Author: missionspaul

Who are you listening to?

Zechariah 3

The work on rebuilding the Temple has stopped, it was hard to believe things would ever be like they once were.

Joshua is in rags symbolising the sorry state of the nation. They were not what they used to be.
Our accuser says: The desires of your heart will never come into fruition. You will never reach your potential in God because of who you have become and what you have done. The Temple will never be rebuilt.

Joshua is in new clothes symbolising the past can be removed and a new beginning can be made.
Our defender says: The task in restoring the Temple was not in vain; within its walls, true worship could once again be offered to God.

Zechariah saw what we can now know. He saw what Isaiah and Jeremiah had already seen, he saw the Branch, he saw the Stone- the Messiah to come!
This was and will always be our hope.

So will we listen to the accuser or our defender? I am reminded of the story of the Japanese soldier on Guam who stayed in hiding until 1972 because he could not believe the good news of peace. The war was over in 1945 but he could not believe Japan would have surrendered.
Who are you going to believe?
You will behave what you believe.
You will believe what you listen to the most.
The accuser is out to destroy you. He will remind you continuously of how disqualified you are.
But your defender who has given you new clothes says you are new. You have a new mind, you love people, you are anointed, you go the extra mile, patient, doesn’t fear, is pure, gentle, wise. This is me. This is you. Made like Jesus.
We are clothed with Christ (Gal 3:27).

With that in mind, I can build a Temple. Do you see it?
With that in mind, I can reach my potential.
So I choose to listen to the Defender not the Accuser.

Limitless Blessing

Zechariah 2

The day we got the pews out of the church was a good day indeed.
Then the task began. How many chairs can we fit in this new open space? It was a mathematical exercise and so much fun.The answer was strangely 287.
It was like we were copying this angel, measuring Jerusalem to see how many people God would bring back from exile.
God declared that Jerusalem would be a city without walls. He would bring far more back to the city than the city had capacity for. So He would be the walls for them.
We had the capacity to grow to 287 people on ground level. But that is not the capacity of what God wants to do for that particular church.
Our capacity of what we believe God can do needs to expand to limitless.

He’s got the whole world in His hands

Zechariah 1

* He has His angels (horsemen) reporting to Jesus (the man) who is amongst God’s people (myrtle trees, symbol of Israel).

He doesn’t need the BBC He has the world already covered.

* He knows who has come against His people with strength (the 4 horns).

We may struggle to understand who really is to blame in the world. He knows.

* He sends craftsmen, unleashing them to work hard, determined and with strength against those whom have attacked God’s people.

We need that Word at just the right time.

They had returned from exile in 538BC.
They began work on the Temple 2 years later.
The work on the temple stopped 2 years after this.
For the following 14 years there was no work on the temple.

Haggai’s second message (2:1) to them came in October 520 only 2 months after his first message.
When the past seems better you need a Word for the NOW that says:
1. Get to work and
2. God is with you.

Haggai’s third message to them came in December 520 again 2 months after his second message. (2:10)
When we failed the lessons in the past we need lessons in the NOW that says:
3. Get your heart right and
4. God will bless you.

Haggai’s fourth message came to them in the same month as his rid message (2:20)
When the past teaches us that we are insignificant then we need a new Word that points us to Jesus:
5. So get your eyes on Him the servant King, the chosen One and who wears the signet ring of authority.

These 5 things meant the temple was finished 4 years later in 516BC. The Word did it and it still does.

Motivational Leadership

This is how GOD got Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the people moving—got them working on the Temple of GOD (Haggai 1:14 MSG)

Haggai 1

1. A leader willing for God to speak through the, v1
2. A leader challenges procrastination in light of the big dream, v2
– they knew they should build
– they knew they had been given the permission from Cyrus, 18 yrs ago
– they just didn’t believe they could do it
3. A leader challenges complacency, v3
4. A leader exposes the reality of the present in comparison with the ruin of the future, v4
5. A leader knows how, v8
6. A leader explains why, v9-11
7. A leader is listened to, v12
8. A leader communicates the promises of God, v13
9. A leader can stir up/motivate, v14

Pray for your leader today as they motivate others.
Commit to being that leader yourself.

On a recent flight I watched a mother sing into the ear of her baby.
She sang to comfort the baby with her presence.
She sang to let the baby know he was safe.
She sang to let him know he was the apple of her eye
She sang in love for him.
She sang out of sheer joy.

Zephaniah 3:17
Today to the redeemed God is singing over you.
Amazing thought!

Zephaniah 2

So let’s seek only Him. With everything and all that we are. Don’t put Him first make Him all.
So let’s seek what is right. Not for ourselves but for others. Seek justice for the oppressed.
So let’s seek reality. Instead of fantasising how good we are. Choose the decisions and thoughts that are less about you and more about others.
That’s 3 things to seek.
If we do then “perhaps” things will get better.

Zephaniah 1 v7

The Lord has prepared a sacrifice
Is it you?

Habakkuk 3
1-2, 17-19

Does your God change according to your circumstance?
What kind of God do we worship when it’s a bad day?
When it all goes well, do you sing more?

Shigionoth

“Wild passionate song with rapid changes of rhythm, sing in a spirit of victory and excitement”.

When do we sing the shigionoth? = v17
When blessings have gone, crops fail, cattle are no more. The fig tree being Israel is gone, judged, over. It doesn’t get any worse than this.

23rd June 1978 – 830pm it didn’t get any worse for our Elim missionaries at the Emmanuel Mission School in Katerere, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
Terrorists came over the hills from Mozambique and headed for our missions station. The missionaries had just finished their evening meal when they captured and led them to the school field. What they did to our missionaries was unthinkable. So much so that the bishop of the Church in Rhodesia and South Africa said the next morning when he visited, ” we saw no humanity there”.

In 1953 our Queen mother visited the station known as the Eagle School. All the white colonial children waved union flags. But when the Liberation War escalated they moved out and Elim Missions moved in and brought all the African pils to this place which they believed we safer.

But on this night there was desolation.
An orgy of carnage, mutilated bodies of 13 missionaries, one had to tried to flee through the bush but died later. What they did to the missionaries is unspeakable.
Later the terrorists were caught or came forward to confess, some sought forgiveness.
They gave their accounts of what transpired that night.
The missionaries had been singing hymns as they were violated and killed.
They sang in surrender to Christ and to comfort their children.
Local Africans said later that on some dark nights when the wind blows through the trees the sound of hymns in the midst of cries of fear and pain can be still heard drifting across the sports field at the school.

It was their shigionoth.

Habakkuk 2

We cannot speak what we haven’t first seen.
We cannot make known what we do not know.
We cannot make an impression if we do not leave something behind.
We cannot make things clear if we are complicated.
We cannot go without the message within us.