God’s Rebuilding Plan:
Broken Lives
(Insights from Nehemiah chapter 2-4)
Whenever we try to rebuild what Satan has destroyed we will always find opposition. We need strategy when facing our opponents, if we try to fix things without hearing from God all we will get is further burned. We are not mere servants as in John 15:15 but partners with God. God is the driver He knows the direction we are to go; we are just the vehicle waiting for His guidance. So before going forward in rebuilding our lives we need to have a game plan from God. We need to take the time to examine our complete situations while waiting and listening to God before stepping out. The wisdom needed is a lot of time found in further examination.
It is the call of each body or unit of believers to rebuild God’s Kingdom on Earth, the key to this being accomplished is each individual positioned in the right place, doing their part, fulfilling God’s purpose. It is a leaders’ responsibility to help each of those they lead know their place and understand their part to play in God’s Kingdom. God wants nothing left undone, He wants all to be restored, it is a big task, and everyone therefore has some place in this rebuilding process. For the bible says the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (1 Cor. 10:26), and the bible says that the Glory of the Lord shall fill the earth (Num 14:21).
We might think how can God use me, to rebuild anything when my life is so broken? We see here in Nehemiah 4:2 that the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt not by brand new stones but by the old burnt stones that were piled in rubbish. There are no perfect people apart from Christ, we have all been burnt, we all have our stories, and the thing is will we remain bitter or allow God to break us.
It is the broken that God can take out of the rubbish of the world and use to rebuild His Kingdom on Earth. Broken people can be shaped and molded back together, they are teachable and willing to do whatever it takes to change, bitter people rather are set in their ways, always blaming others for their misfortunes, they are unreachable, and continue to do the same thing over and over even though it always fails. Bitter people will never respond well when we choose to turn our bitterness to brokenness as we see here in Nehemiah 4:1-3. Those who have no plan to change their lives around will always mock those who do, for they are jealous and to full of pride to admit they are wrong. Like Nehemiah the best stand to take against our enemies is prayer. Prayer does much more damage than any verbal response can do. God can do much more damage than we can against our enemy, let Him fight our battles.
Just when it seems like our situations are being turned around, our life is looking better, that our enemies come at us that much more strong. We can never ease up, God wants to complete His work in us, and He promised He is faithful to bring it to an end. The more opposition we face the more we know we are on the right track of rebuilding our lives according to the Kingdom of God, for Matthew 11:12 says the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force. How we respond when the heat is on the outside reveals where our heart is at in the inside. When we complain we know we still have roots of bitterness inside that need to be plucked up. A complaining person is a bitter person who has not let go of past hurts. A bitter person always makes situations sound worse than they really are, they exaggerate, and they try to spread their fear to others. Bitterness is contagious to those who have not freed themselves from the past. If left alone it can completely divide and destroy God’s work. Bitterness is poison.
Those God is rebuilding need leaders around them that will help them defend themselves against the enemy not ignore the enemy. If a leader is just as afraid of opposition as its followers defeat is inevitable. God has given us spiritual weapons for the pulling down of strongholds. The purpose of assembling ourselves together is for training how to use these weapons to stand strong against opposition. Those in the office of the five-fold ministry are responsible to God how they equipped those God gave them for the work of the ministry. Our lives are a work for God, for we are the living stones in which He is building His temple on Earth. The weapons of our warfare are the gifts of the spirit (Romans 12:4-8), (1 Corinthians 12:4-10). We need to be part of an assembly where we can exercise these gifts, for in so doing we are developing our ability to serve mankind, and to stand against and defeat the enemy when He opposes God’s work. It is vital to be part of small groups where these weapons can be fine tuned. A great leader is an encourager, who helps us believe when we want to give up, who brings us in remembrance of who God is, and what God has done.
There is always a strategy to victory for every response of the enemy to bring defeat. The devil is like a prowling lion seeking who he may devour, we must be alert, with God's weapons always in hand, we can’t take time off, the devil don’t and he just waits until we are vulnerable to attack. When we discern the enemy in our midst we must not fight Him alone, but sound the alarm and come together and pray for united we stand, divided we fall, there is power when we are in agreement together against the enemy.
We must all join together if we are going to see God’s Kingdom rebuilt in this territory, we must be willing to sacrifice our own dreams, for God’s dreams, for our dreams cannot compare with His, each of us are needed, working together, for nothing is impossible through Christ to those who believe.