Today I am having a toasted English muffin with butter and honey and a light-roast Day Break coffee with a little half-and-half.

I was thinking about this past few weeks and how I have allowed my fatigue and emotions to control my behavior and attitude toward those I love.  As a little context, we have a group of people that come over once a week to spend some amazing time listening to God and walking in the ways He leads us. God has been using this group to build some incredible things that are resulting in His power and glory being made manifest.  It has been a powerful and incredible time together, and as such, I think we have attracted some spiritual resistance.

The day of getting together – every week – it seems like everything that can go wrong does.  The nights before are often filled with bad dreams, my health seems to deteriorate that day, fatigue overwhelms me, I am often unprepared, and thoughts enter my mind that seem unlike me, such as depression, judgementalism, and a desire to just quit.  Scripture has shown me something about all this that I think will be an encouragement to us all:

When Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the fallen walls around the newly restored temple in Jerusalem, he regularly met with fellow believers to accomplish the task. He too faced an enemy who provided resistance, wanting to see him fail.  This enemy did five things to try to stop Nehemiah.

• Question his worth: He ridiculed the builders, reminding them of how impossible the task was that God has called them to, and pointing out how incapable the families and children were of accomplishing it. The builders knew that what this enemy said was true, but continued to labor, knowing that the Lord said the work would be accomplished.
• Assaults on their security: The enemy became angry, and tried another tactic. They plotted to send soldiers to Jerusalem to stir up trouble, attack them, and frustrate the work. Word of this and fear-filled rumors circulated, threatening to cause the builders to abandon the work, but Nehemiah led the families and children to stand guard over the work, a spear in one hand and tools in the other, and God used their obedience to instill fear into the enemy.
• Draw their attention elsewhere: The walls were growing toward completion and the enemy was so angry he plotted to trick Nehemiah to come out to meet him, with the intent that he would harm him. Four times he tried to entice Nehemiah, four times Nehemiah replied that he was too busy doing what God told him to do.
• Cause division: The enemy became frustrated, and tried again to entice Nehemiah to come out to meet him by stirring up lies and rumors that the Jews were divided against Nehemiah. The enemy’s intention was to cause division and fear so that the work would stop.
• Inspire fear: Then the enemy hired one of Nehemiah’s own people and used him to try to convince Nehemiah to be afraid of an impending attack, encouraging Nehemiah to go stay and hide in the temple, which would have been a sin for Nehemiah to do, and would have discredited Nehemiah, causing the work to stop.

Nehemiah held firm to that which God showed him, rejecting the enemy’s “offers” and standing firm in his faith that God would take care of him.  The wall was completed with extraordinary swiftness, and the enemy lost their confidence and became fearful at what was done.

I can see all these things at work on the days we meet.   I look at my knowledge and experience, and I can see clearly that I don’t have what it takes to accomplish the task God has called me to. Thoughts come to mind as to whether or not we can afford to provide a snack or tea. Fear comes as to how much damage the enemy is doing to my health. All the things that need to get done – such a cleaning, printing materials, and keeping the needs of my family met – become overwhelming, drawing my attention away from what God is doing instead to the “stuff” around me.  Unwarranted thoughts enter my mind, unlike my normal thinking, which question whether or not my wife supports me, or if my friends in the group are truly united together, or if such-and-such friend is frustrating the ‘work’. My health often gets worse that day, stress rises, and I fear I will be destroyed and should retreat or hide rather than get together with the group.

These things all have one thing in common: they are all lies, attacks from the enemy intended to rob me of what is factual in Christ.

I have learned that we have been given (already) all kinds of amazing things from God when we came to trust in Him, but that our unbelief and corrupt thinking prevents us from experiencing those things in our experience.  I can see clearly that God’s Spirit is working in me and other Christians to unite us and to manifest all that He has given to us, but there is a process leading there where we are vulnerable to being deceived.

God tells us that we are His temple, and just like for Nehemiah, the temple and all its riches have been restored and “sealed” by God’s Spirit, but the walls and gates around it need rebuilding. As Isaiah says, “your walls will be called salvation, and your gates praise”.  In other words, the only way to rebuild our walls is by placing our confidence in God, rejecting those things that undermine God’s promises to us.

This is the work of the body – our work – and we have an enemy that doesn’t want to see that happen.

If we want to see the kingdom experience in this life, we must reject all the enemy’s undermining “offers”, and continue doing that which God has shown us to do. So keep building and keep believing that God will protect you when you hold firmly in Jesus as the source of your salvation and hope.

So enjoy your english muffin in one hand, while you stand firm with your spear in the other, and the Lord is faithful to bring you to victory through all your trials.

Eph 6:¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God,so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvationand the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.