Spiritual Discernment

I was reading about Nehemiah yesterday, and there were a few things that really stood out to me. I love that about the Bible! You can learn something new every time you read it! The Bible says, “it is LIVING, and active, sharper than any two edged sword.” (Hebrews 4:12)

In Nehemiah 6:3, we find Nehemiah doing a great work for the Lord, building the wall around Jerusalem. His enemies have conspired against him, sending messages to him four times to come and meet with them. Nehemiah answered them all in the same manner. The fifth time they send a letter falsely accusing him and the Jews, which he responds to in Nehemiah 6:8. "No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind." Since that did not work, the plot gets deadly. They hire an assassin to kill him who tries to get him to go to the house of God for protection but plans to kill him there!!! The Lord empowered Nehemiah to "see" with his spiritual eyes the real intentions of Sanballat's conniving. He knew that what the Lord had purposed, the gates of hell would not prevent His will from coming to fruition! “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)

Nehemiah 6:12, "And I understand and saw that God had NOT sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose, he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me."

Just like with Nehemiah, the Holy Spirit can impart within us the ability to have spiritual discernment. He can empower us through His Spirit to see the supernatural, revealing that which is hidden. I know this from personal experience. The Lord has protected me countless times throughout my life. He gave me discernment to see through people's evil intentions, wicked motives, and deceptive words, the ability to sense danger that awaited me.

May the Lord give us discernment like Nehemiah, revealing that which may be hidden, protecting us from the enemy or people's plots and schemes against us. "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4)