Overcoming Opposition
When we are successful in doing God's work,
we should expect opposition and
take steps to defeat Satan.
Here now is Gene Getz:
The fact of the matter is that any time
we are doing God's work,
anytime God's work is moving forward,
Satan hates it.
I'll guarantee that because Satan hates
what God is doing in people's life.
He's going to try to destroy the work.
He's going to try to demoralize us.
He's going to try to sidetrack us.
He hates God's work.
Satan hates the church that is
functioning as God intended it to function.
Satan hates people who reflect Jesus Christ.
He hates that.
He doesn't just hate what you're doing.
He hates you.
He's evil.
Satan hates marriages that are Christ-centered.
He hates that.
Satan hates families that are
God-honoring. And he's going to attack.
And that's what this Principle is all about.
And this is what happened to Nehemiah
when the work was going forward.
And we see him working through individuals.
So Satan works through individuals.
If he's going to achieve his goals,
he's going to work through people. And that's
exactly what he did here.
And we read about it in Nehemiah
chapter 4, beginning with verse 1 and 2:
When Sanballat...
And by the way, that name is going to
come up several times in the story.
He's a very key guy that Satan used.
And as you can see, there are a lot of "Sanballots"
today and Satan's going to use them if he can.
...When Sanballat heard that we were
rebuilding the wall, he became furious. ...
He was very threatened by what was going on.
He was a Samaritan, by the way,
a godless man. And notice what happened:
...He mocked the Jews before his colleagues
and the powerful men of Samaria, and said...
And imagine the scene.
He's saying this now to his group,
his inner circle.
He's going around and he's mocking.
And he's talking to his colleagues and he says:
...What are these pathetic Jews doing?
[A second question:]
Can they restore it by themselves? ...
By the way, there's an element of threat here.
Now he's trying to conjure up some kind
of sense of security by getting his
colleagues to say:
Yes, Sanballat, you're right.
...Will they offer sacrifices?
[Is that even possible?]
Will they ever finish it? ...
That's crazy. This is a dumb thing.
I mean, who's he trying to convince here?
It's like Shakespeare:
Behold, thou protests too much.
This is threat. Another question:
...Can they bring these [burnt] stones
back to life from the mounds of rubble?
And so he raises a series of questions.
He's trying to prove himself at this point.
And this is very interesting because
one of his colleagues.
It's a significant guy.
His name is Tobiah.
And notice Tobiah's support. And by the way,
it's almost childish. He says, we read:
Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him...
That is standing there,
which means he's kind of his right-hand guy:
...said, "Indeed, [Sanballat] even if a fox
climbed up on what they're building,
he would break down their stone wall!"
Which is absolutely crazy statement.
In other words, he's evidently just one
of these "yes guys," you know.
But at the same time, he's trying to prop
Sanballat up. And they're trying to
encourage each other in this particular situation.
But they're evil and they've got a plan.
And they're going to work that plan.
Nehemiah had a plan to do God's will.
They had a plan to do Satan's will.
And notice Nehemiah's two-fold response.
I love this.
The first thing he did was to pray:
Listen our God for we are despised. ...
You see again and again throughout
the whole story, you're going to find Nehemiah
going to prayer.
...Listen, our God, for we are despised.
Make their insults return on their own heads
and let them be taken as plunder
to a land of captivity. ...
In other words, Lord, let them identify with what
we've been through.
We've been in captivity.
We've paid a big price. And we're back here
because of Your will.
And Lord, just let them experience,
because of their evil nature,
what they're doing.
Let them experience what we've been through.
Just sharing his heart with the Lord.
...Do not cover their guilt or let their sin
be erased from Your sight, because they
have provoked the builders.
In other words, Lord don't overlook this.
Deal with this.
It's evil. And we need to look to You
to deal with this sin in their lives--
to get their attention. And so we have
first of all his prayer. But secondly, again
very familiar balance--hard work. Hard work.
...So we rebuilt a wall until the entire wall
was joined together up to half its height
for the people had the will to keep working.
In other words, they didn't allow this
demoralization to stop them.
And so he challenged them: back to the work!
And they continued that work.
I was reflecting and correlating this with
the apostle Paul.
Because I think he reflected Nehemiah's
leadership strategy, his courage.
He was not building an earthly structure.
That is, Paul wasn't. But he was building
the household of faith. Again, the family
of God, the body of Jesus Christ.
