I wasn't planning on writing this morning. I knew there was a part three coming but thought with all of my other tasks to do, I'd write later in the week. But when God led me to Nehemiah 6 this am shortly after my quiet time with Him, I knew the time was exactly now.
One of the many things I love about working on projects with God is that He leads, if you let Him. He won't force, but if you'll be led, He will lead.
In the story so far, Nehemiah has already dealt with Sanballat and Tobiah, the enemies of his work, being disturbed by his holy project, laughing, mocking, and even threatening to attack. But with God's help, Nehemiah prevails.
Most likely you do not have flesh and blood adversaries when it comes to completing your divine assignment, but rather, circumstances, thoughts that have become strongholds, or fears. You'll trample them and complete the task God has assigned you to the same way Nehemiah did: faith and determination.
Anything coming up against your work- internal or external- is not really after you, but what God has given you to do.
One would think that Nehemiah's enemies would be tired by now, but the story continues.
In chapter 6, Sanballat & Co invite Nehemiah to meet in a field. Not for a friendly chat, but to do him harm. When he repeatedly refuses, they respond with an accusation of wrongdoing.
Nehemiah responds with, "No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart."
He continues by recognizing the purpose of their charges against him.
"For they were trying to make us afraid, saying, 'Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.'"
When Sanballat & crew realized they wouldn't have an opportunity to take Nehemiah physically by surprise, they launched accusations to weaken him so the work would lay incomplete.
Nehemiah knew who to turn to.
"Now therefore, O God, strengthen me." Nehemiah 6: 9b
Then something very interesting happens. A man named Shemiah came to him and invited him to hide from his enemies under the guise of being a friend. Shemiah tells Nehemiah that he must hide because, "at night they will come and kill you."
Nehemiah saw through the plot. In the text it says he "perceived" that the man was not sent by God. He'd been hired by Sanballat and Tobiah.
When Sanballat and his buddies realized he could not attack Nehemiah's body in the form of a surprise attack in the field, they tried to attack his mind with accusations, when they realized the attacks on the mind did not work, they tried to attack his spirit by having him come into physical agreement with false prophecy of imminent attack and death ("they will come and kill you").
What has been falsely prophesied over your work? That it's not a good time to start? That the economy isn't good enough? That no one will like your work? That it will fail?
You don't have to give an audible "amen' to false prophecy for it to be made alive in your life. If Nehemiah had hid in the temple like Shemiah wanted him to, he would have been in agreement. That man was hired to put fear, the opposite of faith, into Nehemiah so that he'd stumble and fall.
Whatever negative thing you may have believed about your divine assignment and your ability to carry it out, come out of agreement by starting today. Pray for God's vision rather than your own.
2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "We walk by faith, not by sight." Meaning we don't depend on our human vision to make decisions, but move according to faith."
Sight matters. Vision matters. The first time ra'ah, the Hebrew word meaning "to see" is used in the Bible is Genesis 1:4 where God created light and "saw that it was good."
Later that verb is used in the garden of Eden where Eve "saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant the eyes." The forbidden tree looked good.
In Nehemiah 6:12, a different verb relating to sight is used. Nehemiah "perceived" that Shemiah was not sent from God. The Hebrew word there is nakar and means to recognize or discern.
Eve thought she was seeing good and saw evil. Interestingly enough, in Hebrew "ra'ah" the verb "to see" sounds almost identical to the word "ra" for evil. The sound difference is caused by the Hebrew letter aleph א, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the word "ra'ah" for sight.
Jesus in Revelations 1:8 said He is the "beginning and the end," the "alpeh"- the first Hebrew letter and the "tav," the last Hebrew letter. Many in Judaism believe the first Hebrew letter "aleph" stands for God.
It is God, and yielding to His perfect truth, in our sight that gives us the ability to discern.
God has perfect sight. He can distinguish good and evil, true and false, truth and a lie without error. Human beings cannot do this without Him. Our human sight is flawed.
Nehemiah was able to perceive the truth about the potential sabotage of his divine assignment because he was a man of prayer who brought everything to God. He prayed for strength and God gave it to Him as discernment; the ability to divide truth from lies.
That's how you'll cast down every imagination or idea or attempt by the enemy to get in the way of you completing your assignment. Not by trusting your own vision, not leaning on your own understanding, but seeing it through the vision God gave you, activating your faith, and refusing to come into agreement with every scary word.
As you work on your Divine assignment today, see it through the vision God gave you. Don't depend on your sight, but lean 100% on His.
Love, Bunmi
This post is part of a three-part series called Divine Assignment. Read the other posts here: Completing Your Divine Assignment
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