THE WALLS OF OUR LIVES
God appears to reference the walls of our lives frequently in His Word. One of my cherished scriptures is found in Isaiah chapter forty-nine:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you.” Isaiah 49:15-17
Before we move on, let’s contemplate this passage a bit. First, God cares so much about our lives that He inscribes our names on the palms of His hands. He puts Himself, God, the Father, as the primary Parent figure in our lives. Secondly, He sees that the walls of our lives are just as important as those of Jerusalem.
By this point in our study, we should understand how important it is to keep the walls of Jerusalem repaired and strong. In this, God sends Nehemiah to conduct his business rebuilding the most important walls in the world.
The walls of our lives often lie in ruins through neglect, rebellion, and ignorance. Without question, the Leader ordained in our lives is none other than the Holy Spirit through the indwelling life of Jesus Christ. The Spirit accomplishes the Lord’s mission through the continuing work of reconstructing His protective walls from the inside out. The Spirit first brings our attention to the condition of our walls. While most of us are ignorant of hearing the voice of God from within, others simply dig in deep and rebel.
FACING THE FACTS
Most Christians today live with the walls of their lives surrounded by ruin, and it all began with a slow fade. Few Christians are taught how to discern the voice of the Spirit from their self-life. Others protest the mandates of God to remain secure within His boundaries. It all starts with a crack—a particular sin or bitterness that begins to rule one’s life. After the daily abuse from life itself, the crack turns into a hole, which creates a perfect opportunity for the enemy to enter.
Satan then sends one of his demons, who gains access by creating a spiritual stronghold. Suppose further neglect becomes the norm for this believer. In that case, the weeds of carnal thinking align with the enemy’s thoughts and ideations, resulting from hearing the enemy's voice over the indwelling Spirit. Now idolatry is formed. The enemy not only gains access into your life but is assured that the believer hears his voice, which many label as the voice of God. In this, Satan assaults the Living God, and the believer begins living by demonic doctrines.
You may be known for being a “good” Christian, but that does not guarantee you are one. People who follow Christian principles are not necessarily authentic believers indwelt by the Life of Christ. According to Revelation chapter three, these so-called believers put Satan’s words in God’s mouth, and thus, Jesus must spit them out of His mouth.
The parallel is simple: most Jews during Nehemiah’s leadership were pure-bloodline Jews; however, few practiced Judaism. To make them authentic obedient Jews, the two must join as one force. The same is true about Christianity; believers must not only claim Christianity but also fulfill the second most important doctrine: be born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit.
DO AN INVENTORY
Before Nehemiah started rebuilding, he evaluated the wall and did an inventory of its condition. Conduct an inventory of your actual condition, including whether you are authentically born-again by and through Jesus Christ.
Many Christians tend to make light of the mandates of God. As our norm proves today, many hide behind the bush of Grace. Paul once said, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Then he went on to say, “May it never be!” Sadly, we live in a church culture where Paul’s fear has become the norm. Today, grace is used as a license to tear down the walls of God while worshiping the gods of Babylon. When caught, each one hides behind the rationalization that “we are all sinners” and “I am better than I used to be.” If this is your mindset, the enemy is living in your camp; your walls are down.
LEADERS OF RECONSTRUCTION
Nehemiah’s consistent concern and focus was reconstruction; however, he wasn’t focused on self-strength but rather on the strength of the Lord through prayer. He prayed for guidance and correction of his pathway.
Busyness is my constant enemy for fulfilling the Lord’s commission to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17). If anyone can say there isn’t enough time in the day to pray, it would be me. However, the older I get, the more dependent I become on praying without ceasing. I have learned to request the Lord’s direction—that the supernatural thoughts of Christ be revealed in my feeble mind, giving clear direction on every project. Without prayer and dependence on Jesus, erosion of the soul is inevitable. In neglecting the heart or soul, the world, our flesh, and the enemy’s chaos will soon overrun and crumble the walls of our lives.
