Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”
Devotional Text
How easy it is to despise our efforts in the Lord! Of course, Satan is always there to point out that what we are doing is insignificant. We react by trying harder to bring our plans to perfection. Ultimately, however, our energy will lag, and we will have to admit that we can do nothing in our own strength. It takes the Spirit of the Lord to accomplish anything of value. Why should we labor alone in our own strength when God’s Spirit will work alongside us? We must learn to rely on the supernatural. “Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will flatten out before him! Then Zerubbabel will set the final stone of the Temple in place, and the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’ ” (Zechariah 4:7). Who would have thought that a mountain could come down just by shouting at it? The walls of Jericho, like Zerubbabel’s mountain, did not come down by man’s reasoning, but by God’s power. Satan may belittle our praises, but he knows that praise is our mightiest weapon in the arsenal of faith. Keep shouting at your mountain—the Holy Spirit will bring it down!