SPEAKER_02: You're listening to the road.
SPEAKER_01: God's got a purpose for every one of you in this room, and it's unique to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not my purpose, it's your purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It's under the rubric of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to use your gift, your talent, your skill for something powerful, something good, something that nobody else can do on the face of the earth, but you being engaged and focused in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_02: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_02: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.
SPEAKER_01: We are in Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're taking notes, I want you just to write down confrontation of deep state.
SPEAKER_01: The confrontation of the deep state.
SPEAKER_01: In your life, there's a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: In America, there's a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: In every country, there's a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: And in Nehemiah chapter 6, we're going to see a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, here's what a deep state is.
SPEAKER_01: A deep state is the status quo.
SPEAKER_01: Status quo is Latin for the state in which.
SPEAKER_01: The state in which current leaders, men and women, have a vested interest in keeping things the same.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Current leaders have a vested interest in keeping things the same because it's comfortable and it enables them to remain in power.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah's about to confront that.
SPEAKER_01: If you begin to rebuild walls in your life, you have a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: You have a deep state, you have something within you, it's called the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: It's called that sinful old Adam that really wants to just keep things the same.
SPEAKER_01: And so we may change churches, or we may say outwardly that we're making a certain change, but you know in your heart that the battle is always within.
SPEAKER_01: That's the deep state.
SPEAKER_01: So Nehemiah in Nehemiah chapter 6 is attempting to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, literal walls.
SPEAKER_01: But it's metaphorical to what God wants to do in our lives in relation to rebuilding walls in our own heart to become a people of integrity, a people of power, a people of joyful peace to those that were around.
SPEAKER_01: But it's also metaphorical for America.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we're in 52 days of prayer right now.
SPEAKER_01: Every noon, Monday through Friday, we come in here and we pray and we pray and we pray and we're believing God for revival.
SPEAKER_01: We're breathing God for awakening.
SPEAKER_01: We're believing God to do a great work in this election.
SPEAKER_01: Because America's at a crossroads.
SPEAKER_01: America is at a place like it never has been, probably since 1860.
SPEAKER_01: Where some say a civil war is looming.
SPEAKER_01: There is such a dichotomy of values that we've got riots happening all over the country.
SPEAKER_01: But men and women, God's doing something.
SPEAKER_01: God's in this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are at this church right now because God's doing something in your heart that wasn't happening even six months ago.
SPEAKER_01: God's doing something, He's moving.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you know Britt and Audrey Hancock.
SPEAKER_01: And I should have kept my mic.
SPEAKER_01: Can someone hand me that mic?
SPEAKER_01: I I should have kept it up here.
SPEAKER_01: But you guys know, some of you know Britt and Audrey, and they're going from capital to capital all across the country and praying at that capital.
SPEAKER_01: And I asked Brett to send me a report each week.
SPEAKER_01: So here's his re most current report.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Pastor Steve.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning to the road.
SPEAKER_00: This is Britt Hancock with Mountain Gateway.
SPEAKER_00: Today is October the 4th, 2020.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's happening all over the United States for now.
SPEAKER_00: And we're running into groups of people praying for, and that is what filled my heart with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Big events, small events, the individual people, small groups, medium-sized groups.
SPEAKER_00: God has really stirred his people.
SPEAKER_01: We could go on, but what's exciting is all these small groups that Britt and Audrey are running into.
SPEAKER_01: There are thousands of groups.
SPEAKER_01: There are hundreds of thousands of people that are praying.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you know about the big prayer march that Franklin Graham did last weekend.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it was 50 to 100,000 were the estimates and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jonathan Kahn, same time with the thing that he was doing, it was like 50 to 100,000.
SPEAKER_01: So people are praying.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God hears those prayers?
SPEAKER_01: You think God's moving in our midst?
SPEAKER_01: I believe a great awakening is coming.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God is bringing a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: And when I speak of a revolution, men and women, I mean the changing of culture.
SPEAKER_01: Not just a revival, not just a move of God that is just located temporarily in one location, though that's a great spark.
SPEAKER_01: And we would love for that to start here.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love for that to start in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: But a revolution is more than that.
SPEAKER_01: A revolution affects politics.
SPEAKER_01: Revolution affects business.
SPEAKER_01: Revolution affects education, all these different areas.
SPEAKER_01: As Liz has shared the vision that we have growing within the loins of our heart of cherishing children.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what that means, but that's a revolution.
SPEAKER_01: Our culture hates children.
SPEAKER_01: And when I speak of that, I know that you don't and we don't, but I'm talking about there's a pervasive demonic principality and power that's trying to take out our children.
SPEAKER_01: Not only through the early stages of conception, but now to the point where there's discussion of legislation that within a week after a child's born, you can let it die.
SPEAKER_01: That's where things are going if the church doesn't stand up and battle in spiritual warfare in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 6, and they are about to establish the wall.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's happening in 52 days.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what Nehemiah is up against.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah has found, listen, that they, that the Israelites have left Babylon, but Babylon has not left them.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize, church, you can leave your sin, but your sin doesn't leave you.
SPEAKER_01: It is a constant battle.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: You can go back and get the other sermons ahead of time.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, later on in relation to stuff we've already done.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is they're building these walls.
SPEAKER_01: They're in Jerusalem, and there is a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: And we looked at it last week where the rulers over Israel at that time were taxing the people, probably 30, 40, maybe 50% interest on their taxes.
SPEAKER_01: People were having to sell their children into slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Could have been self-sex trafficking going on at that time within Israel, but it gets a little more deep here in chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: So look at 6.1.
SPEAKER_01: Now it happened when Sambalat, Tobiah, now I want you to circle Tobiah.
SPEAKER_01: Geshem the Arab.
SPEAKER_01: So it's Zambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the unholy trinity that are opposing Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, with 6-1, this is what I do in my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you can, you can put an arrow.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to point an arrow from one all the way over to 17 and 18 in the same chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what it says.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I'm talking about, the deep state here.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: In those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jeremiah is being opposed by the nobles as he's rebuilding the walls.
SPEAKER_01: And the letters to Tobiah came to them.
SPEAKER_01: For many in Judah were pledged to him, meaning Tobiah, because he was a son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Arah, and his son Jehanon had married the daughter of Meshalem, the son of Barakia.
SPEAKER_01: So what had happened is Tobiah marries into a prominent family in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: The letters that are going out from the nobles against Nehemiah are being sent to Tobiah and his family.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting it out to the nobles.
SPEAKER_01: Then any response that Nehemiah has, which you're going to look at in just a second in chapter 6, that he responds, they're probably squelching, they're probably taking those out.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're moving to, I guess, to kind of kill his free speech, but at the same time, they're getting the word out about what a bad guy that Nehemiah is.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's having to confront that.
SPEAKER_01: And many women, when you look at anything in history, when God raises up leaders, there's always a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: There was a deep state with Winston Churchill as he began in the 1930s, around 1935, speaking out, writing consistently in his column that went around the world against Hitler.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody listened.
SPEAKER_01: And so, especially in England at that time, and with Neville Chamberlain being the prime minister.
SPEAKER_01: And we can look at aspects of Abraham Lincoln.
SPEAKER_01: We can look at what happened with William Wilberforce when he was coming against slavery in England at the time.
SPEAKER_01: He came against a deep state.
SPEAKER_01: Because people have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's going to be true in your life.
SPEAKER_01: As you begin to grow in Christ, as you start making choices to follow Christ, there are going to be alliances.
SPEAKER_01: Some of it's demonic, but some of it's through people that want to oppose you, keep you down, and especially keep you in your place.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't believe it, just write some of these letters about why you're voting and see what kind of responses you get on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, demonic powers build alliances on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And that's his church.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm challenging you to stand for truth, to trust God as he begins to rebuild walls in your own life, but also in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want to do this morning as we look at chapter 6 is some of the tactics, some of the tactics that Satan will use to hold us back from our destiny.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the tactics that Satan will use to tie you up, deceive you, so that you don't build the new walls that God wants to rebuild in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Sambalat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.
