Not By Might Nor By Power But By My Spirit

There are so many things I want to do, so many things I want to accomplish. Vision has seldom been my problem but getting it done often is. Most of us have goals, dreams, plans that we want to accomplish but many people don't even come close to completing any of them. Life is filled with obstacles, challenges, detours, traps, pitfalls, failures, and delays. Most people change their dreams and goals, finding an easier path when the one they have chosen proves more difficult than they thought. Some people chalk it up to lack of determination. I think there is something wrong with the whole premise.

Most of us live like the Sadducees of Jesus' three year ministry days. They believed that Yahweh had no involvement in our daily living, that we had to do the best we could on our own. They also believed the soul died with the body so there were no consequences to face after death, allowing us to do what we want to do. Most of us make our own plans and do what we want to do, still loving Jesus but not involving him in any part of our life; unless we get in trouble. If we act this way it is how Father is going to deal with us. He will be hands off until we get ourselves in so much trouble that we call out to him for help. But there is a better way.

Our life is no longer our own. That is our reality when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, asking for forgiveness and claiming him as Lord. We are re-birthed as a new creation, a citizen of the Kingdom and a child of Father. We are now governed by the principles of the Kingdom and not by the patterns of this world. Jesus purchased us at great cost and we now belong exclusively to him. This means that we no longer determine our days but seek Father's will for our days and situations. We don't have goals and dreams of our own; we have the goals and desires of Father. But even understanding this we can make mistakes.

Sometimes we understand clearly the will of Father and what we are to work towards but we forget that it is his work. Quite often the goal is Father's but we think the work is ours. Even the work belongs to Father. He has planned for it, provides for it and has purpose for it. It will be achieved accordingly. Not by what we think or our schedule and certainly not by our resources. We find an example of this in Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel was sent out of captivity to Jerusalem to head up the Temple re-building project. The task sounds easier than it was. He was hand picked by Yahweh to complete this task but he had a huge list of obstacles in his way. It was a discouraging work and one that required a great deal of determination. But determination alone wasn't enough. His strength and encouragement had to be found in his relationship with Yahweh and the constant reminder that this was Yahweh's work. At one point the prophet Zechariah provided him words of encouragement from the Lord and he reminded him:

"Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord of Hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

Yes, not just a New Testament thing. Not by might, force, strength, weapons or intelligence. Not by power, influence, friends, wealth, political clout, position. In other words, this project, which was the will of Yahweh, would not be forced into place by the will of man. This would be accomplished by his Spirit, will , desire, power, presence, strength, force. It did not matter what obstacles Zerubbabel faced, Yahweh told him he would turn the mountains into mole hills. Nothing frustrates the will of Jehovah. Therein lies the difference between our goals and Father's will.

If you are involved in a God-thing, do not be discouraged. It will be completed by his Spirit, his will, his time schedule, by the path he has determined. He will use you to do it but he determines how, when and with what. You just concentrate on the relationship part of things, stay focused on Jesus, attentive to his Word and remain open to the Spirit and he will provide everything you need. And be patient. However, if you are not involved in a God-thing and working on a You-thing you should stop what you are doing, drop to your knees and desire a greater relationship with Jesus. Forget everything else and just focus on him and soon everything will come into proper focus for you. We need to meditate on this Psalm:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

Too many of us are building our own houses because it is all we know. It is what we have learned from our fathers before us. It is the sample we see all around us. No one has told us any different. But the Word is in our hand and the Spirit is in us. The Word shows us the ways of the Lord, teaches us the paths, leads us in the truth. The Spirit instructs us if we will get out of our own way. The key is the relationship. Concentrate on the relationship and we will soon discover that it is not by might, nor by power but by his Spirit. Allow Father to complete his will for you according to his Spirit. Walk with him, not ahead of him.

What So Many In The Church Fail To Understand

There are so many people who are still lost in the attitude of law and who have entirely missed the point of grace. The world is a place where everything has a price, a cost associated with it, so it is difficult for us to understand the free act of God's grace in such a context. Law is an easier thing for us to understand because justice is something we cherish in a world of law breakers. So we sit in our churches with our lists of do's and don'ts thinking that everything is well with us in a world that is going mad. But the truth is that we are just as lost as the world if we think a law will save us.

With the giving of the Holy Spirit, our Father has taken what was on paper and he has written it on our heart so that we are able to live the purpose of the law. Read through the Scriptures again and see how much our heart's condition matters to God. People struggle to understand where the law fits in compared to God's grace but Apostle Paul explained it very well in a few short verses. He starts off with:

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ^[h] that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

So we see here that the law had purpose up until the arrival of Jesus. In fact, it's purpose, like everything from the Old Testament, was to lead us to Jesus. Paul explains it like this:

What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. (Galatians 4:1-3)

The Law given to Moses dealt with the basic principles of this world. It is all that they could handle at the time. God had to reveal a lot more of himself through this nation, using the Law, before he could bring them into the freedom of maturity. They were being raised under the trusteeship of the Law. Makes sense; a child under guardianship cannot make his own decisions but must follow the direction of the guardian. He has no choice in the matter.

Eventually that child is going to reach the age of majority and will be entitled to the freedom of sonship. That is what Jesus did for us, moving us from guardianship to the full rights of a son:

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:4-7)

Perhaps this is not all that exciting for you who are young in your faith but for those who are mature enough to understand, this is incredible stuff. I know that Paul seems to make a mere mention of the fact but the role of the Spirit is well worth taking note of. Jesus became the door for us to go through, to enter into this relationship with our Father. The cross is that door for us, not a place to hang out but to move beyond. It is the entry point. The mark of sonship, that we belong to God is the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Look at it again:

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Not everyone in this creation sees him as Father and not everyone has the right to call him Father, but we do. And as he gives us the Spirit, the Spirit moves the Law from the paper to our hearts and we are now governed by the greater law of love. The entire law is summed up in two very simple things that can only be lived out in practicality when we are possessed by the Holy Spirit: love God with your entire being and love your neighbour as yourself. Everything depends on these two things that are written on our hearts by the Spirit and worked out in our daily living.

Unfortunately, there are huge sections of the Church who insist on the guardianship of the Law, setting aside grace because they do not understand it in the context of this world. They are very much like the Pharisees and priests who joined the early Church and became the circumcision group that followed Paul around and constantly stirred up trouble for him. But just because they struggle with the big picture of what God has done does not mean we have to. Just because they remain in the guardianship of the Law does not mean we have to. We have been set free so that we can become sons of God.

Claim that freedom today. Come out of that guardianship and enjoy the full benefits and privileges of sonship by the grace of God. We are the children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ who is the first born of a very large family. Trust God and accept this free gift of redemption. Receive the Spirit and start living as God has always intended for us to live, in deep fellowship with him.