As we look at the book of Nehemiah, let us consider the power of prayer that led to his victory in spiritual warfare. 7 powerful prayer features are found within Nehemiah’s recorded prayer which may help us. These are: compassion, vision, conviction leading to repentance, humility, submission, commitment, and faith.
As the book of Nehemiah opens, he discovers that the people who had returned to Jerusalem were in great despair. Part of that despair came because no wall of protection stood around Jerusalem. The wall that once stood majestically around Jerusalem lay in rumbles. Destroyed and burned by the Babylonians, years before when they ravaged their city. After hearing of this news, Nehemiah wept bitterly. Then he records this prayer. From that time until he was commissioned to rebuild the wall, four months passed. He did not know how or when God would respond. Yet, once commissioned he stood as one of the most outstanding leaders staring down opposition, criticism, and death threats. How did he unlock victory in this spiritual warfare?
Nehemiah’s 7 Power Prayer Features
As we look at these 7 power prayer features, we must also remember Nehemiah prayed throughout his journeys and adventures. However, there is no indication he had been a man bent upon prayer prior to that fate-filled day when God gave him a glimpse into the tragedy of his people and thereby broke his heart. Nor did he prior to that day demonstrate any urgency in returning to Jerusalem. After all, he had been born in exile. He had never seen Jerusalem. And he had a very prestigious appointment as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, son of the late King Xerxes (Ahasuerus). Stepson to Queen Esther.
Interesting thought. Had Queen Esther not been placed in the position she was where she thwarted the evil plot of Haman, Nehemiah would have been killed. also, one might consider if that also affected the heart of King Artaxerxes, but perhaps not. Because we know he had sent an edict to stop the building in Jerusalem shortly before these events.
Samaritans Sent A Letter to the King
“To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men of the region beyond the Euphrates River; and now 12 let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations. 13 Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, custom tax, or toll, and it will be detrimental to the revenue of the kings. 14 Now because we are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s shame, for this reason we have sent word and informed the king, Ezra 4
The King Replies and Work Stops
17 Then the king sent a response ….21 Now issue a decree to make those men stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. 22 And beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter; why should there be great damage, to the detriment of the kings?”…23 Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ decree was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by military force. 24 Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem was discontinued. Ezra 4.
Leading Up to the Powerful Prayer
Therefore, I believe, God had blinded the heart and eyes of Nehemiah until it was the perfect time for his appeal. Meanwhile God had placed everything together so that Nehemiah would have a position that could influence the King. Does that negate the responsibility of Nehemiah for his own coldness and lack of desire to return to Jerusalem prior to this? No, but it does so the marvelous grace and sovereignty of how God transforms the heart of those for whom He chooses to share His Glory with. Much like Queen Esther, Nehemiah seemed little interested in the affairs of the Jews or returning. Then God touched His heart. He initially was in great despair.
Remember the History
Due to their rebellion and chasing after idols, the Jewish Nation was sent into exile. The temple and the city destroyed. Then after 70 years of exile, as foretold by Jeremiah (Jer. 25:11-12), Cyrus of Persia gave the first order allowing the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem. This also fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 45:1-7) who named Cyrus years before he was born. When Cyrus issued his decree that the Jews return to Jerusalem, Zarrubbel lead a group back. He was a political leader and Governor.
Influenced by Haggai and Zechariah, he began the reconstruction of the temple. Ezra the priest then led the second group and began to establish worship. But the people were discouraged and frightened because they had no wall. Furthermore, without a wall they did not feel any identity as God’s people. Every day they were reminded God had turned His wrath on them for their sin as a nation.
Then God Called Nehemiah
Nehemiah a simple laborer was called by God to go to Jerusalem, build the wall, restore hope, and encourage the people to follow God with all their heart and soul. Ezra had accomplished the spiritual establishment of the new community, whereas Nehemiah succeeded in giving it physical stability…The project (building the wall) was completed in the remarkably fleeting time of 52 days (about 1 month 3 weeks).
“During this endeavor, Nehemiah faced determined opposition: mockery (Neh 2:19, 4:1-3), armed raids (4:7-12), a ruse to draw him outside the city, without doubt to murder him (6:1-4), blackmail (6:5-9); and finally, a prophet hired to foretell his death. In every case he met the challenge with courage, wisdom, and an invincible determination to complete the task for which God had called him.” (Falwell 1988)[1]
What happened to transform Nehemiah’s heart; propelling him to hear God’s call, heed the call and have the fortitude to complete the task against so much opposition?
So, let us look at these 7 features of Powerful Prayer
Powerful Prayer Feature #1
The book of Nehemiah begins with his asking Hanani about the Jews who had escaped captivity and returned to their home. They responded by telling him that the people “are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire” (Nehemiah 1:2). Hearing those words broke his heart.
He tells us in verse four that he wept and mourned for many days. Broken hearted by the news, he wept; and then, turned to God for an answer. What could he, a cupbearer, do? He wasn’t a priest or a king. Instead, he was a laborer. How could God use him?
