listening+obeying+doing=his supernatural blessing

As i was reading Lysa's blog this morning, my attitude totally changed. God used her to look at my reading of the word differently today. Gary was reading in Nehemiah this morning during our quiet time, and since I have never really read through the whole thing, i decided i wanted to too. Man, that sounded so child-like....anyways, while i read, God really spoke to my heart about the body. Throughout the old testiment, God always used people who were under a king who didn't worship our God, they worshiped many gods along with worshipping themeselves. (i guess i'm thinking of Daniel). So Nehemiah was told by some dudes that the walls of Jerusalem were "broken down and the gates were broken down by fire". I hear bad news, news that hits my heart and immediately try to fix it in my own strength. But Nehemiah first "sat and wept and then for some days mourned, fasted and prayed before the God in Heaven". DO I EVER DO THAT!!!? God then showed him, "alright Good and faithful servant, you came to me, you recognized me as your leader, now i put you incharge of doing a great work for Me". That's when Lysa's blog spoke to me.
She wrote, "there are no great people in the kingdom of god, just simple people. but every now and then a simple person makes a great choice".
From that time of prayer and fasting (Nehemiah's choice) God did great things. he brought so many people together to rebuild that wall. They each had their own responsibility. Even when outsiders (2:19) mocked and questioned them, they were confident because it was God who instructed them. Nehemiah showed me that when wer truly seek God, he will direct our path, he will put us where we need to be, he will protect us.
Gary and I want to go to Africa today. We would pick up and leave today. But we sought God's wisdom, His direction...God said wait on your church. Wait for them to be ready. You must have their blessing. You must have their covering. It was so against what we really wanted to do. But confirmation has been shown to us over and over again that we need to continue to submit to our authorities. So many people go on the mission field without that covering and wonder why it doesn't work out. It's like we got permission to build the wall, we're just in the process of building it....it's a big wall, but when it's done, it will protect us when we leave for Africa. Our wall is our church's covering, our preparation for what lies ahead.
And you know what? I can stand in confidence of that.