DEMONIC STRATEGY: MIXTURE-1
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

The third demonic strategy as shown to us by Nehemiah is what I call mixture. In our focal scripture, Nehemiah said “…till we come in the midst among them…”

I will never forget a counsel that my spiritual father gave me; he said, “A believer must beware of mixtures, because if the devil cannot stop a man, he joins him”.

In order words, one of the plots of the enemy against a man is to join him, befriend him, wins his trust and companionship so that he can sell him out to the enemy eventually. Salt will not sweeten the soup until it mixes up with it. An enemy that does not mix up with you will not understand your inner workings and plans.

The danger in this however, is that once the enemy joins, mixes up or comes into the midst of what you’re doing, he can be there dormant for years until he deals the killing blow. The devil specializes in sending his agents into a work and it takes spiritual insight and divine revelation to expose him.

The enemy coming into the midst of what a man is doing operates like a time bomb that is set to detonate at a particular time. Remember that the enemy starts by sending ignorance, then upgrades to blindness then mixture. When the mixture detonates, the effect is often catastrophic.

Can you imagine Judas Iscariot hibernating around Jesus for three and half years? How would Jesus have been betrayed if not for a Judas? The case of Jesus is peculiar because it has to do with prophecy but what about us?

We must always guide against these folks. They are usually subtle, quiet but very dangerous. Let’s consider the case of Paul:

Act 16:16 “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:”

To be continued…

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: SIGHT-2
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

…From yesterday…

1Corinthians 2:16 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

The devil knows that once a man gets born again, he inherits the mind of Christ! The very mind that created the heavens and the earth. This very mind operates in eternity and knows the future well. The devil knows that once he blinds the man he suspends his capacity to comprehend the future.

A blind believer is totally disconnected from spiritual operations. He doesn’t know what is happening and what God is currently doing and what He intends to do. That is the reason why the devil fights the believer.

Beloved, if there is anything you must do, this is it:

Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

You must mount guard over your heart by preventing wrong things from entering. You must defend your mind and prevent it from been blinded by the devil.

Helen Keller said that, “Something that is worse than been blind, is having eyes without vision”. Many people are looking but very few are seeing. It takes a mind without a veil to see clearly. One of Jesus’ mission is to help the blind recover their sight.

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor…and recovering of sight to the blind…”

Here is a prayer Paul prayed for the church:

Ephesians 1:18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,”

That should be a daily prayer. We must be able to see beyond the common, regular and ordinary. Every form of blindness must be destroyed.

Nehemiah knew this, and so must you and I, Selah.

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: SIGHT-1
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

The second demonic strategy which Nehemiah revealed here is blindness. He said, “…neither see till we come…”

The devil does not just keep truth away from us as much as possible, he equally tries to blindfold the believer. Sight as used here is talking about discernment, vision and perception.

If he can succeed in blocking a man’s view, he had won. Hear this:

2Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

John 12:40 “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them.”

Once a man is blinded, he cannot think straight. The mind is the mechanism of vision and imagination. It is the “device” that enables us believe God, have understanding and insight into the future. The mind empowers us, giving us a clear picture of the future we desire.

Once the devil blinds a man, he sees only his past misdeeds, failures and becomes hopeless. The plan of God is for us to see far, have clarity and keep hope alive. No wonder Solomon said:

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

In order words, a man without vision or one blinded by the devil will definitely perish, which is exactly what the devil want to achieve.

Friend, let me show you what the devil want to do with your mind:

1Corinthians 2:16 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

The devil knows that once a man gets born again, he inherits the mind of Christ! The very mind that created the heavens and the earth.

To be continued…

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: KNOWLEDGE-4
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

…From yesterday…

Beloved, it is high time you settle down, and get truth into your system. Know what God said concerning you as a new believer. Know the truth about the devil himself! One truth the devil will keep away from us is the truth about himself.

The devil will never want you to know that he is a defeated foe. He will not want you to know that he bows at the mention of the name of Jesus. Hear this:

James 2:19 “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble”

It will interest you to know that the devil even believe in one God and trembles when you say so. The devil will not want you to know that as a born again child of God, you are seated with Christ in heavenly places far above him!

Ephesians 2:6 “And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

Hear this:

John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed.”

The devil enslaves and ensnares people by ignorance but Christ came and released us from his shackles. We are not bound we are free.

