Can you imagine fighting an enemy without confidence that they could defeat you? This question poses an idea that is hard for many to comprehend as many people today struggle with having confidence themselves. But God never intended for us to live in defeat!
Over the last few weeks, our church has been studying the Book of Nehemiah and the leadership principles exemplified in Nehemiah’s life. One of the things that led to Nehemiah’s victory and success in rebuilding the wall in 52 days is that he understood how to destroy his enemy’s confidence. And he did this by doing three things that apply to our lives today.
1. REMOVE THE RUBBLE
Nehemiah knew the first step to rebuilding the wall was to remove the rubble. Imagine remodeling a home without removing the rubble of yesterday's failure.
In Hebrews 12, Paul talked about "laying aside" the things that easily beset us. This means we may need to block, unfollow, mute, or forgive some people to remove the rubble causing us to stumble.
2. WATCH AND WORK
Nehemiah 4:22 says, “At that time I also said to the people, ‘Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.’”
We have to watch as we work. We can not be ignorant of the times and the seasons and must operate with discernment.
While working to build our marriage, kids’ lives, and businesses, we have to watch for what the enemy is trying to bring into our lives that will ultimately destroy our lives if we’re not careful.
1 John 4 tells us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. Not everyone we meet is someone we need to be connected with. And not every opportunity presented to us is a God opportunity. We have to “watch” and discern before we decide to yoke together with someone or something.
3. WIN YOUR WAR
Nehemiah 6 records that Nehemiah’s enemy, Sanballat, sends a message requesting they meet. He sends this message four times. And each time, Nehemiah’s response was the same, “I am carrying on a great project and I cannot go down.”
The enemy will bring repetitive attacks in our lives in an attempt to bring us down. And one of the reasons that the enemy often has confidence against our life is that we quit too easily. The first time we face difficulty, we quit and set ourselves up for defeat that was never meant to be defeat but a victory if we had just kept doing what God had told us to do.
When we choose not to quit, the enemy will lose confidence because he knows nothing will stop us from winning our war!
REMOVE THE RUBBLE.
WATCH AND WORK.
WIN YOUR WAR.
DESTROY THE ENEMY’S CONFIDENCE!
I invite you to view Pastor Eric's message, Destroy Your Enemy’s Confidence, from Week 5 of The Book of Nehemiah series HERE.
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