-by Brother Chai
The word “kingdom” is an amalgamation of two words, king and dominion, or rule.
In the gospel of Luke,
Zacchaeus, a tax collector, climbs up a sycamore tree to see Jesus. When Jesus sees him, he goes to his house for dinner. As the King of kings enters his house, Zacchaeus gets convicted and returns the money that he had taken unjustly.
The Kingdom of God in our lives starts with repentance. Once we correct our ways & and align ourselves rightly with Him, we invite God’s dominion in our lives. This alignment with God makes even our selfish prayers, kingdom-prayers and our thoughts, kingdom-like.
The Lord’s prayer and most of the parables taught by Jesus are based on the Kingdom of God.
When we become kingdom minded, we will be able to live the Gospel.
In Nehemiah 1:4-11,
we read about Nehemiah who is aligned with God’s purpose for his life. And when it was required of him to act upon the desire put by God to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, he did not try to back out from the situation but fasted & prayed in preparation so that God gives him the courage to move forward.
– As we advance in our christian walk, it is necessary that we graduate from a level of personal needs to a level where we put needs of others before us. It is essential that we have a Godly burden for the people who are still lost.
– To labor for God’s kingdom will surely require us to step out of our comfort zones. And any effort for Kingdom expansion will always involve a cost. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value, which when found by a man, filled his life with joy and there was nothing that he had more precious than it, so he sold all that he had to get the possession of that treasure or pearl.
– God doesn’t leave us clueless or helpless after He grants His desire for our lives, but also sends His provisions which are more than sufficient for us to succeed in the purpose. As we can see in Nehemiah 2:8 onwards, when Nehemiah has placed his plea in front of the king, God grants him favor in the king’s sight. So much so that the king doesn’t just approve of Nehemiah’s period of leave but also gives him the access to material required for building. When God starts a work in us, He definitely can bring it to completion.
– When the enemy sees the progress in the life of God’s people towards His purpose, even he becomes more active and begins to put effort to fail & discourage them.
Strategies of the enemy to fail us from spreading the Kingdom of God :
1. He discourages us by pulling us down mentally & emotionally.
– In Nehemiah 2:19, when Sanballat, Tobiah & Geshem came to know about the task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they go to the people building the wall and start to mock them and demotivate them so that their spirit is weakened and they cannot succeed further. In such times, we must strengthen our faith in God for He who has begun this work and He will surely bring to pass.
2. He tries to pose physical threats.
– When the enemy realizes that he is not succeeding and we are still continuing towards the purpose, he tries to pose physical threats to intimidate us. As we see in Nehemiah 4:7-8, when the enemies saw that work at wall of Jerusalem is still progressing inspite of their previous efforts, they plot against them and threaten them to wage war against them.
– Knowing the enemy’s plot against them, people of Judah continue their work with one hand and holding a weapon in the other in case of war. The enemy will throw his best at us to stop our efforts for the Kingdom, but we should be prepared to defend against his attempts, which requires us to be deeply rooted in prayer and equipped with the Spiritual armor of God. It is not enough to just progress in our efforts but we also need to defend the work already done through prayers, like people of Judah who labored in day & guarded their efforts at night with the sword, as seen in Nehemiah 4:22.
3. The Enemy isolates out and targets us.
– God has purposefully placed us in fellowship of His people. So that we can draw strength & encouragement in times of despair.
– The enemy is aware that in Godly fellowship it is difficult to pull down people so he aims at isolating us first and then brings his plan to pass. When the people of Judah were confronted with similar attempts of isolation by their enemy, in Nehemiah 4:20 Nehemiah knowing the methods of the enemy, strategically places each men to his position with a trumpet in their hand. The trumpet was to be used to signal the nearby people for help & support when under attack. So that the enemies could not catch anyone in solitude.
4. The enemy tries to break the relationships from within by spreading false information.
– When everything else failed, the enemies of people of Judah use a weapon which can break the people of Judah from within. They begin to spread a false report against Nehemiah that he was preparing to revolt against the king and was planning to make himself king among his people, Nehemiah 6:5-7. This is a very dangerous weapon when not handled carefully, it can bring more damage than others.
– We, as God’s people should be united in truth. When satan brings false accusations about fellow brothers, we should be vigilant to avoid any possibility that can ruin our relationships and break our trust in others. As well as, we should dispel all the false rumors at the earliest and stop it from spreading.
In the end, with all these efforts the people of Judah were able to finish building the wall of Jerusalem within 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15), inspite of relentless attempts of the enemy to fail them. When we are out labouring for God’s work, we must remember the One who has started this work through us. And when we continue to hold onto God and do not give in to the empty threats of the enemy, we will be able to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives, and the results may surprise us even beyond our expectations.
