Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 1
Nehemiah 4:1 (ESV): Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.
Ok, leaving the topic of parenting, we are going into a topic that is important for all of us to own, warfare. Spiritual warfare is a reality for everyone on earth. Those who do not know the Lord, do not realize that there is a battle for their soul and the outcome of that battle is played out through all of eternity.
This is why there is a strong emphasis on warfare and evangelism in the New Testament. Jesus was constantly addressing and engaging in warfare. And the Apostles who authored some of the New Testament books followed suit. Nehemiah chapter 4 is full of principles of spiritual warfare and I would like to dwell on a few for this week.
What I enjoy about the book of Nehemiah as well, is the parallels that exist between what the people of Israel were facing and what we are facing too. We feel exiled from gathering, we will be in a mode of rebuilding when we return and the enemy seems to have unrestricted access to some and I am compelled to build the walls of protection and safety again.
By the way, have you ever wondered what Gresham, Sanballat and Tobias were so angry about? I mean, what’s the big deal!? So the people of Israel want to build walls and have a city again – what did they stand to lose if Jerusalem is rebuilt? Are you ready for it? This will bring a bit of sobriety to us all and cause us to take a closer look at how we are moving forward in this time of Covid. There are a lot of parallels and I believe what you are about to see is one of the biggest.
Let me take you to another passage and I think we can see what was going on. In chapter 5 verse number 8.
Nehemiah 5:8 (ESV): and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!”
Nehemiah is rebuking the leaders of Jerusalem for enslaving and extorting the people who needed freedom from pagan oppression. Nehemiah tells the Jewish leaders that they are acting just like the pagan leaders whom Nehemiah came to stop through building the walls of the city. These pagan leaders were mandating heavy taxation on all the people and when they couldn’t pay they were taking their homes, land, children and spouses. The pagan leaders were keeping people in bondage and from their future, their destiny.
I believe that Sanballat, Geshem and Tobias were profiting greatly from the misfortune of the people of Israel and Nehemiah had a mind to stop it.
The enemy of today is not flesh and blood like what Nehemiah faced, remember. This is not a battle cry against our gov’t, not at all. It’s the enemy of our soul that we have to take into account.
The enemy that is feeding on us continues to generationally steal, kill and destroy your family destiny. Like Sanballat, he is angry that he no longer will have free access to extort from you because of old rubble in your life. He wants to keep you in a helpless place where walls are broken down and he and his hoard have unrestricted access to you and your children.
Dads and moms, spiritual dads and moms, is there a crying going up before the Lord that points to the heaviness of your ongoing bondage? We like to think that the Holy Spirit is groaning with passion addressing good things in our lives on our behalf before the throne of the Father. Perhaps the broken walls and unprotected city that we are ok with in our lives, is leaving our land, kids and spouse burdened and the Holy Spirit is doing a different kind of groaning than we hoped for. I know that is heavy, but thought provoking none-the-less.
The city had to be rebuilt. The walls had to be rebuilt, the gates, the temple, all of it. As long as there was no one willing to rebuild – Sanballat and his evil extorting band of brothers could come and go as they pleased, feeding on God’s people.
Let’s examine one life giving verse that made the difference.
Nehemiah 4:6 (ESV): So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Hmmm, the people had a mind to work on rebuilding. They had hope, a dream, could it be that a better life for my family is in store? YOU BET! So we have this picture of families side-by-side hammers in one hand and swords in the other.
Nehemiah 4:17 (ESV): Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.
Lord, we are not laboring in vain. We see the importance of a spiritual heritage. We hear your voice as you call us to purity and righteousness. We actively battle against sin in our lives and recognize that when we say yes to sin, we have kicked down a wall of protection for our land and family. Lord, we have a mind to work – confound the enemy and grant us success.
Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 2
Look with me at the strategy of the enemy. I am going to go backward a bit in the book of Nehemiah because I wanted you to see that we have a lot at stake. If we do not see the enemy or realize that we are in a battle, this whole study will have no real impact on you.
I want you to be impacted and changed – to the point that you will pick up a hammer and a sword. Building and protecting at the same time. This whole book is exciting to me, in it are many key principles of living and churching.
Today we are going to look at some of the tried and true strategies that the enemy uses against people who are growing in their faith. He never relents or quits, but you can stop him as Nehemiah did. The Lord is on your side. He will give you the strength to win. After all, it is the Lords battle and God has the victory in hand. Win the battle his way and you will succeed. We can learn from Nehemiah.
So, let’s take a look.
Nehemiah 4:1–2 (ESV): Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria…
The enemy is never alone. He always runs in a pack. He gets angry when he is cut off from his food source. Wait, you didn’t know that he eats people’s souls? Actually, it is more of a drinking people’s souls rather than eating, let me show you.
Luke 11:24 (ESV): When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’
Please understand that a demon is not banished to the physical Sahara like desert as a result of coming out of a person. It is metaphorical, the demon was drinking or getting it’s sustenance from the soul of the person and now, out of the person, it is thirsty and looking for a place of rest and refreshment.
