In my last message, I, based on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, spoke about the importance of restoring the spiritual wall of Armenia and also answered the question of what shall be done prior to that. Maintaining the correct order based on these books and by the leading of the Lord will result in victory, because it is written, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
I want to remind some important points from that message. First, it is necessary to restore the temple. Of course, the demonic world will violently resist and interfere with the restoration of the house of the Lord. Today, speaking about the restoration of the House of the Lord, I mean that it is necessary to reconsider the spiritual life of the church, to recognize the omissions and to evaluate the quality or effectiveness of the work that has been done.
We also must heed to the words of knowledgeable teachers who follow the leading of the Spirit of God. Such was Ezra, “a scribe who was well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given to the people of Israel” (Ezra 7:6). After the temple was built, Ezra, according to God’s order, returned to Jerusalem. He helped people to realize the sins they had committed, and to publicly repent. People often pray, “Lord, forgive our sins, and forgive the sins of our nation,” although both the praying ones and the whole nation do not realize what is considered sin, according to the Word of God.
When the temple was restored, and the people of Israel realized their sins and set a day for public repentance, the Lord gave an opportunity to Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem. With his compatriots, he completed the construction of the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days. During the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the enemy spared no effort to prevent their work; he tried to drive them to despair and even threatened with violence, using influential figures and bribed prophets.
What sins can prevent a godly person from restoring the spiritual wall both in their life and in their country? There are many of them, and every person, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, can discern them. I will bring some examples.
As I already mentioned in my two previous messages, from the very first day of the 44-Day War, we separated as a small group to pray and receive answers from the Lord. We also prayed for the return of the prisoners of war. As many others, we learned about them from social media. We prayed for a group of prisoners of war, about whom we knew from photos on social media. One day, one of our prayer group members said that the Lord did not hear her prayers, and she wanted to separate for personal prayer to learn the reason. While praying in her secret place, the Holy Spirit spoke to her and reminded her that she offended several people and was offended at several people herself. It is written, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt. 5:23-24). Right then, she contacted every one of those people and asked them to forgive her. After that, her heart was healed, and heavens were open for her prayers. After a while, when we saw on TV the returned prisoners of war getting off the airplane, everyone we prayed for were there among them.
I want to mention another sin, which is a common thing for many and a sin for a few. About 15 years ago, the Lord spoke to me through this Scripture: “After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly. And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber. But Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, ‘Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works.’ Then the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish” (2 Ch. 20:35-37).
God explained His Word in the following way: in the same way as Jehoshaphat, who pleased God in everything he did, suffered loss because of a wrong fellowship, I too would suffer loss, if I continued my fellowship with television. And what was the matter? Every day I left my home early in the morning and, after a psychologically difficult workday, returned home already in the evening. Once at home, I took the TV remote control and turned on a television program. As a rule, I chose light humorous programs to free my mind from the hard experiences that had accumulated over the day. When I realized that it was not pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, I decided to stop watching all the programs, except for three of them, which were educational.
Years passed. I lived in the presence of the Lord. I had many miracles in my life, and I wrote about them in my blog. There was nothing indicating disobedience on my part. And then September 27, 2020 came – the beginning of the dreadful 44-Day War. Our priceless soldiers that were killed, the young men who became disabled, and the loss of the territories made me reconsider the life I lived in order to understand what my mistake was, and why I didn’t know that my people and my country were on a demonic volcano. I prayed and waited for an answer from the Lord.
Recently I saw a dream, which became a big discovery for me. I was in my father’s house, and in our balcony, there was a crowd of men in strange clothes and with swords. They wanted to enter the living room, where there were children of different ages. Suddenly one of them turned to the children and said, “We will make you Muslims.” I hurried to the man who spoke and asked, “Who are you?” “We are Turks,” one of them answered, and the door between the balcony and the living room disappeared. All of them invaded my house. I spared no effort to drive them out, but they, indifferent to my actions, advanced in derision.
After this, the scene changed, and I saw men with likewise clothing in various villages of Armenia. I had seen these clothes before on pictures; this was a Turkish clothing that resembled a national dress. They had swords in their hands. I had seen these swords on pictures as well; these were the swords, with which they killed Armenians. I spared no effort to drive them out, but I was powerless. They were advancing, smiling impudently.
Suddenly some women with beautiful-looking faces joined this crowd of men, again in a clothing, which resembled a national dress. They sincerely smiled at me, as if we were old friends. Leaving them in the room, I went out to the yard. Sometime later, very unexpectedly, all of them went out and silently left, and I saw their backs. Suddenly three of the women that had joined the men turned from them to me and smiled sincerely. I wanted to call them back so much, and I thought, “Lord, they are so good! It is so nice to spend time with them, and I learn so much from them. But if I invite them, all this crowd of men will enter my home again, and I will not be able to drive them out. And I decided, “I will no longer ask them to come.”
When I woke up in the morning, I tried to shake off the impression of that bad dream. I prayed and tried to focus on other things, but the images from my dream came before my eyes one after another. I was compelled to say, “Lord, if this dream has an important meaning, please explain it.” Praise to the Almighty, Who revealed to me the meaning of that dream right then! I understood that those people symbolized the demons, at the instigation of which the 1.5 million Armenians were martyred – their clothes and swords testified about it. The same demons use the same nation again – smiling impudently, they enter the territory of our country and advance unhindered.
The three women were the three television programs, which were both enjoyable and informative for me. These programs were not harmful. I viewed them regularly, and it has turned into a habit. I never missed any of them. For me, they were like good friends, while years ago the Lord, seeing my attitude, warned me to stay away from evil companies. The time I regularly assigned to these programs had to be given to the Lord. My hourly prayers and reading of the Word of God every day were not enough, and the fact that I gave my whole life to the service of the Lord was not enough either. God wanted more; He expected me to make friends with Him.
Abraham was the servant of the Lord and His worshipper. Before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” (Gen. 18:17). If every Christian gives to the Lord the time and the commitment, which He desires, he will see not only the future, but also the ways to escape or avoid dangers. I made a decision not to spend time sitting in front of the TV, but instead spend more time knowing and doing the will of the Lord.
The next morning, when I remembered my decision, I thought, “But I learn special things from these programs. Where else can I learn these things?” “I will teach you and tell you even more,” I heard the soft voice of the Holy Spirit. It was so unexpected! I spoke to the Lord, “Lord, You know that I love You more than everything, and for Your sake, I am ready to give up everything. You search my heart, and You know that I will completely give up television. Please help me to do this by Your Spirit, not by human willpower.
After that prayer, I hurried to a business meeting with my best friend. Our relationship is such that he never tried to teach me anything. We had a business conversation, and when I was leaving the room, he suddenly told me, “Gayane, do you know that a space rocket spends 80% of its fuel in a short time to get off the ground, and with the remaining 20%, it goes into space and carries out its assignment? If only you could get off the earth…” This was so unexpected and so necessary! It was as if he challenged me with these words – to get off the earthly things and soar in heaven, where the Lord wants to speak to me. I was amazed and delighted.
Today with a humble heart, I appeal to all godly people, who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to reconsider their past and present life and, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to realize the omissions and sins, which brought our nation to this fateful hour. Let every person realize their own conscious and unconscious sins and repent, and then the turn will come to realize the sins, which we commit as a nation, and repent of them.
“Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes” (Songs 2:15). A person’s sins are like those little foxes that quietly spoil blooming gardens.
You can read my previous materials on this subject on gayaneblog.org website, in “Change your Life” section, and you can listen to the audio recordings of these materials in “Audiobooks” section.