Sermon

Praying like Nehemiah - Nehemiah 4

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned in to a mega church.

  2. We are people hungry to encounter God through worship

  3. and His. Hallelujah, that's good.

  4. I don't need to ask a second time, so that's really good.

  5. How many of you have come having read Nehemiah Chapter 4 1234?

    Nehemiah 4 chapter mention

  6. So 4 chocolates give some somebody give chocolates to

  7. those who have come. You know, why do we encourage

  8. it? Why should you read and come?

  9. Because that will help you to understand the passage better.

  10. When I talk about it because you read and come, it really helps.

  11. This is the culture we want to develop.

  12. For few weeks I did not do it, but I apologize for that.

  13. Every week we would like to do that again because there are no

  14. surprises. If we finish Chapter 4, next

  15. week we will do Chapter 5. It is very simple like that.

  16. So we said one thing in the past message that the story of

  17. Jerusalem being rebuilt by during the time is symbolic of

  18. every family, Christian family, and symbolic of every local

  19. church. The rebuilding of the temple at

  20. the walls of Jerusalem is symbolic of every Christian home

  21. and every local church. Keep this in mind, write it in

  22. your mind. That's the way to look at it.

  23. And when you look at it, then we have something to talk about.

  24. So when the work is going on, so basically the enemies, enemies

  25. of Judah were really alarmed when the work is going on very

  26. fast. So you got, you got imagine in

  27. your mind, let's say you got Judah and then you got Sun

  28. Balat, he who is basically coming from the Northside from

  29. some area. And then you got another guy

  30. that is the Tobiah, the Ammonite is coming from the east side and

  31. you got Geshem the Arab from the South.

  32. So you got so many directions, the enemies are coming and

  33. you've got astronaut on the on the West and that is the

  34. Philippine, Philippines, not Philippines.

  35. Philistines, sorry, is going so too far.

  36. I said why am I using the Philippines?

  37. So it is the Philistines as that was a very popular and very

  38. populous at the same time, powerful center of the

  39. Philistines, which is the Palestine today, of course.

  40. So you got the Gaza on the South, southwest.

  41. So you got enemies coming from 5 directions, 5 directions.

  42. And has the situation changed today?

  43. No, we got enemies attacking Israel in seven directions.

  44. Now you got from Syria, you got Iran, you got Iraq, you got

  45. Hamas, you got the Gaza Strip and West Bank and the South side

  46. from every direction, you got the Israel being attacked.

  47. And is my voice clear? OK, good.

  48. So the when? When the work of God is

  49. happening, when the church, when the Church of God is being

  50. rebuilt, you will feel the heat of the enemy, you will feel the

  51. hatred of the Satan and he doesn't like the church to be

  52. rebuilt. Its the same thing that

  53. happening for when the walls were being rebuilt.

  54. Sun ballots shows up and what does he do?

  55. He became angry and was greatly incensed.

  56. You know the 2 words there, just one word would have been enough,

  57. isn't it? Why does the Nehemiah use 2

  58. words? Because he was greatly angry.

  59. Sorry, was angry and greatly incensed.

  60. So much of stirring up is happening inside emotionally.

  61. He stirred up and he is being aroused to attack, come and

  62. insult and bring down these people.

  63. So it's greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews.

  64. Everybody use the word ridicule. What is ridicule?

  65. You put down somebody, you, you just try to say, hey, sometimes

  66. you, you see kids also, they use this ridiculing, they'll catch

  67. over one boy and say you are a girl.

  68. That's how it happens in the school.

  69. And if it goes deep into the spirit, that boy will be

  70. affected. So you can be 1 can be ridiculed

  71. and that can change the person completely.

  72. Ridicule is very, very powerful. Ridicule very powerful.

  73. So we should not allow the enemy to ridiculous.

  74. He can put you down, he can say things to you to discourage you,

  75. to make you lose hope and to make you feel weak when you are

  76. actually strong. So that is the part the enemy

  77. plays. So Sun Ballad came and he

  78. ridiculed the Jews in the presence of his associates and

  79. the army of Samaria. Now he came with the army.

