Weathering the insidious attacks of the enemy.

Dear friend,

Always a great joy to connect with you!

At Excel and Nehemiah entrepreneurial center, past few weeks have been a season of hard work behind the scenes expanding services. We are always overjoyed and humbled to see layer after layer of God’s purpose unfold for us through the seasons of life!

We are growing from just a training center to a hub where we have a fresh food market, a restaurant start up, a retail shop, an incubation center for business ideas, a science and innovation lab to support our innovation our education endeavors among others. Out of this inspiration we are as well seeing new small businesses being birthed by members.  What a joy to see this coming along. All this would not be in the least way possible without you pulling alongside us through your prayerful, financial and other support. A little always goes a long way. Thank you for your partnership!

Take a look at the pictorial updates of the center below;

.

And we rejoice not only in our triumphs, but also in our tribulations. Rom 5:3

Through this crucial building season, I have been brought to contemplate on the qualities of resilience, tenacity and dogged determination in accomplishing our individual and corporate mandates as kingdom entrepreneurs. These qualities have become more imminent to possess in light of some recent incidents. Jesus, cautioned us in Luke 10:3; “Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves”

This outgoing week, we had a burglar break in at Nehemiah business center that involved some loss of business inventory. Although a little disheartening, we are thankful at the same time that the attack was limited to one business section and did not extend to other areas. Nevertheless it was a stark reminder of what we are up against. Whenever God is working, the enemy is also busy to sabotage, saboteur, and derail us. The story of Nehemiah in the bible is a classic example of the antics of the enemy.

“When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he exploded in anger, vilifying the Jews. In the company of his Samaritan cronies and military he let loose: “What are these miserable Jews doing? Do they think they can get everything back to normal overnight? Make building stones out of make-believe?” At his side, Tobiah the Ammonite jumped in and said, “That’s right! What do they think they’re building? Why, if a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight.” Neh 4:1-3

Rebuilding and restoring what was lost to the enemy is not for the faint of heart. The enemy that has kept people in captivity to poverty, social and economic desolation has no wish to relinquish his grip so easily. It is going to take more than zeal and good intentions, it’s going to require a firm & most of the times stubborn faith, resilience, and a dogged determination. The adversary will employ all sorts of tactics, both covert and overt to defeat us. Some of the covert means will be working to delay, derail, discourage, disparage, divert and detour us. He will even slander, distort and frame us before kings/people to bring a bad report and misunderstanding of our intentions.  And if any of those covert means fail, he will come out overtly and engage us in a fight for us to cease building. Following the burglary, one of the community members mentioned, I quote; “there has never been any successful business done on this property’’. In a sense it was if the enemy was saying, “who do you think you are to rebuild/do business here?!” We call that intimidation and bullying. And in my heart the response was; yes we are doing business here and we are going to be successful”
The enemy won’t easily let go Gods people free, nor let take over what has formerly belonged to him-of course wrongfully-without a fight. It is the story of Exodus, and it’s the story of Nehemiah, it is your story and my story. When attacked and assailed, rather than cower in defeat and retreat, we should turn on more will power (resilience) and engage our enemy.  

Nehemiah’s response to the enemy was not to quit, but to work harder and smarter to outsmart the enemy. He divided his men into day and night work parties, doubling both as workers and watchers. They also built with a trowel in one hand, and with a sword in another hand. In our day and age, unlike with Nehemiah’s time, we can be as well aided by technology to keep watch! As we move on, one of our smart moves will probably be to install surveillance cameras so that we can watch with technology as well. Now- as then, our zeal, faith and trust in God will not insulate us from the insidious attacks of the enemy such as discouragement and drag at work projects. But neither should it substitute principles of hard work, determination and smartness. To overcome the former, we will need to be resilient, dogged and determined, work harder and smarter. But to overcome the later, we need to overcome ourselves! We should not call laziness Satan, neither should we dismiss his wiles. But we overcome him by engaging in prayer and building a spiritual fortress around us through communion with God and his word.  In the process we must become rugged and battle hardened.

. The enemy will not give up without a fight, so wont we! Below is a Powerful admonition from Paul to the Ephesians;

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition…” Ephesians 6:10-18

Blessings and Peace!

Joab Sonko

Pastor @ Excel / Patron Nehemiah development Group