In an exposition concerning Nehemiah, Alexander MacLaren aptly declared:
God prepares His servants for their work by laying on their souls a sorrowful realisation of the miseries which other men regard, and they themselves have often regarded, very lightly. The men who have been raised up to do great work for God and men, have always to begin by greatly and sadly feeling the weight of the sins and sorrows which they are destined to remove. No man will do worthy work at rebuilding the walls who has not wept over the ruins. (MacLaren 2013)[2]
Until one’s heart becomes broken for that which breaks God’s heart, there is no hope for commitment to complete any task God calls one to. Christians must first weep for the lost before they can passionately go out “to seek and save those who are lost” (paraphrase of Luke 19:10). True compassion will drive one to their knees in earnest prayer to the only one who can “supply all our needs” (paraphrase from Philippians 4:19).
Powerful Prayer Feature #2: Vision
Compassion alone cannot propel one to action without also having a clear vision of God, his plan for humanity, and His ultimate purpose. Nehemiah begins his prayer with,
“O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments” (Nehemiah 1:5).
In this opening, Nehemiah declares both who God is and His plan for mankind. So, the vision is two-fold: a vision of who God is and a vision of His plan for mankind.
Of Who God IS:
God is the Almighty, Sovereign, Lord. He is the creator of Heaven and Earth. The great I AM for which nothing exists without Him. The essence of everything begins with God who IS the creator, controller, majestic ruler of the Universe. Outside of His Being, there is nothingness. With that truth, I realize I am nothing until I am found in Him who breathes into me, life. He who created me, formed me in my mother’s womb: knew me before He created the earth. Think about that. My very existence is because of His Being the Great I AM. This is what Paul meant when he stood on Mars Hill and spoke to the men of Athens,
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Until the Christian fully recognizes his or her nothingness before the great I AM; they labor in vain.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
Of God’s Plan for Mankind:
Beyond having a vision for who God IS, one must also have a vision of God’s Plan for Mankind. Nehemiah recognized God’s covenantal love and mercy for those who seek Him. We two must remember God’s plan of redemption has been always stood foremost.
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,Who acts in behalf of one who waits for Him.5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,Who remembers You in Your ways. Isaiah 64
The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. – Isaiah 14:24
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. – Psalm 138:8
And All For His Glory
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, 10 regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. 11In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1
Powerful Prayer Feature 3: Conviction, Leading to Repentance
The clearer one’s vision of God becomes, the greater one’s own sin appears.
As Leslie Allen wrote: “Repentance is the keynote of the prayer. Although their God was great and awesome, they had disobeyed his commands. That divine greatness made human guilt more reprehensible.” (Allen 1995) Recognizing God’s just and righteous nature, Nehemiah turns to repentance.
I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. (Nehemiah 1:6-7)
A truly repentant heart is necessary to come before a Holy God with our petition. Only then can one understand the depth of grace with which God deals with his children. Deserving nothing, God gives to his children, everything.
Powerful Prayer Feature #4: Humility
Once a heart is broken by compassion, gains a true vision of God in all his glory, realizes the depth of his grace, and falls before him in genuine repentance for one’s sin; that heart can be nothing less than a humbled heart. Humility opens a man or woman’s heart to give grace to others. Realizing that without grace, no one can stand before a righteous God; Nehemiah had prayed for his people and his family. He did not feel superior or prideful; because, he had a clear vision of his own sinful nature.
“He humbled himself before the “God of Heaven” and confessed openly and frankly all sins of the nation, his own sins included.” (Swift 1917)[3] Humbled, broken hearted before an Almighty God; Nehemiah asks for grace for himself and his people.
He acknowledged his own and the nations spiritual poverty before God, deserving nothing; yet, he pleads God’s own words of grace. “But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there” (Nehemiah 1:9).
Powerful Prayer Feature #5: Submission
The only thing left to do is to submit to God’s will; no matter what that might be. No longer could Nehemiah be content in his former life as a cupbearer. “Nehemiah is willing and wants to be used of God. But he is not running ahead of God; he prays about it. He says, ‘If you want to use me, I am making myself available.’” (McGee 1982)[4] Prayer changes. “The petition, then, is not merely that I may patiently suffer God’s will but also that I may vigorously do it….’Thy will be done-by me-now’” (Lewis 1964)[5]
Powerful Prayer Feature #6: Commitment
What had begun as a broken heart for the suffering of God’s people; has through prayer reached the place of full surrender and submission to God’s will. Now, Nehemiah would need the commitment and fortitude to complete the task; whatever it might be. Commitment often means a life of self-sacrifice, as it certainly did for Nehemiah. He would have to leave everything familiar and go out into the unknown, trusting God. As McLaren wrote:
such sympathy should be the parent of a noble, self-sacrificing life. Look at the man in our text (Nehemiah). He had the ball at his feet. He had the entrée of a court, and the ear of a king. Brilliant prospects were opening before him, but his brethren’s sufferings drew him, and with a noble resolution of self-sacrifice, he shut himself out from the former and went into the wilderness. He is one of the Scripture characters that never have had due honour–a hero, a saint, a martyr, a reformer. He did, though in a smaller sphere, the very same thing that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews magnified with his splendid eloquence, in reference to the great Lawgiver (Moses), ‘and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,” and to turn his back upon the dazzlements of a court, than to ‘enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,’ whilst his brethren were suffering. [6]
MacLaren 2013
The kind of commitment required to carry the wearied Christian through the trials that come their way requires a willingness to lay it all down for the sake of God’s plan; knowing, He is the greater treasure.