  80. Now this is very important for you to understand.

  81. Unless you stop and think, the Scripture does not speak to you.

  82. Now here you have Sun Ballot and you got Nehemiah and the people

  83. working hard, and now this guy comes to Jerusalem with the army

  84. of Samaria. What is he trying to do with the

  85. army of Samaria? Think of a gang and think of a

  86. rival gang. Why would a rival gang walk into

  87. another gang with all their members, with their swords and

  88. whatever they have equipment? What, what, what are they trying

  89. to do? They are challenging them to

  90. fight. The challenge of challenging

  91. them to fight. That is the strategy of Sun

  92. Ballot he. They don't want to fight.

  93. They are busy building the walls of Jerusalem and they are

  94. building. We want to set up the gates of

  95. the Jerusalem. That's what they are focusing

  96. on. And now they are coming with the

  97. army comes and stands surrounding and this guy

  98. standing and speaking to the people, ridiculing them.

  99. They thought they can start up Nehemiah and his people to begin

  100. to fight, and they can take an upper hand and fight them again.

  101. But you look at the wisdom of Nehemiah here.

  102. Then what? What else He did?

  103. What He used ridiculing. How did he ridicule?

  104. What are these feeble Jews doing?

  105. First he is telling them they are very few in number and they

  106. are weak, feeble Jews. You are so weak, what are you

  107. going to do? That's a challenge.

  108. And then what does he say? Will they restore their wall?

  109. Will they offer sacrifices? I tell you, these are the

  110. ridicule words of ridiculing. When you look at it, it just

  111. shatters our own understanding. What is he trying to say is you

  112. guys, are you going to offer sacrifices?

  113. Are you going to pray successfully?

  114. Now we are praying for 21 days. This can be words of some of

  115. some of you may be hearing the state and say, ah, you're going

  116. every day, 9 kilometers, you're driving 15 kilometers, you're

  117. driving to go to the prayer meeting.

  118. What is going to happen there? What do you expect is going to

  119. happen? Nothing is going to happen.

  120. You can hear the words of enemy taunting or saying to you, why

  121. do you do what you are doing? But there's power in prayer.

  122. There's power in prayer. You, you cannot win the

  123. spiritual warfare with the physical force.

  124. It can be done only with the spiritual force which comes by

  125. prayer. There is no alternative, my

  126. friends. There is no another tool by

  127. which you can beat the enemy. So he is asking, can you build

  128. the walls? Can you offer sacrifices?

  129. Will they finish in a day? Now this is nearly nearly when

  130. you see little further, you see the half of the wall is rebuilt.

  131. They took 52 days to build the rebuild the walls.

  132. They are working six days in a week, so roughly six days or 48.

  133. So it is about 8 weeks and half. So it is right now half the

  134. string, the walls have now come up to half the height means it

  135. must be now 26 days or 24 days has already happened.

  136. And they are saying can you build in a day?

  137. What have you done in 20-4 days? So this is how the enemy

  138. attacks, this is how enemy ridicules, this is how enemy

  139. wants to hit at your strength and make you feel weak.

  140. And then what does he say again? Will they finish in a day?

  141. Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of

  142. rubble burned as they are now? They were, they were burnt, the

  143. stones were burnt, they were thrown down.

  144. But they are not totally. Every stone is not become

  145. useless. There are large kind of, I mean

  146. huge quantity of stones which can be reused.

  147. So that's what Neymar did. He did not go and get the stones

  148. for every single stone has to be replaced.

  149. He didn't. He didn't do that.

  150. But he is ridiculing him and saying you think this burned

  151. stones can be reused. Can you rebuild the wall in a

  152. day? You think you got strong?

  153. No, you cannot do any of these things.

  154. That's the many times in your spiritual life you may be

  155. feeling tired, you may be feeling defeated, particularly

  156. besetting sins since that are coming again and again again and

  157. make you fall in the same area. Sometimes I always wonder about

  158. the way the devil comes to people and make them do the same

  159. sin. 1000 times you have been defeated in the same area and

  160. 1001 time and you know where it is going to happen and after a

  161. day you look back and say oh, 1001 time I have fallen again.

  162. Why? Because that is how enemy wants

  163. to keep you down, defeating you in the pet sins.

  164. Small sins, they are not big sins.

  165. We don't even murder somebody, we don't even loot the shop or

  166. take a gun. And none of those things we do

  167. little, little sins that defile your conscience, that defile and

  168. make you feel guilty so that you will not be effective in the

  169. Kingdom of God. It is little sins.

  170. So that is how he comes against you.

  171. So he is saying can you reuse his rubble?

  172. The stones are burnt, are you going to reuse them again?

  173. Yeah, we can reuse them again. But this is how Sun Ballot had

  174. said it. And then Toby the Ammonite who

  175. was at his side said what they are building, if even a fox

  176. climbed upon it, he would break down their wall of stones.