SPEAKER_01: But they thought to do me harm.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go to Onoh.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what you gotta do is before you go to the plane of Oh no, you gotta say, oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
SPEAKER_01: And so here they are, they're trying to take him off task, put him in a position where here's Satan's strategy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Satan's strategy.
SPEAKER_01: Write this down, jot this down.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's strategy is distract you from your main purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Distract you from your main purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_01: God's got a purpose for every one of you in this room, and it's unique to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not my purpose, it's your purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It's under the rubric of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to use your gifts, your talents, your skills for something powerful, something good, something that nobody else can do on the face of the earth, but you being engaged and focused in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are writers, some of you are financial planners, some of you are gonna be lawyers, some of you are gonna be doctors, some of you are mechanics, some of you are foremen, some of you are artists.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, God's called you to that, and the enemy's going to come and try to distract you off your purpose.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's trying to do with Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Say, come on, come on out to oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Come on out to oh no, and Nehemiah will have nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_01: So I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: Now just circle great work.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you, if you're in God's will, if you're following him, you are doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let anybody dissuade you.
SPEAKER_01: You are doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: If you're seeing your company and your job as a mission field, you're doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: If you're parenting your children in a godly way and you're trying to build them up in the ways of the Lord, you're doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: I love what I heard one time, Gigi Graham, one of the daughters of Billy Graham, has over the sink in her kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: A mighty work of God happens here every day.
SPEAKER_01: And you moms that are discipling your kids and loving your kids, you are doing a great and mighty and powerful work.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great work.
SPEAKER_01: Stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: Jot that down.
SPEAKER_01: Stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you stay focused?
SPEAKER_01: Three ways.
SPEAKER_01: Time, energy, and money.
SPEAKER_01: Time, your, your time, your energy, and your money are your three greatest assets.
SPEAKER_01: Time, energy, and money.
SPEAKER_01: And you stay focused on what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because the enemy's gonna try to distract you, gonna get you off.
SPEAKER_01: Get you all.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you feel confused sometimes?
SPEAKER_01: Man, I don't know what it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: I felt so off-kilter yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm pretty focused.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a pretty focused guy, but I felt that way.
SPEAKER_01: You ever feel that way?
SPEAKER_01: You can't even really, you don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's demonic.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's demonic, but I can't put my finger on it, but I just felt like almost the whole day I felt confused.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and that wasn't like majorly confused, just it was just a little bit, but it wasn't that peaceful, focused, joyful place that I like to be.
SPEAKER_01: It just felt like I was kind of off balance.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's a good word.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you feel off balance.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the enemy comes to kind of knock you off off balance a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you in this room, you do stuff when you're off balance that you regret.
SPEAKER_01: Like it might be, I don't know, it might be drinking, it might be sex, it might be um depression, anxiety, panic.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you struggle with panic attacks, and it's because of confusion in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I battled with that in my past too.
SPEAKER_01: And it and you can be set free.
SPEAKER_01: You can be set, you can get victory over panic attacks.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say you can get victory over anything.
SPEAKER_01: You can, but you've got to focus.
SPEAKER_01: And it just doesn't happen naturally.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just saying I'm gonna pray the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually, it's actually a focused attention to usually the opposite of what you're struggling with.
SPEAKER_01: It's the opposite spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So if it's impurity that your mind goes to, you're you're gonna have to start focusing on purity.
SPEAKER_01: If you're one who gossips, you have a gossip problem, you're gonna have to switch gears and start focusing on truth and love for other people and caring about them and loving your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You have to start refocusing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what's happening with Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to, they're trying to get him off balance, get him confused, and yet he says to them, I'm doing a great work.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot come down.
SPEAKER_01: Why should the work cease?
SPEAKER_01: Why should I get confused?
SPEAKER_01: Why should I get off balanced?
SPEAKER_01: Why should I be distracted and leave it and go down to you?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so Nehemiah doesn't take the bait, he stays focused.
