The people of Judah and the city of Jerusalem were in a terrible condition. Over 150 years earlier, Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon had invaded Israel and had carried many of the people away as slaves. The Jews desperately needed someone who had the vision needed to restore Jerusalem and Israel to her former glory. They needed someone who was different. They needed someone who had been captured by God and was set on fire by His Spirit. They needed a person of vision if they were going to see their situation changed. God had such a man! His name was Nehemiah and he was being prepared by God as a vessel to be used in a great way to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and to bring about the restoration of the nation of Israel.

     You and I may be thousands of years removed from the time of Nehemiah, but we also live in a nation that desperately needs people of vision. We live in a day when the walls of morality and virtue in society have been torn down and the gates of decency are aflame. It is clear to all that the church in our day is a mere shell of its former self. The walls of separation between the church and the world have been torn down. The gates of glory that identified the church as the house of God have been burned by the flames of sin and tarnished by the blight of apathy.

     We need people of vision! We can become people of vision! We can become the people God uses for His glory in these days to make a difference for His name’s sake!