  177. This is ridiculing again. Well putting them down saying

  178. what are you doing guys? Even if a fox jumps on the wall

  179. it is going to bring down the wall.

  180. How heavy is a fox? I'm sure it is lighter than a

  181. sheep. I never seen a robust muscular

  182. fox anytime the emotional time. They are very skinny and you

  183. know very tiny. The only power they have is in

  184. their teeth. And so even if a little fox

  185. climbs on the wall, it is going to bring down the wall.

  186. And that is just ridiculing. So you got Sun Ballot.

  187. And beside him standing Tobiah, who is an Ammonite.

  188. And interestingly, Tobiah is a Hebrew name, but then it is

  189. owned by Ammonite. He is not a Jewish man, and he

  190. is ridiculing. The people say, hey, even if fox

  191. jumps on, it's going to come down.

  192. What are you doing? You're wasting your time.

  193. And then what happened? Nehemiah replied.

  194. You look at the response of Nehemiah from verses four and

  195. five here as our God, our Lord, oh our God, for we are despised.

  196. Turn their incest back on their own heads.

  197. Give them over a splendor in a land of captivity.

  198. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your

  199. sight. But they have thrown insults in

  200. the face of the builders. Can we pray like that?

  201. Can we pray like Neymar prayed? Can we say bring down them in

  202. their own traps, Whatever trap they said, let them fall in the

  203. same trap. Oh, take them captive.

  204. Let them be carried away to another country, into captivity.

  205. Can we pray like that? Basically, as Christians, the

  206. way we do things is different. Now this is the Old Testament

  207. you see that teeth for tooth for tooth, I for I that kind of a

  208. justice they had. The system of justice was

  209. different, but now we had to forgive our enemies and love

  210. them. So the point I am trying to make

  211. here is Nehemiah right in praying a prayer like that

  212. accord to his culture, accord to his understanding of the word,

  213. He is right. He is not doing anything wrong

  214. because they knew that they were a nation that is called by God.

  215. There is a special calling of Israel and a special king to

  216. rule over them. But now because they are opposed

  217. to God, it's not about they are opposed to Jewish people.

  218. They are opposed to God. They are opposing the work of

  219. God. When you oppose the work of God,

  220. that is a time you can pray a prayer like this.

  221. But mostly you only see Sun, Bala, Tobiah, the Ghesham, the

  222. Arab, and all these kind of people, people Asdad and other

  223. people. They are only the people you see

  224. outside, but inside is the devil who is turning, stirring them up

  225. to do those things. So right now when we pray the

  226. spiritual warfare prayer, you can pray the same kind of a

  227. prayer. You can pray the same kind of a

  228. prayer because that is going to knock them down in the power of

  229. the Holy Ghost. We can pray such prayers and

  230. that is why we we are trying to say yesterday we talked in the

  231. prayer meeting about taking position of the gates of your

  232. enemy. That is, you take position of

  233. the center of power from where they rule you take it over.

  234. That means you make them, you subdue them, you defeat them,

  235. you make them to serve you, and that is how we do the spiritual

  236. warfare. So Nehemiah, he has prayed like

  237. this. First he says is they are

  238. despising us. Turn their insects back on their

  239. own head. Give them over a splendor in the

  240. land of Cap Rooty. Do not cover up their guilt

  241. blotter, nor all brought out their sins from your sight.

  242. But they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.

  243. They are trying to discourage the builders.

  244. They are trying to make them feel weak and feeble.

  245. So don't forget them. But you take up the cause and

  246. you fight them. I think there's a place for

  247. prayer like that. You will pray like that with

  248. passion when you feel the project is yours.

  249. If it is, if you think the battle is somewhere else is

  250. happening, somewhere in somewhere in Israel, somewhere

  251. in Iran, Iran, Iraq, somewhere it is happening, you are not

  252. involved in it. But when the battle is yours,

  253. you feel it personally, that's the time you will begin to pray

  254. like Neo Mad did whole This is the whole game changer is why

  255. our prayers are not effective, why there is no passion in our

  256. prayers Because you think that's not your problem.

  257. Whatever you are praying about, you think that is not your

  258. problem. And you just want to pray

  259. because somebody says, let's pray now for this, this, this,

  260. let's pray for revival. That's not your passion.

