Christian Stress Management: How To Do Great Things For God: part 6

Know There Will Be Opposition

After Nehemiah motivated the people and they agreed to begin rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:18), their enemies heard of their plans and they immediately begun to oppose them. (Nehemiah 2:19)

They begun to attack the Israelites and harassed them in numerous days during the 52 days they took to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 6:15)

Therefore understand that once you step up and start doing something great for God, the enemy will also step up and start trying to stop you through various means. For example, the enemy may:

Ridicule You

The enemy may ridicule you and mock your plan.
In Nehemiah's case their enemies Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem Laughed and ridiculed them. (Nehemiah 2:19)

Sanballat also became extremely furious when he heard that the rebuilding of the wall had begun and he mocked the Jews by asking, "What are these weak Jews doing? Will they strengthen themselves? Will they finish building the wall in one day? Will they make building stones from the burnt rubble?" (Nehemiah 4:1-2)

Rubbish your Plan

The enemy may try to minimize what you are doing or try to make it appear nonsensical.
In Nehemiah's case their Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem asked, "What is this thing that you are doing?" (Nehemiah 2:19)

Tobiah who was another of their enemies contributed to insulting this project of Nehemiah and the Israelites by saying, "Whatever stone wall they build can be broken down by a fox" (Nehemiah 4:3)

Create Confusion

The enemy may try to create confusion so that you are not able to proceed methodically and complete what God has called you to do.

In Nehemiah's case Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, the Ashdodite conspired to attack Jerusalem and cause confusion (Nehemiah 4:7-8) when they heard that Nehemiah and the Israelites were proceeding well with rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

Therefore if you find that you are beset with confusion as you go about doing what God has called you to do, understand that the confusion is an attack from the enemy because God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33)

God is not the author of confusion, but of peace 1 Corinthians 14:33

Try To Harm You

The enemy may try to harm you so that you do not finish doing what God has called you to do.

In Nehemiah's case Sanballat and Geshem sent him an invitation to meet them in the villages of Ono but the real reason of their invitation was that they wanted to harm him. (Nehemiah 6:2)

Understand also that the enemy is persistent for Nehemiah's enemies sent him this invitation. Therefore do not be surprised if your enemies continue pestering you so that you do not finish God's work because that is the work of the enemy - to see that you do not finish doing what God has called you to do.

Falsely Accuse You

The enemy may try to accuse you falsely of things you have not done because He is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

In Nehemiah's case his enemy Sanballat sent him an open letter in which he quoted rumors and another of Nehemiasaid that Nehemiah and the Jews were planning to rebel from the King and the reason they were rebuilding the walls was so that Nehemiah could be their king. Sanballat also said that Nehemiah had appointed prophets to declare him the king in Jerusalem.

Sanballat then threatened to report these matters to the king even though he called the sources of his information rumors, and urged Nehemiah to come and meet him so that they would talk. (Nehemiah 6:5-7)

Therefore do not be surprised if your start peddling rumors or reporting false things about you.

Do not also be surprised if they threaten or actually bring charges against you for things you have not done.

Frighten You

The enemy may try to make you afraid since fear will paralyze you and stop you from completing what God has called you to do.

In Nehemiah's case, Sanballat sent him an open letter falsely accusing them of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem so that they could rebel against the king. The aim of his letter was to make them afraid of being the repercussions of being accused of planning a rebellions that they would stop rebuilding the walls. (Nehemiah 6:9)

Hire False Prophets to Harm You

When the enemy sees that using regular people to stop you from doing the work God has called you to do is failing, he moves his to a higher spiritual plane by hiring false prophets.

In Nehemiah's case his enemy Sanballat hired the false prophet Shemaiah to lie to Nehemiah so that he could sin.

Shemaiah prophesied that people were coming to kill Nehemiah at night and invited him to meet him inside the Holy Place of the Temple. The aim of this false prophesy was to make Nehemiah afraid so that he could sin against God by going inside the temple. (Nehemiah 6:10-13)

Therefore do not be dismayed when you see prophets attacking you as you try to do God's work. Understand that the devil has realized that using ordinary people to attack you cannot work and that is why he has taken his attack a notch higher by using prophets who you may not even know are false prophets.

Try To Make You Sin

When the enemy sees that his plans to stop you from doing the work God has called you to do have failed, he tries to make you sin so that you can hinder your own progress.

In Nehemiah's case it was Shemaiah who urged him to meet him inside the Holy Place in the Temple at night by telling him that people were coming to kill Nehemiah. His aim was to make Nehemiah afraid so that he could act that way and sin. (Nehemiah 6:10-13)

Internal Opposition

Understand also that the opposition to the great work you are doing for God may also come from your own camp in addition to coming from the enemy's camp.

In Nehemiah's case we can see that the Nobles did not build the part of the wall they were supposed to build. (Nehemiah 3:5)