When Someone on the Inside is Fighting Against You
What Are You to Do When the Threat is Inside?
Giving Your Prayer the Defense It Needs – Part 7
On your way to completing your biggest goals, dreams, your thirty-thousand-foot prayer, there will be threats that come from within. Do you understand what I mean from within? From people you trust and believe are with you. How can I state this simply, you will be betrayed. Not everyone who says they are for you are for you. Not everyone who should go along with you, is actually going along with you. There are people on your team, in your home, in your circle, that come from within, who will threaten your progress. Be ready to move onward anyway. Don’t let this set you back, wish them well, and whatever you do, keep moving.
Brace for the attacks that come from within.
We’ve been using Nehemiah as our guide. Right when you think your opposition has given up, you find yourself in one of the most difficult situations a human will experience.
Nehemiah decided to visit someone he knew; I believe this acquaintance might have been a prophet, priest, or someone in whom Nehemiah could trust. This friend heard that Nehemiah’s opposition was seeking to kill him, so he offered Nehemiah a safe place to hide and take refuge.1
Can you imagine someone desiring to take your life because of what you were doing for others? Think about it for a second. You’ve left a job working for the highest office in the land, started restoring a city, and now your life is being threatened because a group of people don’t understand nor like what you’re doing. Can you relate?
I’m sure you’re not running for your life in this way to reach your goal, but you do have someone working against you. BTW – normal people never experience the opposition that the uncommon experience. For opposition, you must be doing something for someone else to oppose. Let us continue.
You’re not going to make common-sense when you’re uncommon.
Just because it makes common-sense doesn’t mean it makes uncommon-sense. It’s said that Nehemiah replied to his friend with a question, should someone in my position seek safety and hide from the threat of an enemy? And he answered no.2
Being uncommon, you realize your value. You’re worth something, not worth nothing, worthless. What if we’ve been making decisions based on common-sense that’s leading us to have common results? It seems like the best solution because it makes perfect sense to everyone else. It’s easy to fall into a place where you use commonplace thinking and expect it’s the best; that’s what normal people do. Need I remind you that you are not common and common, ordinary, normal is not working.
You’ve not been asked by God to do anything normal.
Would God ask you to do anything that’s normal? I’ve been thinking this thought. Would God have you do what comes natural, normal? Just like Nehemiah realized that his acquaintance gave him an ungodly response3, we too must recognize when what we’re prompted to do is just an ordinary response. If we go down that path we’re sure to have ordinary results.
Think about all you know of God and think of every person who came in contact with Him; did at any point He give them normal or what we’d call logical instructions? His influence led David to confront the greatest enemy of his day with nothing more than a sling and five stones. Moses met with God and the next thing you know he was leading a million people out of Egypt. Paul encountered Jesus and he was blinded and given instruction on how to get his sight restored that defied reason. When has God given instructions that were normal? Therefore if we are seeking God-like results for our dreams, our goals, our thirty-thousand-foot prayer, we are going to have to take some God-like actions. Uncommon actions that is. Like facing your enemies when everyone else is hiding. Normal is not the way God does it or anyone who desires to be uncommon.
You don’t have to give them the tools to use against you.
Since they can’t stop you, they’ll try to discredit you. Get ready for it. Since your opposition can’t stop you from reaching your goal, they have no other options but to discredit you. They have to attack your character. Do you know the best way to guard against character attacks? Have good character. When you have no holes for them to poke around in, they can’t discredit you. The New Testament says it this way, “you can give the devil a foothold to use on you.”4 Because of that statement, if the devil wants a way to attack me, it won’t be because I gave him a way. In the same way, don’t give your haters anything they can use against you; they’re going to have to make it up. Otherwise, they have nothing to use.
Let’s do this a little differently. Close your eyes for a moment and place your thoughts on the thing you’re trying to accomplish. Place your thoughts on your goals. The house you wish to build. The company you want to start. The book you have inside you dying to get out. The miracle you need. Your thirty-thousand-foot prayer. Whatever it is, get it in your mind.
Now that you have your thoughts in the right place think of those who oppose what you are after. Brace yourself for the disappointment it brings that, that person is standing in your way. Next, remind yourself of your dream and say it doesn’t make sense because extraordinary actions don’t make sense to ordinary people. Because you have such a dream, I want to encourage you with this; God doesn’t waste time giving people ordinary dreams. So if you have anything that exceeds what’s ordinary, it came from God. Now don’t give your haters any more ammunition to use against you to stop your progress. You’re doing your great work and you can not come down!
Question: how does it feel now to have that extraordinary dream that’s under attack?
I hope you’re enjoying “Giving Your Prayer the Defense It Needs.” Don’t forget to click one of the share buttons to share this message with a friend. Thanks for visiting NoLongerCommon.com.
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References:
Reference #1: Nehemiah 6:10 NLT, Bible.com, accessed October 22, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NEH.6.10.NLT
Reference #2: Nehemiah 6:11 NLT, Bible.com, accessed October 22, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NEH.6.11.NLT
Reference #3: Nehemiah 6:12 NLT, Bible.com, accessed October 22, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NEH.6.12.NLT
Reference #4: Ephesians 4:27 NIV, Bible.com, accessed October 22, 2020, https://www.bible.com/111/eph.4.27.niv
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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