Episode 163: Two Wings To Fly (Neh. 2:1-8)

We explore how faith and effort work together through Nehemiah’s bold request to rebuild Jerusalem, showing how prayer fuels practical planning. Along the way we unpack convergent faith, journaling for clarity, and choosing open doors over closed ones.

• Two wings of progress: faith and human effort
• Nehemiah’s courage in the king’s court
• Specific asks: letters, timber, timelines, and travel
• Preparation as evidence of trust and character
• Convergent faith: gifts, calling, and prayer aligned
• Journaling to remember lessons and track God’s provision
• Discernment: not every good thing is your thing
• Practical questions to identify gifts and passions
• Looking for open doors instead of closed ones
• Blessing to rebuild from the inside out

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Transcript

Lessons On Prayer From Dr. Towns

Two Wings: Faith And Effort

Nehemiah Faces The King

The Bold Ask And Quick Prayer

Planning The Journey And Resources

Preparedness, Honesty, And Favor

Doing Our Part While We Wait

Convergent Faith Defined

Journaling For Clarity And Memory

Gifts, Calling, And Next Steps

Open Doors And A Final Blessing

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi friends, I'm Betsy, and I want to welcome you to Moments to Ponder. If you're interested in learning more from the Bible, but sometimes struggle to know how it connects to you, you've come to the right place. This podcast is designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word and take away something to ponder. I pray this time together will be encouraging for you. This is episode 163. Years ago, I studied for my master's in ministry, and one of my favorite classes was on prayer. It was one of the intensives offered, meaning we traveled to the university in the summer for a week-long, all-day, everyday class. It was taught by a man named Dr. Elmer Towns, and I can still see him in front of our class, full of enthusiasm and energy. He was already 77 years old. Today he's 93. Well, he shared his incredible wisdom and insights on prayer. He had the ability to throw out nuggets of wisdom mixed with scripture and teaching that just made the class fly by. His stories of prayer and what it can do were fascinating. He said many things that I quote often, and one is this it takes two wings to fly. He wasn't talking about birds. He was talking about faith and human effort. So often when we bring a request to God, we tend to wait on him to take care of it. But we actually have a part in this. God wants us to do what we can as he does what only he can. For instance, you'd like a new job. Okay, pray and get your resume out there. You'd like healing, pray and get into counseling or go to a doctor. Yes, God can do everything, but over and over again throughout scripture we see God desiring us to do our part. Put your son on the altar, then the ram appears. Step into the river, then it parts. Go before the king, then she's accepted. There's an element of trust and obedience that God sees when we do this. It also goes the other way, right? When we do it all without God, meaning all human effort, we'll find ourselves flying in circles, flapping our one wing, but not getting anywhere. This is what Nehemiah is going to show us today. Nehemiah has been praying, but that's not all he's been doing. It takes two wings to fly. Let's dive into chapter two. Early the following spring in the month of Nasan, during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes' reign, I was serving the king his wine. Again, Nehemiah begins with the date, so it's March, four months later, and he's doing his job. He's serving the king his wine. It continues. I had never before appeared sad in his presence, so the king asks me, Why are you looking so sad? You don't look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled. Then I was terrified. Well, that's an interesting phrase. I was terrified. Nehemiah knew it was critical to always be happy when in the king's presence, yet the king notices he looks sad. This whole situation in Jerusalem has really weighed on Nehemiah, and the king can tell that he's deeply troubled. But being sad in the king's presence isn't what terrifies Nehemiah. I think he's terrified because he knows the time has come. It's that moment. He has to take action on all that prayer and speak up. It's that dig deep, big deep breath moment. So even though he's terrified, Nehemiah replies, Long live the king. How can I not be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire. So Nehemiah's honest. He doesn't sugarcoat it or hedge around it, he says it straight up. Verse 4. The king asked, Well, how can I help you? With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried. Who that's a big ask. No wonder Nehemiah has been praying. With a quick prayer here again, knowing that only God can make the king favorable to what he's going to ask, Nehemiah with a bolt of courage, requests to be sent to rebuild the city. I mean, that's a big deal. It's helpful to know a little geography here. The Persian Empire is vast at this time in history. It encompasses the Middle East across to Egypt, through Asia Minor, to the edges of Greece. I mean, Jerusalem from where they are in Susa is about 900 miles away. Nehemiah can't just go in a straight line, though. He'll have to travel in an arc, following the Persian territory around the giant desert, following the Euphrates River going northwest until he turns south in Assyria and heads down into what we call Israel. With this in mind, the next question from the king makes complete sense. Verse 6. The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked, How long will you be gone? When will you return? After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request. Okay, so first we see that the king is with the queen. So this gives me the impression that they're at a family type dinner, not some big ceremonial thing. So as Nehemiah serves him, it's more of an intimate setting, and Nehemiah sees the opening that he needs. And then do you notice? Did you notice how prepared Nehemiah is? He hasn't just been praying, he has been planning. He's totally prepared to say how long he'd be gone. He's not asking for a week off, he's asking for years. And and that's not all. Verse 7. I also said to the king, If it pleases the king, let me have letters addressed to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them, let me travel safely through their territories on my way to Judah. And please give me a letter addressed to Asaph, the manager of the king's forest, instructing him to give me timber. I will need it to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, for the city walls, and for a house for myself. And the king granted these requests because the gracious hand of God was on me. Nehemiah is honest, prepared, and upfront. He knows how long he's going to be gone, what