Touré Roberts - Your New Normal

I want to talk today from this theme and this idea: back to business, not as usual. This passage of scripture is powerful. I’m going to give you some backdrop to help you understand what’s going on, and then we’ll pick up in the text. The children of Israel, under the leadership of Nehemiah, are rebuilding the wall around the temple in Jerusalem. Prior to this, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed; the wall was torn down, and the children of Israel were taken away into captivity. There was a restoration of the temple—it was rebuilt—and now the wall that surrounds the temple, to protect it, is in the process of being rebuilt and restored. There is conflict and confrontation as a result of this.

I think that over the past few weeks, and the past month, our country, and even our world to a certain degree, has gone through a lot. I believe that two things need to take place as we get back to business. To a certain degree, we have been somewhat stagnant and stymied by some of the events that have occurred in the country. Oftentimes, what happens when we are stalled by these events is we forego progress and become overly consumed with the problems, as opposed to being creative toward solutions. What the Lord has really impressed upon my heart is for us to get back to business. There were things that God empowered us to do; there were projects we were working on before our nation seemed to go through this little period of collapse. I am not trivializing what our nation has gone through, but I am saying that we have to get back to business—not just business as usual. Do you understand what I’m saying?

I want to show you some things here in the text because I believe that we’re going to see that Nehemiah, in leading the children of Israel, found themselves in a similar situation. They were onto something; they were pursuing something, and in the process, conflict broke out. They had to, watch this, get back to business—but not business as usual. I believe that two things are happening right now. One, the word from the Lord is to get back to business, but the second thing is to do so with new strategies. I can’t go back to business as usual because what has happened in our nation was designed to get me to work differently. Are we tracking? So stay with me; we’re going to get into the text, and we’re going to cover this in about 11-12 minutes, and I’ll be done.

It says, «So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, „—say halfway there—“for the people had a mind to work.“ I want you to keep that in mind. There was progress; they were building something; they were focused and working diligently. See, some of you, before this time last month, as I go through this message, are going to realize that you have actually been distracted and have lost momentum. One of the things we have to understand is that just because things happen that necessitate our attention does not mean we are supposed to suspend what God showed us. Are we tracking?

So, the people had a mind to work. It says, „Now what happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they became very angry.“ Understand this: the temple had already been rebuilt; what is being built now is the wall around the temple. The temple itself was protection; the wall served as protection for that protection. When the protection for the protection began to be built, the enemy got upset. There are some people in here right now, and the reason you have recently experienced conflict is that God is moving you to another dimension. You are not just being built up; you are moving from being built up to being protected on top of being protected. I need to make that clear.