Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 179 - Nehemiah, God's Builder - Part 1 (Nehemiah 1:3-4 NKJV) And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire." {4} So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah built first in the spiritual - then in the natural. Nehemiah prayed and fasted and mourned for many days. Nehemiah was broken and burdened before the Lord before the project even began. The project was formed deep down in the soul of Nehemiah and in hours of agonizing prayer before God, then it eventually came forth into the light of day. We should move heaven first, then the God of Heaven will move earth - and kings and governors on our behalf. If the project had just been a passing enthusiasm, a good idea, or a spiritual notion then Nehemiah would not have possessed the internal strength and conviction needed to press through amidst opposition. Many Christians launch out on a project in a "fit of inspiration" convinced that they have the latest, greatest idea for world salvation - or something close to it. But such notions often have shallow roots, they are not deeply burned into the soul. There is no mourning over the city. No travail like that of John Knox the Scottish reformer who cried "Give me Scotland or I die!'. Minor projects can be safely proceeded on simply because there is a good opportunity or an idea worth testing out - but the big projects, they must be formed in the soul first. You have to "march around Jericho" and "weep for Jerusalem" or do your forty days in the wilderness facing the Devil. The soul has to be ground into shape, annealed with fire, tested and strengthened and formed and made resolute to the task. When a project seems stuck or stalled it may be good to see if your heart is fully in it. Do you need to go and fast and pray and mourn and get the spiritual burden for it? The world cannot resist the fully focused man or woman of faith. To them, nothing is impossible. But we are often far from fully focussed, determined, burdened, and resolute. Often we just want the thing to happen with a wishfulness, a hopefulness, that is unformed and unshaped. King Joash was like many of us, unconscious and unheeding of the need for spiritual preparation. As Elisha the prophet lay dying he instructed the king thus: (2 Kings 13:17-19 NKJV) And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." {18} Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. {19} And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times." Elisha wanted the king to do the spiritual preparation for the earthly victory but Joash didn't get it, and was half-hearted in his response. As a result of the lack of spiritual preparation there would only be three military victories! Thus all the polishing of shields and provisioning of armies would be useless, because the spiritual preparation for the military victory was incomplete. That seems strange to us, that all the human effort is contingent on hitting a few arrows on the ground! But it is so, the spiritual and heavenly must be worked out, then the rest can follow. The armies still have to march and to fight, but the ground has been prepared, the result is known in advance. Many of the prophets prayed and acted out parables and stories, lay on their sides, fasted, built model siege mounds and did strange prophetic actions. All of this was working on the heavenly realms, preparing for things to come to pass later on. If we are to build as God wants us to build we must build first in the spiritual realm. We must pray over our lives and our projects until we see it with God's eyes and until we have not just a "good idea" or a "grand notion" but a heart-felt, spirit-breaking burden. If you are a creative person one of Satan's devices will be to fill your head with good ideas and fantastic notions until it spins in circles and you can hardly sort out which direction the Lord wants you to move in. When that happens, stop, pray, be still and forget all the ideas that are simply "intellectually compelling" or "Interesting" or "good" or even those that seem like "urgent needs". Listen for the thing that enrages you, that drives you, that you simply explode over. Listen to what your heart mourns over and your spirit breaks over. Wait until that emerges and then let it ferment, let it come to the surface, then let it refine itself within you, then your true task will emerge. This can sometimes take a year or more. Sorry to tell you that! Nehemiah was so moved by his burden for Jerusalem that he could not hide it and it became obvious to the King. Written all over Nehemiah's being, all over this big strong man and government official, was emotion, and "sorrow of heart" (Nehemiah 2:2). The burden was so great that it reduced a powerful man of action to tears. We need burdens in our spirit that move us and shake us - and become written into every fiber of our beings. Let me quickly add that I am not advocating a spirituality of raw emotion and wild roller-coaster rides of spiritual adrenalin. Emotional instability is not a sign of spiritual maturity. Nehemiah was emotionally stable, strong and gritty. He was a man who could live under pressure. But he was not a cold man, he was moved for Jerusalem and groaned in his spirit. His emotions were the grand emotions of the Holy Spirit - not the neurotic clamorousness of the self-centered and the immature. True spiritual burdens drive people to act, here are just a couple of examples in the life of Jesus: (Matthew 14:14 NKJV) And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. (Mark 1:41 NKJV) Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." The Holy Spirit in Jesus saw the facts of the situation, created the spiritual burden in Jesus, then proceeded to action. Similarly when the news of the desolation of Jerusalem reached Nehemiah the spirit in him reacted to the facts of the situation, and created the spiritual burden, and then moved to Nehemiah to concrete action. Lets pull these diverse thoughts together. Wisdom and sound judgment takes account of the spiritual factors as well as the material and logical factors and knows the place of proper spiritual preparation, before, during and even after a major work of God. If the work is not prayed through and worked out, it will be without a deep root in the spiritual world. The project will be easily best by discouragements and difficulties and lack the spiritual forcefulness to press through. Spiritual forcefulness is developed by the Holy Spirit in the faith-filled, focussed and concentrated mind that is resolutely set on the work of God. Some projects may even need prophetic preparation. They may depend on people deeply receiving and acting on words of God in the spiritual realm - such as King Joash and his arrows. There is a strange correspondence between actions in heaven and actions on earth and even in the NT we find statements such as : (Matthew 18:18-19 NKJV) "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. {19} "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. Churches should be planted with prayer and spiritual travail. Crusades should be launched by people truly care for the souls in the city and have prayed themselves into a holy zeal for the gospel. Bible colleges should be set-up by people who see a great need for training and care about the state of the Church and every brick should be bathed in prayer. . Like Nehemiah, we should build first in the spiritual, then in the natural. We need to lay aside the sort of half-hearted spirituality that never groans or mourns and instead be people who can be strong in spirit, filled with prayer and "burdened for the city". Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph