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Ephesians 6:18 NIV And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Zechariah 4:6 NIV So 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 Almighty. (emphasis mine)
We started with the fact that there is great by power when we partner in prayer with each other. Two weeks ago it was the power of prevailing prayer. Last week the sermon was about intercessory prayer. We said intercessory prayer is when you pray to God on behalf of another person or group of people. It's like being a spiritual advocate, pleading with God for their needs, desires, and challenges. We learned that ultimately, the power of intercessory prayer resides in God. We are simply vessels through which His power can flow. When we pray for others, we tap into a divine force capable of transforming lives and changing the world.
This morning we are going to talk about prayer as the way we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture
Zechariah 4:1-14 NIV [1] Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. [2] He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps. [3] Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” [4] I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” [5] He answered, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied. [6] So 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 Almighty. [7] “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ” [8] Then the word of the Lord came to me: [9] “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. [10] “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?” [11] Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” [12] Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?” [13] He replied, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I said. [14] So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”
Introduction
This is the fourth and final sermon in this series, “Waging Successful Spiritual Warfare with the Help that Comes Through Prayer”. In this series we emphasized the place prayer should have in the life of each follower of Jesus.
We started with the fact that there is great by power when we partner in prayer with each other. Two weeks ago it was the power of prevailing prayer. Last week the sermon was about intercessory prayer. We said intercessory prayer is when you pray to God on behalf of another person or group of people. It's like being a spiritual advocate, pleading with God for their needs, desires, and challenges. We learned that ultimately, the power of intercessory prayer resides in God. We are simply vessels through which His power can flow. When we pray for others, we tap into a divine force capable of transforming lives and changing the world.
This morning we are going to talk about prayer as the way we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want to use two scriptures for my text today.
Text:
Ephesians 6:18 NIV And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Zechariah 4:6 NIV So 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 Almighty.
Let’s start by finding out who this Zerubbabel is that Zechariah is talking to.
Born and raised in Babylon, Zerubbabel was a descendant of the house of David, specifically the grandson of Jeconiah, one of the last kings of Judah before the Babylonian exile. He was appointed by the Persians to be the governor of the province of Judah when Cyrus issued the decree allowing the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, from exile in Babylon, to rebuild the temple and the city. We talked briefly about this last week.
Ezra 1:1-4 NIV [1] In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: [2] “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. [3] Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. [4] And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”
In Cyrus’s decree liberating the Jews to return from exile, he gave permission for them to rebuild the temple of God at Jerusalem which had been ruthlessly leveled by the Babylonians.
This is what the prophet Jeremiah said Lamentations 4:1 NIV How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner.
The temple was turned into a pile of ruble.
So when the exiles returned, the first concern was the rebuilding of the temple of their God. The rebuilding of the Temple the leadership of Zerubbabel was a monumental task that symbolized the restoration of Jewish faith and their identity. As we see, the foundation for the new temple was laid and completed quickly.
Ezra 3:8-11 NIV [8] In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. [9] Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God. [10] When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. [11] With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
However, when Zechariah appeared on the scene, as evidenced by our scripture this morning, things were not going well for the returnees.
The problem was that there was a great deal of opposition from the people who had settled there during Judah’s exile. The Samaritans, a mixed population living in the region, opposed the Jewish people and hindered their progress. Opposition was present on every hand. This was a time of defeat, discouragement, and depression for God’s people.
Isn't that always the case that when God’s people say, “We will arise and build,” the Devil’s crowd says, “We will arise and destroy.”
Where could Zerubbabel and the leaders of God’s people find the answer to this opposition? Where can the church find the answer for its problems today?
The secret is found in the two verses of our text;
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. It's ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
To understand the point of God’s message to Zerubbabel, “It's ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” we have to understand what confronted him as the leader of God's people.
He had; an unfinished project, he had unrelenting pressure, he had a group of people who had become unspitural because of the pressure, and there was nothing he could do about it,
I. An unfinished project.
First, of all, Zerubbabel faced an unfinished project, the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord. There can be no doubt that the task of rebuilding was part of God’s divine plan. God had raised up Cyrus to enable his people to rebuild the temple as prophesied by Isaiah.
Isaiah 44:24-28 NIV [24] “This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, [25] who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, [26] who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’ [27] who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ [28] who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ’
Rebuilding the temple was part of God’s divine plan and Zerubbabel and the people had not completed it.
II. An unrelenting pressure.
They hadn't completed it because they faced unrelenting pressure from the enemies of God’s people.
Ezra 4:4-5 NIV [4] Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. [5] They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
A. First, the enemy set out to discourage the people of Judah. How this was done is not clear. Perhaps they cut off supplies. They could have made surprise attacks against the people. Whatever form the opposition took, it resulted in discouragement.