Powerful Prayer Feature #7 FAITH
“Faith is knowing, beyond a shadow of doubt; that God IS the great I AM and he rewards those who diligently seek him” (my paraphrase of Hebrews 11:6). Nehemiah now understood the power, magnitude and grace of God. He would trust God for the grace which saved him, the grace to sustain him and the future grace which would present every moment of every day that lay before him along this treacherous journey.
As John Piper so aptly points out “Faith in future grace is the spring of radical righteousness. It’s the root of love and all Christ-exalting living.” (Piper 1995)[7] Knowing that God holds every future millisecond in his hands of grace; means, trusting him and believing Romans 8:28, no matter how dark the day may seem. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
DUST MITES OF THE HEART
In this fallen world, dust and cobwebs can be found in the cleanest of homes. One moment of inattention to cleaning, they increase with a rapidity that seems unbelievable. The same is true of our hearts. When, we lay aside our Bibles, become too contented to pray, or allow other things to take God’s rightful time in our hearts; dust mites and cobwebs grow within our hearts.
Then, when God places us in the waiting room, the light of His truth shines in revealing all the dust mites and cobwebs needing to be cleansed. During that time of waiting for His answer, He bids us to lay every sin of thought and deed at the foot of the cross, in full surrender to His will. He will cleanse our heart, sweeping away every dust mite of pride, anger, selfishness, and the cobwebs of our doubt.
So, Nehemiah waited; while God fully cleansed and prepared his heart for the task ahead. We know that to be the case; because, when the fateful day that God revealed His plan, Nehemiah’s countenance was very sad. Once one knows for certain God’s precise plan, there is no place for sadness. The depth of his sorrow lets us know, Nehemiah did not yet know with certainty God’s plan. So, we arrive at the day of its revealing.
ONE SAD SERVENT, A KING, AND GOD’S PLAN REVEALED
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king.
Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very sore afraid,
And said unto the king, “Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?”
Then the king said unto me, “For what dost thou make request?” So, I prayed to the God of heaven.
And I said unto the king, “If it please the king, and if thy servant has found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.” Moreover, I said unto the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.” And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Nehemiah 2:1-7
Note that Nehemiah was afraid when the king noticed his sorrow. Another clue that Nehemiah was not certain of God’s plan yet. However, as he began to tell the king the reason of his sorrow, light bulbs began to go off in his heart and mind. Wasn’t this what he had asked God for months ago, to find mercy before the king? Ah, but all the cleansing of his heart that God accomplished during that four months causes Nehemiah to pray; before, he tells King Artaxerxes: “send me to build the wall.” Yet, look at the difference; now, suddenly Nehemiah boldly asks for everything he will need, and he is granted all that he asks for. Nehemiah knows this is an act of grace by God Himself.
GOD’S PLAN: BUILD THAT WALL
Over the course of the four months, God had prepared the heart of Nehemiah to be the one to accomplish His plan. Most likely, Nehemiah was shocked that God was sending him to build the wall. However, whom better to send? He had seen the beautiful structure of the walls surrounding the palace. Furthermore, as cupbearer to the king; he had a position of prestige. Beyond that, most importantly; God had prepared his heart while in the waiting room of God. There, God had dusted away the dust mites and swept away all the cobwebs, so Nehemiah was prepared to face the opposition and trials that lay ahead of him.
[1] Jerry Falwell, ed., The Liberty Annnotated Study Bible, (Nashvile, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1988), 776
[2] Alexander MacLaren, MacLaren Expositions of Holy Scripture: A Reformer’s Schooling, (Dallas, TX: Graceworks Multimedia, March 9,2013
[3] Charles Henry Swift, Prayer a Vitalizing Force: The Lesson in Today’s Life, The Chritian Century, no 44, November 1, 1917,16
[4] Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Volume II, 506
[5] C.S.Lewis, Letters to Malcolm Chriefly on Prayer Reflections on the Intimate Dialoogue Between Man and God (Orlandoo, FL: Harcourt, 1964, 26
[6] MacLaren A Reformer’s Schooling, 373
[7] John Piper, Future Grace (New York: Multmomah Books, 1995, 322
DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD? He is our only Hope in Life and Death! Our Joy is found in Him.
Therefore if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord: I urge you today. Go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. There is nothing more important than this; because He is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, I urge you to seek Him today.
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DISCLOSURES
©Effie Darlene Barba, 2023Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. Furthermore, I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Additionally, there are quotes from myself that are noted in my book- “When God Commanded Build that Wall”
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New King James Version (NKJV)Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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