"NOT BY MIGHT!"

Zechariah 4:4-7                             (ESV)
"4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?"
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord."
6 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.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!'"



Zerubbabel was the civic leader of Jerusalem, and had the responsibility to finish the work of rebuilding the temple. The work had stalled, and Zerubbabel NEEDED ENCOURAGEMENT to carry on the work.

GOD didn't need a MIGHTY army to accomplish HIS Plan!  GOD chose the nation of Israel because they were HIS chosen and HE loved them.  Deuteronomy 7:7-9 says "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set HIS love on you and chose you, for you were "the fewest" of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that HE swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and REDEEMED you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the LORD your GOD is GOD, the faithful GOD who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love HIM and keep HIS commandments, to a thousand generations"!

GOD needs HIS army to celebrate and magnify HIS Name among all men that ALL may  know and recognize that there is no other!  But we are so in tune with our "physical man", our former beings, that all we want to do is see how big our churches can be, how much money we can spend with our budgets, and GOD forbid how comfortable our sanctuaries have become, instead of celebrating HIS might and majesty!  GOD needs to be worshipped and honored for HIS omnipotence and omniscience instead of HIS working through us as vessels of HIS blessings!

Whether it is Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple, Moses crossing the Red Sea, David standing before Goliath, or any other place where GOD reveals HIS unmistakable presence, GOD is the ONE that needs to be glorified by not only our words, but our actions as well!  The angel of the LORD told Zerrubbabel "NOT BY MIGHT", nor by power, but by "MY SPIRIT" will I be glorified!  We must come to the realization that even the desire to worship HIM is placed in us by HIS SPIRIT!  It is "NOT BY MIGHT" of our own selves, but by the Grace of GOD!