Yesterday I heard a message called “Strengthen my hands” by David Gibbs, Jr. I want to recap it for you. Nehemiah was a captive, serving a pagan king. The Lord laid a burden on his heart to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. Impossible task. 

The burden was a call to action. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” The Lord empowers those who answer His call. Through God’s miraculous intervention the king allowed Nehemiah to go, and he provided the finances and the resources.

The work was intensely fought against by their enemies. Yet, in Nehemiah 6:9 we read Nehemiah’s prayer. It says, “For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.” After that prayer the wall was completed in 52 days!

Spurgeon and Moody both said that this prayer is the second greatest prayer recorded in the Bible. The first being for salvation. David Gibbs, Jr. encouraged his listeners to pray this prayer every day. Here are his key points:

1. God loves to strengthen the weak. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul acknowledged that he was weak. We need to get real with God. James 4:10 says to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He knows our heart, but He wants us to acknowledge our weakness. 

2. He is no respecter of persons. Acts 10:34. 

3. He has unlimited power. He wants to strengthen us with the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead. What we face is insignificant to His unlimited power. Nothing is impossible for God. Luke 1:37.

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My note: as I typed this I realized that Nehemiah refuted and renounced the enemy’s words through his prayer ~ great strategy for spiritual warfare!

Let’s take another account. Lazarus died and was buried.  In John 11:21 Martha said to Jesus, “…Lord, if You have been here…” Have you ever questioned God’s timing? In verse 26 Jesus said, “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

We have His written word. Do we believe it? When we hide His word in our heart, it rises up as a defense against the enemy’s fiery darts of doubt. His hidden word shouts out the truth that secures our heart when we are under attack.

Let’s take Thomas. John 21:24-29. Thomas had questioned the living account from the other disciples. Jesus revealed Himself to him. In verse 27 He said, “…Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Write His words in capital letters on the wall of your heart.

We conquer unbelief through faith affirmations. In the face of our impossibility, we declare God’s word and stand steadfast and immovable in that truth.

As I was meditating on Ephesians 4:17-19 this thought came. A believer can be unbelieving. The enemy of our soul uses fiery dart thoughts of unbelief to derail us. Anytime we have doubts, we can know that our faith is under attack.

The fruit of unbelief is: futile thoughts, understanding is darkened, our vital union with the Lord is cut off, our heart is blinded, and we are given over to the flesh of past feeling. Romans 1:21 says, “Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Let’s contrast Zachariah (Luke 1:5-20) and Mary (Luke 1:28-49). Zachariah faced the impossible and doubted and was mute. Mary faced the impossible and magnified the Lord. God’s will is that in everything we are to give Him thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Paul, a devout Jew, was soundly converted to be God’s messenger of grace. The Lord used him to reveal His mystery. Ephesians 3:10 says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the  church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”

There is more. Verse 11 says, “According to the  eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Until it was time for the church to be birthed, the mystery remained hidden.

When I think of God’s manifold wisdom, I picture a kaleidoscope. One slight turn and the whole scene changes. Every trial that we go through is part of His manifold wisdom ~ displaying His church before our defeated enemy! Verse 12 says, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.”

God hid His eternal purpose in Himself. That is just so delightful. Ephesians 3:9 says, “…the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God…” 1 Corinthians 2:8 says, “Which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

Crucifying Jesus was part of God’s eternal purpose. Through His death, burial, and resurrection we have the gospel message.  Read these two verses carefully and then shout hallelujah! 

Ephesians 1:9-10 says, “Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.”

James 3:18 says, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” It is a spiritual blessing that is imparted when we ask.

James 1:5 says that if we lack wisdom, we can ask for it. He will give it to us liberally. Proverbs 2:7 gives us a qualifier. It says, “He stores up sound wisdom for the upright…” The fear of the Lord is reverential trust, and the beginning of wisdom. How do we walk upright? We shun compromise.

Intimate communion sets the stage for impartation. Psalm 25:14 Amplified says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

I have been meditating on Ephesians 1. This chapter is so full of delightful truths. I camped on verse 3 for several days. Anything that we have from the Lord is supernatural. It cannot be produced by man. Neither can the fruit of the Spirit. It is bestowed, gifted, or imparted by the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

John 15:16 says that He chose us. There was nothing on our part. Ephesians 1:4 says that He chose us before He ever laid the foundation for the world. We are predestined ~ chosen and appointed beforehand. 

We are made in His image for relationship. At salvation we are made holy and without blame. According to the good pleasure of His will, according to the riches of His grace, according to His purpose, according to the counsel of His will, and according to the working of His resurrection power.

Grace is God’s provision for every aspect of our lives. Ephesians 1:8 in the Amplified says of His grace, “Which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence).”

It starts with His choosing us. Ephesians 1:4 says that He chose us before the foundation of the world. Verse 5-6 says, “Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Chosen. Adopted. Accepted. Redeemed. John 1:16 Amplified says, “For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received (all had a share and we were all supplied with) one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift (heaped) upon gift.” I read this verse like a domino effect.

I was reading Psalm 99. In verse 6 Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were mentioned. Verse 8 says, “You answered them, O Lord our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, though You took vengeance on their deeds.”

Psalm 130:3-4 says, “If You Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who can stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Jesus’ death brought forgiveness of our past, present, and future sins. When He cried out, ‘It is finished!’ it meant that the full payment for our sins was complete. Yet, the consequences for our sins were not wiped out. What do we do with them? They are trials we must endure, because they are purifiers of our faith. 1 Peter 1:7.