Become Dedicated… (And I’m not talkin’ about to your XBox)
Nehemiah 4:1-23 (New Living Translation)
1 Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, 2 saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they are doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a day if they offer enough sacrifices? Look at those charred stones they are pulling out of the rubbish and using again!”
- Sandballat is representative of the enemy, the devourer. When we start dedicating more of our lives to God, (Rebuilding the wall) the enemy gets mad, and starts with a defensive mechanism of making fun of us and trying to tear us down and keep us from coming closer to God.
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!” 4 Then I prayed, “Hear us, O our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! 5 Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in the presence of the builders.”
- Sometimes it is easy to let the attacks of the enemy and the thoughts of the mortal mind overwhelm us. The Bible tells us not to rely on our own understanding but rather to trust in the Lord with all your heart. (Proverbs 3:5) So when times seem very difficult we must call upon the Name of the Lord! We have to stand up and declare the Word of the Lord and believe that every tongue that rises against us in judgment will be condemned. When we pray the Scriptures we are praying God’s own words and He will move upon them. We know that it angers God when people are being abusive to His Anointed, so if we pray in this fashion He will fight our battles for us!
6 At last the wall was completed to half its original height around the entire city, for the people had worked very hard. 7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall were being repaired, they became furious.
- With much hard work you can make a lot of progress and when the enemy sees that your are making progress, despite his attempts to cause you to fall, it really ticks him off! But keep going you are mending gaps in your life and fixing things in your spiritual walk that have been damaged for years due to a lack of dedication.
8 They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and to bring about confusion there.
- This is where the battle gets heated. When they see that the words and little things that they tried didn’t bring you down, then they start trying to get physical! And confusion is the enemies favorite weapon. Hang in there VICTORY is almost yours!
9 But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.
- PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! But also if you will notice it says they prayed “AND” guarded the city day and night. That means that we have a responsibility as well!
10 Then the people of Judah began to complain that the workers were becoming tired. There was so much rubble to be moved that we could never get it done by ourselves.
- Don’t give up yet no matter how much work seems to be done keep going!
11 Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, “Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work.” 12 The Jews who lived near the enemy came and told us again and again, “They will come from all directions and attack us!”
- You see the enemy thinks you don’t know what’s going on that he can just swoop in, and if you are not attending a Spirit-Filled church this is more than likely true! But if you are going to a church that is operating in the gifts of the Spirit they can help you and they can warn you of things to come! The Bible says do not neglect to gather yourselves together with believers of like faith.
13 So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows.
- These swords, spears, and bows are representative of our spiritual weapons. When we arm ourselves with prayer, fasting, praise, and worship we can go into battle with the best weapons that we could ever hope to carry.
14 Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the leaders and the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your friends, your families, and your homes!”
- For the Bible says that God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-discipline. It also says that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!
15 When our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. 16 But from then on, only half my men worked while the other half stood guard with spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. The officers stationed themselves behind the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall.
- Talk to your fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord tell them what you are up against and they will have your back, if they don’t then they are not living their life according to the Word of God and you need to have their backs even in your situations!
The common laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. 18 All the builders had a sword belted to their side.
- In every day life stay strapped up with the Word of God no matter what just as the Jews did here they worked with one hand and carried a weapon in the other… That’s Dedication!!!
The trumpeter stayed with me to sound the alarm. 19 Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people, “The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!”
- When one of our brothers or sisters sounds a cry for help we must be quick to back them up! No matter what our social status or financial bracket, just as it says here (Nobles and Officials and all people), we are obligated to help one another.
21 We worked early and late, from sunrise to sunset. And half the men were always on guard. 22 I also told everyone living outside the walls to move into Jerusalem. That way they and their servants could go on guard duty at night as well as work during the day. 23 During this time, none of us — not I, nor my relatives, nor my servants, nor the guards who were with me — ever took off our clothes. We carried our weapons with us at all times, even when we went for water.
- This is a full time job 24 hours a day being devoted to God! We must labor around the clock to see that the work of the Lord is carried out and that our lives are close to Him. Never think that you get a break, don’t put your weapons down, the enemy will come and attack at your highest moments in life!
Our walk with Jesus is so much more important than anything else we could ever think of. We have to dedicate ourselves to the things of God if we expect to make it to Heaven and if we expect to be successful in this life! We can not come into this thing and walk it out hap-hazardly, if we joined a gang and conducted ourselves in that manner and got careless our set-king or someone from the opposing set would realize it and we would be dead! And in Christianity we are dealing with a lot more serious issues because we can’t hide from God and the enemy sure enough has our number! In the book of Revelation chapter 3 Jesus said, 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!” God is calling us to arise from our slumber and get on fire for Him! There is so many things that consume our time and we can become devoted to other than God if we allow them to distract us. Today make the decision to devote your life completely and totally to God, and see the difference that it will make!
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