Now you notice what happens here, is once God's people decide they're going to move forward and build; once you decide you're going to build your life with God; once you decide you're going to build your marriage in a Godly way; you're going to build your family in a Godly way; going to build your finances; you're going to build your business; whatever area you are going to purpose in your heart to build - you have to understand there will be resistance. It will come in a number of ways, and it came in a number of ways here. Every lot of building that we do for God has some opposition. So first they want to create confusion, so initially the opposition was external. There were people outside just trying to confuse them, fill them with fear; but there's a number of weapons that we used against them. The first thing that happened you notice, there were external enemies pushing against them; but then they had enemies in their own heart. The devil's really easy to handle; it's what's in your own heart's a little harder, because you've got to dig in and let God deal with it. I've found it quite painful sometimes.
Notice what they're saying. Judah said: the strength of the labourers is failing, there's so much rubbish we can't build the wall. So often when we're trying to do something great for God, fatigue sets in. You start off well, but you get tired on the way. You have unexplained setbacks. You have disappointments, you have difficulties. You become fatigued. You have spiritual conflict that leaves you tired. When I get involved in doing a lot of deliverance, I get very, very tired - got to really watch my energy levels, because after you're tired, that's when you get disheartened and discouraged, and all kinds of other problems can come. So when we set out to do something, fatigue is always a problem, because it can lead to discouragement; and it can come because you've had setbacks and difficulties. It can lead to some kind of discouragement. The second thing that happens is frustration. Notice what they said: there's so much rubbish. They looked around, all they could see was all the rubbish that was around.
Now we can deal with fatigue. There's a place called the Rest of God. We need to learn how to come in, and rest in God and prayer. It's not hard, you've just got to slow down, and just take time from the busyness to just worship the Lord, and allow His spirit to refresh you quietly - not a lot of noise, you know, in quietness and confidence you rest - that's where you begin to discover your strength again. Sometimes we're too noisy, and we don't have time, or don't slow down to hear God, and let Him speak in, and put strength back in, and put the energy back in. The other thing is where we get overwhelmed with frustrations. Notice what they said: there's so much rubbish. They began to look around and man, the problems, the rubbish, the debris and the mess, it looked impossible to do it. Perhaps your business looks impossible to break through. Perhaps what you're doing looks impossible to get where you're trying to get. It just looks like there's so many problems. Sometimes families look that way. You'll have this vision of raising great kids, and then on the way there's all these difficulties. You just wake up and there it is; the house that was tidy last night, there's debris everywhere. Where did it come from? Who knows? Just open the door of the car, and you can feed someone for a week out of what you find on the floor there, you know. It's quite bad sometimes.