And it's interesting that when Paul and
his fellow missionaries, Timothy and Silas,
were ministering in Thessalonica,
they had to leave by night.
Persecution hit and so they had to leave.
Their lives were threatened.
But notice Paul's response.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
His two-fold response. Prayer:
They kept praying for these believers in
Thessalonica while continuing their
ministry in Berea and Athens.
That's what we read in
1st Thessalonians, that letter.
They kept praying. But notice the hard work.
Paul didn't just say: Lord, take care of them.
Here's what he did:
Paul tried to return to Thessalonica
but Satan hindered him.
There again, you have an illustration
that Satan hates God's work.
Even with the great apostle Paul.
He hated what Paul was doing.
He attacked him.
We don't know how Satan hindered him
from going back.
But Paul knew that it was Satan
that hindered him.
But it didn't stop Paul.
He had other alternative things to do
to help resolve this issue.
We read about this. And we sent Timothy.
And so Paul says, if Satan is going to hinder me
we're going to send Timothy.
There's power, you see, in being together as a team:
...And we sent Timothy, our brother
and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ,
to strengthen [and] encourage you
concerning your faith, so that no one will
be shaken by these persecutions.
For you yourselves know that
we are appointed to this. ...
In other words, he sent Timothy back to
encourage these people. Just to encourage them.
Encourage them. And by the way, Timothy did go back
and then reported to Paul
and that's why he's writing this letter.
He's reflecting on what he had done.
...For this reason, [Paul continued in his letter,]
when I could no longer stand it...
Isn't that interesting that Paul is
filled with anxiety over this situation?
Satan was attacking him.
He knew there was persecution. And so
you see this human element in the apostle Paul:
...when I could no longer stand it,
I also sent him to find out about your faith...
That was the thing that really
concerned Paul was their faith
and what was this was doing to them.
And he says that. He says:
...fearing that the tempter had
tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.
And so we see the
apostle Paul, I believe, identifying with Nehemiah.
Whether it was Old Testament
characters who were doing the will of God
or New Testament characters
doing the will of God.
Or those of us at the present time
doing the will of God.
Satan will try to discourage us and attack us.
And we need to be aware of that.
And we can be victorious.
Here's the question:
What are some situations in the church today
where we need to follow this biblical approach
in dealing with opposition and persecution?
As I was thinking of this, I couldn't help
but think about what's happened in our culture
and in the world situation today.
I just read in the newspaper about
a number of believers in a particular country
where they're hated.
And these people who hated them came in
and just burned their homes.
Burned their homes to the ground.
In other situations, another country,
where they would actually burn the churches.
Just burn the buildings and kill people.
Kill Christians. And you know, I can't
identify with that.
And I hope I never have to. But the fact is,
that happened to New Testament believers.
And so consequently, they had to
practice this Principle of trusting God.
But not just sitting--
doing everything they can to be
victorious in Christ and over Satan.
I couldn't help but think of my own
experience, when at one time in my ministry,
I became a victim of a conspiracy against me.
Which was orchestrated by one evil person.
We were able to discern that later.
And who influenced others.
It was a "Sanballat" who encouraged
a few other "Tobiahs" to join him.
And it was a very painful experience.
I didn't even know what was happening
in terms of the accusations.
And I could see people influenced by
their evil influence--
throwing people into confusion.
And to be honest with you, there wasn't
much I could do but just pray.
And search my own heart
and fast and pray.
And I remember I fasted for a whole week
just looking at my own life because of
the accusations against me.
But at the same time, I needed to proceed.
I needed to move ahead.
Not just deal with my own heart and pray.
But to try to discern what the will of God is.
And I do remember how God protected me
through that process.
And when I finally understood what
I was supposed to do, it was like the sun
came out and the clouds dispersed.
Because boy, I was covered with clouds
of a hurt and pain and doubt.
Trying to think of what was going on
and figure it out.
But I remember it came to the point in
my life where I said to the Lord Jesus--
just before the clouds dispersed--and I said:
Lord Jesus, I can't solve this problem.
It's Your church.
It's Your church I'm trying to protect
and You can handle it. I can't.
And at that point, God began to unveil a plan.
And so I know how important this Principle is.
I haven't always practiced it like I should.
So here is the Principle that comes from
the life of Nehemiah in this process:
When we are successful in doing God's work,
we should expect opposition and
take steps to defeat Satan.