Toure Roberts - Shovels, Swords and Shifts

I want to talk about shovels, swords, and shifts. Okay, so I’m going to read from Nehemiah. First of all, the book of Nehemiah is a powerful, powerful story of excellent leadership. Exceptional leadership is everything; a nation rises and falls on leadership. A world rises and falls on a church, a business, a family—everything rises and falls on excellent leadership. If you’re a leader here in some capacity, even if you’re just leading yourself, take it seriously. It’s an honor to be a leader; it’s an honor to have responsibility, which means that God trusts you. When you lead, you must be a person of integrity; your leadership is bigger than you. Your leadership is not to hoard it over people, or to lord it over people, or to beat people down. If you have to tell somebody that you’re the leader, you’re not the leader. Leaders should love; leaders should navigate life with integrity. Leaders ought to put others first; that’s what makes you a leader. Nehemiah is a textbook example of what it means to lead. He is sitting in the king’s house as the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. He has favor; he is comfortable. However, he carries a burden for his people, who are broken down in another place, in their hometown. He doesn’t become complacent in his situation to the extent that he forgets his position of favor is an opportunity to bless his people. You need to study this when you get a chance; it’s powerful. So, he gets permission from the king to go and provide leadership, support, resources, favor, and strategy to the children of Israel, who were tasked with rebuilding the temple and the wall. Ezra was more about the temple; Nehemiah was more about the wall surrounding the temple. He goes, risks his life by asking for this, receives favor, and demonstrates incredible leadership. It’s just an amazing story. I love this guy; I want to be like Nehemiah.

He arrives, and things are going well until there’s an attack. The enemy comes and begins to attack. Anytime you start building what you were called and assigned to build, let the efficacy of your work be proven by the spiritual warfare and the enemy that meets you. Are you hearing the words coming out of my mouth? If I don’t say anything else, let the fact that you are actually being effective be qualified by the enemy that shows up. If the enemy isn’t showing up, either you’re not doing anything, or you’re not doing it to your potential. So the enemy shows up, and Nehemiah offers leadership. I love it! He shifts his strategy and says, «Now there are gaps in the wall; I need you to reposition yourselves on the wall.» This is when great threats are coming. He could have bowed down and said, «Okay, let me go back to the king’s spot and start serving cups again,» but he says, «No, this is a strategy problem.» I felt that for somebody; this will be remedied by strategy.

Let me give you some backdrop. I’m going to jump in there—Nehemiah 4:13. It says, «Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings, and I set the people—this is important—according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.» That’s significant because you have to remember who you’re fighting for. It’s not about you; it’s about who you are called to. He strategically places them by their families so they can see their daughters, their sons, and the people they are assigned to. They should be motivated when they want to quit; they can’t give up because they see the people they are assigned to. If you give up, they fall. Strategic leadership, strategic leadership!

And I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. I looked, and I rose and said to the nobles, the leaders, and the rest of the people, «Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.» Man, there’s a lot. I just want to flow. I just pray for some people who will fight—not for their prosperity or for their posterity—but for their communities, for their families, for their people, for the broken. I pray that God would raise up multitudes of leaders who won’t be about themselves—me, myself, and I. You don’t have to post everything you did on social media, drawing the attention back to you. You will be satisfied knowing that you are a change agent in the earth and that you’re not doing it for recognition or for a paycheck, but because it’s right. You’re doing it because you want to be like God; you’re doing it because you want to hear God say, «Well done, my good and faithful servant.» That is the most important thing. God, raise up leaders like that! It says, «And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their plot to nothing.»