BUILDING AND FIGHTING

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon ( Nehemiah 4:17 KJV) Beloved of God, people who usually fight don’t build things. Building is done in the context of peace. For instance, David was restricted from building a house for God because he had fought so much and had a lot of blood on his hands. Scripture declares concerning David: But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood (1Chronicles 28:3). In the work of the ministry however, you must build in the midst of conflict like Nehemiah and the Jews in the midst of strict opposition from Sanballat of Samaria and Tobiah the ammonite. If you want to wait for peace, you will never build. Jesus, though described as the Prince of peace in the scriptures said in Matthew 10:34-35: Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. Listen! there is some peace that will be taken away if you decide to follow the lord. The higher you go in God, the higher opposition the Devil sends against you. Every great work must be done with fighting. Nothing moves in the world unless it has conquered opposition and resistance. There is no bird that flies without meeting an opposing wind. No animal is without a predator. We live in this life by a survival mentality. We must stay alive to finish the mandate that God has given us. Don’t give up so easily when there is turmoil and war around you. Keep building in God. Paul the apostle puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 and 2 Corinthians 7:5-6: We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; (KJV) Beloved of God, don’t think that war began on earth. As a matter of fact, it began in heaven. Scripture declares in Revelation 12:7: And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. In spite of all the turmoil, you must finish your mandate. You must complete your course! You must build for God in the midst of fighting. Hold the sword of the Lord in one hand, and build with the other. Let this be your ‘sunesis’ in life and in the work of the ministry. Shalom!