Jesus points to the reality that “in” the person, it has rest and sustenance. Out of the person it is thirsty and uncomfortable.
Switching gears, Sanballat and his hoard were angry because they could no longer exist oppressing and exploiting people – he had a good gig going and Nehemiah put a stop to it.
Jesus, made a way for you to be free, he put a stop to the enemy invading you. That is, if you want the enemy to stop invading. The enemy who used to be in control of you has lost control when you gave your heart to Jesus. Now, that doesn’t mean that when you became a Christian that the enemy doesn’t attack or try to come in a set up residence in your life, he does and won’t stop until he is told to finally stop for good.
Whenever you choose sin and rebel its as though you have torn down a piece of the wall and opened a pathway for the marauding to begin. You can simply stop the enemy from doing so by verbalizing you agreement with Jesus regarding the truth of the matter. You don’t have to be perfect in this, just forgiven. The power isn’t in you, it is in Jesus in you. You don’t have to have conquered the enemy for the enemy to run, you simply have to verbalize and trust the One who has conquered the enemy.
That can sound like this…
Jesus, I have given the enemy free reign in my life for far too long and I confess that to you right now. Here are the places where I have left a wide open door to the devil _________________. Lord, I am asking that you would put a stop to him. Teach me how to be obedient to what I know is the truth. I see the beginning places where I must, with your help, do some wall repair. I need your strength to be righteous in this, I am willing to do what is right, give me the strength to do it, and thank you for your mercy and grace that is new everyday as I battle forward.
Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 3
The point of our study in this book is to learn how to wage good warfare against the enemy.
Isn’t it interesting that the attack from the enemy starts with his gathering and his jeers. Do you ever hear the enemy in your mind? It’s ok, you can answer, no one can hear you. LOL
Look how this battle against the people of Israel began and how it plays out in your life too.
Listen to what Sanballat said in Nehemiah 4:2 “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”
He says the builders are incapable, helpless, ungodly, slow, and out of touch with reality. WOW! Do you ever hear these kind of things from this world? You are looking at the devil’s front line attack – words in your head.
Now, don’t miss this! The enemy left God completely out of the mix – that’s how the devil worked his evil in the garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:1 (ESV): “Did God actually say…”
Do you see it? The attempt to separate God from his family?
And that is what he is trying to do with Nehemiah. Guess what, he will do the same with you. He separates your mind from God’s heart and shoves in your face what stands in front of you. Then he places the burden on you to fix everything, which you can’t do. When you own it, it is a burden too big and you slip into all kinds of woe.
There are so many people that the devil destroys this way…don’t be one of them!!!!!
Notice what wise Nehemiah did. And we will close with it.
Nehemiah 4:4–5 (ESV): Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
He puts God right back in the center as the one who owns the problem and the one who has the power to stop the enemy. He gets back to doing what he can do and leaves to God what only God can do.
Come on people! Jump on this right now. Give it back to God! Whenever you feel slightly distanced from God, look around, the enemy has his crowbar in hand and he is trying to pop the rivets off your dependency on God.
Give whatever building you are doing right back to God then, keep on keeping on!
AND… don’t listen to the enemy!
Lord, the devil is sly. You are greater! He is doomed to destruction, and you God are forever going to be praised! We turn from the enemy and we focus on you. Thank you for pouring out your power on what you have called each of us to build and restore. Teach us more Master, help us learn that we might be free and that we might help others too. We pray in the name of Jesus.
Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 4
Nehemiah 4:7–8 (ESV): But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.
Here we go, round 2, the enemy presents his second strategy. If I can’t get them with easy words, then I will confuse them with guerrilla warfare. Do you know what guerrilla warfare is? There are main battles in front of us that have our attention, and the enemy starts to attack other areas that we aren’t necessarily watching to distract us from the goal, causing discouragement and confusion.
I could make a list right now of people we both know in the last year who have fallen because of the enemy’s guerrilla warfare tactics. People who used to be side-by-side with us in rebuilding and restoring, who are now gone, due to a side bar enemy tactic. Don’t be one of them!
The enemy is angry, and he is unified in his mission to stop whatever rebuilding that God is doing in you, your family, the community and the church. The devil will stop at nothing to tear it all down and burn it. The reason is you and I alike have been in our past, a buffet for him. That buffet is shut down!
When you are moving along in kingdom building and something comes out of nowhere it seems, pause for a moment and look around. The enemy is likely trying to confuse your commitment to the goal. Sometimes it is an illness, or someone giving you a very hard time. Could be an old flame reaches out to you through social media. Maybe your kid’s lives heat up and you become consumed. There are so many places that are vulnerable for the enemy to sneak a guerrilla attack in on you.
