It was the month of December when Nehemiah received news that the walls of Jerusalem have been broken down and its gates have been burnt with fire. Nehemiah grieved for the city and he prayed. Nehemiah mourned, fasted and prayed. And until April, nothing changed. Then one day in April the king which Nehemiah was serving noticed his sad countenance and asked him what the matter was. Nehemiah told the king the news. Out of God’s favor, the king requested that Nehemiah go and repair the walls. In addition, the king gave Nehemiah trees from the forest for the rebuilding. And he also gave Nehemiah captains from his army to protect him. Furthermore, the king gave Nehemiah letters of endorsements to the rulers of the territories.
The walls Jerusalem can represent the state of the church of God today. And I am not talking about the physical church with the brick walls. I am referring to the spiritual Church which is each and every one of us Christians who are the body of Christ. While the physical church is big and strong and beautiful, the spiritual church has had its walls torn down and gates burnt, and the dwellers of the spiritual church is in gave danger. You ask, “What does it matter anyway?”
It matters. The spiritual church of God needs to be rebuilt so that it can continue in the work of the ministry until Jesus returns. There are many people in the church today who are broken and it is up to the men and women of God to go and build up their lives again. We need to have the gifting of building up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12). However the task of rebuilding is not easy as we can see through the story of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah went and rebuilt the walls. But he faced much opposition. There were seven kinds of oppositions that Nehemiah faced. Today I will share with you two of the seven oppositions and how it reflects to the types of opposition we face today as workers in the Kingdom of God.
The first opposition was in the form of ridicule and mockery. Sanballat became angry at Nehemiah’s works and he ridiculed him saying all kinds of things that would bring the spirits of the workers down. Along with Sanballat is Tobiah who joined in ridiculing the work.
The second form of opposition is the threat of the enemy’s attack. Sanballat and Tobiah plotted to attack the Israelites who were working on the walls. But their plans were brought to Nehemiah’s knowledge and he prayed before God. God answered him and protected the Israelites from their enemy’s attack.
You see, the process of rebuilding the church of God angers our enemy the devil. He loves to see Christians who are broken and he gets angry when other Christians tries to build those broken ones up again. The devil will go all out to ridicule our work saying things like, “Your work will not bear fruits. Look at what you have accomplished so far – nothing! Therefore it is better for you to quit working in this ministry and just take a rest – just for awhile.” And I can assure you once you rest even for one moment, you will never get started again. The devil will also try to attack us in every ways possible. Therefore we as leaders of the church who is in the ministry of rebuilding must always be prayerful and dependent on God not on ourselves.
The following types of oppositions will be shared later in my next few posts. For now, chew on this one.
God bless you.
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