  261. Let's pray for healing. Oh, I am healthy, somebody sick,

  262. I don't care. Well, he says, let us pray for

  263. healing. So let's pray for healing.

  264. But you know, are we passionate for the glory of God?

  265. Are we passionate that if somebody healed, God's name is

  266. glorified, then the desire comes, God, I want the blind

  267. eyes to be opened. I want the deaf eyes to be

  268. opened. I want the dumb to speak, lame

  269. to walk, dead to be raised. That passion comes from inside.

  270. When that problem becomes your personal problem, until you are

  271. involved, the prayer is there is no passion in the prayer.

  272. There is no fire in the prayer. So that's the reason why many

  273. Christians are very lukewarm. So we rebuild the wall till all

  274. of it reached half its height. For the people worked with all

  275. their heart, say they worked with all their heart.

  276. That's the secret. That is the secret for revival.

  277. Secret for revival is working with all your heart.

  278. So many times our heart, we keep it at home.

  279. When we come to prayer meeting, that prayer meeting will be the

  280. most cold prayer meeting. It will be most unconnected

  281. prayer meeting. You are not involved in it.

  282. So many times I say let's pray in tongues.

  283. I say 10 minutes and after 4 minutes is just dying down.

  284. When I say 10 minutes, why are you keeping quiet after 4

  285. minutes? Because a heart has to be there.

  286. I'm not condemning anybody. I'm just stirring up, stirring

  287. up the passion inside so that you will next time.

  288. I say let's pray in times for 10 minutes.

  289. You are going to pray until 11 minutes.

  290. I had to say no, let's stop now. That is passion going before.

  291. And if it is stopping after 4 minutes, then that means there's

  292. no passion there. Your heart is not in the issue.

  293. So that's the thing they prayed, they they rebuilt it because

  294. they worked with all their heart.

  295. This is the secret. This is the secret of revival is

  296. when people pray with passion. When people pray with passion,

  297. revival come. Otherwise what happens is we are

  298. just prayed one of those prayers like thank you God for the

  299. breakfast, Thank you God for the lunch.

  300. You know there's no passion there and sometimes you look at

  301. the color of the food on the table.

  302. Its the smell is enticing and then you say, oh thank you God

  303. for the wonderful meal that's waiting.

  304. Why, why that the why those words come because now you are

  305. something is stirring you up by looking at the food and spelling

  306. the food the same thing. There has to be passion in

  307. prayer. So.

  308. But when Sunbala, Tobiah, the Arabs, Ammonites, the men of

  309. Asad heard that the repairs to Jerusalem was had gone ahead and

  310. that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.

  311. See this word very angry comes up again and again.

  312. Very angry comes up again and again.

  313. But you you, you see that the word angry used for Nehemiah

  314. only once in the whole book. He became angry when he saw

  315. people commit sin, when he saw people getting married, mixed

  316. marriages, he saw people doing business on Sabbath day.

  317. He when the people are breaking the law, he was angry.

  318. And these people are very angry because they are doing a good

  319. thing. And Neymar was angry because

  320. they were doing a bad thing. So we should know when to feel

  321. angry at the right Causeway. You should feel angry, not the

  322. wrong Causeway. So now again, in summarizing,

  323. when Sun ballot, Tobiah Arabs, the Ammonite men of Asad heard

  324. that the repairs of Jerusalem walls had gone ahead.

  325. And this place, Asad, where it is, it is from Jerusalem.

  326. You look on the West, you have got the seaport Asador.

  327. It is about 62 kilometers and it is one of the main seaports of

  328. Israel. Today 60% of all imports happen

  329. in the port of Astor. But those days it was under the

  330. Philistines power, not under Israel.

  331. Now it is in in Israel. So when they saw when the gaps

  332. are being filled up, walls have risen up, they were very angry.

  333. So now what they are doing is they are going one step ahead of

  334. their enmity. What is the one step that is

  335. they are going ahead? Is they all plotted together to

  336. come up and fight against Jerusalem and start up trouble

  337. against it. They all plotted together.

  338. The Gray, the Hebrew word used is that they are bound together.

  339. Like you take some glue, take an Arab, you take Tobiah and put

  340. some glue between them, they become one.

  341. So all these people have become one.

  342. They have glued together with one purpose, to fight against

  343. Israel. In Christian circles, among

  344. Christians there is no unity. Believers are divided on

  345. doctrine, but the enemies are united.

