Nehemiah 6:4 Persistently Answer

Nehemiah 6:4 “Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.”

Today we continue studying the Word of God, as the Lord would have us do! A very long time ago, when these studies were done daily, we left off in Proverbs, and I was going to pick up from there, but I felt the Lord would have me look instead at Nehemiah 6:4! So that is what we’ll do, as the Lord would have it!

The Book of Nehemiah, is a part of God’s Word I’ve come to cherish. I remember a sister of ours in Christ, who told me a few years ago that she felt the Lord wanted me to read this particular book of the Bible. I’m not as knowledgeable in the Old Testament as in the New, so to be honest I hadn’t read it before. Reading it truly ministered to me, and I thank God Above for it! If you haven’t read it before, I would say you should read it.

We read in the Word of God, of a man, a jew, during the time when God’s People were scattered, under bondage to other nations. The city of Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed. God led him, Nehemiah, to leave where he was currently at (a cupbearer to the king), and to go to this devastated place and rebuild it, and set things in order once again. He of course met with much opposition as the enemies of the Jews didn’t exactly like their city being rebuilt! But he continued on, as God would have him.

Now, getting to today’s verse, we read of an account where some enemies were bidding Nehemiah to stop the work he was doing and to meet them to talk. His Reply was, in the verse before, “And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” And as we read in today’s verse, they sent four times, asking the same thing, and he replied the same way each time.

As we work for the Lord, we will have SO many distractions, SO many things try to keep us from doing what God would have us do. Satan will get desperate and use people, friends and family, and even other children of God, to try to stop you from doing what you know to be God’s Will. Satan will whisper doubts in your ears, he will tell you, “Are you sure this is what God wants you to do?” “Why don’t you spend time with some family, Afterall, it would be witnessing to your family!” “Why don’t you do this other thing, it’s good to do!” He will do anything and everything to try to get you to do anything BUT what God wants you to do. Sometimes those things will be “good” things to do, sometimes they won’t. Yet remember, we can either do “good” things in our life, or we can obey God and do GREAT things. If you don’t listen to God, then you will never reach what is GREAT to do. Not only that, but in disobedience, you end up not even doing good, but even wickedness.

We need to remember this though, as Nehemiah stood firm and did not move, but with each persistent temptation to move away from God’s Work, he answered just as persistently, the same thing over and over again . . . We should do likewise. When the devil comes to bring distractions to us, or when anything tries to get us to stop doing what God would have us do, we need to persistently say, No, I won’t stop, why should you and what you want me to do, take a higher place in my life than God and what God wants me to do?

The devil is very persistent! Many times it would seem he has nothing better to do than to give us trouble! Especially when we are doing what God wants us to do, and when his time is so short. He gets desperate!

We know how little kids can be persistent when it comes to something they want. The devil is just the same, VERY persistent! But just as we have to keep telling the child No, when he or she wants to do something that shouldn’t be done, we have to do the same with the devil (only not in as nice a manner as we would a child ha-ha)!

When I decided on obeying the Lord and getting back online to work for Him, guess what? Here comes the devil to bring frustration around every turn. Right now I’m having a lot of trouble with updating the section of my website that I put these studies on. That process is turning into a HUGE ball of nothing but frustration. To the point where not bothering with it anymore is sounding nice. BUT, I can’t give the devil that pleasure! We can’t give the devil what he wants from us, which is exactly what we do if we don’t resist the distractions of life, the temptations, the doubts, and the troubles!

A good example right now, is what I’ve been having to walk out. Recently my glasses broke. I can’t really afford to go get some more, and so I told God that He’ll have to either fix them, give me the finances, or heal me. I’ve been after God to heal my eyes for quite a long time because of how bothersome glasses are to me. I have to worry about them getting in the way, falling off, breaking, and then being at a disadvantage without them! But you know, with my glasses breaking, I changed my mind and decided to pray even more for a miraculous healing of my eyes. We all know God is more than capable, Amen? Well you know, I faithfully know God has healed my eyes, I have an entire church standing in faith with me, I have the world watching, and I have many others praying just the same. My eyes are healed, I keep reminding and thanking God for such a healing. The first day I started this, the problem with my eyes seeing double (due to problems with my left eye) . . . I don’t have that problem any more! This morning, I woke up and could clearly see a clock that I couldn’t see before without my glasses! I know my eyes are healed, and I know that when God has it that if I put my glasses on I find I can‘t see through them and need to take them off in order to see clearly, it will be an even greater show of God‘s Wondrous Power! Right now even, I am able to do this study without my glasses!

But in all this, from the very start of when I stood in faithful prayer for a miraculous healing of my eyes, and did so in front of church, and had the entire church standing in faith with me, watching for God’s Hand to Move . . . Don’t you know the devil was right there putting doubts in my head? “Oh how do you know God wants you healed?” “You’ve been asking this all this time, what makes you think you’re healed NOW?” “Uh Oh, you still can’t see perfectly clearly, looks like God hasn’t healed you!” The List goes on. But each time, I have to shut the devil up, telling him the same thing over and over again, “Devil, God has heard me, it’s not that I will be healed, but I have ALREADY been healed! Shut up, you’re just jealous and upset that I’m going to be able to use this as an excellent witness and testimony to help others’ faith in God increase!” This morning as I started this study, the screen is blurry, and the devil just came again and said, “Look at that, still not healed!” I replied, “Now you’re grasping at straws, devil! You’re getting desperate, get away from me, you see that over there, I can read it without my glasses, so shut up, I rebuke you in the name and authority of Jesus Christ!”

We have to remember that the devil does not give up coming against us. As long as we are alive and working for the Lord our God, we will have distractions and temptations. Anything and everything will try to keep us from continuing onward, to do the Work of the Lord!

We must never forget, to stay strong in the Lord (IN THE LORD, not in ourselves), and give the same answer, every time the temptations, distractions, and doubts come to draw us away from the Will of God! They will keep coming too, don’t become discouraged, nor weary, but just keep answering the same, with a firm No! Even when such things come to us through family, through friends, we must remember that we work for the Lord, not for others on this earth, no matter how much we love them (Just remember not to go into the extreme of neglecting to show the Love of Christ to others, by becoming so “work oriented,” instead of focusing on God and being God oriented. He’ll keep us in line if we keep our eyes on Him).

I pray we never forget such truths, because otherwise we’ll definitely end up becoming weary in well doing!

I love you so much, with Godly, Brotherly love, and continue to pray for you, my dear friends, family in Christ! May God hold us in His hands, giving us the words to speak as we live for Him, and the strength to continue on in His Spirit! May God Bless you mightily in all you do, and in all you do I pray you bless God!

Love always in Christ,
Your friend forever,
And brother,
Michael

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Psalm 107:2 “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”

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