Our God is concerned of His temple but this temple is not
the physical temple that can be seen. In today’s context, this temple refers to
the believer’s inner life. We are His temple and He dwells in our hearts.
Our temple in what God is most concerned of today. Today,
what are we concerned of? Is it eternal matters or the Kingdom’s matter? Whose
voice are you listening today? The voice from our own motives and ambition or
the God in us.
No matter how short is the time we have believed in God or
how small is our faith, God do look down on us. God is concerned of your life
and our spirit. Even in the smallest things or tasks that you have obeyed God,
he will definitely reward you. So when Haggai asked his people to build the
house of the Lord, at the same time another prophet Zechariah was raised up
too.
Even if we only have been assigned a small task by the God,
He still values our submission.
So he said to me, “ This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by
might nor by power, but my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
Zechariah 4:6
When the Isarelites first returned to build His kingdom, they
faced various problems. First, the remnants that came back are very few. So they
limited man power while the project ( to build the Temple ) is a massive one.
At the same time, they also need to deal with the attacks of the enemy
surrounding them. Therefore it seems to be an impossible task to finish the
project.
Are we facing a similar situation now? In our lives and
serving, we may face with the internal and external problems. At some point
when we get so discouraged that we just want to give up or run away from the
problem. If we are such problem today, let me tell you that our problem does
not come from the challenges in the problem but because we are relying on the
wrong thing. It is true that our problem is great, we have many issues to deal
with. We get discouraged in our situation when we start seeing our own
capability and start counting the resources we have. This is because we are
depending on man’s strength and power. But God says that we must rely on His
Spirit.
The next question is : How do I rely on His Spirit? Firstly,
relying on His Spirit is believing His covenant. His covenant says that He is
with us. God will not lead us into a situation whereby there is only a dead end
or we go through the entire situation in pain only. On the contrary, God leads
us into a situation whereby we have no choice to believe in Him in order to go
through the problem. So when we believe, the peace and strength that follows
suit comes from the Holy Spirit. Then God will reveal His perfect will to us and
tell us how to make decisions and arrange all things. Sometimes God’s perfect will
is like a big picture while other times He reveals His will little by little and
guides us through.
When we believe and obey, strength, wisdom and timely
guidance will definitely be given to us in order for us to go through our
struggles.
Are you disheartened and discouraged at the moment? May the
word of God strengthened you. Do not rely on yourself but His Spirit.
Once again, God has spoken. In the midst of preparing for my
finals, this message came forth and ease all the worries in me. Worries come
from fear. And when you have worries, you seek human interventions. Looking at
the amount of chapters I need to cover in less than 20 days time, I feel very
disheartened knowing that it is an impossible task. I am very tempted to stay
up whole night to revise and try to cover as much as I could. But I know, this
is my way and not God’s way. With the clock ticking and fears that overwhelm
me, I am very tempted to use my own solution.
But in today’s message, God asked us not to look and count
our resources (in my case its the days to my finals) but rely on His Spirit.
And the first step I need to do is to believe in what He says. I believe that
God is with me in this struggle I am facing. I must keep restoring His truth.
When I believe, naturally the Holy Spirit will guide me how to study
effectively and teach me how to discern what is important and what is not.
Things are easier said than done but action speaks louder than words. We will
not experience His guidance just by listening or reading, we must take the step
first: Believe in Him and Do His will.
ps: I can't seem to upload the video here but you can find it in the Life Church and Missions website. This post is translated from today's Everyday Emmanuel (06/03/2013)
