“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:10-11).
It is almost difficult to grasp how hard the enemy works against us. The reality, according to the Word of God, is that he is constantly accusing believers who are intentionally taking ground from him. This means he is always trying to pull us down below that to which God has called us. When we rise up in the call of God, we will be “uncommon vessels” that threaten his territory. He tries to weary the saints.
The word “weary” means to:
- Wear out
- Wear away
- Harass constantly
The definition for harass is to annoy or bother (someone) in a constant or repeated way: to make repeated attacks against. It’s like the instance in Nehemiah where the people were building the wall. The enemy would come and mock, belittle, tease and bring accusation to discourage the people from building.
When God has called you to do something, it is not an option. But we don’t have to tolerate harassment, either. Jesus gave us authority over all the power of the enemy, so we can shut down his continual nagging. These are not the enemy’s “big blog” hits, but the little constant, consistent irritations he tries to bring. He does not want to be obvious, but to bring enough trouble to cause you to doubt, lose faith and quit doing what God has called you to. It is all in the spirit of mockery, doubt, unbelief and discouragement.
“When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard how the restoration of Jerusalem’s walls was progressing and how the breaches had begun to be sealed, it made them extremely furious. So they all conspired together to fight against Jerusalem in order to cause it chaos. Nevertheless we prayed to our God, and, because of them, we set up a watch for them day and night” (Neh. 4:7-9, MEV).
Interestingly enough, when you look up the meaning of the names of Sanballat and Tobiah, Sanballat means “strength” and Tobiah mean “Jehovah is good.” These meanings are completely contradictory to their behavior. This is a picture of how everything may look right on the outside, but it’s the inside that counts.
“When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly irritated, and he mocked the Jews. He spoke before his relatives and the army of Samaria and said, ‘What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they fortifying themselves? Will they make sacrifices? Can they complete this in a day? Can they revive the burned-up stones out of the rubbish heaps?'” (Neh. 4:1-2).
Can you hear the doubt and unbelief in the tone of these words? Have you heard something like that before? Tobiah and Sanballat represent miserable people, the kind who don’t like their lives and want to drag you down to their level. This shows how the enemy likes to work through what would be considered “religiously correct” people to hinder the work of God.
Here are religious people who have been given good names (although not living up to them) that have turned to worship false gods and have chosen to purposefully hinder God’s plan. Such is the insanity of the religious mindset that thinks it is spiritually profitable to tear down rather than build up, to discourage rather than encourage.
In response, we see the wisdom of God given to His people to ramp up the prayer and set a watch against these enemies day and night to keep progress moving for God’s plans. Notice that the response is not to fight but rather to increase their intensified engagement with God. They keep their focus where it needs to be: on the work God has set before them. This is also a picture of how we need to “come up higher” in our heart-commitment to the Lord. When the challenge is raised before us, we must turn up the heat of worship/prayer.
“He shall speak words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and plan to change times and law. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time” (Dan. 7:25).
The greater our response to the call of God, the greater our diligence in acts of faith and believing, the more the enemy will try to resist us. But we have the victory in Jesus’ name and will prevail. For greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
It is given to us to stay strong in the Lord, finding power in His grace to overcome. He fills in our gaps with His perfection as we lean upon Him. We don’t turn inward but upward to fulfill the vision God has given. {eoa}
John Belt helps people discover abundant life in God’s presence through intimacy and breakthrough. He is cofounder, along with his wife, Brandi, of Overflow Global Ministries and travels itinerantly through speaking and worship in the U.S. and abroad. John has produced more than 30 instrumental and worship albums that create an atmosphere for encounters with heaven and can be found around the world in places such as Bethel Redding, 24/7 Burns, Catch the Fire Toronto, XPMedia, International Houses of Prayer and people’s living rooms. He the author of Overflowing in His Presence.
For the original article, visit overflowglobal.com.
Bill Wiese 
Paul McGuire 
Abby Trivett 
