“Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 18 And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.”
Nehemiah 4:17-18, ESV
Nehemiah was supervising the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. He gathered the men and assigned them to various parts of this. His focus was on building as fast as possible.
But there was enemies who threatened to disrupt the work. There was a conspiracy that directly threatened the work that was taking place.
Nehemiah had to act. He prayed and then posted protection among the men in strategic places, These stood guard to defend the workers. Nehemiah then ordered those who labored to wear swords while they worked.
We who are building God’s kingdom need to arm themselves against our spiritual enemies. We are called to give diligent attention to this, and defend God’s people.
“Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Ephesians 6:17
Furthermore we are “may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). We’re not working against “flesh and blood.” but the “spiritual forces in the high places.” This is an unseen war that really does exist.
God’s Word is our powerful defense. We’re called to handle it skillfully. This is a mark of maturity. The sword must be engaged to help those who aren’t really aware of this present darkness.
Nehemiah understood. He was diligent and very aware of the evil that swirled around him and his people. He wouldn’t minimize this problem, but met it head on.
We must be like him. We are to be aggressive defenders of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot afford to look away or pretend the enemy is not resisting us. We see his work daily.
“Father, thank you for the Bible. The Word is alive and active as we yield it. Teach us to overcome the enemy as we protect our selves and our loved ones with it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Broken Believers 
This is my favorite blog of yours that I’ve read so far. There is a subgroup of people in America (and around the world) who are called “survivors of satanic ritual abuse”– people who’ve been and continue to be tortured, raped, traumatized and coerced into doing things they don’t want to do by satanists, luciferians, and occultists in every strata of society (IE. occultists who are blue and white collar, who go to church posing as Christians or are in the secular world posing as friends, neighbors, good citizens, police officers, school teachers and daycare and hospital and child care workers, etc.). This subgroup of people has been forsaken by 99% of Christianity though a very large number of them are Christians.
In stark contrast to what the Bible teaches about helping such people, most Christians believe that they 1.) are not obligated to bear anyone’s burdens but their own and that 2.) they don’t have to fight any spiritual battle at any time since “Jesus has already won the victory”. But you gave the perfect passage for God’s view of bearing burdens and spiritual warfare on the behalf of others:
“Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built.”
They labored with one hand and fought with the other as they built the wall. Believers are called to be builders and restorers of people and things (“Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In” — Isa. 58:12, 61:4); but around 99% don’t believe in ‘the work’ nor ‘the warfare’. As a result, people who need to be built up or rebuilt– like survivors of ritual abuse (among others)– remain torn down, full of breaches (wounds, holes), and not restored.
You also said, “We are to be aggressive defenders of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot afford to look away or pretend the enemy is not resisting us. We see his work daily.” Aggressive defenders. All you hear about today is ‘peaceful peacekeepers’– Christians who make peace with God’s and their brothers’ enemies while stating that “Jesus has won the victory; now you must appropriate if for yourself” and refusing to help their brethren. “Each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.” Out of 32,000 of Gideon’s fighters, only 300 were actually willing and ready to ‘work and war’ and made the cut. This is embarrassingly and dishearteningly exactly what we will see today among Christians.
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