Only by God's Spirit can Things be Accomplished

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)