The amazing thing about the enemy of God’s people is that he uses the same basic battleplan today. Right now Satan is seeking to cut you off from your Source, the Lord God himself. He is seeking to take you by surprise. He looks for ways to intimidate you to prevent you from completing the task God gave you to do. He constantly turns the pressure on your life and on the life of the church.
B. The people were frightened into stopping their work on the temple of the Lord.
Our enemy is a master at terrifying people into quitting. He knows every argument to paralyze God’s people into inactivity. He can create situations that discourage us and cause us to retreat to the old status quo of life where we will never accomplish the task God has given us.
C. Judah's enemies bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans. They didn’t mind spending some money if as a result they could stop the enthusiasm of God’s people and crush the building project at the outset and it worked.
Ezra 4:24 NIV Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
For more detail, read the entire books of Ezra and Haggai.
In many cases that same tactic of the enemy’s willingness to spend money if it curbs the enthusiasm or stops God’s people works today
Here are some examples that are applicable for us and the church today.
Some individuals or groups may challenge religious exemptions for businesses or individuals, arguing that they infringe upon the rights of others.
There have been legal challenges to religious displays in public spaces or restrictions on religious speech in certain contexts.
There’s support for organizations that promote secularism or advocate for policies that limit the influence of religion.
Contributions to political candidates who support policies seen as restricting religious freedom.
There’s the funding of media outlets or campaigns that present negative stereotypes of Christians or their beliefs. There’s the support of organizations that work to shape public opinion against certain Christian views.
III. The people had become unspiritual.
We the people first returned to Jerusalem they came with
with hope and inspiration. They began the work with great confidence in the Lord—until they ran into opposition. When that happened they started focusing on the enemy, and stopped focusing on the task God called them to complete.
We too are experts at rationalizing our failures. We have a hundred and one alibis to explain why we are not engaged in the work of the Lord;
We don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough people, we don’t have the right people. These are feeble excuses. These are the kind of excuses when the focus is on what we see as a problem and not on God. These are just feeble excuses.
Here is the message God gave to Zechariah to give to Zerubbabel, and the message to us today, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”
IV. There was nothing he could do about it.
The final factor in Zerubbabel’s dilemma was that since he did not have the remedy for his people’s discouragement or the resources to change defeat into victory, he knew that there was nothing he could do. The opposition he and his people faced loomed up like a huge mountain before them. Would he ever be able to finish the project God had given him to do? The prospects for success were very grim.
When our way seems darkest, when God seems to have forgotten, when resources are all dried up, we need to remember God's divine solution. God assured Zerubbabel that there was no prayer too hard for him to answer, no problem too difficult for him to solve, no promise that he would not keep. The same assurance is given to us today. But we must remember that it is not by our power nor by our might but by God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that we can overcome the opposition and the obstacles.
You may ask, “But how do I tap into this power?
Here’s the answer
Ephesians 6:18 NIV [18] And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Prayer is the answer but always remember it is not by your power or your might, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The message to Zerubbabel was clear: the work of rebuilding, both physically and spiritually, would not be accomplished through human strength or military might but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is as relevant today as it was in Zechariah's time. We live in a world characterized by uncertainty, challenges, and overwhelming odds. We face personal struggles, societal issues, and global crises that can easily paralyze us with fear and doubt. In such moments, it is tempting to rely on our own abilities, resources, and strategies. However, the Lord reminds us that our ultimate source of strength and power is not within ourselves but in the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit empowers us in countless ways:
The Spirit transforms our thinking, enabling us to see situations from God's perspective so that we can respond with wisdom and grace.
The Spirit gives spiritual gifts that enable us to serve the body of Christ effectively.
The Spirit reveals our sin and leads us to repentance, drawing us closer to God.
The Spirit provides peace and encouragement in times of difficulty, giving us the resilience to persevere.
We must recognize our limitations and acknowledge our need for God's power.
We must cultivate a deep relationship with the Holy Spirit through prayer, worship, and study of God’s word. We must be patient and trust that God is working according to His perfect plan. Finally we must share the message of God's power and inspire others to rely on the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
In a world that often values human achievement and self-reliance, the message of Zechariah 4:6, is a refreshing reminder of our true source of strength. “It's ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
As we yield to the power of the Holy Spirit, we will experience God's transforming presence in our lives and witness His kingdom advancing in the world.
I want to end with the truth of Philippians 4:13 as recorded in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition, I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].
Heavenly Father,
We come before You today, humbled by the realization of our own limitations. We acknowledge that without Your Spirit, we can do nothing.
Thank You for the promise found in Zechariah 4:6 that our strength comes not from our might or power, but from Your Spirit. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, Lord, and empower us to overcome the obstacles in our lives.
We pray for the courage to trust in Your divine plan, even when the mountains seem insurmountable. Grant us the wisdom to recognize Your hand at work in our circumstances. Your Word in Romans 8:28-30 says” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
May Your Spirit work through us, using us as instruments of Your peace, love, and justice in the world.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
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