As I’ve been talking about vision these last few weeks, the feedback I’ve received from the poll and direct messages affirms what I suspected: most mature believers already sense something in their spirit. A burden. A direction. Something in the ballpark of vision, if not closer.
The ones who still haven't moved aren't stuck on what. They're stuck on a much harder question: how.
This is where Moses was at the burning bush. Most of Exodus 3 and 4 is him explaining to God how he couldn’t possibly be expected to free the Israelites from bondage — and if it wasn’t for God’s insistence, he probably wouldn’t have. To say Moses needed convincing would be an understatement.
That’s what’s so interesting about Nehemiah. You can go back and read all thirteen chapters, and you will not find a single place where God speaks to him. Not a peep.
No burning bush. No angel. No prophet showing up with "thus says the LORD." Moses got a voice from a fire. Gideon got an angel under an oak tree. But Nehemiah? All he got was a bad report from his brother, and a knot in his stomach that wouldn't go away.
When he finally describes his own calling, this is the most he ever claims:
“And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.”
Put into my heart. Not "commanded me." Not "showed me in a vision." And certainly no instructions.
And the open door didn't settle it either. When the king finally noticed his sad face, four months after Nehemiah started praying, the text tells us exactly how confident he felt — the suddenly-opened door created more anxiety:
“Then I was very much afraid.”
He'd been praying for favor since the month of Chislev (Nehemiah 1:11). It didn't come until Nisan. And when it did, the king's yes only proved the king was willing. It didn't prove God was in it. A pagan king's permission is only proof of an opportunity, not a commission. We've talked before about how a good opportunity isn't the same thing as a godly assignment, and Nehemiah couldn't have known for certain which one he was standing in.
So he stood in the gray. And he asked anyway.
This matters, because a lot of us are holding out for the thing Nehemiah never got. We want God to remove the doubt before we act, and He typically doesn't work that way. Nehemiah didn't move because he was certain. He moved because enough things were pointing in the same direction:
A burden that wouldn't leave. Four months of weeping, fasting and praying over the same city. Not a passing interest. (That's where we started a few weeks ago.)
A burden he'd tested. He hadn't just felt it. He'd sought it, narrowed it, and turned "fix Jerusalem" into a wall he could actually ask for. (That's last week.)
A plan he'd prepared. When the king asked "what are you requesting?", Nehemiah had an answer: a destination, a timeline, letters, timber. Preparation is what lets a scared person make a specific ask.
A door that opened where he already stood. He didn't manufacture the moment. He was a cupbearer doing a cupbearer's job, and the moment came to him.
None of those, alone, proves anything. Even with all of it pointing in the same direction, he still gave a prayer before he gave a response:
“Then the king said to me, ‘What are you requesting?’ So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king…”
Burdens can be borrowed. Plans can be ego. Doors open all the time, and some of them lead to Tarshish, which doesn’t work out for anyone (Jonah 1:3). But when all of them line up, and you've brought it before God earnestly and honestly, then there comes a point where waiting for more certainty stops being wisdom, and starts being resistance.
Esther's cousin Mordecai named that point better than anyone:
“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Who knows. That's not certainty. That's a man looking at how a burden, a position, and a moment all lined up, and saying: this might be it, and you can't afford to find out by doing nothing.
So when did Nehemiah actually get his confirmation? Who knows. Somewhere after the first stone was laid, I imagine. Maybe not until all of them had been laid:
“And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”
The confirmation came through the fruit. And it was only after much fruit had been produced that it became clear to everyone. It was never going to come in the king's court, as tantalizing as it is to believe that.
Nehemiah isn't the exception, either. Some of the most important work in the early church started exactly this way, with no instruction, just a burden and a step. We'll look at that next week.
Which brings me back to the original question. The one that Moses and Gideon asked out loud, and that you may be asking more quietly: how can I pull this off?
Honestly? You can’t. Not by yourself. If you could, it wouldn't be a vision, it'd be a goal. The doubt you feel isn't evidence that you've misheard God. Nehemiah felt it too, standing in front of the most powerful man in the world with a wine cup in his hand.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
The real question is: am I abiding in Him enough to take the first step? With enough discernment to test the substance of the burden, and enough faith to stand on that substance, however incomplete it might seem.
Your Next Move
Take the handful of items on your burdens-and-experiences list that survived last week’s test, and reflect: where do you see doors being opened for you?
And if you genuinely can’t point to any particular manifestation yet, no problem. Reflect on where you would most like to see doors opened. That’s essentially where Nehemiah was before the king opened a door for him.
After that, the next brave move is to share what you’ve found with one person who loves God and knows you. You’re not looking for approval, but encouragement and/or feedback is always helpful.
Hit reply and tell me what comes out of it. I read every one.
But wait, there’s more!
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