  346. Enemies have unity because they have one common purpose, to

  347. fight against the church. So they all plotted together to

  348. come and fight against Jerusalem, a stir up trouble

  349. against it. What is the strategy of Nehemiah

  350. is again, but we pray to our God.

  351. We pray to our God. That should be our response.

  352. Whatever happens in your life, the first response should be

  353. pray. You have to pray to our God.

  354. And secondly, and posted a God day and night to meet this

  355. threat. They posted God.

  356. We will see more in detail how he did it.

  357. So now prayer and action go together.

  358. Many of us are divided in our minds.

  359. Sometimes we think if you pray, we don't need to do anything

  360. about it. That may not work.

  361. That may not work so many times in the in the people generally,

  362. you know, we, we come across in the Christian circles, one

  363. cliche word is God told me this. When God has said something,

  364. that's the end of discussion. I will not question it.

  365. I don't want to have an argument with the person who says God has

  366. said it to me. But you look at the life.

  367. Has God said it? Does the rest of the life prove

  368. that the words they are claiming are from God?

  369. There has to be a cohesion. There has to be a harmony

  370. between the words and the life. If there is no harmony between

  371. profession and the life, we know God has not spoken in some

  372. cases. In some cases like God can say

  373. something and may take long time to fulfill.

  374. It may be 15 years, 20 years. In that case, the people are

  375. observing will say I don't think God has spoken, but may be God

  376. really spoke. It takes time to fulfill it.

  377. There are only two scenarios, but it is up to the individual

  378. person who says God has spoken to me to decide whether it is

  379. really God or he thinks God has spoken.

  380. He or she thinks it's God has spoken.

  381. Because this is one of the things that I have time and I

  382. can come. It's a sensitive matter.

  383. It's very sensitive. I cannot just speak and say

  384. something and say hurt somebody. No, that's not my point here.

  385. I want to encourage people to hear genuinely from God.

  386. And when it is God who speaks, he will stand up for you and he

  387. will fulfill the word for you, but it doesn't mean you cannot

  388. do anything about it. So here they prayed and they

  389. also took action. And today in the Christian

  390. circles, the the IT is you have prayed, you are very, very

  391. spiritual and you speak about it.

  392. That is it, no action. And that is not the right way to

  393. lead a Christian life. That is all I understand.

  394. Next thing is meanwhile the people in Judah said the

  395. strength of laborers is giving out and there is so much rubble

  396. that we cannot rebuild the wall. So this is one of the things

  397. that to discourage people you have attack from outside, words

  398. of ridicule from outside, undermining their faith,

  399. undermining their commitment, undermining their purpose.

  400. And the second is internally the come it comes, oh, I'm working

  401. now for since 4 weeks, but I still see everywhere rubble, big

  402. stones. I see such a valley here.

  403. I see there's such an open space here.

  404. What have I done in this four weeks?

  405. Nothing. So look at the, they look at the

  406. work in the Judah. They were saying strength of the

  407. laborers is giving out. And there's so much rubble that

  408. we cannot rebuild the wall. So the work looks too big.

  409. The challenge becomes too big. But you know what?

  410. This is where we need to be very careful.

  411. We should this Goliath versus David, a David versus Goliath.

  412. This situation comes in every Christian's life.

  413. It's not just David had a Goliath to fight once for all

  414. over. No, every Christian will have a

  415. Goliath in his life. The problem will look too big.

  416. How am I going to fight this big problem?

  417. How am I going to defeat the enemy?

  418. How am I going to overcome the financial trouble?

  419. How am I going to bring harmony in the family?

  420. It looks too big. It looks too big.

  421. But I tell you what, Jesus gave us the answer.

  422. Speak to the mountain. What did he say?

  423. He did not say go get your crowbar, get your machine and

  424. start digging. He didn't say that, He said

  425. speak to the mountain. The first response should be

  426. prayer of faith and commanding the big problem to become

  427. smaller one or to nonexistent problem.

  428. So here before they knew that is what the problem was.

  429. So that was discouraging the people.

  430. When you make the problem big, it will demotivate you, it will

  431. discourage you. This is very simple, is not a

  432. very difficult thing to understand.

  433. When we say make our problem too big, it's too big, it's too big,

  434. I can't do it, it's too big. You are defeating yourself by

  435. those words before you even attempt.

  436. You are defeated in your position and you cannot win with

  437. that kind of attitude. That's the reason why we need to

  438. be very careful about when we talk about problems.

