Last night I had all kinds of dreams. I dreamed of the breakup of a sex abuse ring, I dreamed about someone stepping down from a local charity, and criminal fleeing in a sewer. But I had one that I feel really needs shared. I dreamed I was a new college student and I came to school with several other freshmen (and women). We all went to an assembly in the gym together and the freshmen were all looking to the upperclassmen for guidance. We were shy and afraid to speak and lead and we found seniors to ask how things worked. We asked them what to do and they didn’t have much to say. They wanted to split up into teams like the football team and the band and the science club and so on. So we went away and we came back to the next assembly. It had not been long, we were still freshmen and they were still seniors but this time we didn’t ask them what to do. We just led the assembly ourselves. We didn’t care about the teams or the order of things. We were extremely confident and capable, it was a supernatural transition of leadership from the old to the young. I went from hiding in the back to leading the assembly on stage.
I think we can all see what the dream is about. In America, there is a lot of trouble because the older people in our society are leading stupidly and dismissing the needs of people who are trying to grow up. College is a place for career training and people are desperately looking for help growing into their destiny but no one is helping. They just want people to join up with other people like them and form little groups because that’s what’s always been done. This is the story of society and even more so it is the story of the church! God is raising up the hidden ones to lead because the leaders are not leading well. It is going to be fast, people who God has prepared for a new way of doing things have come to a graduation and now they want to find their destiny. But they are not seeing a path to destiny in a system that divides people into likeminded easy to manage groups. Nobody wants age group ministry, gender ministry, relationship status ministry, people want the five fold ministry. People want to learn to become apostles, prophets, evangelists, preachers and teachers to grow into the mature Christians. Society is screaming for this leadership, the church is screaming for this leadership and yet few are providing it. So God is going to suddenly raise people up to meet the need for leadership in the areas of the destiny of the people. The unschooled and untrained will become what the current leaders believe is not possible. God Himself will train up leaders who have His vision for the church and the world.
Great stuff! Ok let’s jump into the Bible and see if we can find Jesus in Nehemiah. I want to start in the middle, Nehemiah keeps getting letters and people keep coming to him to invite him to meet. They are making up stories and threatening Nehemiah that he needs to stop building the wall in Jerusalem to address issues that the opposition is making up. I can see a connection between this and today’s America, with my dream above and the church, with Jesus, with Trump and with my own life. I think this is a cycle that plays itself out every time someone is doing God’s will.
They find every excuse to try to trip up the building of the wall. But Nehemiah doesn’t waver at all. He tells them they are lying and dismisses their entire claim to him. He tells them that his time and his work is more important than how they feel, their complaints and their made up stories. He just keeps working because he knows he is right in the middle of God’s will. My pastor says it is the safest place in the world to be, right in the middle of God’s will.
Now these people are mad, they are trying to stop the work of God at all costs. They are even making up reasons to stop it. And when he doesn’t stop building the wall, they accuse him of crimes and threaten to arrest him. Sounds like Trump building the wall. It sounds like me trying to raise my own children. It sounds like Jesus teaching the ways of God and laying His life down. This stuff just keeps happening, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were a lot like Nancy Pelosi and the American left. They were a lot like the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were a lot like my family and ex in-laws. They would go to great lengths to stop the work.
Let me just say that if there are people who are going to great lengths to stop you from doing good and you don’t understand, it is because you are doing God’s will. Keep working! You are right where you should be! Nehemiah reminds me of Jesus responding to the Pharisees. They told him to leave because Harod wanted to kill Him! You know what Jesus said? Go tell that fox I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. The spiritually crafty little foxes are always trying to derail the work of God. Jesus told them flat out that Harod couldn’t kill him and he wouldn’t stop. I’ve been threatened a lot in my life and God taught me this lesson early on, although I haven’t always followed through. Sometimes I’ve been afraid and it has caused mistakes. But many times in my life I have stared down a threat and felt the fire of God flow through and destroy attempts to force me to submit to another spirit or person. The fear of God is to never submit to fear from another source but stay in the will of God, submitted to Him.
I pray that the fear of God would overtake us all! I pray that you would walk in faith realms and no weapon formed against you would ever prosper. I pray that you will live a Psalm 90 lifestyle, that you would face down the armies of hell, the giants of old and the ascended losers and without fear cast them all down! I pray that you would roar like a lion in the face of accusations and threats and that you would feel the enemy’s fear of you and roar again! Today we read Nehemiah, I hope you have a chance to read with us. May the Lord grant you fearlessness and faith and power in your resolve to walk with Him. And may God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 