1. David when he was given the throne, he took the chance to build the temple of God. Even if God chose King Solomon as the builder of the temple of God instead of King David, King David was burning with passion and zeal to build it. He spent all his life to prepare for this project and he passed the mantle to King Solomon to do the Job. I love the way he listened to God. He didn’t argue with God that he will do it since he has the skill or the power to do it. He learned from Saul’s sin against God that obedience is better than sacrifice.
2. David when he was convicted of sin of counting the number of people of Israel to see how many men can serve in his army, God had eventually punished him by sending a disease to kill the people. But David having known that he has sinned, he begged God to take away his punishment from his people. Furthermore, he offered himself to be punished instead of his people. What a great humility and love for his people we learn from this.
Moses also offered himself for punishment instead of the people of God he led out of Egypt. Read Exodus 32:32.
Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.
Jesus who is the pinnacle of our faith has offered himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. We see in him the greatest sacrificial love who considers himself not worthy of anything unless it dies and give glory to God.
3. Nehemiah prayed an intercessory prayer to God that is for the sake of others:
“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace”
He was suffering in the heart due to the great troubles his people had endured during their trials. He was no more concerned about his own safety and comfort but like Mosses, he saw a nation that had a great promise from God but yet suffer a great deal of scorn as a consequence for their sins. Even if he was determined to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, He was more focused on rebuilding the lives of his people. For him this was tragedy to see a nation of God whom He redeemed by his great strength and mighty hand in such miserable conditions.
4. Nehemiah took the matter to God and fast and pray and fast several days before launch in to action. He knew this is not ordinary suffering. He knew only sin can bring such kind of trouble as God said, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations”.
He confessed his sins and interceded for the people of Israel. He knew that only true confession can lead to restoration. No one else can liberate them without God himself forgives their sins and have mercy on them. When God breaks someone, only He can fix him back.
5. Nehemiah consistently prayed according to the promises of God in His word.
He said, “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying..”
By doing so He is begging God according to His own promises and Word.He is kind of saying,
“We didn’t forget what you told us and nor did you.You were very straight forward with your instructions and advice. We didn’t follow your Word. We stranded away from your grace and we are begging for your mercy and restoration.”
How many of us stick to the Word of God while we pray? God works and answers prayer according to the principles that are written in His Word. He doesn’t conflict himself. God is His Word. The book of John started in saying,
”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
God’s Word is God. You can compl
tely understand the Will of God by reading the Word of God, and this is exactly what Nehemiah did.
6. Nehemiah was so wise and humble in his approach to the king to ask for favor. Even if Nehemiah knew the king was responsible for the suffering of his people, he didn’t approach him as an enemy. In fact, he took him as a good friend and shared with him the sorrow in his heart. If we think about it, this is a great wisdom. Being always humble even in front of your enemies makes things easier for you to accomplish your dreams.
But the source of this wisdom is from God. Nehemiah took the matter to God and not to the king. The king was an accomplice to Nehemiah when God answered his prayer. Most of the time, we are so angry with the person whom we think is the source of our problem. The thing is, they don’t have any power over us unless God gives them the power to do so. Nehemiah said, “May the king live forever!” instead of cursing and insulting the king, which can cost him his life.
Daniel also did the same thing after the King threw him in the lion’s den. “May the king live forever!” Nehemiah also addressed all his requests very politely.
“If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah?
7. Nehemiah knew he was called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It is very important to know you are called for a given purpose. This man knew he has to rebuild the broken pieces of Jerusalem. For him, this was his purpose in life that he considered himself worthy of living. There are a lot of people on earth who walk with no definite purpose in life, though, God made them with one.
There is no greater tragedy in life than to live life without purpose. God gave us all the reason to be born and the reason to live. As the church of Jesus, we are here to witness the greatest gift man has ever received, Jesus Christ. That is sort of the bigger agenda of our purpose in life. But if we drill down to it, we are called individually to build and restore the broken pieces of the church of Jesus Christ. We are called to consolidate things around us. We are called to help the sick and the poor. We are called to be guardians to the orphans and care givers to the elders who need help.
Our purpose, in a very simple definition, is anything we can offer back to the community to help build and restore broken lives. And how do we know which specific task we need to do is all up to you and the Spirit of God who is able to do great things in you for His glory.
8. Nehemiah planed and well prepared for his Journey very well. There is a saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
Having a good strategy that we put down in our plan is a good start to succeed in our mission. The enemy will rock the boat left and right and if we don’t know where we are going with no road map to our route, we will definitely fail. And the worst part is we won’t even know we have failed because we have not set a plan to succeed.
Planning is a method to lay out a strategy to implement your vision. It will consist the details of your vision and what you are trying to accomplish with very specific details. God will be with you and ready to help you if you have a plan and a goal you set to achieve in life. No plan means no divine provision.
9. Nehemiah knew there was an enemy waiting to fight and he was well prepared for it.
10. Nehemiah launched in to action after fasting and prayer.
The reason Nehemiah fasted and prayed was to plead to God to release him to restore what the enemy has destroyed. Not only he identified God’s will but also, he executed it by dedicat
ng his life for the task. It is very interesting to realize that God used the same Babylonians that are responsible for destroying the walls of Jerusalem and its gates to help to restore it back to its previous state.
The moral of the story is it doesn’t matter how bad or worse things get around us. How many countless bad things have occurred around us? God will use the same enemy to honor you who has been degrading you for years. Mordecai was honored by his enemy Haman by the decree of the king according to Aster 6:11
So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!”