  439. Don't magnify the problems because the God that is on our

  440. side is bigger than the problem. Cool.

  441. What is Lebanon worse? This is psychological warfare.

  442. Everybody says psychological warfare.

  443. What is psychological warfare? Also enemy said before they know

  444. it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill

  445. them and put an end to the work. This is sending fear.

  446. Ah, you guys are thinking you are rebuilding the walls.

  447. No, no, no, no, Before even you know, ah, there is somebody

  448. here. You turn before that, before

  449. even turn your head, the sword is going to come and push, push

  450. you down. He is going to Pierce you.

  451. We are going to kill you. This is enemy's tactic.

  452. Now the psychological warfare. Psychological warfare goes one

  453. step ahead in the next verse. Then the Jews who lived near

  454. them came and told us 10 times over wherever you turn, wherever

  455. you turn, whether you wherever you turn, they will attack us.

  456. How many times they told 10 * / I tell you this is a Hebrew we

  457. are saying many times. You know Jesus talked about

  458. forgiving somebody 7 times or 7070 * 7.

  459. He said four. That is just numberless number

  460. of numberless way of times. So that is a Hebrew expression

  461. to say that the enemies for coming and telling again and

  462. again and again, we are going to kill you, we are going to finish

  463. you, we are going to kill you, we are going to finish you.

  464. And this is one of those things that make people lose hope.

  465. So many times we pray for deliverance for some people you

  466. are standing in front of them in the name of Jesus be lose, be

  467. set free. And you are shouting for 30

  468. minutes. And then the man says, I can

  469. hear a voice in my head saying, you are not going to be set

  470. free, huh. You heard a voice.

  471. How dare he speak that word? I have the power to push that

  472. spirit out of your body now, to trample it down.

  473. I'll kick out that spirit right now.

  474. So that is how we get charged. And I tell you, the man who is

  475. receiving prayer should be able to say, I don't care what the

  476. spirit is saying. I want to be free.

  477. This is how you approach the problem.

  478. But do you? When you agree with the problem,

  479. you are empowering the problem. No, we are not here to accept

  480. defeat before even you fight. No.

  481. So 10 times over they were told. Yeah, weird.

  482. Wherever you turn, they will attack us.

  483. Now Neymars action comes in worse 13 onwards 13 and 14.

  484. Therefore a station, some of the people behind the lowest points

  485. of the wall at exposed places, posting them by families with

  486. their swords, Spears and bows. Now you see two things he's

  487. doing 1. He has identified the lowest

  488. points. OK, that's about 2.4 kilometers

  489. is a perimeter or the circumference of the walls of

  490. Jerusalem. So what is he trying to do?

  491. He surveyed the whole city. Here we have low exposed places.

  492. There is an exposed place. There is an exposed place here.

  493. And some of the times enemy attacks in the weakest link.

  494. That is his strategy. He has always won.

  495. What is the weakest link in a family?

  496. What is the weakest link in a family?

  497. Whoever is not connected to God is the weakest point.

  498. Whoever is not a believer is the weakest point.

  499. Sometimes it can be children. So if he, if both husband and

  500. wife are praying, praying, praying, and they're very strong

  501. and he suddenly put fever on the child to discourage you, to

  502. distract you, to make you ineffective.

  503. So weakest link, that's what he does.

  504. So he looked at the weak points and stationed people by

  505. families. Now that's a bold statement and

  506. a bold approach for Nehemiah to do.

  507. Why would you put a family when he says families?

  508. What is he trying to do? It is a man and a wife and

  509. children and a man has a brother and his family and they have a

  510. sister and a family. They are all one family.

  511. So he put that family there and said, now you take care of this

  512. area, this weak area, you take care of it.

  513. You protect it, you fight it, and they will fight.

  514. Why? For the sake of their wives, for

  515. the sake of this children, for the sake of their daughters and

  516. sons, they are going to fight. That's the strategy of Nehemiah.

  517. He did not say, oh, we need very big weapons.

  518. We need some automated weapons to throw stones and descend.

  519. He didn't do all that. He said, OK, do you have a

  520. spear? Use it.

  521. Do you have sword? Use it.

  522. You got a bow? Use it.

  523. He equipped them, he supplied them with weapons and said, now

  524. this is your job. You will protect this weak part.