SPEAKER_01: But they sent me this message four times.
SPEAKER_01: And I answered them in the same manner.
SPEAKER_01: Then Sambalat sent his servant to me as before a fifth time with an open letter in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that the enemy doesn't quit very easily?
SPEAKER_01: That he comes two times, and then he comes three times, and then he comes four times, maybe in one day, and he comes five times, because he knows that you've got a weakness in this area, and so he's gonna just keep hammering you with that.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to learn to make declarations like you did this morning.
SPEAKER_01: My kids will tell you that I had them, I don't know, what was it like a year ago or six months a year ago?
SPEAKER_01: I had them all stand up in one of our devotional times like this.
SPEAKER_01: And you guys, I've done it with you here.
SPEAKER_01: You you're laughing, or yeah, Cheon's laughing.
SPEAKER_01: Because we we just do this.
SPEAKER_01: It's like that this has been proven that you have something like an 88% increase in testosterone in your system if you stand like this and make a declaration about something that is a value that you hold to be true.
SPEAKER_01: So ours was, I think I am a leader, I'm not a follower, and God's gonna use me, or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: So we make those declarations.
SPEAKER_01: And you say it for one minute, you have to say it for one minute every day.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so God has actually physiologically wired you and I to be people of focus.
SPEAKER_01: You're wired that way.
SPEAKER_01: You are the most joyful when you're focused with your time, energy, and money.
SPEAKER_01: FBI agents know that if they can get into your house, get a hold of your computer, and just see one month, just one month of your bank statements, they can tell you within 88% accuracy of what your vision and values are, but how you spend your money.
SPEAKER_01: They don't care about what you say you value.
SPEAKER_01: All they have to do is see how we spend our money, and that's what your values are.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's good news and bad news, right?
SPEAKER_01: I can see some of you going, it's true, though.
SPEAKER_01: So, time, energy, and money staying focused in our lives is key to rebuilding walls in our life.
SPEAKER_01: So now here's what they do now is they start using social media.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 is the social media of the time.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's written it is reported among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows this, it's reported among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And Geshem says, it's on Twitter, it's on Facebook, that you and the Jews plan to rebel.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding this wall that you may be their king.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, There's a king in Judah.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Now these matters will be reported to the king.
SPEAKER_01: So come, therefore, and let us consult together.
SPEAKER_01: Then I sent to him saying, No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's strategy, Satan's strategy, lying about your motives.
SPEAKER_01: Lying about your motives.
SPEAKER_01: People will lie.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, will they lie about your motives?
SPEAKER_01: So they have this open letter that they put out lying about the motives of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: They did it to Jesus, they'll do it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're perfect, they're still going to crucify you.
SPEAKER_01: You can be perfect and you'll still get crucified.
SPEAKER_01: So the enemy comes to challenge your motives.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why at the road, if you are part of roadmap and come to the next one in November, is that we have a policy wherein we encourage any disagreements within the church to follow what we call the covenant of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Covenant of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: And all of our staff have to sign the covenant of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: And what that is, is that we want you to work things out if there's differences, if there's problems, if there's issues.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have been ripped off by a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's called being ripped off by a Christian 101.
SPEAKER_01: It's a new training that we want every church to have.
SPEAKER_01: Well, at our church, we know it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get ripped off.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be gossiped about wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: But if we would just follow the scriptures, Matthew 18 says, go face to face and work things out.
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you guys, after six years of doing the road, we've had just dozens of situations that were worked out that way.
SPEAKER_01: Where people had an issue with someone, we encouraged them to get together, they did and they worked it out.
SPEAKER_01: And some of them are actually best friends now because they worked it out.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that sometimes the people that rub you the most the wrong way are people just like you?
SPEAKER_01: That a lot of times people who you oh I can't believe they look how they dress, or look how they walk, or look how they talk, and then you're like, go look in the mirror, honey.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they look a lot like you, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we can work that out.
SPEAKER_01: People jump from church to church to church because they're running from problems, and the only problem is that they keep bringing themselves to the next church.
