In the Christian Reader, Glynn Jensen, from Rome, NY, talks about a cold winter day when his entire family was snug in their warm house. Everyone that is, except for their six-year-old Jonathan, who insisted on playing out in the snow. As Glynn walked by an upstairs window, he noticed Jonathan had made a giant snowball in the yard across the street.
Glynn’s wife stopped by to see what he was so interested in. Just then, Jonathan began to roll the giant snowball across the street. Their other three children joined them as they began chuckling to themselves. Jonathan had reached their side of the street with his snowball and was trying desperately to get it up the curb.
After a few unsuccessful tries at pushing it, he backed up about ten feet for a running start. Failing again, he tried lifting it and finally in frustration gave it a kick! Suddenly, he knelt in front of the snowball with his hands folded and head bowed. Glynn immediately dispatched his nine-year-old, Jeana, to help the Lord answer Jonathan's prayer. (Glynn E. Jensen, Rome, NY, Christian Reader, “Lite Fare”; www.PreachingToday.com)
We’ve just completed 40 days of prayer, so the question comes: Now what? What are we supposed to do now that we have committed our concerns to the Lord in prayer?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Nehemiah, where Nehemiah himself shows us what he did after he prayed for revival in his nation. We looked at his prayer last week in chapter 1, so we’ll pick it up in chapter 2. Nehemiah 2, where we begin to see what’s next after a season of prayer. Nehemiah 2, starting at vs.1 “In the month Nisan…”
According to Nehemiah 1:1, Nehemiah began praying in the month Chislev – That’s mid-November to mid-December in our Calendar. Now, it is the month Nisan – mid-March to mid-April – four months later!
What do you suppose Nehemiah was doing during those four months? Well, I believe he spent those months in prayer. It wasn’t just one prayer and done, no! Nehemiah kept on praying until God began to answer his prayer. He spent four months in prayer! And that’s what we need to do after we have prayed. We don’t stop praying, no! We keep on praying until God begins to answer our prayers too. We do what that old saints used to call it, and…
PRAY THINGS THROUGH.
Ask and keep on asking until you are assured of an answer. It’s the key to God accomplishing His wonderful plan through us.
Nehemiah spent four months in prayer, after which it only took him 52 days, according to Nehemiah 6:15, to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. That’s less than two months! Nehemiah spent more than twice as much time in prayer as he did working to get the job done, and that was critical to his success. It’s critical to our success, as well.
Edmund Gravely and his wife, Janice, were on their way to Statesboro, Georgia, from the Rocky Mount-Wilson airport in North Carolina. Ed was flying their small plane when he suddenly died at the controls. His wife, Janice, didn’t know how to fly the plane, but she kept it in the air for two hours until it ran out of fuel. During this time she sang hymns and prayed for help.
As the plane crossed the South Carolina – North Carolina border, she radioed for help: “Help, help, won’t someone help me? My pilot is unconscious. Won’t somebody help me?”
Authorities, who picked up her distress signal, were not able to reach her by radio during the flight, because she kept changing channels. Mrs. Gravely finally made a rough landing and crawled 45 minutes to a farmhouse for help. (Bible Illustrator #2820; 8/1987.10)
How like so many of God’s people. They cry out to God for help, but switch channels before they get a reply. They turn to other sources in a frantic search for answers. They try other things and then wonder why God doesn’t answer them.
That’s not the way effective prayer works. When you cry out to God, don’t switch channels! Instead, stay on the prayer channel, and keep on praying until God comes through. If you want to see some amazing answers to prayer, if you want to see revival come to our land, then don’t stop praying! Pray things through until God responds. But don’t just pray…
THINK THINGS THROUGH, as well.
In the context of prayer, think about what God wants you to do. While you are praying, ask God to direct your thoughts and consider a plan. Put together a strategy that moves you in the right direction.
Notice I did not say make your own plans and ask God to bless them, no! Rather, in the context of prayer, ask God to give you His plan, which He will bless no matter what.\ That’s what Nehemiah did. In fact, his planning becomes very evident as he talks to the king.
Nehemiah 2:1-2 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. (ESV)
Nehemiah had every reason to be afraid. Eastern monarchs did not appreciate their servants being sad in their presence. To the king, that meant dissatisfaction with his decisions, which amounted to nothing less than treason. Nehemiah could lose his life over this, but he couldn’t help it. For four months, he had been fasting and praying; concerned about his people in Jerusalem, and now it begins to show on his face.
Furthermore, Nehemiah has a very bold request to make of the king. According to Ezra 4, this same king had stopped the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem several years before this. Now, Nehemiah is going to ask the king to reveres his decision. If his face suggested that he was dissatisfied with the king’s orders, his request would remove all doubt. Nehemiah had every reason to be afraid, but look at how he replies to the king.
