and you realize you have been praying that prayer for so many years asking and asking God to make you a mighty man of God. And then you hit the pavement skidding when trials come instead of running to the Lord and there is a huge flesh fire burning up your ways that have been etched into your deepest depths over your lifetime. I mean it is unlike anything you have ever experienced. And as this flame roars you begin to seek God and soon you are seeing things about yourself you have never seen before and it is looking even uglier every day, every moment and every second. I want to tell you bros when you reach this place and some of us might and some of us might not, and for some it may be very difficult and for some they may come around very easily, it can be one of the biggest reality shocks and God can do it more than once in our lifetimes, for some it takes many flesh fires, others one time is sufficient. I don’t care how godly you thought you were or how perfect you thought your walk was, when God is removing the dross or burning away the flesh it stinks to high heaven. It is sad and weird that we are the last ones to

see or notice this heaped up flesh…. Bros I don’t mean that we are necessarily blatantly sinning in the flesh like deliberate transgressions but what I mean is things that are not readily noticeable in our walk that may be in the way of what the Lord wants to do in us, those barriers that are standing in the way. Things that God wants to do and sometimes are not noticeable to the human eye. Stuff only He can see and in His wisdom and perfect timing He reveals them sometimes one at a time and sometimes all at one, I think it depends on the size fire He needs to create to get the job done, in my case it was a huge blaze…. Also the Lord is merciful with us and maybe knows we cannot take it all at once so He only gives us what we can handle and it is a process as the Lord desires because He does not want to burn us up… But they are things after they have been exposed you stand in amazement at how God reveals and removes those things which can hinder our walk and service unto the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember a couple of years after I came to the Lord, He began to do a work in me and I can describe it as one of the most difficult times in my life and also one of those times I felt so loved and close to the Lord. He showed me not to depend on anyone else but Him and Him alone or look to anyone other than Him. But bros it was one of the most painful things I have ever endured and I can tell you I could not have went through it if the Lord hadn’t been with me all the way through, He never allowed the heat to burn so hot that I burned up, but I can tell you it was consistent until God accomplished His desire. I pleaded and pleaded with Him and asked why I had to go through this and the Lord showed me to trust Him and He would never leave me nor forsake me. That Verse in Hebrews 13:5 was given to me about this time period to remind me of His faithfulness even when we are faithless, and it resonated within my soul. I asked this old Pastor who was an interim pastor at our church why I had to go through this, why did the Lord have to strip away everything from me. The Lord had allowed my business and work of fifteen years to be taken away, all my personal, business possessions and accumulations were gone in an instant, He stripped all my financial resources right from my superhuman grip that I had on them and after He had allowed every possession a man could have to be removed, He started to get my attention…. Then I read in the Bible where David had praised the Lord three times a day morning, noon and night and realized that was not enough so He praised Him throughout the day so I began to praise the Lord all through the day for all I had in Him and began to thank Him for everything I had, my wife and family and then He allowed that to be taken from me. Bros that broke me, and caused me to draw closer to God to be able to receive His blessings of loving correction from this trial, He knew what it would take for me to see how much He loves me. That old Pastor who had such wisdom that God gave him especially in what he shared with me during this great battle. He told me he grew up on a horse ranch

in the Midwest and he said that as a young man he would spend his time helping break the wild horses they had on their ranch so they could sell them after they were broken and made ready for use. He was amused in that some of the horses he said you could climb up on them and they would heed his commands by the pulling of the bridle bit right away and he could ride them and then put a saddle on them and they responded and submitted and surrendered to the authority that their new masters had over them very quickly. But he also said that some of the horses were not that easy and they would fight him all the way and they would not allow themselves to be broken easily. He said they would suffer so much fighting them, trying to buck them off their backs and slamming them into the side of the corral fence and then running real fast and stopping as they are leaning real low in front to try to get the riders off their back they would literally run themselves ragged trying to get their way- not wanting to give up and submit, sound familiar... It was a battle of wits and stamina, who could out last the other and in the end the cowboys always won and the horse was broken, of course it probably involved much harder bronc busting techniques like spurs rightly applied and a whip stick of correction. Bros that hit home with me I realized I had been fighting God and going against His will for my life for so long on many fronts. I guess the weird part about the battle with the horses and even us is if we wouldn’t fight, the battle would be over a lot quicker, no matter how hard and long the horses fight or we fight trying not to be broken by God, not intentionally but really in rebellion, kind of subconsciously though, the outcome is always the same- we cannot win against God. But also God is not trying to punish us but He is lovingly correcting us in His never ending love for us and we have to go and make it as hard as possible… Looking back I wish or would rather have been like the horses that broke easy, knowing what I know now, really I would just be the horse that gets down on the ground on it’s belly so the Cowboy could climb on really easy “no muss no fuss”…. Bros what a lot of wasted time putting up such a fight of arrogance, pride and self righteousness and self will trying not to submit or surrender to God- He has already won all the battles already anyway and you will be better for the wear by letting Him have His way to search you and know you and lead you in the way of everlasting. Surrender and know that He is God, there is victory in dying to the flesh…There is no gain without the Lord Jesus Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Let God make you the mighty man of God He wants to make you, He will break you if that’s what it takes because He loves you that much that He wants to make you a man after His own heart, the man He can use. 2 Samuel 22:32-33 "For who [is] God, except the LORD? And who [is] a rock, except our God? God [is] my strength [and] power, And He makes my way perfect.

In His Grip, Daniel Wright Iron Man Oikodome Proverbs 27:17 To have your email address removed from future mailings please reply to [email protected] and type "PLEASE REMOVE" in the subject box, thank you and God bless you!