In the Book Of Nehemiah, the King whom Nehemiah served under as a cupbearer, helped him graciously to fulfil his vision of building the wall of Jerusalem. He provided him with all the building materials, etc. - Nehemiah 2:7-9
7 Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah,
8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.”
And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Sanballat and Tobiah however were vision opposers who opposed Nehemiah throughout. They opposed and jeered at him, mocking and taunting him. And even when Nehemiah succeeded, they openly showed anger at his success.
Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?”
Nehemiah 4:1-3 But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews.
2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?”
3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”
Watch out for these two kinds of people in your life. There are those who will encourage you to achieve great things in your life. They will offer you all the help you need and connect you to people and point you to places that will aid your vision. These people simply believe in you and are encouragers. These people are vision helpers.
There are others that will discourage you every step of the way. They will tell you that you cannot achieve your dreams, and when they see you making progress, they are angered and become jealous. These people are vision killers.
Cleave to vision builders, but flee from vision killers!
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