Nehemiah 6: 1-16

1: Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)

These three men represented all of the Jewish descendants meaning that the enemy will cause ALL your people to come against you because of your faith.

Nehemiah faced many attempts to get him to stop the work he was doing

Satan is always trying to get God’s servants to "come down", but if we do there are certain things we can expect to lose.

If we come down we abandon what God has called us to "occupy"

Psalms 84:10 We abandon the Work

Nehemiah was commissioned to a great work, but "any" work for God is a great work.

Satan will try everything he can to get us to come down…but don’t

God’s work is too important to ever abandon… John 21:3

Matthew 10: 32-33 We abandon our Witness

Nehemiah had a position of authority and respect among the people, if he had stopped the people would have been watching.

We are being watched by younger Christians, and do not want to cause them to stumble.

Proverbs 3: 1-7 We abandon our Diet

We must not lose our focus no matter what the devil tries to distract us with.

He will attack our weakness, try to get us to act rashly, without thinking.

Our Diet is very important, just as the physical, even more with the spiritual. If we spend 15 minutes a meal at the table for our physical diet, are we spending that much time on our knees for our spiritual diet? What about the Word? Do we spend as much time in it as we do in front of the TV?

Luke 9: 62

Jesus encouraged us to keep our eyes and minds on the task that He has assigned us.

Do you need to adjust your diet?

Are you starving your spirit?

Are you opening the door for the devil… when he asks you to step down from the wall… are your defenses weak?

2: That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.

Ono – several meanings: ability, power, wealth, might, strength, substance.

Another: to pant (to exert oneself, usually in vain), vanity,

wickedness, evil, false, idol, iniquity, mischief

Another: Idolatry

The enemy will try to bring you to any or all of the above mentioned to destroy you and your witness. He will use all the means of the world and enticements to lure you away from the work of God.

3: And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

The resolve we must have when facing the attacks of the enemy.

4: Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

Consistency in our walk is vitally important and can only come from spending time daily in the Word and prayer.

5: Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;

6: Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.

7: And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.

The enemy may even devise false claims against you by those close to you to cause you to stumble. Jesus said that the members of our own house would be our enemies because of the Gospel.

8: Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.

9: For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

When weakened by the attacks of the enemy we must know where we derive our strength from as Nehemiah does.

10: Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.

Shemaiah - discernment

We need to constantly be in the house of discernment. This is the one thing that is lacking in our churches today and it is desperately needed.

11: And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

12: And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

13: Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

Not all that proclaim to be bringing messages from God are true. That is why discernment is so necessary. Christians are too easily influenced by man without seeking God out for the truth.

14: My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

15: So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

16: And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.