Nehemiah 4:19–20 (ESV): And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. 20 In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
Doesn’t this give you goosebumps – I’ve got some right now. Their remedy for the guerrilla attacks is to sound the alarm. They had trumpets – we have personal devices. Listen to me, sound the alarm! Get on the prayer list, phone a friend, by-all-means, get in a care group, become known by others so that when (not if) the enemy goes guerrilla on you, you have folks running to your aid.
If you are on the outskirts, without a trumpet, all alone…guess what!?
Check out this verse regarding guerrilla warfare.
Nehemiah 4:21–22 (ESV): So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. 22 I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.”
Moral of the story, the darker it gets, get closer to where the people of God are. When it is dark outside, pull in closer to the city of God. I am completely astonished at the brazen hearts of people who can’t see the darkness around them right now. Its like the gazelle in the Serengeti inching closer to the water and the croc is just under the surface…Don’t do it, you can’t be that thirsty, don’t do… lights out.
Covid has drawn many people out of the city of refuge. They have not only been cut off from gathering, but they have lost contact with the church altogether. They have become sick and tired of seeing people through a computer screen. Al Roker, recently released a book and I love the title, “You look better in person.” I love it, its so true, but the time for us to regather as usual isn’t here yet.
Not only should we be socially responsible, we must be spiritually responsible and stay in the flow of health and vitality. We must stay in community, even if it is only two dimensional for now.
I am with them, I am tired too. But, my life depends on staying in community. I am as tired of manna as you are – we are being fed, its not what I want, but it is meeting my need. I look forward to being out of this wilderness, but we are not there yet. Some have rejected the manna God has given at this time and opted for nothing.
In the land of nothing, on the outskirts of town, (I call it the land of ONO!) away from others who can hear the trumpet is not a safe place for anyone in the church. Stay in the city, hammer in one hand sword in the other and your trumpet near you in case you need to call out.The enemy is crafty and if he can’t separate you from God, he will separate you from others, then you are vulnerable to his guerrilla tactics with no one to call for help.
Nehemiah 4:11 (ESV): And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.”
Lord, please let us see through the strategies of the devil and see that with each other we are stronger. And help us see too, what you have called us to build. And most importantly, teach all of us how to go deeper in our relationship with you, no matter our age, so that we can hear you and follow you better.
Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 5
Nehemiah 6:1–2 (ESV): Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm.
Listen, if you are invited to the plains of Ono by the enemy…don’t go.
Here is another tactic of the enemy – it reminds me of the little Venus fly-trap plants that I used to get as a kid. The poor unsuspecting bug meanders along and smells the sweet scent of food, lands in the worst possible place to be on earth and then…lights out.
The devil cannot read your mind, but he is a student of your words and your behavior. He has seen it all, and he can predict with great accuracy what you will do because of your history, words and current lifestyle.
He will put in front of you what seems like a good thing – leaders I am talking to you right now. God has placed you in a role as a leader, don’t let that go to your head. Remain humble and gentle with others. This was Nehemiah’s way, to be humble and God fearing.
Nehemiah 5:14–15 (ESV): Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. 15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.
Nehemiah 5:18–19 (ESV): I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. 19 Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
What does this have to do with the devil’s attack, you ask? Well, if the enemy can’t waltz in and crush the walls, and he can’t engage in guerrilla warfare any more, he will go after the head – cut off the head and the organism dies.
If Nehemiah was a proud man he would have gone to the plains of Ono and believed he could fix that too. He would have died there and God’s man for the job would be gone.
Be careful about invitations to the plains of Ono. Be careful about being distracted off of the goal. Leaders be careful of pride rising in you. Understand that you are always susceptible to pride and it can sneak up at anytime.
One of the best ways to deal with pride is to have people around you that can speak truth to you, about you. If you have people around you that are afraid to tell you like it is, then you have built a system that’s not safe for you and others. I am not suggesting that people speak to you in a dishonoring way, I am suggesting that there be those that you are submitted to.
A person that is not submitted to others… that is far worse than going to the plains of Ono. A person that is not submitted is actually Sandballat. That’s right, you can operate in the land of God and be contrary to the things of God thinking you are right when you are dead wrong. Pride, spiritual pride is so deceptive, I have seen great people fall prey to the enemy’s attack in this area. You want so much for them, but their heart is corrupt.
Great leaders have come across my path in the years past. These leaders had great potential and wonderful ideas – but they were filled with pride. And like the prodigal they took their share and ran. The prodigal ran headlong into Ono.
The enemy will go after the head for sure, pray for your spiritual leaders, they are human too. And remember that pride comes before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 (ESV): Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Lord, you are great, we are but worms according to Isaiah 41. Teach us to be humble and gentle with others like Nehemiah. Help us to not become inflated with our own sense of self-importance. We want to trust you more everyday and lean not on what we think about ourselves or what others think about us. Let us be consumed with what you say about us and to us, in your Word. God, the enemy has so many tools in his arsenal, too many for us to truly understand – we thank you for protection and for mercy and grace when we blow it. Lord, please let none of us fall prey to the plains of Ono, spare us I pray, in the name of Jesus.
Blessings
Pastor D
