When we get burnt, displaced, shifted out of our function, cast aside and we feel like our life is just a pile of rubble - God grieves, because He has a destiny, a plan. He has somewhere He wants to get us. He wants to restore us! He wants to reposition us, so we're back in the wall of destiny, we're doing what God called us to do. Well God can do it. He never abandons burnt stones. Christians often do, but God never does. He never does, never. I've watched over many years, doesn't matter what happened to people, I watched God pursue them. The Holy Ghost grieves over the burnt stones; so look in Chapter 2:17. Nehemiah's gone and had a look at all the damage. He's seen the walls, and everything's broken down, the stones; then he gets everyone together and he says to them, in Verse 17: you see the distress we're in, how Jerusalem lies waste, it's gates are burnt with fire. Now come, and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no longer a reproach. And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me; also the king's words, which he had spoken to me. And they said: let us rise up and build, and sent their hands to this good work. Wow, fantastic!
What does the Holy Ghost do? The Holy Ghost helps us get up. Notice what he says. He has a look at it, and he says: you can see it's a mess. You can see that life is broken down. You can see the church isn't what it should be. You can see faults, breaches, gaps, burnt stones everywhere, but he said: Let us rise up and build! The Holy Ghost, I love Him. This is what the Holy Ghost does. He helps us get up. He rebuilds our dreams and puts us where we can be successful. That's what He does - He inspires hope! He said: you see what it's like? Come on, let's build it again. Let's get this thing back up again! Let's get the stones restored and in place.
The second thing you notice that he does, he tells them, with a hand of God on him, draws attention to the hand of God, and the words of the king. He draws attention to the word of God, and the power of God, which are able to change our lives. The word, and the power of God; the power of the Holy Ghost, and the word of God. They're able to rebuild you. They're able to restore you. You need both.
You need the power of the Holy Ghost, that person-presence of the Holy Ghost, coming upon you, touching and restoring your life. You need the word of God, come in and rebuild, strengthen, lift you up again. It's how your life gets build. Finances may be a mess, you may be a burnt stone, creditors are coming in like hungry wolves. God is able to rebuild, He's able to get you out of that place. The cross is about forgiving debts. It's about getting out of debt, getting to a place of prospering. That's what God wants to do - so how does God do it? Notice the desire of God to do it, but how does God do it? Let me just give you some quick keys, and I want to give you a name of a person associated with each key. Number one: you have to want to be restored, if you're a burnt stone. If you've been burnt by life, burnt by circumstances, hurt, disappointed, let down, betrayed, felt man, that's bad, boy I'm really burnt - you can smell the smoke in your life. You know you're not functioning right, you're not connecting with God right, not connecting with His people right, you're not functioning where you ought to; and you know I am a burnt stone! Listen, God wants to get you back up again, get you going again, get you into the right place, right positioning, right - he wants you to fulfil your destiny. What do you have to do? You've got to want to change. You've got to want to come back to God. You've got to want to. You've got to want to. You've got to want to.
Jesus said to the man: what do you want? I want to be healed! Okay, we can do that... A good example of that is Naomi, in the Book of Ruth. In the Book of Ruth, Naomi in a time of famine, when there was a time of lack - you can have natural famines, spiritual famines, it's a time of lack, when it feels like there's no resources, you're drying up, you're dying; and you think: if I stay here, I'm going to die. So in the time of famine, what Naomi and her husband and family did, they went out, and they went to Moab, which is a forbidden land. It's a picture of a believer in a time of stress, struggle, difficulty, pressure, lack - and they walk away from God, the position God had for them, the place God had for them. They walk away into an unclean place. If you see what happened to them, it was disaster for them. She came back - no, she woke up one day; I've lost my husband, I've lost my sons, I've lost my future, I've lost my support, I have lost everything. She's a burnt stone. She says: don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, bitter. I'm a bitter, burnt stone.