SPEAKER_01: And the reality is let's face it and work it out.
SPEAKER_01: We can work it out, gang.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 18, Jesus showed us how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna happen here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're a bunch of sinners saved by grace in this church, too.
SPEAKER_01: But let's grow together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's grow together, stay focused, encourage each other.
SPEAKER_01: Have some blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: For they were all trying to make me afraid.
SPEAKER_01: That's your next, that's your next work of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Create fear.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy wants to create fear.
SPEAKER_01: That's what COVID's about.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: That's what COVID 19 is about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's not real.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you shouldn't wear a mask.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that you shouldn't social distance.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying any of that.
SPEAKER_01: That much.
SPEAKER_01: Um but the ultimate end game of the enemy with something like this is to create fear.
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's I mean, we're praying for a president.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't want anybody to get COVID.
SPEAKER_01: We've we've had thousands come through these doors over six months.
SPEAKER_01: We opened in early May, first, I think it was the first Sunday in May.
SPEAKER_01: Thousands have come through here.
SPEAKER_01: Not one person hospitalized.
SPEAKER_01: When the doctors came up to make the announcement about uh President Trump, now this is national.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this isn't some black ops Facebook page that I went to to read this.
SPEAKER_01: This is actually on the news.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, we're very encouraged.
SPEAKER_01: The president is, I think they said slightly overweight.
SPEAKER_01: I think he's very overweight.
SPEAKER_01: He's 74 years old, he's got a 99.4% chance of survival.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's in that age group that's the most susceptible.
SPEAKER_01: 99.4% chance.
SPEAKER_01: And your chance of dying of COVID in El Paso County is 0.0, point, see 0.000017%.
SPEAKER_01: It's more dangerous for you to drive at 60 miles an hour on I-25.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody quit driving?
SPEAKER_01: Because there's car accidents out there.
SPEAKER_01: So fear.
SPEAKER_01: So the enemy uses fear, and we need to break the power of fear.
SPEAKER_01: So, look at that.
SPEAKER_01: I love, I love this paragraph, this intention in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Look at 9b.
SPEAKER_01: Now, therefore, oh God, strengthen my hands.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, you just you see through Nehemiah, he's constantly crying out to God.
SPEAKER_01: He's calling out to God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I love about this church is that you've got fears.
SPEAKER_01: You that are, you that are um watching us online, you have fears.
SPEAKER_01: All of you in this room, you have fears.
SPEAKER_01: And when you when those fears come and it's real, hello?
SPEAKER_01: It's real.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to strengthen your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to strengthen your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you need to come to noonday prayer that we do each day, Monday through Friday, just for that.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God, strengthen my hands.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen my heart with your word.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen my heart through the relationship I have with other people.
SPEAKER_01: God will.
SPEAKER_01: And so he calls out to God to be strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: Afterward, I came to the house of Shemiah, the son of Deleah, the son of Mehetabel, who is a secret informer.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, at night they will come to kill you.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Should such a man as I flee?
SPEAKER_01: And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life?
SPEAKER_01: I will not go in.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's strategy, isolation.
SPEAKER_01: Isolation from your bloodstained allies, isolation from others.
SPEAKER_01: When you get isolated off alone, you're so susceptible to temptations in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And he's telling him to go, hide yourself, get isolated from everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the story of Uzziah?
SPEAKER_01: Only the priest was supposed to enter this part of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So actually, he's tempting him to break the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, I don't care if it's a prophet, I don't care if it's a dream you've had, I don't care if it's an advice that you get from another brother, sister in the Lord, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If they're instructing you to do something that you know is unbiblical, the answer is not going there.
SPEAKER_01: That is a work of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And so the discernment of Nehemiah is what he's asking him to do.
SPEAKER_01: But the key point is isolation.
SPEAKER_01: We need bloodstained allies.
SPEAKER_01: We need men and women in our life that we can be strengthened by.
