Discouraging Discouragement

This morning when I woke up I heard three words: 
Lonely, Despair, and Discourage

Once I heard these words I immediately knew that these were not the words of God, so I grabbed my weapon...I began to research these three words in The Word of God.

 Many of us have started off this year with a bang for The Kingdom!  Many have experienced great confidence in the work that God has called them to do and with that there is much spiritual warfare that is coming against this.  The enemy's desire is to divide us, to have us feel like we are the only one (lonely).  Serving The Lord can indeed 'feel' lonely at times, but these are vital times when we are to be in much prayer.  Luke 5:16 states that Jesus would go away to lonely places, where He prayed.  Also, we should note that it was during times when Jesus was fasting & praying by himself that the devil would try to tempt Jesus with his words.

 Now let's look at the word despair.  2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  SN: Notice verse 9 says 'but never abandoned by God', take that loneliness and despair!  Despair means to lose all hope or to be overcome by a sense of defeat.  All it takes is for us to start looking at our situations, circumstances, or our troubles with our natural eyes and we lose focus on what God is doing.

 Which brings me to our last word discourage.  In Nehemiah Chapter 6, the first verse opens up to show us that the word was out to Nehemiah's enemies that he had rebuilt the wall.  Verse 1 states that he had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time he had not set up the doors in the gates.  It was at that point, when his enemies began sending messages for him to come down and meet with them so they could talk him out of completing his task from God.  And this is the point, as I stated before, where we are right now in the spirit...We have rebuilt the wall (which is our foundation and our protection from God through prayer & intercession) and so far, we have not allowed any breaches or gaps for our enemies to penetrate.  However, the messages are still being sent to us.  We all know that Nehemiah would not come down from doing the 'good work' of The Lord (vs.3) The bible states that his enemies sent messengers to him 4 times, and on the 5th time Nehemiah responded to his enemy in verse 8.  Nehemiah 6:9 says For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, "they will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done."  But now, O God, strengthen my hands.  The number 5 represents God's Grace, He recognized that these voices were not the voice of God and he was given the 'Grace to Speak' to his enemies.  Discouragement means to deprive of confidence, hope, or spirit or to try to prevent by expressing disapproval or objections.  Nehemiah did not lose his confidence or hope in God.

 It is very important for us in this season to be able to discern not only the voices but also to be able to discern when He is giving us the grace to use ours.  This is imperative for us even if it means pressing through the messages of loneliness, despair, and discouragement.  The enemy's plan is to cause division and to take away our confidence and hope in God.  Now is the time for us to recognize our authority through Christ, and to speak to our enemies once and for all to set up the doors in the gates of our temples which will complete the work.   
Praying that our God will continue to strengthen our hands for the work in Jesus' Name.