  525. And I tell you, we need to learn the strategy.

  526. We have to learn the strategy all the time.

  527. Once in a while you have to, when you have your coffee and

  528. sit in your chair, ask the question, what is the weak point

  529. in my family? Who is the weak link in my

  530. family? And cover them with the blood of

  531. Christ. Put the blood of Christ upon the

  532. spiritual and body. Put the blood of Christ upon the

  533. spiritual and body. I tell you, any other strategy

  534. may fail, but this strategy will not fail.

  535. Put the blood of Christ. It does not require a PhD to say

  536. those things. You don't need to study for

  537. seven years or 10 years to come up with the statement.

  538. Put the blood of Jesus on the spiritual and body and that weak

  539. link will come strong. We have shared the secret with

  540. some people who are struggling with children having some kind

  541. of ADHD or something like that, autism and things like different

  542. people. We shared and now after two

  543. months after we came back from US, they are telling us what are

  544. they saying that is working? What is working?

  545. Put the blood of crash on the children.

  546. The children are changing situation in the dynamics in the

  547. family is changing. That strategy will not fail.

  548. Put the bread of Christ. So then what did they do?

  549. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles

  550. and officials and the rest of the people, don't be afraid of

  551. them. Remember the Lord for your

  552. brothers and your sons and your daughters, your wives and your

  553. homes. You fight.

  554. Remember your family and fight for them.

  555. But before that, what he said is remember the Lord.

  556. Everybody said remember the Lord.

  557. Why our prayer is not effective? Because the Lord, our God, you

  558. worship who, who saved you is very small.

  559. God is very, very small in your eyes.

  560. Your understanding of God is very, very small.

  561. That's reason why prayer is ineffective and you lose the

  562. battle. Remember the Lord, awesome God,

  563. terrible God, He is powerful souring, He is the creator of

  564. visible invisible realities. When you remember this God, the

  565. prayer, the punch in the prayer, when you think God is very

  566. small, He wasn't 6 foot, He needed only 6 foot place to bury

  567. him after he died. That prayer will not go

  568. anywhere. You need to think big about God.

  569. I was just sharing with somebody.

  570. Oh, I was thinking about God. And I said, I thank you, Lord

  571. Jesus, for you are the Lamb of God that is slain before the

  572. foundation of the world. And I said to the Lord God, the

  573. whole creation has come out of that blood because you shed that

  574. blood and then you created the world.

  575. And I shared it with a friend of mine and he said that's very

  576. awesome. Yes, it is awesome.

  577. But I had never known known it for 40 years.

  578. Only today I have realized it and said, Oh God, you are God

  579. who shed the powerful bread. The creation came out of that

  580. blood, salvation came out of that blood, and healing comes

  581. from that blood. Deliverance comes from that

  582. blood, blessing comes from that blood.

  583. I tell you, I have magnified the bread of Jesus, and I will not

  584. lose my battle against the enemy, because that bread has

  585. overcome the enemy. When our enemies heard that we

  586. were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we

  587. all returned to the wall, each to his own work.

  588. When you know that there's a battle against the enemy, when

  589. you know that the enemy is attacking you, that knowledge

  590. itself will make the battle small.

  591. It will have the battle because the enemy knows that you know

  592. him. You know his plan.

  593. He's defeated half already. One of the main problems of the

  594. church today is we do not know our enemy.

  595. We do not know who is Satan. If you know he has been defeated

  596. by Jesus, and if you know that you have authority over him,

  597. your life is going to change 360°.

  598. It will not be the same. It will not be the same.

  599. It will not be the same. You need to know who is devil

  600. and more than that, you need to know who is your God.

  601. When you know your God problem is already half solved.

  602. So from that day on half my when see this is you see the strategy

  603. of Nehemiah changing quickly. Now what did you do from was 16

  604. from that day on, half my men. I must finish it now.

  605. From the day on, half my men did the work while the other half

  606. were equip his spear, Shields, bows and armor.

  607. And then he says they did their work with one hand, held a

  608. weapon in the other hand. So these are the different

  609. strategies. Half people are working, half

  610. people are standing guard and next strategy was that they

  611. would work with one hand. They are working with one hand

  612. holding the weapon. That is another strategy, and

  613. those who are builders, they hung their sword by the side

  614. because they need both their hands to lift the stone.

  615. So they are working with the hand, but the sword is hanging

  616. by their side. Any second they know the enemy

  617. is nearby, comes out the sword. How many of us are even equipped

  618. with the sword? What is the sword for a

  619. Christian? The word of God?

  620. When the enemy puts a trouble into your life, what should pop

  621. up in your mind? The Word of God.

