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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Nehemiah 6:3
So I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
We need to understand and discern the wiles of the enemy.
Yes, he does use out and out opposition. Yes, he does use blatant discouragement and physical attacks. But he also knows that there are a lot of us, who, if we are really up against the obvious, will react and counter-attack. So he uses other means too; subtler and less overt.
Two of his more potent weapons are people and diversions. Remember this, if he can divert you from the task, his victory is just as effective as sabotage. On both counts the work has stopped. I would hazard a guess that he is far more successful today through diversion than by any other means. That is why God discouraged the mixed marriages that we saw Ezra having to deal with. It sounds good, plausible and loving - but it was a diversion of the enemy, ‘Get in and direct the people away from God’.
Outwardly, the diversions can appear with all intents and purposes plausible, if not extremely helpful, but in the end they can prove disastrous. I shall never forget a time in United Christian Broadcasters when we were still in our infancy desperately trying to start radio broadcasting to Britain. At the time I was living in London, the capital, and we were constantly challenged as to how we could get programming covering the whole of that great city.
A group that was broadcasting from outside British territorial waters made us a very helpful offer. It was ‘outside’ the law because they were broadcasting from ‘outside’ the country. And they were reaching the whole of the South-East of England, including London. It was a very attractive proposition. Not really bending the law by being outside of it.
We were following up on the proposition when ‘out of the blue’, I was introduced to someone I had never met before in my life. Her job was to ‘police’ rogue radio stations. She was able to point out, that whilst that particular radio organisation could carry on because they were completely ‘out at sea’, if they ever set foot on the mainland… On the other hand, because we were shore-based, we would have had all our equipment confiscated, been banned from broadcasting and the Ministry would have been set back 20 years.
Sanballat’s diversion was just to get Nehemiah to stop work but Nehemiah saw through it. He learnt never to allow the urgent to get in the way of the important.
Jesus’ unspoken reply on the cross was the same. The leaders shouted at him, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the Cross, and we will believe in Him” (Matthew 27:42). Jesus’ unspoken Scriptural reply was, “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
You have been warned.
Don’t be fooled by the enemy’s plans, however attractive and helpful they appear to be. Carry on in your work for God today. Refuse any and all diversions, even if you seem to have to sacrifice a ‘golden’ opportunity.
Stand firm and advance the kingdom of God.
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