Nehemiah 2:3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” (ESV)
Nehemiah is very careful not to mention the city of Jerusalem. Instead, he appeals to the king’s respect for the dead. It is very obvious that Nehemiah had planned out what he was going to say when God gave him the opportunity. As he was praying, asking God for the right words at the right time, he was planning his approach.
Nehemiah 2:4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. (ESV)
Nehemiah offers one more quick prayer after four months of praying. It was one of those secret, silent prayers. Then he goes on to answer the king.
Nehemiah 2:5-6 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. (ESV)
Nehemiah had a schedule. He knew how long it was going to take him to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, which is evidence of considerable thought. Nehemiah had it all planned out; so that when he had the opportunity, he could give the king a precise answer.
Nehemiah 2:7-8a And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” (ESV)
Nehemiah not only had the schedule planned out. He knew what supplies he would need to get the job done. It’s obvious that Nehemiah had given this considerable thought.
Nehemiah 2:8b And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. (ESV)
NOT “for I had come up with a clever plan”, no! Nehemiah gives God the credit, because he understands that God gave him the plan during those four months of prayer, and God had moved the king’s heart to grant his request.
You see, this was all a part of God’s bigger plan! 95 years before this, God had announced to Daniel (in Daniel 9) that a decree would go out to rebuild Jerusalem. Then 483 years after that decree, Messiah the prince would come. King Artaxerxes, at Nehemiah’s request, made that decree on March 5, 444 B.C. And exactly 483 years later, to the day, on March 30, AD 33, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to present Himself as Israel’s King.
Nehemiah’s plan was part of a greater plan, God’s plan for the ages to bring about our salvation. You see, God’s plan did not negate Nehemiah’s plan. On the contrary, God’s plan established Nehemiah’s plan, because Nehemiah’s plan came after seeking God for four months. In other words, God’s plan guaranteed the success of Nehemiah’s plan.
I don’t know how it all works. I just know that the sovereign plan of God in no way takes away from my responsibility to plan and do what God is leading me to do. God’s plan does not exclude my planning. If anything, it encourages it.
The Boeing 747 Dreamlifter is the modified plane that can haul more cargo than any plane in the world. It weighs about 600,000 pounds and usually requires a runway of 9,200 feet. But in November, 2013, a wayward Dreamlifter missed its intended destination at McConnell Air Force Base near Wichita, Kansas. Instead, the jumbo cargo plane landed nine miles north at the wrong airport – the city owned Jabara Airport. Jabara has no control tower and only a 6,100-foot runway.
A spokesperson at McConnell Air Force Base – the right airport – said, “The tower was in contact with the pilot … [but] the guy had no clue where he was landing.” The pilot told the McConnell radio tower, “Apparently, uh, we, uh, have landed at Beech Factory Airport” (a third airport located between McConnell and Jabara). He still had it wrong.
Eventually it all got sorted out. The aimless pilot finally figured out which wrong airport he had landed his plane. A replacement crew came and, after removing most of the cargo, they were able to take off on the shorter runway and get the plane to McConnell, the right airport. (Rick Plumlee and Molly McMillin, “Wayward Dreamlifter captivates the Air Capital,” The Wichita Eagle, 11-21-13; www.PreachingToday.com)
The pilot was in contact with the tower, but ended up at the wrong airport, because he did not know where he was going. That’s like a lot of believers who pray. They’re in contact with the Lord but don’t think to plan. They don’t know where they are going, so they end up in the wrong place. Prayer and planning go hand-in-hand. You need both to get to the right place.
Howard Hendricks once said, “Most people don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.” In fact, only 3% of all people have goals and plans and write them down. 10% more have goals and plans, but keep them in their heads. However, the 3% who have their goals and plans written down accomplish from 50 to 100 times more during their lifetime than the 10% who have goals and plans, but merely keep them in their heads.
Planning is important! So when you pray, consider a plan in the context of that prayer, but don’t be inflexible with that plan. Look at Nehemiah as he arrives in Jerusalem and inspects the walls.
Nehemiah 2:9-10 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. (ESV)
There will always be those who oppose. So in your plan expect opposition.
Nehemiah 2:11-14 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. (ESV)
There was so much rubble, his horse couldn’t get through.
Nehemiah 2:15-16 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. (ESV)
Before Nehemiah does anything else, he makes a careful survey of the damage. He gets a first-hand knowledge of the task before him, and adjusts his plan before he communicates it with anyone else. You see, his plan was not set in concrete. Rather, Nehemiah was flexible and open to change, and that’s the way we need to be with our plans.
