Seasons of heavy warfare can leave a person feeling drained, which is exactly how I felt this morning, even after getting a good solid 8 hours of sleep. My dreams last night were very informative as they reflected various emotions I had felt during the day prior. Some Christians believe you shouldn’t have any warfare if you’re living right, but I have news for them. It’s usually the ones who don’t experience any warfare who are going in the same direction as the devil; they’re not on his radar because they’re not a threat to him.  

I refused to go through my day feeling oppressed, and refused to allow the enemy to mess up day, so I asked God for some Scriptures that would help me see what was going on, and how to respond appropriately. He led me to Nehemiah 6.

Nehemiah was the guy whom, after consulting the Lord, went to Judah to begin rebuilding the wall which had been broken down and destroyed by fire.

“Then the king said to me, ‘What are you requesting?’ So I prayed to the God of heaven. 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,” Nehemiah 2:4-5.

As I was reading Nehemiah 6, the “Conspiracy Against Nehemiah,” as the ESV puts it, I was noticing how the Lord used this book to reveal many of the tactics of the enemy. The devil is not very creative, and he uses the same tactics over, and over, and over again. It doesn’t matter what time period these events happened in – the enemy still uses the same tactics today.  

Here’s a little of what I found within this chapter.

“Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, ‘Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.’ But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” Nehemiah 6:2-3

When God gives us an assignment, the devil pulls out all the stops, and uses everything he has in his arsenal to try and stop God’s will from happening. He will try to get us to leave our post – to leave the very thing God has called us to – in order to harm us. Bringing us down to his level is one of his tactics. By lowering ourselves to his level, we make it easier for him to attack. We’re no longer out of reach, doing the thing God has called us to do, because we’ve allowed ourselves to be moved. Responding the same as the enemy would, and using the same weapons he utilizes, are ways we tend to lower ourselves to his level. It’s important when in battle, or when we sense the enemy is trying to get to us, that we stay on assignment, on higher ground, operating from our position in heaven, no matter how hard things get. It’s from this position that we are untouchable, and we are better able to see and respond appropriately.

Another tactic of the enemy is distraction. Distractions will come when we’re on the verge of a breakthrough, when we’re making great progress, when we’re about to step into something new, and so on. The ultimate goal of the enemy when sending distractions is to try and stop what God is doing in us and through us; it’s to hinder our progress. Allowing ourselves to become distracted takes our focus off God and what He’s called us to do. Our focus is redirected to things of lesser importance – we may begin to focus on fight, on other events that have all of a sudden come up, or on past relationships that have all of a sudden popped up out of the blue, threatening to throw us off course emotionally. It’s amazing the things that will come up suddenly, throwing our emotions into a tailspin. If we are not discerning, we can end up leaving the very things God has called us to do, allowing the enemy to derail us and send us into depression. The devil is not a one-and-done type of guy either. He will come back again and again, in the same way, to try and weaken us.

“And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner…In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me…” Nehemiah 6:4-5

As I said before, Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall, and repairing the breeches. When we begin closing access points to the enemy, (and helping others to close access points in their own lives), it infuriates the enemy because he’s no longer free to come and go as he pleases. He can no longer access a person’s life and wreak havoc. When all our defenses are down, it’s easy for him to come in and destroy our lives; there’s nothing there to stop him.

False accusations are another tactic of the enemy. He will accuse us through others of having wrong motives. Sometimes people will want to talk to us repeatedly about what they believe we’re doing wrong. There comes a point in time when you simply must say, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” Defending ourselves to people who have already made up their minds about us accomplishes nothing and is a waste of our time and energy. It drives the enemy crazy when we refuse to listen to his nonsense, and when we refuse to do things his way. Not only will he come at us through one person, but he’ll sometimes enlist multiple people to join together in an attack against us and our character.

We can’t afford to allow things to derail us, or to distract us from the work at hand. Religious people will call us rebellious when we refuse to bow to them because they don’t understand the move of the Holy Spirit upon and within our lives. Religious spirits hate it when we go against what they want, how they think it should be done, and they don’t care if our directives came straight from the mouth of God. If God said to do it, then we must exercise obedience and do it. The safest place to be is always in the will of God.  

