A person who had dispensational value to God was Nehemiah, who was a true overcomer; he was a properly aggressive person before God for His people, and His proper aggressiveness was for the building of the city of God so that He may have a kingdom on earth.
When Israel was taken into captivity for seventy years, God still had a dispensational move because of Nehemiah, who was a true overcomer.
If we read the book of Nehemiah carefully and prayerfully, we will notice that he was a pattern of someone who has dispensational value to God (see Neh. 1:1-11; 2:9-20; 4:4-5, 9; 5:10, 14-19; 8:1-10; 13:14, 29-31).
He was a cupbearer to the king in Babylon, but he received an honest report from one of his brothers concerning the remnant who returned to Jerusalem; he was told that the whole city was in ruin and the walls were still torn down.
When he heard this, he prayed and wept before God, and he was so sad that even the king noticed and asked him about it. After he inwardly prayed, Nehemiah presented the situation, and the king allowed him to go and help with the rebuilding of the wall.
When he returned to Jerusalem, the enemies were upset that a man came seeking the welfare of the children of Israel.
When we seek the welfare of the church as the Body of Christ, the enemy is upset and the opposers know.
Nehemiah helped not only with the rebuilding of the temple but also with the reconstitution of the people of God with the word of God; he realized that this was not his portion but the people need to be reconstituted (for they were Babylonian in their nature), so he asked Ezra to teach them.
Nehemiah realized what was his portion and function, and he brought in Ezra to do the work of reconstituting.
Ezra brought the law before the people of God, read the book of the law from a platform, and they all said Amen and wept much.
We need to pay attention to the public reading of the Bible, and we need to read the Bible every day.
And not only do we need to read the Bible but also have the proper interpretation of the word; Ezra and the priests didn’t just read the law but gave it the proper interpretation, and the people received the word warmly and welcomed it.
They gave the sense of the law to the people, helping them apprehend the intrinsic significance of the word in the Bible.
The genuine ministry of the new covenant brings us into the intrinsic significance of the Word of God so that we may love the Lord, be exposed of our situation, repent, be joined to God in His word, be reconstituted with Him in His Word, and build up the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God.
The need for the Continual Recovery of the Church as the House of God and the Kingdom of God
The book of Nehemiah is a book of the recovery of the people of Israel; the crucial point in this book is that the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem with its wall was both a continual recovery among His elect for His testimony and a safeguard and protection for the house of God.
Within the city of God, there was the house of God, and the wall protected and safeguarded the house of God.
The main thing Nehemiah did was to cooperate with the Lord to build up the wall around the city of Jerusalem; by doing this, Jerusalem became a city with a wall around it, being protected from the enemies.
This shows that the church as the house of God as His dwelling and home on earth needs His kingdom to be established as a realm to guard His interest on earth; the church as the house of God needs to also be the church as the kingdom of God.
There’s the need for the continual recovery of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God so that there would be a realm that safeguards His interest on the earth for His administration to carry out His economy.
In Rom. 14:17 we see that the church is the kingdom of God; the church life is not just eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, for the church is the kingdom of God.
The rebuilding of the church as the house of God typifies God’s recovery of the degraded church, and the rebuilding of the wall of the city of Jerusalem typifies God’s recovery of His kingdom.
We build up not only the house of God but also the kingdom of God, for the building of God’s house and kingdom go together (Matt. 16:18-19).
The kingdom and the house of God fulfill God’s heart’s desire as seen in Gen. 1:26.
God’s purpose in creating man is that man would become His corporate expression and representation, expressing God with His image and representing Him with His dominion.
The church and the kingdom are spoken of synonymously in Matt. 16; the building up of the church as the house of God is for God to dwell and live among His people, and the building up of the church as the kingdom of God is for God to have the reality of the kingdom of the heavens in this age.
We need to cooperate with the Lord to build the wall around the city of God, that is, build up the wall around the church so that the Lord would have a realm in which He can rule and reign.
First, we are protecting the church from the idolatry and division (as typified by Babylon), from the worldly pleasures and ways (as typified by Egypt), and from the wickedness and sin (as typified by Sodom).
