Here's The Plan

Here's The Plan

"So he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zurubbabel:
'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord."
Zechariah 4:6

The task they faced seemed insurmountable; the odds were stacked against them. The Persian Empire, the most powerful kingdom in the land at the time, was opposing what the Lord had called them to do. (Think in terms of the United States Army opposing the Bahamas or Jamaica in a stand-off----and no, you cannot volunteer to go fight in the Bahamas, no matter how cold it is here in Michigan!). Without opposition, the job before them would be difficult and nearly impossible. Their city was destroyed, garbage and rubble were everywhere and their neighbors were doing everything possible to stop what they were attempting to accomplish-the rebuilding of the temple where they worshipped their God.

We all, at different times in our lives, have mountains set before us, obstacles that stand directly in the path of our success in life, and block the way to our fulfilling the goals that either we have set for ourselves or that God has called us to. Some of the mountains are self-created problems or issues while others are not of our own doing, Either way, they have to be dealt with or we are not going on.

That is the situation the Jewish people faced around 520 BC. The Lord had brought them back from Babylon and told them to rebuild the temple, their place of worship. But the Persian rulers who succeeded Cyrus had forbidden them to do that. In their hearts, they asked a question that many of us ask about the situations in our lives "How is this ever going to happen Lord?" "How are you ever going to fulfill this promise in my life?" "How will this situation ever get worked out?"

A little over 2500 years later, the answer given to a group of people who were discouraged and were losing their vision still applies to each of us today. The answer to the "How Lord" was "not by physical strength, not by human reasoning, not by getting others to help you, but "by my Spirit says the Lord". So simple yet so hard to grasp sometimes, the Lord is our source of power and strength and it is God, and God alone, by the power of the Holy Spirit who will bring down the mountains in our lives and cause us to accomplish great things in His kingdom.

Zechariah followed that word up with a promise that the mountains would become a plain, level ground before them - obstacles flattened out, not by our power but by the mountain moving power of the Holy Spirit. By faith, I pray that each one of us will receive that same promise, that there is a breakthrough ahead in each of our lives as we trust in the Lord.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church