Nehemiah 7:5-73 is the sort of thing people skip over when they read the Old Testament, as verses 6-73 are simply a census list of the returned exiles.

BUT

That boring detail is actually a key step to an amazing spiritual breakthrough.

Nehemiah has a sense that the Lord wants him to take a census of the people:

Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. [Nehemiah 7:5]

Nehemiah is obedient to the Spirit’s prompting, and he begins to gather the people for a census. The rest of the chapter is a list of the exiles.

Who cares?

The reason this matters is that chapter 8 (coming tomorrow) tells us that when Nehemiah gathers the people together for the census, there is an amazing revival among the people! (Again, more tomorrow.)

Today, we read that Nehemiah feels prompted to take a census, and that small obedient step leads to a big spiritual breakthrough.

Here’s my question for you: what small obedient step do you feel as if the Lord is asking you to take TODAY? What if there is a BIG BREAKTHROUGH waiting in your future that all depends on your small step today?