Nehemiah 2

Neh 2:18-19 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build." Then they set their hands to this good work. (19) But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?"

Nehemiah's burden and Nehemiah's prayer turns into reality when he is face to face with the king. Remember, we are talking about the call of ministry. We all have a call to minister to the world around us, therefore, we should all take time to learn from the trials of Nehemiah. First he had a burden. Second, he prayed. Now, he is faced with a decision. Where there is a burden for ministry there will always be a decision of sacrifice. Nehemiah is brought before the king, and for reasons unknown (besides for the miraculous hand of God), the king supports Nehemiah's wishes.

1. Burden
2. Prayer
3. Decision/sacrifice
4. Action
5. Work (Possibly alone)
6. Trials and scorn

Nehemiah's next step is one of action. He has been given the means to minister. He has approval. He has made his decision. Now was the time to act upon it. Keep in mind, Nehemiah is still in prayer every step of the way. He and a few others head toward Jerusalem. When he arrives he surveys the entire city. He gets different angles. He examines every gate. He does all of this alone. Already, despite not having the approval of the people, he is taking the first steps to rebuild the wall. This is faith.

Finally he presents his plans and through the grace of God Israel is excited about it. The enemies of Israel are not. Because Nehemiah has the decree from the king, Israel is safe from a threat of attack. Yet the verbal abuse begins and we are told that Israel was being mocked throughout the making of the wall.

This gives us two excellent points. The first is, minister in the Lord's time. Nehemiah was now equiped with a decree fromt he king. Could you imagine what would of happened had Nehemiah just left his duty as butler and rushed into building the wall. He would of been defeated! Secondly, ministry always comes with adversaries. Just because God approves does not mean that everyone else does. Who are we going to listen to? If we truly care more for the things of God than the things of this world we will listen to HIM.