Second, we build up the wall to protect the church by helping all the saints realize the headship of Christ; we first need to be headed up in Christ, realizing His headship over all things in the church.
We need to allow the Lord to subdue and resurrect our will in our soul, so that our will may be subdued by Christ and transformed with Christ even through sufferings; in this way, our will is submitted to the headship of Christ.
We build up the wall to protect the church through the overcoming blood of the Lamb; we can apply the blood of Christ through our repenting, confessing our sins, and asking God for His purging.
We build up the wall to protect the church by putting on Christ as the weapons of light (Rom. 13:11-14).
We are told to put on weapons of light, which are Christ Himself; how do we put on Jesus Christ?
First of all, when we are baptized, we put Christ on; however, we need to daily put Him on, and we do this by living by Christ and living out Christ to magnify Christ, extolling Christ, making Him enlarged and great in the sight of others through us.
When we allow Christ to live in us, He shines through us, and we enlarge Him and make Him great before others; this is light shining out from us.
This light, the presence of Christ Himself, is our garment, our magnification of Christ. We build up the wall to protect the church by Christ as our glory (Zech. 2:5).
Christ is the glory in the center of the church, and He shines through the church to be the church’s protection of fire.
On one hand, He is the glory in the center of the church, and on the other hand, He is around the church as a wall of fire. Hallelujah!
God’s glory, His expression, is our protection. When we deny ourselves and express Christ, that corporate expression is God’s glory, and that glory is the very wall that we are building up for the protection of the church as the house of God.
When we realize and enjoy Christ as our life, we have the church as the house of God; if we go further and realize His headship, the house will be enlarged to be the city, the kingdom of God (Eph. 1:10, 22-23; 4:15; Rev. 22:1).
Lord Jesus, we need a continual recovery for the rebuilding of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God. We want to enjoy and realize Christ as our life so that we may have and live in the church as the house of God, and we want to go further and realize Christ’s headship so that we may have the church as the kingdom of God, the city of God. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for the building up of the wall to protect the church as the kingdom of God. Bring us under Your headship and make us those who help others realize the headship of Christ. We apply Your precious blood, dear Lord, as we repent and confess our sins. We put You on as weapons of light so that You may shine through us, live in us, and be magnified in us for others to see Christ being enlarged and made great. Amen, Lord Jesus, You are the glory in the church, and Your expression through the saints corporately becomes a wall of fire to protect the church as the house of God!
Our need to have a Proper Aggressiveness in the Church Life, being Pure and not Cowardly but Properly Aggressive for God’s Building
Nehemiah is a good pattern to us all in the church life; his living and work show us the need to have the proper aggressiveness in the Lord’s recovery today. Nehemiah was aggressive – not in a natural or wild way, but properly aggressive.
We need to have a proper aggressiveness in the church life today, being properly aggressive for God’s building – His house and His kingdom on earth.
Many times those who should not speak in the church are aggressive and speak – they are improper, yet aggressive; at the same time, those who should speak are not aggressive enough to speak. May the Lord make us properly aggressive for the church!
When Nehemiah returned to rebuild the city, the leaders of the Moabites and Ammonites were greatly displeased about his seeking the good of the children of Israel (Neh. 2:10, 19). These descendants of the impure increase of Lot hated and despised the children of Israel (see Ezek. 25:3, 8).
When we take a stand to take the Lord as our absoluteness for God, when we take Christ as our burnt offering to be properly aggressive for the Lord and the church life, we will suffer persecution.
Those who desire to live godly in this age will suffer persecution.
Before we were absolute for the Lord, others might have liked us and not give us trouble, but after we became properly aggressive, they started to persecute us.
In relation to the mocking, despising, and reproach of these opposers, Nehemiah was very pure and aggressive; he was not cowardly (see Neh. 1:4; 2:3-8, 17-20; 4:3-5, 8-9, 14, 17-23; 5:14; 13:23-31; cf. Acts 4:29-31; 1 Thes. 2:2; 2 Tim. 1:7-8).