  622. When you stand on the Word of God, enemy will be defeated.

  623. I tell you, if you request 100 hours of praying just to get one

  624. word to solve your problem, it's worth those 100 hours of prayer.

  625. One word God speaks into your spirit is going to make you a

  626. David and a Goliath is going to come down.

  627. That's the reason why we believe that there's a Rhema word, a

  628. word that God speaks in season through His word, the Bible, and

  629. through His spirit. In your mind, in your spirit, He

  630. can speak. And we need that word because

  631. that word is going to change the game.

  632. That is a game changer. And then what did he do?

  633. He said in verse 16, it was 18. But the man who sounded the

  634. trumpet stayed with me. So he and each of the builders

  635. wore his sword is at his side as he worked.

  636. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

  637. Now this is very important when Nehemiah is the guy who is now

  638. trying to look out over 1.72 point, 4 kilometers of, I mean a

  639. perimeter of the wall. He may be standing here and some

  640. other place the enemy may come. So he needs to be in the He

  641. should be anticipating and be there.

  642. Wherever the problem is going to come, he should anticipate and

  643. be there. And then he wanted the man who

  644. blows his trumpet to be next to him.

  645. If the trumpet sounding man is not next to him and is somewhere

  646. else, can he sound a trumpet? He cannot.

  647. Secondly, sometimes they can sound a trumpet.

  648. False alarm, when the enemy not come and not attack, he thought

  649. some he may be seeing bushes move and he think there is a man

  650. been standing behind him with a sword and he blows the trumpet.

  651. False alarm. So leader must know to sound the

  652. alarm at the right time, not you false alarm.

  653. So he kept the man, the trumpet next to him all the time.

  654. And then what did he do? And he told them, wherever you

  655. hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.

  656. Our God will fight for us. Is he saying we are going to

  657. fight or not? They are going to fight, but who

  658. is fighting for them? God will fight for them.

  659. It is both is not just only God S many times we think we just

  660. pray. That's enough.

  661. We don't have to do anything. We are praying for revival.

  662. We are praying for revival. So is that enough?

  663. We have to do something about it.

  664. We have to do something about it.

  665. Action must follow the prayer and then it is going to work.

  666. Now the people had people had a strategy and they had brought

  667. people from outside Jerusalem to work.

  668. So they were not sent back. Once the work is over, they

  669. don't go back home. They're sleeping inside the city

  670. so they can be available to fight if required.

  671. And one of the most important thing is was 23, neither I nor

  672. my brothers nor my men, nor the gods with with me took off our

  673. clothes. Each had his weapon.

  674. Even when he went for water, they didn't even take off their

  675. clothes for 52 days. That is commitment, That is

  676. commitment, that is vision, that is everything.

  677. And when you have a commitment like that, the walls will be

  678. rebuilt. No wonder it was done in 52

  679. days. No wonder it was done in 52

  680. days. Because there is a leader who is

  681. committed. And when you see the leader, the

  682. people follow the leader. When you see the leader is not

  683. taking off clothes, he's having a sword by him.

  684. He has a trumpeter with the one who blows trumpet beside him,

  685. and he has organized things. And people are not going back to

  686. their places. They're sleeping inside families

  687. of station. At lowest points, everybody is

  688. prepared with the spear, sword and whatever weapon they have.

  689. I tell you, you can breathe the tension in Jerusalem.

  690. You cannot just breathe the air and don't feel the tension

  691. there. Christian life has to be like

  692. that and when you do that your life will be different and

  693. outcome will be different. The Lord bless you guys for

  694. that. I think I overshot my time a

  695. little bit, but let's have the communion straight away.

  696. Let us ask the Lord to prepare our hearts for the part.

  697. Partake in His body and the blood.

  698. Thank you, Jesus, Father, as we are going to partake, I pray

  699. right now that will prepare our hearts, give us that kind of a

  700. burden, that kind of a commitment that Nehemiah and the

  701. people of Jerusalem had to rebuild the walls.

  702. Lord, prepare our hearts to protect our families, to protect

  703. the church, to protect our God, your Kingdom, or to work for

  704. your Kingdom, to expect that revival is coming and pray with

  705. expectation because our God is great and he is going to do it.

  706. So, Father, we commit ours into hands, prepare our hearts that

  707. we may partake it worthily to the glory of your name.

  708. In Jesus name we ask, Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.

  709. If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to

  710. find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in

  711. the links below.