Nehemiah was known for leading from the knees up. I, too, want to be known for the same practical application of quality leadership. I am alert to the reality that erosion is a constant battle within the souls of humanity. Little by little, bit by bit, the Bridal Members of Christ allow the enemy to enter holes into the walls of their lives where he one day misleads and melts them into a lukewarm community of believers.
Important Note: Don’t just repent; rebuild.
Many people repent on a normal, natural, and neutral basis, but repentance requires rebuilding within the soul, a step that many believers today ignore. Authentic repentance requires rebuilding. Preserving existing walls will assist you in the encouragement needed to conduct the hard work of rebuilding the parts of your wall that have fallen.
LIVING WITHOUT THE BODY OF CHRIST
We need each other. Since God placed a measurement of spiritual gifts within all His born-again believers, uniting those gifts as one force will ultimately create a workforce to rebuild the walls of the Church itself. We all need to stop making excuses as to “why” we don’t partner with other real-deal believers, which usually hides behind the erroneous ideology of not enjoying being told what to do. Independent Christians are selfish believers or aren’t necessarily authentic Christians to start with.
Nehemiah appealed not only to the Jewish leaders but also the Jews who were marginal, and he used his work ethic to accomplish this. The result: the real-deal Jews woke up, and the marginal Jews were won over by the structure Nehemiah put in place through Ezra. In the end, a revival of sorts broke out, and Jerusalem was restored to the norm of God.
PRIMARY PRINCIPLES OF OUR LESSON
WALLS: Maintain God’s importance of walling up your life. Do you remember the story in the Book of Job where Satan was appealing to God to destroy Job? After God responded to him, Satan again said he could not reach him because of a hedge of protection that God had put about him. What did God do? He dropped the hedge. This is a significant point because Satan can’t get at us without permission. God puts these walls around us—these hedges of protection; then, when Satan does get at us, we understand that the sovereignty of God has allowed it.
FACTS: Own up to the reality of your broken-down walls. Most Christians go through their day without taking a moment to examine the walls around them, which now have holes. As I stated earlier, these holes in the walls are a result of the erosion that occurred by allowing the enemy to infiltrate their minds. Most of the time, we are responsible for tearing down the walls God built to protect us.
INVENTORY: Be willing to do a self-examination of the condition of your soul. Paul himself said, “Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). Self-examination is a responsibility given to us that we often ignore.
PRAYER: Reject independence, and rebuild from the knees up, which is a critical point. In our next chapter, I will devote the entire chapter to discussing the power God releases through a dedicated commitment to communicating with Him.
FINAL NOTE
One of my favorite men of church history is A.W. Tozer, who said:
“Every farmer knows the hunger of the wilderness, that hunger which no modern farm machinery, no improved agricultural methods can quite destroy. No matter how well-prepared the soil, how well-kept the fences, or how carefully painted the buildings are, let the owner neglect his prized and valued acres for a while, and they will again revert to the wilds and be swallowed by the jungle or the wasteland. The bias of nature is toward the wilderness, never toward the fruitful field.”
Whatever is left to itself will return to the state upon which it was before redemption. In Tozer’s illustration, those lush fields willing to produce fruit for the farmer but left unattended would revert to the same condition before the farmer began to till the land. The same is true for Christians—we will return to flesh on flesh.
The Christian mind must be renewed daily—all day. When left to itself, the self will dominate and rule. Yes, even an authentic born-again Christian can erode into a liberal and lukewarm mind—a mind that functions like an unsaved person.
So, what’s the answer? Release Christ’s mind from within your mind. You and I can never trust our minds. They are self-governed, willful, and driven to be independent. Having Christ’s mind in you is not a poetic expression but a fact. By learning to release His mind, your mind will fade into the dark corners of depravity where it belongs.
Watch the video for the full message.
Stephen Phinney
#5 NEHEMIAH: Rebuilds