Nehemiah 2:1-20

Leadership is vital to the accomplishment of any task.  Availability is one of the key prerequisites to effective leadership.  Nehemiah is an excellent example of leadership because he not only cared about his people enough to inquire about their well-being and intercede before the Lord on their behalf; he also was available to do something about it.  When we bring something before the Lord in prayer, we must always be willing to take action in order to do something about it.  It is often said that “prayer changes things.”  I believe that statement is true, however, I think “prayer changes us,” may be an even more accurate statement.  It becomes clear that as Nehemiah prays about the situation in Jerusalem; God begins to move in Nehemiah’s own heart to take an active part in answering his own prayers.  I believe that if the body of Christ would pray more fervently for missions that we would not have such a great lack of missionaries.

NEHEMIAH INSTRUCTS THE KING: Once Nehemiah has prayed about the situation of the people and devised a reasonable plan of attack; he is then ready to reveal that plan to the king.  Good leaders will take time to make a plan before they present it to their superiors.  Nehemiah didn't go running to the king as soon as he knew about the problem.  Instead, he continued to pray about the problem and plan a possible solution.  When he was convinced of what he needed to be able to solve the problem and meet the need; he was now ready to instruct the king as to what the Lord had laid on his heart.  Even when he was convinced of the solution he didn't just go rushing in to the presence of the king to make demands.  Instead, he allowed the king to see his preoccupation and then waited for the king to ask him what was wrong with him.  Once the king knew about the problem and had seen Nehemiah’s passion for resolving the problem Nehemiah was prepared to instruct the king as to how he believed the problem should be solved.  Good leaders are able to perceive problems, make a strategy to solve the problem and then effectively communicate that plan to those who are able to help.

NEHEMIAH INSPECTS THE WALLS: When Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, he does not immediately reveal the purpose of his arrival.  Before he jumps into the task he takes time to inspect the problem for himself.  He had heard enough information about the problem to be able to come up with a plan of attack, but before implementing that plan and leading the people to resolve the problem; he needed to see the problem first hand.  When we are going on second hand information it is easy for us to make assumptions that are not necessarily true.  The process of personal inspection is vital to the leadership process.  Leaders must be careful to approach problems with great caution and sufficient preparation.

NEHEMIAH INSPIRES THE PEOPLE: Nehemiah was very much aware of the fact that he could not accomplish the task before him by himself.  He knew that he had to inspire the people around him to become committed to resolving the problem.  He started by revealing the need to the people.  Many times people can be experiencing a need but are unaware of in or simply have no hope for resolving the problem.  Inspiring hope and action is one of the key functions of leadership.  Once he is convinced that his plan is a viable solution and has made a formal inspection of the problem he is ready to reveal this plan to the people who will actually be doing the majority of the work.  The people were aware of the problem but hey simply could not see a way to solve it.  Nehemiah’s leadership inspired hope because he had already gotten authorization as well as financial support for the project.  These were two things that the people would have had no way of attaining.  However, all the approval and funds in the world are not sufficient to accomplish any task without willing workers.  Effective leaders know that they cannot do everything on their own so they inspire others to come along side of them to accomplish the work of the Lord.