September 18

According to the apostle Paul, the responsibility of church leaders is “to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Leadership first equips us to do God’s work and then empowers us to do God’s work.
When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall, he began his task with prayer seeking God’s plan and then Nehemiah continued to bathe the process with prayer as it was being carried out (Nehemiah 1:3&4; 2:4; 4:4&5,9; 6:9). Once, God had revealed to Nehemiah how to carry out the work (2:12), it became Nehemiah’s responsibility to explain, equip, and empower others to carry the plan out. Various people rebuilt certain sections of the wall, often-times those sections that were nearest their homes. This was a brilliant strategy since those rebuilding that portion of the wall would be especially careful to do a good job since their lives were most dependent upon that section being done right. During the work, Satan placed many obstacles in their way, as he always does when God’s people set out to do God’s will. It is interesting that Nehemiah did not depend solely upon prayer to protect the work and the workers. Nehemiah combined a reliance upon prayer, as well as the use of the manpower and tools God had given them for protection. At first, armed guards were placed behind the lowest parts of the wall, along with families armed with swords, spears, and bows (4:13). Later, Nehemiah had the men alternate with one half working on the wall while the other half stood guard (4:15-23).
When the devil tried to distract Nehemiah, Nehemiah saw right through his lies and refused to leave the work God had given him to do (6:1-14). Because Nehemiah began the task in prayer, and because Nehemiah bathed the work in prayer, and because Nehemiah equipped and empowered God’s people to do the work, and because Nehemiah refused to be distracted from the work, the whole process was completed in only fifty two days. He says, “When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized that this work had been done with the help of our God” (6:16).
Nehemiah’s example is still worthy of following today; whatever the task is that God has given us. There is obviously much more strength when people work together than when they work alone (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). What could the church of Jesus Christ do today if we had the same formula, enthusiasm, passion, devotion, and prayer life that Nehemiah did?