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“When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.” (Nehemiah 4:15).
Many battles fought in the course of history were about controlling territory for political or economic power. One such famous battle was the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. This battle was between Napoleon’s French army and a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blucher. This decisive engagement ended a 23-year war, France’s attempts to dominate Europe, and Napoleon’s imperial power. The Allied victory would usher in a period of peace throughout Europe that lasted almost 50 years.
Spiritual warfare is a lot like physical war, but the battle for ‘territory’ is your soul. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, God created you to know Him. However, God has an enemy in Satan who’s committed to preventing people from experiencing the love of God in their lives. His tactics may differ based on whether you’re a Christian or not, but his ultimate purpose is to sidetrack and destroy your life.
Everything is running like clockwork when we open up the first few chapters of Nehemiah: Nehemiah gets his call from God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the king grants him favor to go and do so, and recruitment efforts are well underway for workmen to complete this God-given task. Yet when we turn to chapter 4, we find a band of angry men trying to discourage Nehemiah and his fellow workers with jeers such as, “What are those feeble Jews doing?”, “Will they restore their wall?”, and “Will they finish in a day?” Their incessant taunting was meant to discourage, dissuade, and demoralize God’s people.
How do you respond when the enemy uses other people to attack you? Here are some insights to combat those attacks from the life of Nehemiah:
Friend, ultimately, the devil has already been defeated by Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus won the victory, but the devil will make every attempt to blind, confuse, and deter you from the truth. Join me today in suiting up for battle by putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6) so that ‘when the day of evil comes’ (v. 13), you will be able to stand strong and firm in the Lord!
I’m so excited to announce the recent formation of the Moody Theological Seminary Center for Advanced Global Leadership Studies here at Moody Bible Institute! If you’re a leader or aspiring to be one, our new center offers advanced seminars, thought-provoking lectures, mentoring, leadership assessment tools, and much more. I believe that now more than ever we need biblically trained leaders who seek to lead others in their areas of influence with boldness and integrity. Maybe that’s you! Learn more at Center for Advanced Global Leadership Studies
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