The devil operates with the power of darkness and when the Bible talks about darkness, it is simply talking about ignorance. The only way to deal with darkness is by introducing light. Hear this:

John 1:5 “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

The only thing that terrifies darkness is light! You don’t cast out ignorance, you simply introduce knowledge (light)!

Friend, know the truth about your health, finances, mind, family, children, business, career and so on. God has all these well outlined and documented for us. Don’t let ignorance kill you, read your Bible!

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: KNOWLEDGE-3
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

…From yesterday…

I remember one of my Sunday school teachers told me that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus fought with the devil and gave the devil a dirty slap! Not only that, she said Jesus then hit him on the floor, guess what?

I grew up thinking Jesus was a “WWF wrestler” and so my concept of fighting and resisting the devil became wrapped. I grew up with that mindset!

Kudos to my Sunday school teacher for the analogy, creativity and delivery, but then you don’t go about looking for the devil to slap, Jesus prayed and used words to defeat the devil and gave us the power of attorney to do same with his name. He asked us to cast the devil out in his name.

Mark 16:17 “And these signs shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;”

You simply use the name of Jesus in warfare and that’s all! Friend, I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to your teachers but rather you should read the Bible for yourself to corroborate what you’re hearing. That way the devil will not come and confuse your theology.

The devil is very smart and you must know how to deal decisively with him. Nowadays, I’m always appalled to see believers arguing blindly on social media on issues they have never studied themselves in the Bible.

Friend, read the Bible and be in a position that you can boldly say, this is what the Bible say in so and so Book, chapter and verse; that is the way to handle the devil. Don’t ever put yourself in a position to be cheated. Why pay for ignorance when you have the whole truth loaded in the scriptures?

It is high time you settle down, and get truth into your system. Know what God said concerning you as a new believer. Know the truth about the devil himself!

To be continued…

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: KNOWLEDGE-2
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

…From yesterday…

Everybody on earth pays for something, you pay your motor mechanic because you don’t know how your car works. You pay the plumber because you don’t know how to fix your broken pipe. You pay the doctor because of your limited knowledge of medicine, and so on and so forth.

That is in the realm of the physical. But the same applies in the spiritual realm. To deal with a man, the devil keeps him in the dark about certain spiritual truths.

The principle is simple, once the devil keeps you ignorant in an area, you cannot enjoy the benefit accrued to that area. If he keeps you away from the principle of sowing and reaping, he has automatically disconnected you from harvest!

If he keeps you away from believing in divine healing, he has automatically confine you to a sick bed! I have met people who believes that healing has gone away when Jesus went back to heaven.

If he keeps you away from knowing the truth about your new creation reality in Christ, you will always live as a timid believer who will never approach God with boldness.

You simply suffer from what you don’t know. So, Nehemiah told his folks that look, “don’t let the devil use ignorance to destroy us by keeping us away from knowledge” (emphasis mine).

Friend, here is the challenge; you cannot cast out ignorance. It might be a demonic strategy and operation but the only way to deal with it is by acquiring knowledge. Hear this:

John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”

I’ve met several believers who go to church but never searches the Bible themselves. The only thing they know is what they have been told by their Sunday school and Bible study teachers, and even their pastors. I remember one of my Sunday school teachers told me that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus fought with the devil and gave the devil a dirty slap!

To be continued…

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DEMONIC STRATEGY: KNOWLEDGE-1
Nehemiah 4:11 “And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease”

The devil is very unrelenting with his strategies and attacks. That guy never ceases to amaze me. He is so persistent that if you do not continually resist him, he will get you down.

Look at what he told God:

Job 1:7 “And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

Job 2:2 “And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

On two different occasions he told God how he operates. He is an unrepentant accuser of the brethren. If he is not going “to”, he is definitely going “fro”. He doesn’t rest, he is always on the lookout for an opportune moment to strike.

That is why as believers we cannot afford to rest on our oars. Someone said, “A part time believer cannot defeat a full time devil.” We must constantly be on the watch for him.

As he moves up and down, what exactly is he looking for? Nehemiah exposed that to us in our focal scripture for today. There are about three or four thoughts I want us to discuss from what Nehemiah said.

