Let's have a look at Nehemiah 1:2. Hanani and my brothers came with the men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews which had escaped, and survived the captivity. They hadn't died. And I asked them concerning Jerusalem, and they said to me: the survivors that are left, from the captivity in the province, are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. The gates are burnt with fire. When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned day and night, and fasted and prayed. Nehemiah, whose name means the comfort of God, Nehemiah is a picture of the Holy Ghost; and you'll find when you look in the Bible, Father, Son and Holy Ghost all have one mind and one heart. It's a heart of love. It's a heart of compassion for people. God raised us for a purpose. When God designed man, He designed us to represent Him as ambassadors, to be creative, to change the world that we were born into. He raised us up for a purpose and destiny, but when the devil came in, he burnt God's plans. He broke God's plans, he damaged God's plan, and yet we see the heart of God.
Notice what Nehemiah does. He asks them - God is always enquiring. God is always searching, to find where people are at. When God came into the garden of Eden, He said: Adam, where are you? Not that He didn't know where he was; His heart was broken, because the relationship was fractured. He said: Adam - this is a relational question - where are you? How often, or how infrequently, we have people come up and ask you the question: how are you doing, what's happening in your life, with a heart to know you. That's what Nehemiah does. He asks the question: how are the people of God who survived the captivity? What is their condition? What is the city of Jerusalem like? He asked questions to find out the problem - = because you know, the way you want to find out what's going on in people's lives is to ask questions. You'd be amazed, if you have a heart to hear, a heart that loves people and cares about them, and you begin to ask questions, they'll open up how they're really doing. I'm surprised how often people break down and weep, as they begin to talk about the turmoil they're facing, and the loneliness that it brings.
So few people would come alongside, and find them, and say: how are you doing? How can I help? And that's what Nehemiah does. That's his heart. Notice then he sat down. When Nehemiah sat down - sit down means you're no longer able to stand up. It's a picture of the grief that the Holy Ghost feels. The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is incredibly sensitive. He feels things deeply and passionately, and so the Bible tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Bible describes in Ephesians, Chapter 4, it says we grieve Him through bitterness. We grieve Him when there's anger, we grieve Him when there's hatred in our heart. We grieve Him when there's malice, when we harbour resentment, when we harbour things in our heart - we were never designed to operate like that. You can't run your life like that, but when that happens, when there's these things in our heart the Bible says the Holy Spirit is grieved.
And so it says: he sat down. He was grieved, and the Bible says: he wept. He poured out his heart. Nehemiah, the man, felt the anguish of God. He felt the pain of God's heart. The spirit of God came upon him, and he began to feel what God feels about people who are burnt stones, about people who's lives are broken, young men, young women who've been abused, who've come from broken families, whose lives are damaged. This is the heart of God - He weeps. When did you last weep over someone? When did you last experience God putting a compassion in your heart, so when you heard of something, you felt, you just sat down and began to weep for their condition, and pray for them, and begin to fast for the breakthrough? So often it's not like that. We hear of what's happening and we begin to judge, and wall in our heart that person away, but God doesn't do that. Nehemiah didn't do that. He began to weep and weep and weep, day and night, the anguish of God's heart, the compassion of God came on him. He felt God's heart, and all he could do was weep and weep and weep.