Producing The Proof

Journey Into The Promised Land

Nehemiah 1:1–11 (CSB)

The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:

NEWS FROM JERUSALEM

During the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile. They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned.”

NEHEMIAH’S PRAYER

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens. I said,

Lord, the God of the heavens, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands, let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servant’s prayer that I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against you. Both I and my father’s family have sinned. We have acted corruptly toward you and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances you gave your servant Moses. Please remember what you commanded your servant Moses: “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and carefully observe my commands, even though your exiles were banished to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have my name dwell.” 10 They are your servants and your people. You redeemed them by your great power and strong hand. 11 Please, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to that of your servants who delight to revere your name. Give your servant success today, and grant him compassion in the presence of this man.,

At the time, I was the king’s cupbearer.

The Spirit Of Negativity

The strategy of coming against God’s people with negativity is a strategy the devil has employed since the beginning. Satan inquired of Eve, “…Yea, hath God said…?” (Genesis 3: 1). He implied that God was withholding something good from Eve by preventing her from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The real situation was that God was protecting Eve and all of mankind from the negatives of the curse that would come upon them once she and Adam partook of the forbidden fruit. Eve believed the negatives. She also believed Satan’s other negative, “Ye shall not surely die…” (Genesis 3:4).

We need to know Satan’s devices and how we can combat them. Paul declared: “… we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

In the time of Nehemiah when the Jews began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Satan threw a whole book of negatives at the Jews. Through enemy leaders named Sanballat and Tobiah, the builders were subjected to all sorts of ploys and ridicule.

And he (Sanballat) spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. (Nehemiah 4:2-3)

This did not move the Jews at all. They just called on God and kept working. Nehemiah reports: “So built we the wall…” (Nehemiah 4:6).

Next the enemy tried another tactic:

And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. (Nehemiah 4:8)

The spirit of negativism is very contagious if we allow it to get started. Soon it had infected even some of the Jews who began to worry.

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. (Nehemiah 8:10-11)

Thank God that He was still on the scene and again the enemy was defeated and the work for God continued (Nehemiah 8:15).

Have you been infected by the spirit of negativity? If so, be sure to make today’s declaration!

Make this declaration:

I rebuke the spirit of negativity from operating in my mind, heart, or spirit.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

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