Staying Put

Today, while being home from church with a massive head cold and low grade fever my daughter sent me a link to her church service that was live streamed. I promised i would watch it and listen to see if there was a word in it for me. Little did i know that i would be hit right between the eyes with a "Thus Saith The Lord!" Sometimes the Lord has us right where we need to be in order to hear from Him.

Several years ago in a ladies prayer group I shared a devotional regarding the strategic place upon the wall where God has placed each of us in His kingdom and where we must hold the fort at all costs. The enemy's goal is to come in and make fun of us, try to distract and discourage us, but all costs, hold the position. I even had the ladies illustrate it one morning in a regular church service when talking about prayer. I had the ladies who attended prayer group line the outside walls of the church to show the congregation how they were being surrounded in specific prayer each of them, each week. It would not be foreign for the ladies to walk around the sanctuary where we met and pray over those individuals as we recalled who sits where. As we all know people are creatures of habit and we find an area where we are the most comfortable and we tend to gravitate there each week. Heaven forbid if someone sits in our pew. Am I just kidding here or what! Then it happened to me. Discouragement and distraction hit and hit hard.

"Discouragement and distraction hit and hit hard."

I felt like i was being shot down at from higher ground, and shot up at from those on the ground below me, only the face of the enemy looked like well meaning people whom i loved and trusted. You see the enemy most often doesn't use people you don't know well to try to defeat you. He will use those whom you trust the most. He will attack you where you are vulnerable. He will attack you from behind and if given ground will attack you to your face. He is a sly enemy, i can image he knows humanity well enough to know human behavior and as humans we react generally in the same way like a human would. I can also image the enemy studies his opponents to see where they are most vulnerable and if those weaknesses are not being protected then BAM! Bulls eye! Target is hit every time. Sometimes it is just a wound, others times it can be fatal. We must be watchmen on the wall for those to our left and to those on our right. We can't loose sight why we have been placed on the wall where our strengths can shine and our weaknesses shored up.

"BAM! Bulls eye! Target is hit every time."

For me it looked like this. I didn't take my marbles and go home, no i stayed on the wall licking my wounds, wondering why no one stood up for me. Why didn't someone come to the rescue. I must have mistakenly taken off the helmet of salvation, maybe because i was tired from building. The enemy wanted me to feel forsaken, leaving me shaking at words, insults,and presumptions. He didn't want me praying and interceding for others situations. He didn't want me to lead a group of ladies into spiritual battle. He wanted me rendered useless. And for a while it worked. Until, that message, the familiar one out of the book of Nehemiah, the one i truly believed was a word from the Lord for us as we pray, as we build, as we work for the Lord with all our might and not unto men.

Nehemiah chapter 4 opens with ridicule and insults being hurled at the Jews for rebuilding the wall of the city of Jerusalem. Vs 2 "Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble - burned as they are?" Vs 3 "What they are building - if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones." The enemy wants us to listen to the ridicule and insults. We must wear mufflers on our ears and as it says in Matthew 11:15; 13:9; 13:43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8; 14:35; "He who has ears to hear let him hear" and again referenced in Revelation in the messages to the churches - "He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" not what the enemy has to say. How confused we can become when listening to the wrong voice. Trust me my flesh wanted to pray verses 4 & 5 (you'll have to look it up yourself) but every time all i could pray was, "Lord, please be merciful for their unwittingly involvement." In this chapter insults and anger came in waves (vs 1-3; 7-12), but the Children of Israel had one mind, one heart, they worked in unison together (vs 6) and when one side of the wall was being attacked someone would sound a trumpet and others would come to join them there . Nehemiah exclaimed, "Our God will fight for us!" (vs 19-20).

"Our God will fight for us."

There is so much significance in this chapter that you just need to read it for yourself and see what the Lord speaks to you about it.

As for me, today, in this hour, I'm going to join those who are rallying to rebuild the wall, and I'm not coming down. I'm not going to work at 40%, I'm going to work with all my might, and when i see others attacked, I'm going running to their rescue. In prayer i'm going to continue to do as vs 14 says, I'm not going to be afraid of those with evil reports. I'm going to remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight on my knees for my brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. Vs 15 tells us that when the enemies heard that the Children of Israel were aware of the enemies plot, and that God had frustrated it, they ALL returned to the wall, each to his own work.

It's time for me to pick up the sword of the Spirit, to dust of the weariness from battle, to put back on the full armor (Ephesians 6) that has been fashioned with me in mind. It's not ill fitting, it fits me perfectly, just my size!

We can't protect the wall alone, it takes all of us doing our part, but the place where I've been placed you can bet, I'll be a fierce contender.