Elisabeth Elliot talks about a missionary friend of hers that once said, “Things were simple before I went to Africa. I knew what the African's problem was, and I knew the answer. When I got there and began to know him as a person, things were no longer simple.” (Elisabeth Elliot in “The Liberty of Obedience”, Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 15; www.PreachingToday.com)
Just because our plans were born out of a season of prayer does not mean that they cannot change. James 4 encourages us not to be presumptuous in our plans, not to make rigid plans that will not change. Instead, the James 4 counsels us to say, “If the Lord will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15). Planning is important, so in your times of prayer, ask God to give you a plan. Consider a plan.
Then, when the opportunity presents itself, communicate the plan. Since you cannot go it alone, enlist the help of others, motivating them with the plan God has laid on your heart. That’s what Nehemiah does.
Nehemiah 2:17-18 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. (ESV)
Nehemiah is a master communicator here. After a hundred years of inactivity, Nehemiah’s words motivate people to get the job done. How did he do it? Well, notice that Nehemiah does not lay on the guilt and criticize them for their inactivity. He did not say, “You’ve been here for a hundred years. What’s wrong with you? Why couldn’t you get the walls built by now?” You see, guilt is a poor motivator, so Nehemiah stays away from it.
Instead, Nehemiah identifies with them in their need. He says, “You see the trouble WE are in” (vs.17). Then he tells them what God has already done to meet their need (vs.18). As a result, they all cry out, “Let us rise up and build”. They’re pumped. They’re ready to go. After years of frustrating failure, they’re ready to meet the challenge.
Nehemiah was a master communicator. He knew how to communicate vision in such a way that people got excited about it and were drawn to the challenge, and that’s what we must do if we’re going to see God do great things through us. We must consider a plan and then communicate that plan in such a way that people are motivated to put their hands to the work.
David Burnham was an American architect who developed the master plans for a number of cities including Chicago and downtown Washington D.C. He also designed several famous buildings in New York City and Washington D.C. During his career Burnham said:
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans. Aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.” (Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Planner of Cities, Boston, 1921, p. 147; www. PreachingToday.com)
I like the sentiment of those words especially when you apply them to God’s work. For if such planning works in the building of human cities, then it certainly works in the building of God’s Kingdom.
If we want God to do great things through us, we must pray things through, think things through. And finally, we must…
FOLLOW THROUGH
We must carry out the plan. For it does us no good to pray and plan if we don’t also proceed. That’s what Nehemiah’s people did. Did you see it there at the end of verse 18? “So they strengthened their hands for the good work”.
Even though it was God’s hand at work behind the scenes, their hands were not idle. And neither should our hands be idle, as well. If we want God to do great things through us, we too must put our hands to the good work He has given us to do.
Several years ago, the Ad Council produced a series of commercials in what they called their “Don’t Almost Give” campaign. Take a look at one of those ads. (Show Video).
It shows a homeless man curled up in a ball on a pile of rags. One ratty bed sheet shields him from the cold. The narrator says, “This is Jack Thomas. Today someone almost brought Jack something to eat. Someone almost brought him to a shelter. And someone else almost brought him a warm blanket.” After a brief pause, the narrator continues: “And Jack Thomas? Well, he almost made it through the night.”
Good intentions don’t do anybody any good. So if you want God to use you, don’t just pray, don’t just plan, proceed with the plan born out of prayer. Don’t almost give; give!
If you want God to use you to build His Kingdom, pray things through; think things through; and then follow through.
There is a lot of folklore surrounding Poland's famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignace Paderewski. A part of that folklore includes a wonderful, fictitious story about a mother, who took her young son, about 8 or 9 years old, to a Paderewski concert. She thought the child had some musical talent and might benefit from hearing one of the great masters play the piano. They sat close to the stage. The curtain was up, and the grand piano stood there for all to see. Paderewski was in the wings, waiting for the scheduled time to start.
The mother turned to talk to a friend behind her. That’s when her son wriggled out of his seat, ran up the steps to the stage, sat down at the piano and began to play “Chopsticks” with all his might. The mother was horrified, and the audience gasped as Paderewski himself strode onto the stage.
He was not angry. Instead, the great concert pianist smiled, approached the boy, and whispered to him to continue. Then Paderewski put both arms around the boy and began to improvise a soft but brilliant accompaniment to the childish music. He kept it up until the audience, charmed and fascinated, burst into applause.
That’s what serving God is all about. Our feeble efforts are like that little boy playing chopsticks on the piano. By itself, it is horrifying. Then the Master comes and encourages us to keep on going. He puts His arms around us and turns our feeble efforts into a brilliant performance.
Without Him, we are nothing. He’s the One who gets all the credit. We succeed only because it is His good hand that is upon us. But that doesn’t mean our hands don’t also do some work, no. We keep on praying. We keep on planning. We keep on performing until the day the whole world applauds Him!
