Zechariah 4:6, 7
"So he answered and 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. 'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
First I just gotta give props to Zerubbabel. He had to have been awesome to rock that kinda name. I wanted to name my son that but my wife wouldn't even consider it. Seriously, if you got mad at him and like most parents start stuttering their kid's names; you'd get caught on the "bbabababel's" and start to laugh and calm down before you disciplined your kid.
Anyway, to be more serious. The Israelites were in a building program. They were trying to build a new temple. The temple is significant because it symbolizes the place where God dwells. It wasn't like the church on every corner. It was the one and only.
Well in taking on any task of this magnitude it was going to take all of their might and all of their power to accomplish it. What this verse is saying though is that the obstacles that are and will be before it are much greater than the people are and it will only be by God's Holy Spirit that they will overcome those "mountains".
According to 1 Corinthians 6:19 True Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit (if you want to know my thoughts on TRUE Christians check out my September 2008 blog: Who in Hell are You?). And according to Romans, True Christians have been given a new nature and a new way of life. A nature and life that are led by the Spirit of God.
Matthew 16:18 says that hell cannot withstand the Church or aka the body of Christ. Well, I'm not a doom and gloom type of person but I look at the news and see the people on the streets of my small town and see how hell has overcome the Church. I believe it is because the Church has forgotten what it should have been. The Church has used it's own resources, it's own agenda, it's own authority to become the "body of Christ". The Church has negated the Spirit and by doing so crippled itself. It was in the days of Zechariah as for today that the place where God dwells must be built upon the Spirit of God.
As a nation when a horrible tragedy strikes we act swiftly to take care of those suffering (i.e. those who helped their neighbor or flew across the country to give aid to the Katrina victims). How often is it that we act as selflessly during normal business hours to our neighbors? We want to show people the love of God. We want to show compassion to the widow and orphan. To be charitable to those who are less fortunate. Surely, we can do all these things with our own might and power but what makes the biggest impact and causes those efforts to have an incredible force to make a change is the Spirit of God.
The reason for this lack within the Church is because it has focused on and became a Physical Organization and left it's origin as a Spiritual Organism. I feel this to be our primary "mountain" that must become a "plain" if the Church is to be what it was intended to be. An organization can still thrive and be successful if the founders are no longer present. All they need to do is establish new leaders that will direct that organization into the future. However, the Church cannot do so. If you remove the Spirit the organism dies. All that is left is a corpse. Proof that it once had life but no longer has a future. The Church needs it's life back. There is no life-support. Either we live by the Spirit or we don't have life at all.
I am a Pentecostal. Not because I think the name is cool but I believe in the prompting, leading, and guidance of the Holy Spirit in my daily life. I want the might and power of the Holy Spirit flowing through me. Because I know that the only way the Church will prevail against the spiritual darkness in this world is to operate in the Spirit. The only way for the Church to truly be established as the dwelling place of God is to allow the Spirit of God to reign.
