“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” Nehemiah 6:1-3
When you get a summons from the throne room of God, it is undeniable, irrepressible, incomparable and impossible to resist. It has to be this way—it’s the only way God works! Why? Because you are in for the fight of your life! In this story, the Jews were in exile, and Jerusalem had fallen into shambles. Nehemiah, the Jewish cup bearer to the Persian King, Artaxerxes, lived far from Jerusalem. Nehemiah couldn’t get it off his mind. God’s holy city lay in ruins. A burden grew in his heart to go back and rebuild the walls. This was a case of God elevating a person to a place of His calling. The Bible speaks of a hopeful calling, a high calling, a holy calling, and a heavenly calling. Nehemiah had never heard of Sanballat, or Tobiah or the many other enemies of what he was planning to do. He was about to find out. “When Sanballat, and Tobiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, they were very wroth, and conspired to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.” Nehemiah 4:7-8.
Right choices always stir up hostile spirits. If you are living a normal, secular life like everyone else, people are fine. But as soon as you announce that you are going higher in the things of God, or that you are going to pursue ministry in some way, WWIII breaks out. The only people the devil doesn’t bother are the people that don’t bother him! But when you decide to move up higher, look out! Satan doesn’t want you to find the highway of holiness. You have to fight to get your calling; you have to fight to keep your calling. You have to say, “This is who I am; I’m not coming down!” You’re not just reforming yourself, or just choosing a different way of life, or just joining a different church. You have heard from God! This defines salvation from religion. You can say, “I’m not coming down!” You will fight off every jeer, every criticism, every temptation, every discouragement, every defection of a friend, every well-intentioned advice from a relative, every attack and every threat. You go up to your new work, your new life with a new attitude. Like Nehemiah, work with determination and persistence.
Understand where you are. You have been raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! You are breathing rarefied air. You’re in the church. You can sleep with a clear conscience. You’re making right decisions. You are not bound by alcohol, or drugs. You’re faithful to your spouse. Why would you ever want to come down from the high place where God has put you? Why would you want to go back to the old life? No! I’m not coming down! I’m saved; I don’t want to be unsaved. I’m found; I don’t want to be lost. I’m living for God; I don’t want to waste my life living for the devil. I’m right; I don’t want to be wrong. I’m rich; I don’t want to be poor. No, Devil! I’m not coming down!
There is One who resisted all calls, all pressure, all temptation to come down. “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Matthew 27:40. If you had been there, which crowd would you have joined? Would you have said, “It’s too much pain; come down! It’s too hard; come down! Don’t do this; come down!” No! Your salvation depended on Him staying on the cross! Had He come down, his blood would have been shed in vain—no burial, no resurrection, no ascension. No upper room, no Pentecost, no salvation! Jesus is your example. You have a cross. You have a calling. You have a consecration. You have destiny! Don’t come down! If you are in the midst of the battle, get a better grip on the trowel in one hand and the sword in the other. Never come down!