People may falsely accuse us of seeking a platform, trying to overthrow them, etc. and even falsely accuse us of operating under a Jezebel spirit, when our motives are completely pure. However, when we understand who we are in Christ, and we know we are operating from a pure heart, we can simply ignore the accusations because we know they’re not true.

“In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, ‘It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king,” Nehemiah 6:5-6.

Nehemiah responded in verse 8 by saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” People will create false narratives about us, but we shouldn’t fear; we shouldn’t value our reputation so much that we conform to their ideals in order to appease them.

Fear is another tactic of the enemy. He will use it to try and get us to drop our assignment and give up. He may use people in authority to try and make us afraid.

“And according to these reports you wish to become their king. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together,” Nehemiah 6:6-7.

Some of the things fear asks us, or tells us are, “What will they say? What will they think about me? Will they kick me out of the church? Will they allow me in ministry? They’re going to hate me. They’ll persecute me and make life hard for me. I’m going to have to build with one hand and fight with the other, and it will be too hard. My reputation will be ruined.” Ever been in a position like this? It’s not fun, nor easy, but God strengthens and trains our hands for war (Psalm 144:1).

Rest assured, if you’re on God’s mission, you will reach the end no matter how scary the ride may be. God will vindicate you, and He will guide your steps. God will give you a strategy – a plan of action. As long as we’re submitting to God, resisting the enemy, being obedient to the Holy Spirit and his leading, then we have nothing to worry about. We are to bring Heaven to earth – to manifest the will of God –  and we will succeed as long as we are obedient and refuse to quit.

Death threats are another way the enemy tries to derail us and get us to quit. They may be physical threats, or threats spoken directly to our minds. We shouldn’t allow the threats of the enemy to shake us, or scare us. We know the devil’s main goal is to devour and destroy God’s children, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. It doesn’t mean his plans will succeed however, unless we allow him to overcome us.

Nehemiah 6:10 shows the enemy’s plot to kill.

“Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaian, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, ‘Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.’ But I said, ‘Should a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.”

It’s possible to catch the enemy and see the places where he’s been lurking, and see the direction he’ll try and come from when we stay watchful and alert. We can deal with him head on and not give him any place to defeat us.

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Elijah however, was one who was dealt death threats and ran scared.

“You killed my prophets. Now I’m going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don’t do it by this time tomorrow. Elijah was afraid when he got her message and he ran…” 1 Kings 19:2

Elijah ran and he felt the threat in his body – in his emotions. He felt failure, he felt a desire to die. Those feelings of death, the unbearable pressure, and the desire to quit are from the enemy. It’s possible to physical and emotionally feel the threats of the enemy, but we can’t give in, or stay in that position of emotional turmoil. As Elijah, in 1 Kings 19:5-9, we must eat and drink in order to not just fall asleep and give up. I’m not talking about natural food. We need to eat, to consume the Word of God, and drink deeply of His Spirit, in order to be strong enough to keep going. The enemy attacks can really sap our strength (that’s one way to know you’re under attack is if you all of a sudden are more tired or weaker than usual), so we need to make sure we are providing our souls with ample nourishment.

False prophecies are another tactic. He will send people to prophecy falsely against us. They will also try to get us to act out of character in order to give us a bad name and say, “See? We were right about him/her. Look at what he/she did!”

“For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.” Nehemiah 6:13.

It’s so important to remain in good, Godly character, no matter how bad things get, or how bad the situation looks. It doesn’t matter how tempted we may be to do the wrong thing, or act in a certain way because “they deserve it,” or because we “know” they’ve done wrong to us. Allow God to defend you! He will defend us if we don’t try to step in and do it ourselves. He’s the only one who can reveal the truth to them, and the only one who can vindicate us. Just keep on doing what the Lord has called you to do, and He will work things out. Allow God to be your strength, and don’t give in to the voice of the enemy. Remember to not stoop to his level. Continue to partake of the Word of God, drink deeply of His Spirit, and offer up praise and worship to Him despite your feelings. Breakthrough is closer than you realize.