One thing that stands out regarding Nehemiah is that he was properly aggressive, yet he was not cowardly; when others opposed him, he inwardly prayed to God, even prayed desperately, pouring out his heart before God and remind Him of what they said and did, and he was very pure and aggressive.
The overcomers are not cowards; when we exercise our spirit and really touch the Lord, we will not be a coward but rather, we will be filled with the Lord as our courage.
As we see in Josh. 1:1-9, the Lord wants us to be courageous, even very courageous; the way to do this is to be in the word of God, enjoy Him, and we will enter into the enjoyment of Christ as the good land.
We need to take the Lord as our courage and boldness. Others may oppose us and even despise us, being displeased with the fact that we are properly aggressive for the Lord and the church, but we are not cowardly but pure, trusting in God.
When we’re in the meetings of the church, we need to be properly aggressive to stand up and speak for the Lord; when we stand up, we reject ourselves, we deny ourselves, we put ourselves aside, and we live by the life of Christ to speak for the Lord.
If we are properly aggressive for the Lord and the church, the God of heaven Himself will make us prosper, so we rise up and build; as for the enemies and those who oppose us, they have no portion with us in the house of God (Neh. 2:17-20).
No matter how much we may be mocked, despised, or opposed, we should have a heart to build up the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God, and we should be properly aggressive to do this.
In the work of building, we both build and fight; we need to be on guard for the enemy’s attacks, knowing that God fights for us, and we also need to build up the church.
God doesn’t help the cowardly; He helps those who help themselves, who take a step toward Him and are properly aggressive.
We may be naturally aggressive and zealous, or we may have no aggressiveness in our natural man; whatever we are needs to pass through death and resurrection, and in resurrection, we can be properly aggressive for God.
The aggressive ones receive help from God; like Nehemiah, the apostle Paul was allied with God and realized God’s assistance in this alliance.
In Acts 26:21-22, Paul said that he obtained help from God, so he stood unto that day to testify of the things concerning God’s economy.
This word, “help” in these verses can be translated as “alliance”; Paul was allied with God and realized God’s assistance in this alliance.
Nehemiah’s aggressiveness, as a virtue in his human conduct, shows that our natural capacity, ability, and virtues must pass through the cross of Christ and be brought into resurrection, into the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God, to be useful to God in the accomplishing of His economy.
It is good to bring this to the Lord in prayer and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, make us those who are properly aggressive for You and for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God. We do not look at the opposition or persecution: we come to You, dear Lord, and we take You as our burnt offering, our real absoluteness. May we have a proper aggressiveness in the Lord’s recovery today, being one with You for the rebuilding of the church as the temple of God and the city of God. Make our heart pure toward You and in Your service, and make us those properly aggressive for You and for Your interest. Amen, Lord, we want to be allied with You and realize Your assistance in this alliance. May we allow our natural aggressiveness pass through the cross of Christ and be brought into resurrection, so that it may be useful to God in the accomplishing of God’s economy.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Nehemiah, msgs. 1-2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 8, Having Dispensational Value to God in the Last Days to Turn the Age.
- Hymns on this topic:
– How blinded we have been, / Shut in with what concerns us; / While God’s house lieth waste— / Lord, break through, overturn us; / We’ll go up to the mountain, / Bring wood and build the house; / We’ll never say, “Another day!” It’s time! We’ll come and build! (Hymns #1248)
– Let us rise up and build / And strengthen our hands for the work. / The God of heaven Himself will make us prosper. / Lord, we have set our will, / We will enter in Your work. / All the walls are crushed and broken, / And the gates once burned with fire, / But we will not be discouraged, / Our spirits never tire. / Let the enemy oppose us; / We will fight and build our part. / To God this is our memorial; / Remember, Lord, my heart! (Song on, Let Us Rise Up and Build)
– In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see; / That Thy Bride, the glorious city, / May appear upon the earth, / As a lampstand brightly beaming / To express to all Thy worth. (Hymns #840)
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