Zerubbabel thought in his difficulty, if only there were more temporal forces to count upon and natural resources to draw upon...
If only he could see things happening and see God coming out and doing things before his eye...
If only it were in that realm of natural, sentient appreciation and apprehension, how much easier it would be.
But the Lord says, "by My Spirit".
We are not going to see God coming out in mighty manifestations of His power as we might see things done by a great army, temporal forces.
It is going to be hidden, secret, quiet, without demonstration.
We are not going to see much at all in that realm, but the most tremendous, the most terrific thing that is happening in this universe will be going on.
That is why that little phrase, that little question, is put in - "Who hath despised the day of small things?"
By my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts, before whom the great mountain comes down and is like a plain.
That tremendous thing, that mountain-removing, leveling power, is done in a day of small things, a remnant despised, laughed at.
You know how they laughed at them when Nehemiah started to build the wall.
They laughed, scoffed, made jokes. "If a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall"! - that sort of thing.
Little, despised people, and yet this infinite power of God working through that despised people, and the result was that it was more than a match for all the powers that be.
That is the history of anything that God has done.
It may not seem like that, and this word is to recall us, perhaps rebuke us, but also to enhearten us and to encourage.
The Lord is set upon something.
Are we sure about it?
What is He set upon?
If what I am saying now is not true, we had better quit.
God's concern is Jesus Christ - to have Him established in this universe as Lord of all.
Now, is that true?
But there is another thing which goes with it - is God bent upon having that through us, through a people?
Are we bound up with that?
Have we been called for that very purpose - to be the means, the instrument, the channel, of establishing the testimony of Jesus, that is, the Lordship of Christ and the sovereignty of Christ?
If we are not in it, let us quit, I say.
This is either true or not true.
Then, if it is true, what about the difficulties, difficulties in ourselves, difficulties outside, a mighty enemy, all set against it?
How are we going to meet this great mountain?
"By My Spirit".
We also are sons of oil.
The whole point upon which this turns for us is this: He is the fulness and we are partakers of His fulness.
The same thing is said of us as of Jesus Christ; the difference is in measure - He is the fulness and we are partakers of His fulness.
We are not Christ personally, we are not God's Son in that essential sense, but the same thing is said about us.
"Sons of oil"; that is, joined to the Lord like those branches to the stem, one with the centre, joined to Him in organic union.
The same Spirit as was in Him, flowed through Him, worked through Him and triumphed through Him, is in us.
We are sons in that sense, we have the Spirit of Christ.
The same Spirit that has triumphed through Him is working and going to work out His triumph through us.
"Not by might".
What might are you looking for, what power? "By My Spirit" there is nothing that can match that.
The difficulty is we always want to feel and see, and the Lord works so quietly.
See what man's workings are like, trying to blast a way with terrific force, a way to power, to pre-eminence.
How long will it last if they get it?
See what man does to get his dominion; the crash, and noise, and thunder of it all, the power demonstrated; to nature it is awful, a shattering thing.
That is man's way of getting pre-eminence.
Go out into the garden.
See what that little buried seed has to contend with, maybe tons of soil, surrounded by stones and rock and the forces of death working upon it.
Slowly it comes up; the tons of soil give way, even the rock has to yield.
It comes up: you hear no sound, you will not hear splitting and rending rocks, but up it comes.
Eventually it will be a mighty tree.
You heard nothing, there was no demonstration, no shouting.
It was just the power of life quietly at work, but it has done the thing, it is there, it is triumphant.
That is what we have to be satisfied with, and it is so difficult for these souls of ours to be satisfied with that.
We must have display, we must have something that speaks of power, position, so that we are somebody.
The Lord says, "No, none of that; My way is the quiet way of the Spirit".
The greatest power in this universe is that quiet working of the Spirit; the end will be with that.
The Lord give us grace to accept this as His own word to us.
~T. Austin Sparks~
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