10 Steps to Accomplishing Your God-Given Mission (Part 2)

As I was mentioning in the first part of this post. When God created you, he had a purpose in mind for you. He designed you to fulfill a mission tailor made for you.

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If you know what your mission in life is, congratulations! If you don't, keep praying and continue to build a personal relationship with Him. Let the Holy Spirit minister to you, press in and meditate on Him. He will make it very clear to you what your purpose is, but in His time. If this is a subject matter you would like to know more about, let me know in the comments section and I can cover it in a future post. This post has to do with going forward once God puts that mission in your heart. To revisit part 1 of this post, I believe Nehemiah can be used as a blueprint to go forward and successfully establish that mission. The first five steps had to do with identifying your mission, and the preparation needed for success. These next steps have to do with the task of getting "the wall" built.

6. Build relationships and surround yourself with trusted people- People must buy into your vision. You can't do this on your own. You need other faithful people, and their talents, to help you complete your project. In Nehemiah 2:17-18 Nehemiah says: Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work. He identifies their problem, he provides the solution, calls them to action, and shows them the reward. He then tells them about God's calling on him and the backing of the king. In the end he gets their buy in, and they begin the work.
   
7. Organize and delegate- In order to succeed you must divide the project into smaller more manageable pieces. In Nehemiah 3 the circumference of the wall is divided up into portions and the work is carried out, each group working on their assigned segment. Nehemiah organizes the groups and delegates the work so that each group is in charge of building their piece. When broken up into smaller sections a project's massiveness does not become overwhelming and every finished piece brings a sense of accomplishment. What once seemed unattainable is now achievable.
   
8. Be ready to fight for your dream- You will have to multi-task too. In Nehemiah 4, the Jews learn of a plan by their enemies to attack and kill them in an attempt to thwart their mission to rebuild the wall. At first these people had ridiculed them and had not taken the attempt at building the wall seriously, but as the wall neared the halfway point of completion, they became angry and decided to attack. Nehemiah 4:16-17 says the following: From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. Remember that you are moving the battlefront forward against the enemy of your soul. You are advancing God's cause. Do you think he won't try to undermine you? To attack you? You are in a war, and you should expect spiritual warfare. At first things may move smoothly, but once he realizes you are serious about achieving your mission, he will try to attack you. The attacks on Nehemiah continued even after the wall was finished. The "enemies of the wall" and surrounding dignitaries, those who had exerted control over the Jewish people, are not so ready to give up their power, so they keep attempting to derail Nehemiah's efforts using every trick in the book. Nehemiah 6 is a great resource on fighting off these attacks. Keep your guard up and always be in prayer, for God is your covering.
   
9. Once your goal is met, celebrate!- Give God the glory for the accomplishment. Jerusalem threw a party. It wasn't focused on debauchery. It was focused on God. They read the word, feasted and rejoiced. And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.
   
10. Establish your mandate- Now that you have reached your goal, the work isn't finished yet. It's important to make sure that your vision is on course to accomplish its final purpose. Sure, Nehemiah got the wall built, but what was the purpose of building the wall? The main purpose of the wall was for protection, but it also established a place (Jerusalem) that the Jews could call their own. The gates could now be closed to keep out merchants on the Sabbath. When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, "Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Nehemiah uses this time of victory to make sure that Jerusalem's house is in order, so to speak. You must clean house, and make sure the enemy has not crept in the back door and set up shop in your storeroom (see Tobiah). He does this in order that all the hard work they did and the dangers they faced would not be in vain. If he had left the people of Jerusalem entrenched in their ways with their enemies within the city walls, Nehemiah knew that the whole purpose of the wall would be defeated within a few years, maybe sooner.

Which brings us to the end. The last lesson we learn from Nehemiah talks about what's next. Nehemiah not only accomplishes the original vision given to him by God, of building the wall of Jerusalem, but he also takes it to the next level and turns Jerusalem away from sin, and helps the people to establish a lifestyle focused on God. That is a testament to all of us to take our successes and use them as a stepping stone to greater things. If Nehemiah didn't use that moment to get Jerusalem back on track and into God's will it would have been much harder later on, once people became complacent again. He took the completion of the wall and used it to accomplish a much greater feat. This is a great inspiration to keep taking things to the next level. Keep praying and remain in God's will. His word and guidance will get you where you need to go next.