The first thing he said was that, “…our adversaries said They shall not know…”

The devil is an expert at using this principle against the believer. I call it the “ignorance strategy”. Once the devil can keep you from knowing, he will toy with your life and destiny. It is what you don’t know that you pay for.

Everybody on earth pays for something, you pay your motor mechanic because you don’t know how your cars work. You pay the plumber because you don’t know how to fix your broken pipe.

To be continued…

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THE PRAISE DIMENSION
Nehemiah 4:18 “For the builders every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.”

Nehemiah armed his men with the sword which they girded by their sides. He however didn’t stop there, he kept a man by his side who had a trumpet.

Nehemiah made sure that apart from sword, he had the trumpet as well. The trumpet is primarily an instrument of music.

Psalms 150:3 “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.”

He was not just ready to speak the word, he was prepared to make a joyful sound as well. This man rolled out some dangerous weapons that always bring God to the scene.

Psalms 47:5 “God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.”

He sure knows how to invite God to fight and win battles for him. Beloved, I know you are a prayer warrior and very skillful with your sword which is the word of God but another weapon the enemy cannot resist is that of praise. A man that knows how to praise God will always have God on his side. Why?

Psalms 22:3 “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

God’s natural habitat is an atmosphere of praise. Once you create such an atmosphere, God doesn’t ask questions, he just shows up! And you must know that anywhere He shows up He does the needful.

God cannot show up where there is sickness and not bring healing. He cannot show up where there is poverty and not bring wealth. He cannot show up where there is confusion and not bring clarity.

Hear what Nehemiah said:

Nehemiah 4:20 “In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.”

He was so sure that in any place the trumpet was blown, God will come down and practically fight for them.

I want you to have this mindset as well, no matter what you’re going through, if can just put yourself together and blow the trumpet by praising God, He will definitely show up!

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ARM YOURSELF-3
Nehemiah 4:13 “Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.”

…From yesterday…

One thing I found interesting in this story is the fact that, Nehemiah and his folks kept their swords firmly girded by their sides but Sanballat and company never physically attacked them.

Each day they go to build, they polish their swords and kept it in top shape and Sanballat and his colleagues saw it. The enemy didn’t just see them holding work implements, they saw their weapons too.

The enemy knows the potency of the word of God, hear this:

Matthew 4:10 “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence Satan: for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”

Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold angels came and ministered unto him.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The devil can leave any man who has the sword and knows how to use it alone. If he left Jesus alone because of the sword of the word, he can leave you alone too.

The daily girding of the sword by Nehemiah and his work men was deliberate. Here is the gist, in military circles it is called “show of force”. The reason why armed forces all over the world do show of force by moving round cities displaying their artillery and military hardware is to always let the enemy know they are combat ready, and this often chases the enemy away.

Friend, deploy this strategy as well. Do a “show of force” daily by praying loud especially in tongues, fasting often, reading and meditating on the word and also boldly declaring the word.

These are all activities that keeps your sword firmly in place. Don’t be a Sunday to Sunday believer, flash your weapons daily!

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ARM YOURSELF-2
Nehemiah 4:13 “Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.”

…From yesterday…

Ephesians 6:17 “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

Our sword is the word of God! Any believer that is not loaded with the word of God is one without weapons. As Nehemiah’s men were building, they had their swords intact.

The problem of many believers is that they are so engrossed with their jobs and daily activities that they forget their swords. Look at how Paul described them:

2Timothy 2:4 “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”

Paul said, many believers have so entangled themselves with the affairs of life that they forget that primarily they are soldiers. No matter what else a soldier does, he knows that primarily he is a warrior. He doesn’t allow the affairs of life take away his skillset. He knows in his heart that he is not a civilian!

He exercises regularly to keep fit and trains hard for the day of battle. If a soldier is not fighting, he is definitely training.

I know you love your job, business, career and so on but the truth is this: if you keep going to your workplace without your sword firmly by your side, the enemy may take you by surprise.

One of the reasons you need to daily load yourself with the word of God is so that you can be in top shape and ever ready for eventualities of the enemy. Don’t ever let the devil get you off guard.

One thing I found interesting in this story is the fact that, Nehemiah and his folks kept their swords firmly girded by their sides but Sanballat and company never physically attacked them.

Each day they go to build, they polish their swords and kept it in top shape and Sanballat and his colleagues saw it.

To be continued…

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