Not by Brawn by J. Vernon McGee
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Important messages
Then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. Zec 4:6
You could characterize the greatest
national force the world has ever seen with one word: power! Rome was the
greatest power machine the world has ever seen. The legions of Rome marched on
every frontier. They were invincible and victorious. But one day they took into
custody a Man who seemed to be very weak. Pilate said to Him, “Don’t you
realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” The Lord Jesus
answered, “You would have not power over me if it were not given to you from
above.”
Today we have a perspective
on that. The legions of Rom have marched into oblivion. As Kipling said, “The
tumult and the shouting die, the captains and the kings depart.” They are all
gone. But the gospel of that Man who died on the cross is still being carried
by weak men to the ends of the earth… by men who are as weak as you and I. This
death was a victory.
God is not impressed by brawn
and a display of muscle. The church goes forward today like a little Samson
shorn of its locks of power. It parades up and down, boasting of its accomplishments,
and, like Samson, it does not know that the Spirit of God has departed from it.
The thing that makes this so tragic is that the church could go forward like a
little David with a simple slingshot of the Holy Spirit, to meet the enemy with
all of his stratagems, and come away with a victory!
Oh how we need the power of
the Holy Spirit! God’s work in the world is not done by brawn. It is
accomplished only by His Spirit.
For I will not
dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the
obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders,
in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and round about even
unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Rom 15:18-19
Oh, if we only recognized that we can do nothing in our
own strength for God! It would cause us to cast ourselves upon Him and get
connected with the real powerhouse, the Holy Spirit. God’s will and God’s work
is instigated, promoted, and carried through to a successful accomplishment
by the Holy Spirit, apart from man’s ability and help.
God utterly and entirely repudiates the work of the
flesh. He will have nothing of it. The day in which we live is impressed by
brawn, that which reveals muscle. Well, the dinosaurs were big, but they are
not here today. But the lowly, little flea is still with us! Powerful nations
flex their muscles. So what? The time will come when God will put them down.
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It is man who made the din of the city with its nerve-shattering
noises. It is man who made the horn and the siren, the gaudy and garish lights
that illuminate the brick and cement canyons of our cities. In contrast, God
made the silent depths of the forest with its pleasant shadows.
It is the spring of the year as I write this, traveling
through Illinois… oh, what a carpet of green has been laid down! And in
Missouri the trees are beginning to leaf out. In Kansas the grain is coming up.
Then out on the desert the flowers are unfolding. It is beautiful. Today, my
friend, the nitrogen is silently crawling up the stalks and up the limbs,
making leaves and flowers. There is enough power being released to blow this
little earth to smithereens! God is doing it without any show, without any
display. It is not by might; it is not by brawn. “It is by my Spirit,” says the
Lord.
J. Vernon McGee
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