Today let us look at spiritual discouragement and lies.
For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands. Nehemiah 6:9
We started looking at Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall in the Spiritual Weariness post. This was such an important task. We see the impossible mission assigned to someone who was not in a position to do it. God’s favor not only allowed him to do the work but also provided the resources. It can be like this when we are serving God. We get the green light and all the resources are provided. Then we notice the mess and what has to be done and spiritual weariness sets in.
We saw in the post about Spiritual Weariness how they overcame the weariness attack. They worked with one hand and had their sword in the other. They became keenly aware that this is war and they would have to be soldiers as well as builders. It was important that they remained alert and vigilant.
Nervous enemies.
Israel’s enemies got nervous when they heard that Nehemiah has been successful in building the wall. They start plotting and scheming. When Nehemiah wouldn’t agree to meet them they sent the fifth messenger with the lies. They accused Nehemiah of planning to set himself up as King and revolt. I have had this happen to me. I was busy working on the mission God had given me. The enemy had tried everything to stop me and make me weary. When God gave me the strength to keep going and not listen to the noise then the lies came.
Nehemiah’s response.
I love how Nehemiah responds to them,
“Such things as you are saying have not been done; you are inventing them in your own mind.” Nehemiah 6:8
I love ‘inventing them in your own mind’. It really does make you wonder about people where they have the time to dream up crazy things. I will admit it is frustrating too. There is a lot of work to be done for the Kingdom. It is hard to watch fellow sisters in Christ waste time on fantasy that turns into a weapon of the enemy.
We all do. So let us all make a huge commitment to stop this nonsense. Next time someone comes to you with gossip about someone don’t engage. If you feel there is a division between you and someone else, just go to them. And here’s a really hard one, honesty. Can we just be honest with each other?
Martha & Mary Conflict
Mary: Have I offended you because you have been acting weird around me? Everyone heard you slam the pots into the sink and even Jesus noticed you are mad.
Martha: Actually there is something. You haven’t been helping me enough. I feel overwhelmed that everything ends up being my responsibility. It really hurts my feelings!
Mary: I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feeling, please forgive me.
Martha: You are forgiven. Will you pray for me that this area won’t be such a sensitive spot for me? I’m really battling with doing the good thing and the better thing.
Not only is this scenario shutting down the issues with the enemy quickly but then everyone around isn’t falling into the mess. You can read the real situation in Luke 10:38-42. Martha made such a big fuss and went to Jesus to get him to make Mary help. She let her emotions stew in her head and then blew up. ‘You are worried and upset about many things’ was Jesus’ response. Hands up who has been there. You play it over and over until the enemy has got into your head and helped you ‘invent’ a weapon to be used against a sister or brother in Christ.
Honesty
There was a rough situation that I went through a few years back. I was approached by some people about a friend who I had noticed was acting weird. So I went to her and just straight out ask “Is everything ok between us?”. It’s not always easy to go to someone so I wanted to open the door and make it easier. But she took the handle and closed the door and lied that everything was ok. As a result, of not addressing the problems it didn’t take long for our friendship to be destroyed.
Spiritual Discouragement!
The purpose of this attack of invented scenarios had one goal – spiritual discouragement. “They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done”. There is NOTHING more discouraging than someone’s invented narrative about your life. It is even worse when they twist things that happened to you where you were the victim to make it look like you did something wrong.
When Moses returned to Egypt to free the Israelites they wouldn’t listen to him at first because the hard labor and slavery had left them discouraged. When they did leave and reached the Jordan, ten of the twelve spies that went into the promised land discouraged the people from crossing the Jordan with lies. Nothing kills faith more the invented lies.
Same lies – different authors
Why people invent lies of spiritual discouragement, I don’t really know. I think for some it is immaturity. They haven’t reached the stage in their walk with God where they even have a mustard seed faith. Fear shouts in their ear about all the Daunters that could possibly be in their path. For some, I think it’s the unsurrendered places in our hearts where jealousy and envy can hide. We see a sister flourishing in her calling and instead of cheering her on and praying for God’s continued blessing and favor we allow jealousy to take control.
For some, I think it’s that they haven’t come to the place of realization of who they are in Christ. They see God using someone and want that for themselves. However, they don’t feel they are equipped. They don’t see that she is just as weak and unable but that she is trusting God as her source of strength. Instead of turning to God to equip her equally she has to tarnish her sister so that she shines brighter and hides her own inadequacy.
Testing our own spirits
We need to have moments when these real human emotions hit us where we examine our thoughts and hearts to see what is our true motivation. We are told to test the spirits. However, we better be applying that to ourselves and our own lives too. I can assure you that the Bible is not vague on gossip, slander, lies, and revenge. We are going to give an account for every word that comes out of our mouths.
Slander is sharing information, whether true or not, with the intent to destroy the person’s reputation. Gossip is habitually revealing personal or ‘invented’ information about another person. A lie is “an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker or writer“. As for revenge, it belongs to God, not you. Like the meme says “have you prayed about it as much as you have talked about it?”
O God, strengthen my hands.
Every time these attacks of spiritual discouragement come we must respond like Nehemiah. We need to get onto our knees and pray to God, strengthen my hands. Their enemies lost their confidence when they saw the wall was finished in verse 16. If we see the discouraging lies of the enemy for what they truly are and ask God to strengthen our hands then we will see God’s work completed and our enemies silenced.
