Rebuilding Your World #3 | Winning the Mind Game
Just as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem, God wants to rebuild your world. He wants you to rebuild the things that are lost, stolen, broken, trampled on.
God is a restoration, rebuilding, and turn around master.
In the journey to rebuilding your world you will find there is an:
- Enemy
- Opposition
- Adversary
Nehemiah 2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel
Nehemiah 4:1 Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.
Nehemiah 4:2 He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”
Nehemiah 4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building — if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”
Nehemiah 4:7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairs of the walls of Jerusalem were going so well—that the breaks in the wall were being fixed—they were absolutely furious.
Nehemiah 4:8 They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could.
Nehemiah 4:9 We countered with prayer to our God and set a round-the-clock guard against them.
Sanaballat & Tobiah rose up to oppose the rebuilding of the wall.
In the journey to rebuilding your world you will find there is an enemy and there are forces at work.
Unfortunately, there are people who will not be happy about you moving forward in life. The enemy opposes rebuilding.
In opposition to God’s best for your life:
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
A thief comes to take what you own. The thief comes to steal, kill, destroy.
Jesus comes to give you life and abundance.
The adversary is nowhere near as powerful as God, but he is crafty.
2 Corinthians 2:11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
Satan is the adversary.
God wants peace for you. The Adversary wants turmoil.
God wants blessing. The Adversary wants curse.
God wants love. The Adversary wants fear and hate.
God wants wholeness. The Adversary wants brokenness.
Schemes are translated mind games.
The main strategy of your adversary is mind games.
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,
2 Corinthians 10:4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
Our 5 senses are interacting with this world… we walk in the flesh.
But we are in a war, a battle. That war is spiritual in nature. It’s a spiritual battle.
There is a battle outside of us but there are spiritual forces in the heavenly places.
But the biggest battle is the one going on inside your head. The battle that matters the most, in determining you entering in to God’s best for you is in your head.
How you think. What you think. What you think about.
You have to think about what you are thinking about.
Ultimately, your thinking controls your:
- Choices
- Responses
- Emotions
- Behavior
2 Corinthians 10 tells us:
- Speculations + reasonings
- Lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God
- Thoughts
- Strongholds + fortresses
Take every thought captive. Thoughts turn into reasonings… reasoning turns in to strongholds. The mind game all starts with a thought.
The Adversary loves to throw threats and accusations and demeaning comments at you:
- Accusations
- Distractions
- Opinions
- Intimidation
- Discouragement
The enemy can’t touch you, but He can yell across the road at you.
1 John 5:18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Don’t get in conversations with the devil. Eve messed up because of one of those conversations!
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The Devil or diabolos; from 1225 is slanderous, accusing falsely: —devil(34), malicious gossips (3).
Lies become our truth (to us) when we believe them. So Live Your Truth.
To live in your truth simply means to live as your most authentic self, doing things daily that bring you happiness and joy, living as true to yourself as possible. What if your truth isn’t actually true?
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. –Mark Twain
Lie: you’re not good enough
Truth: I am the righteousness of God in Christ
Lie – nothing ever works out for you, you’re a loser
Truth – everything works out for me, God causes all things to work together for my good
Lie – you can’t afford to give
Truth – God supplies seed to sowers
Lie – nobody loves you
Truth – God loves you extravagantly, unconditionally, with much joy
Mind Game Strategies:
Nehemiah 4:2 He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”
Nehemiah 4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building — if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”
Sanballats mind game:
- You are weak and don’t have what it takes
What are these feeble Jews doing?
You are feeble. They are actually bemoaning his loss of power over the Jews.
The Adversary has lost power over you so he wants to remind you of your weak spots.
- You are being selfish wanting to grow
Are they going to restore it for themselves?
God wants you sick so you’ll trust Him
God wants you struggling financially so you won’t get too proud
God wants you under stress so your character grows
- You can’t worship
Can they offer sacrifices?
Who do you think you are trying to worship God?
God knows what you did, said, and looked at.
- You’re going too slow
Can they finish in a day?
Look at those other guys zooming ahead of you. It’s never going to happen for you.
- You don’t have the resources
Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”
You need new lumber for the gates. The Walls were rebuilt with burnt stones and God will use our burnt stones to rebuild our walls.
Your story of a God restoration is a powerful thing.
- What you’re doing is not good enough
Even what they are building — if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”
You’re just a stay at home mom
You don’t have that great of a job
Just leading a small group
The battle never ends. The mind games are a lifelong battle.
Tobiah wormed his way into the city:
Nehemiah 13:4 Now prior to this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, being related to Tobiah,
Nehemiah 13:5 had prepared a large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils and the tithes of grain, wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
Nehemiah 13:7 and I came to Jerusalem and learned about the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, by preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God.
Nehemiah 13:8 It was very displeasing to me, so I threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.
Nehemiah 13:9 Then I gave an order and they cleansed the rooms; and I returned there the utensils of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense.
It’s not like you finally get your mindset perfect and it’s done. It’s like a garden that needs to be tended to, constantly. Even some old ideas or old plants need to be cleared out.
Replacing Tobiah with the appropriate God honoring ideas that are supposed to be there.
Don’t get consumed with battle mode.
Nehemiah 4:17 Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.
Nehemiah 4:18 As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.
Build and battle. Remember the call is to build, not just battle.
Nehemiah understood that his assignment was to build, not to battle.
We want to be known for what we are for, not for what we are against.
We live in a super contentious era… please don’t get sucked into always battling.
There are always a million distractions to pull you into a battle. Distractions can so pull you off track that you are not putting any real energy into building. There are a hundred battle fronts for you to get involved in.
Make sure your best energy is going towards building + rebuilding. Fight only when you have to.