By My Spirit

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit God” says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). God spoke these words through the prophet Zechariah to King Zerubbabel. They explained how Zerubbabel would accomplish what God had told him to do.

An important Biblical principle is that God calls us to do things we can not do by our own strength. However, He always works in us, through us or

for us to accomplish the things He requires of us.

The greatest example is that God requires an atonement for sin. There is nothing we can do to satisfy His requirement. Therefore, Jesus came and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). His death paid the price for our sins, “He is the propitiation (atonement price) for our sins” (1 John2:2).

In the book of Exodus Moses brought two sets of instructions to the people when he met with God on Mount Sinai. He brought the law and the plans for building the tabernacle. The people responded to hearing the law by proclaiming, “All that God has spoken we will do!” (Exodus 24:3,7).

They thought they could keep the law through their human efforts. Their inability to keep the law was demonstrated by their worshiping a golden calf just a few days later (Exodus 32). The people did exactly what God told them not to do. They formed an idol and attributed to it all that God had done for them.

The building of the Tabernacle was something they had no human ability to do. They were slaves, brick makers, in Egypt. They did not possess the skills to make the tabernacle or the sacred objects that it was to contain – the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the menorah and others.

What God wanted these men to accomplish, He empowered them to do by giving them His Spirit. God selected men to do the work and He filled them with “the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship … I have put skill [in them], that they may make all that I have commanded you” (Exodus 31:1-11).

Exodus chapters 39 and 40 describe the building of the tabernacle. Eighteen times we are told the craftsmen did the work “just as Yehovah had commanded” (Exodus 39:42). “Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as Yehovah had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them” (Exodus 39:43).

The difference between the failure to follow the law and the accomplishment of building the tabernacle was the indwelling of the Spirit of God. As we endeavor to live the Christian life we are not on our own, but God is dwelling in and enabling us, “for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).