“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
Throughout the ups and downs of the waves of covid, lock downs and and rumours of war, we have been positioned into the place of frustration and weakness.
It is my belief, for a reason. That of learning. Learning dependency and yielding to the Spirit. Stripping away our dependency on ourselves, man, the world
“The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
God and Jesus are more fully accepted and understood, in most of the body of believers, than the Holy Spirit.
This era we are embarking upon is one where the full balance will be brought into the picture of revelation.
Being stripped of what we have dependency on in the natural introduces us more fully to the Spiritual.
If we humble ourselves to being possessed by the The Holy Spirit.
We will experience a radical wild abandonment to God.
An increase of a beautiful intolerance to what is not of Him but is of the spirit of the world. A confidence in understanding His word enough to speak it out.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Religion and nominals will offend us as we will become increasingly offensive to practitioners of these, leading to a split in the church.
The Holy Spirit will allow this division as part of revealing His glory upon His body and His lack of glory, Ichadod, on the nominally religious.
“And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured.”
God is the only one who can prosper us.
He will break off what we have allowed falsely for to become superficially popular and successful.
What has been subjected to shallow, to performance, to pride. Performance will bow down to power. Pride will bow down to peace.
Biblically there have been three stories of major lockdowns, turn arounds.
That in Noah where the world had created monsters and God acted by totally destroying what the world had become. Noah’s family stored in an ark to regenerate humanity rightly.
That of Jonah where the prophet had decided disobedience and that his way was best. God detained him in the belly of the whale until his lesson had been learnt his priorities turned around to do Gods will.
That of the followers of Jesus who waited in Jerusalem after the crucifixion and ascension. The 120 who were all in one place. Who tumbled out of the upper room at Pentecost when they were empowered as Jesus had promised by the Holy Spirit.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now we are awaiting that same power.
“so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
We have need to be Kingdom minded and focused on the reality that Jesus is Lord, God is faithful and in control.
That only the one God is strong enough to bear the weight and wear the crown.
That man’s attempt to do so will result in stubborn, stiff necked people destined to buckle under its weight.
Purposely or accidentally working against God and He will put us into the waiting place of the whale’s belly while we adjust and align again.
We all discover that things we thought to be gospel and truths in our immature understanding in the past have been challenged and we now think differently.
Knowing what the Bible word reveals enables us to encounter Him better. It corrects one sided, skewed thinking so that we see more fully.
We sometimes fall into the trap of familiarity of what we think we knew and we don’t know all.
The more we digest His word the more our words are sharpened in the debate. We understand better now God speaks to us.
The Word and the Spirit coming together give wisdom and power.
These are not for the use of backing up our opinions but for our understanding of God so that we do not misrepresent Him.
We cannot disciple others if we cannot disciple ourselves. Allow Him to challenge our own biblical errors.
The illustration shows the weighty crown for the Godhead and the bible. The Word and the Spirit emanating the light that pushes back the darkness.
Six Scriptures that come to mind:
“Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6 ESV
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 ESV
““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV
“And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.” 1 Samuel 4:21 ESV
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” Acts 1:8 ESV
“so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:5 ESV
The song Made a Way. Travis Greene
Lessisgreater 