SPEAKER_01: When Martin Luther began to study the scriptures as a professor of theology at Wittenberg in the 1500s, he came across Romans 1 that the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: With that began a revelation in his heart about what was happening in the Roman Catholic Church at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And so he wrote out 95 statements, 95 proclamations or declarations on a piece of paper, which he nailed to the chapel in Wittenberg.
SPEAKER_01: With that, all hell broke loose and he had to run for his life.
SPEAKER_01: And he went to the castle of Wartburg.
SPEAKER_01: And at Wartburg, he translated the entire Bible into German.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a supernatural, amazing story.
SPEAKER_01: It appears that almost 24-7 he worked under the anointing of God, almost like Beethoven, I mean, excuse me, like Handel's Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: When he wrote Handel's Messiah, it was a similar thing where God just downloaded to him musically what God was giving him from Isaiah, and then God just downloads with a supernatural energy from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And he writes, he translates the Bible into German.
SPEAKER_01: Soon after that, as he leaves Wartburg Castle, he pinned, A mighty fortress is our God.
SPEAKER_01: In Stanza 1, he wrote, A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.
SPEAKER_01: For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe.
SPEAKER_01: His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal.
SPEAKER_01: Stanza 3.
SPEAKER_01: And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.
SPEAKER_01: The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him.
SPEAKER_01: His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure.
SPEAKER_01: One little word shall fail him.
SPEAKER_01: Many women, that one word is what?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The stories that I've heard and the stories that I've been a part of.
SPEAKER_01: Calling out to Jesus breaks the power of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: It breaks the power of the enemy over your life.
SPEAKER_01: We used to pray it over our kids, the name of Jesus over our kids at night.
SPEAKER_01: And I challenge you, there's areas of your life that you're struggling.
SPEAKER_01: Start saying the name of Jesus on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: Just make it a part of the declaration of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Liz was in a situation where her car was spinning around on ice a number of years ago, and she cried out to Jesus and it just stopped.
SPEAKER_01: The name of Jesus fells the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Fells the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, verse 12, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sambalat had hired him.
SPEAKER_01: For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.
SPEAKER_01: My God, remember Tobiah and Sambalat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.
SPEAKER_01: You see what Nehemiah's doing is he's he's per he's got supernatural perception because he can see what's going on because God's giving him discernment in that, and he's crying out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, in the days ahead, it's gonna get really confusing.
SPEAKER_01: It's confusing now if you're not careful.
SPEAKER_01: Encourage you to be in the word as you open God's word, ask God for wisdom, have blood stained allies in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you two thoughts as we close.
SPEAKER_01: Two thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, number one, stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: Stay focused with your time, energy, and money.
SPEAKER_01: Give the focus of your life to God.
SPEAKER_01: God, what are you saying to me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give myself to that.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women who are focused most of the time can't be distracted.
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of like to me, it's like a river.
SPEAKER_01: You got this massive river, but as you begin to narrow that river, it becomes powerful and strong as the river is focused.
SPEAKER_01: So stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, stay connected.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, stay focused, number one, stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, stay connected.
SPEAKER_01: You need bloodstained allies in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So let me close with this.
SPEAKER_01: If we're to rebuild walls in our life, if we're to rebuild walls in our nation, God's gonna give us strategies.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna give us plans, and it's gonna be three things.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be prayer, it's gonna be presence, and it's gonna be proclamation.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: I talked about this on Wednesday night at our prayer night, but I just want to say it as a closing.
SPEAKER_01: Worship team, you guys can come on up.
SPEAKER_01: I close with this.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: What prayer does is as we are enthroned in the heavenlies with Christ, God has given the attentions, the manifold wisdom of God to the church through prayer, and then secondly, through presence and proclamation.
SPEAKER_01: So listen, when we stand in the presence of the Lord, when we carry that presence of the Lord, there's power on that.
SPEAKER_01: When we pray and we ask God to change things, He does.
SPEAKER_01: And when we begin to proclaim truth, it begins to break through darkness.
SPEAKER_02: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_02: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_02: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_02: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: Go to theroad.org, click on the Ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks again for tuning in today.
SPEAKER_02: And be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.