Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • ANBI
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
  • ES
    • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (Weekly Thoughts) John Fenn >
      • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (PDF)
  • FR
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
  • L
    • LV
    • LT >
      • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
        • E-Book
      • Straipsniai >
        • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
        • Krikštai
        • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
        • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
        • Garbinimas
        • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
        • Išgelbėjimas
        • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
        • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
        • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
      • Video LT
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie >
      • Conferentie LT - 2025
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
  • PL
  • PT
    • "O pensamento da semana em Português"
    • PT-pdf
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Donate
  • Events
  • TV
  • Contact

Nehemiah, New friends, 3 of 3

4/1/2023

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
The way they rebuilt the wall is so helpful for us today as we change course or rebuild our lives. It is amazing how many helpful things we can learn from Nehemiah.
 
People joined Nehemiah
Chapter 3 of tells us once others heard what he was doing, they joined with Nehemiah. The whole chapter of Nehemiah 3 lists who is working where and what they did. They worked side by side, shoulder to shoulder in teamwork with their neighbor. Each person who lived by the wall repaired the part of the wall opposite their house. Each citizen of Jerusalem was responsible for the part of the wall that protected their own home. 
 
This is an important principle, that each person in your 'city' must do their part. 
If in this analogy you are the city, then it means you have different parts of your life, emotions, heart, that must be repaired just in that area to which that issue pertains. Work on the part of the wall that defends yourself and your family. Don't let it spill over to other areas, just deal with the core issue of that problem. Then move to the next. 
 
If their accusations won't work, they get angry
Nehemiah 4:1 tells us when Sanballat heard what they were doing, he mocked them and became 'hot' with anger - the Hebrew says he was burning with anger at them. People will sometimes do that when they know they have lost control of you. That's ok if your cause is just and righteous. That is their issue of the heart only they can remedy.
 
Nehemiah 4:9 says the people were armed as they built the wall. They set a watch so no one could come at night to vandalize their work. We must realize while we are doing the Lord's will, we must do so 'armed' with the Lord, aware others will threaten us and maybe attack - they need to see we are equal to any challenge. 
 
Christians sometimes think because they are peaceful that is all that is required. No, you have to be capable of defending yourself, your faith. It is that potential of a strong response that makes the enemy afraid. If you're just harmless then demons can walk all over you. We must assert our will over them. 
 
If you are harmless but have the potential to use the name of Jesus against them, have the potential to stand up for yourself and your views and your morals, then the enemy respects that and will think twice before attacking you. 
 
It is that Nehemiah, though on a peaceful work, armed the workers, so the enemies who threatened attack, would know Nehemiah was strong and would in fact defend himself - and all on his side would defend themselves. Nehemiah 4:18 says, "...a sword hanging on each worker's belt..." Be harmless as doves, but wise as serpents.  
 
Just say 'Oh no' when they want you to come to 'Ono'. 
Chapter 6 reveals the ways the devil attacks us today, as seen through the eyes of Nehemiah. In 6:2-4 Sanballat and the others invite Nehemiah to come down off the wall in a distraction to come talk to them in the plain of Ono. This they did 4 times. Each time Nehemiah said, 'O no', he would not allow himself to be distracted from the assignment the Lord gave him. If a distraction threatens to pull you off what God has you doing, say 'Oh no' to Ono'. 
 
The 5th attempt was an effort at extortion. Sanballat wrote a letter accusing Nehemiah with many lies, and threatened to send the letter to the king. Nehemiah confronted him with it, saying he knew it was a lie and that he wasn't afraid. He states in v9:"For they were trying to make us afraid, thinking they would weaken our hands from the work, now therefore, O God, strengthen our hands!"
 
In verses 10-12 Nehemiah receives a false prophecy delivered with the intent of fear, to  make him do something stupid. Like a game bird flushed from its hiding place only to be shot out of the air, that was the intent of the false word. Nehemiah said in v11:"Why should a man such as I flee?" In v12 he says he perceived that God had not sent that man and that Sanballat was behind this false 'word from the Lord'. 
 
What we have seen thus far
First they were angry with Nehemiah. Then they tried to talk him out of it at Ono, as a matter of distraction. Then they threatened him with lies to try to make him afraid. Then they spiritualized it in a false prophecy to try to make their scheme legitimate because it was wrapped in spirituality. Nehemiah armed himself and his workers, and kept working.
 
These efforts were the last efforts of Sanballat and friends to distract, extort, and threaten with fear and lies against Nehemiah and his team. Chapter 6:15-16 tells us the wall was finished, and:"...when all our enemies heard the wall was finished, and they saw all that was accomplished, they were downcast in their own eyes, for (only then) did they perceive that this was a work of God." 
 
You see...
Sanballat's issue wasn't with Nehemiah, it was with the Lord. If you are doing anything worthwhile in the Lord - from raising a family to helping a friend through life - people who get into strife with you have as their real issue, the Lord. It isn't you, not about flesh and blood, but against Satan who incites one against another. 
 
Realize that when others don't understand the direction you're going. When people do things just to distract you and delay what you are doing. When they lie about you or threaten you with lies, when they spiritualize their attack by bringing God into it, realize their issue is with the Lord - and if you stick to what you are doing, they will eventually see that you are from the Lord, what you are doing is from the Lord. 
 
A mature person can love a person while disagreeing with them morally or spiritually. Such a one can maintain fellowship, even friendship. The immature find points of disagreement and break off friendships and fellowship. Their issue is with the Lord at that point, and their own heart. 
 
Realize what you are doing affect many more than just your family
We would not receive the full impact of Nehemiah's work unless we looked what happened after the wall was finished. 
 
As a result of the completed wall, people felt safe and secure within those boundaries.  
 
You are your own Jerusalem. Make sure your walls are built so that in your heart and soul you feel safe, secure, at rest. Then include in the city your spouse, children at home. Then just outside the wall of your Jerusalem, is relatives - Judea - family, but they know their boundaries, know that you are in covenant now with your spouse and children, not with them. Then outward to distant relatives and associates, then outward to strangers in the 'uttermost parts'. (Acts 1:8)
 
Once people saw the walls, Nehemiah 7:66 tells us 42,360 people immigrated into the city from Babylon, restoring the temple worship, and v73 says in 7 months all Israel was back not only in Jerusalem, but living in the other cities their ancestors had lived in before being carried off to Babylon decades earlier. 
 
But wait, there's more... 
Ezra the scribe began teaching the people the Word of the Lord. Chapter 8:4 says Ezra stood on a pulpit of wood just for the purpose so the multitude could hear him, and v8 says he and others "...read in the book of the law clearly, with meaning, giving the sense of what it said, allowing them to understand the meaning." 
 
Ezra sent the people away as they rejoiced upon hearing and understanding God's Word, telling them:"The joy of the Lord is your strength." Verse 12 concludes:"All the people went their way to eat and drink with great joy and merriment, giving gifts to one another, because they had understood the words that had been read to them." 
 
(Did you notice the joy of the Lord is your strength within the context of understanding His Word and ways, not just a blanket statement that His joy is your strength - the joy came from gaining understanding of Him)
 
All of that happened because 1 man refused to be distracted, threatened, coerced, bribed, or manipulated by those who opposed him. 
 
That 1 man motivated others to join him, sharing the vision, and making it that each person had to rebuild the wall in front of their own house, making it personal, so that they were building to protect their own families. 
 
There is much to learn from Nehemiah! New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org
www.kwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
 
 
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2025
to donate
Photo from widakso