permissions he'll need to travel as he goes through all the provinces on his way, and he knows the supplies he'll need, not only for the rebuilding of the temple and the city, but for his own home. So he's going to need years to accomplish this and the money to make it happen. The king says, yes. Not only does he receive full support, but he's given all the money and the supplies as well. This incredible generosity can only be because of the gracious hand of God. And we learn something from Nehemiah in this moment. I have been in so many situations where someone is asking for permission to do something. And when asked what they'll need, they don't know. They were so focused on permission that they hadn't gone any further. It's almost like they didn't want to do the planning work until they had a yes. When I might be more inclined to give a yes if I know all that will be involved. The preparation tells me just how much they really want what they're asking for. Now I've also been in situations where I find out later that more was actually needed than the person asked for. They weren't up front and there's a surprise in the budget. This makes a no a little more likely in a future, right? Honesty, upfront, and preparation. This says a lot about Nehemiah's character as he speaks to the king. Nehemiah knows it takes two wings to fly. So he does the work he can do. He plots the course, he knows which governors he'll need permission from, and he even knows the name of the man that heads up the king's forest. He knows how much wood he's going to need. He has done his homework and left the rest up to God. And the king granted his request. We can ask God for anything. And we need to do what is ours to do. If the king had asked Nehemiah, and Nehemiah didn't have those answers, who knows if the king would have been favorable? But Nehemiah shows his faith and trust by doing what was needed on his part. He anticipated that God's work would happen, ready and ready and able for when God made it happen. So here's a question. Is there something you've been asking God for or about and you've been in waiting mode? Is there something you can be doing while you wait? I've learned that in doing what is mine to do, I discover if it's really something that fits into what God has for me to do. I've learned that even though all things are possible with God, not all things should be done. Nehemiah's request reminds me of another quote from Dr. Towns. He said, When your spiritual giftedness and your calling match your prayer, powerful things happen. He called it convergent faith. It's using what we've been given and depending on God in prayer, praying into how to use those things, yielding, confessing, praising, and asking, and then seeing what God can do with it. Now, at the time I heard this, it was the summer of 2009. And on July 27, I sat in the courtyard at that university and I wrote in my journal all about convergent faith. I listed what I felt God had given me as gifts and talents and what he was calling me to. And then I wrote the prayer of my heart and I realized there was an element of convergent faith there that I could lean into. And this is what I wrote. Am I ready yet, Lord? What are we preparing for? It takes two wings to fly. I feel like I'm doing mine and being in school and expanding ministry. I've learned so much and experienced so much in these last two years. I'm wondering. Now I don't say this to say, look at my faith, look what I wrote in my journal. I want you to see something here. First, I wrote it down, like Nehemiah did, so that I could go back and reread these words and remember what I had learned. And now as I look back to 2009 and forward, I can see how God used that time of preparation for doing what he had for me in those next few years. It's in the looking back that I see God's footsteps by mine. The second reason I share it is because when we write it down, it helps us remember what we've learned and we see how God was faithful. And because I'm asking those same questions again today in this new season of my life, I know because he was faithful then, he will be faithful now. Of course, I can also see the times in my journal when I prayed for something that I was not called to, that I did not have the gifts for. And God said, uh, no, it wasn't aligned with what he had created me to do. Even though it sounded great, it wasn't for me. Nehemiah's journal here is his note about this important time with the king, but even more so, it's to help us all see that God supplied everything that he needed. We will see Nehemiah's convergent faith as we go forward. His leadership gifts, his call to Jerusalem, and his prayers are all converging as he steps out of Susa and into his true call in Jerusalem. It's going to lead to something powerful. Dear one, this isn't just for Nehemiah or for me. This is for you. You have been gifted by God, meaning he has given you abilities, and they are to be used for his kingdom. You are called, meaning he has given you a passion for some kind of work in his kingdom. If you are Christ's follower, you have already answered that first call when Jesus said, Come, follow me and be my disciple. And as his disciple, we are invited to live a life of faith, to serve others, and to use the things he has given us. As you discover more about how God has made you and gifted you and crafted your heart, I pray that you can learn how to lean into those things and use them for him. Maybe you're wondering, as many people do, what is God calling me to? What is my giftedness? Just ask him. It's not a secret, but it does take some listening and some pondering. We need to do our part, remember. So here are some things to ask yourself as you process what are my gifts and what are my passions, and how do I pray into them to use them for God? What are you good at? What makes your heart sing? What are you passionate about? What skills do you possess? And if you know, what spiritual gifts has God given you? When you look at the answers to these questions and the desire of your heart, your passion, how can God use these for his work? Nehemiah shows us that when our prayer converges with how God made us, powerful things happen. For him, a king was extremely generous and sent him off to do what God had called him to do. God supplied. Okay, one last quote from Dr. Towns. Go through life looking for the open doors, not the closed ones. I know it seems not quite profound, but dear one, we all see closed doors in our lives. I encourage you to stop looking at the closed doors, hoping that they'll open and see God's open doors before you as you begin to use your wing and depend on his. And write it down. Write it down so we can look back and celebrate what God is gonna do. Thanks for spending these moments in God's Word with me. As you go into your week, may God continue the work that He's begun in you, rebuilding from the inside out. You are loved. Amen.