He Will Finish His Work

(Zech. 4:1-14, Rev. 1:12-13, Rev. 11:4, Rev. 21:1, Heb. 8:5, 9:23)

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we prophesy in part.  No one has the full picture by himself.  Peter warns us of thinking that our revelation, our understanding is private, or personal.  We ought to be bouncing our thoughts off one another and, more importantly, asking the Lord Himself.  In this day the number of prophetic voices has increased.  Along with all this understanding we need a commensurate measure of discernment.  Are we hearing the Lord’s voice above all the other voices?  Are we hearing Him corporately?  Are the words and the spirits being tested?

Zechariah in his day hears a word directed to a ruler, Zerubbabel.  He was a leader of the first group of God’s people returning from Babylon.  His name indicates he was born in Babylon.  But he did not stay there.  He was moving on in God’s purpose in his day.  I was once distressed when a brother spoke of a governor, an elected official of our present day, as a “Zerubbabel”.  He spoke as if such a one could advance the kingdom.  We have gone 2000 years from the pouring out of the Spirit and we still look for an earthly kingdom.  To see Zerubbabel as anything other than a type of Christ misses the point.  May the Lord mature us and bring us to clearer understanding.

Look at the passage from Zechariah.  Keep in mind, Christ had not yet been revealed.  This man saw in part without our reference point.  Yet he sees and speaks of the same vision that John saw more clearly on Patmos.  Zechariah tells of a builder laying a foundation.  And he sees two olive trees who are pouring oil into the golden lampstands.  Don’t we see what this represents?  True prophetic and apostolic ministry has one purpose and function.  They function to impart spiritual life.  I sense the Spirit pleading with us, and working an intercession in us for such a flow of life, that the lampstands may be what the Lord Jesus spoke to His twelve and the women with them.  “You are the light of the world.”  That is a divine declaration, a commanding word, an identity.

The olive trees, His witnesses, are beholding Him.  A literal meaning of the words for these anointed ones is sons of fresh oil.  They stand before the Lord of the whole earth.  The shining of the lampstands requires a flow.  Under the law and the prophets, it was the job of the priests to ensure the flow of oil so that the light never went out.  Similarly, David had priests who made sure the fire on the altar of sacrifice never went out.  The altar of incense likewise had a continual fragrance going up to the Lord.  These are all pictures of our life in Christ.  These are the pictures that caused the Moravians to develop 24/7 prayer habits.  Today, bowl and harp and prayer-watch ministries are growing over the entire earth.

Prayer and worship, the bowl and the harp, represent what is born of the Spirit in our spirits and is displayed by our words, our actions.  I have written before, and write again, we are called to spend focused time in the presence of the Lord.  We learn to pour worship and prayer, matured prayer, to the Lord.  We grow and learn to abide in Him, in His presence.  And we carry that presence wherever we go.  Others are touched by it and drawn toward the one who inhabits the praises of His people and inhabits us.  We become a praise to His name.

Moses saw the pattern, Zechariah saw the pattern, John saw the pattern.  But the heavenly, the true and real, is yet to be fully seen by us.  It is in Christ and revealed in measure by the Spirit for us who believe. Through each of these brothers in faith came a fresh and increasing revealing of Christ and His working in the earth.   The Lord Jesus Christ is creating, and finishing the pattern in us, a people.  He has no other building, no other means to accomplish His purpose in our day.  Will we cooperate with Him?  Will we allow all the work necessary?  Let us delight to do His will.  Lord, bring us to this place and keep us in it.

He Will Complete the Work

(Phil. 1:6, Eph. 4:11-16)

He who began a good work in you, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.  If you have known the Lord Jesus for some time, I expect you have heard these words before.  If not I suggest you read the entire letter that Paul wrote from Rome when he knew his execution was near.  He expresses a tender love for those people.

While this thought has meaning for each of us, Paul was addressing those in Philippi  as a group, as a family of believers.  Salvation is a very personal experience but the Lord is after a people, a family.  The thought of a family of God has broad acceptance.  But what is that, and most important what does it mean from God’s perspective?  What was the intention for creation?  And then a most important question.  Are we walking in that?  So much of what we see and hear contradicts that.  We are collectively, and individually, a work in progress.  We are a vessel in the Potter’s hands.  We cry how long O Lord!  When will we be finished?  His “soon” is not our “soon”.

I spoke with someone recently who said what has been a recurring thought for me.  The Baptist spoke of Jesus as the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.  He further said that His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly thresh His floor.  As He works, He will be making sure we remain on the sure foundation.  And He is the chief cornerstone.  We can be distracted into side issues.  I think of Bunyan’s pilgrim (Pilgrim’s Progress, the book) who meets up with some characters who misled him.  Such times provide lessons we will not easily forget.  As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, we grow up and learn not to be carried away by winds of doctrines.  Teaching is of value but sometimes the “new” thing becomes a distraction.  Then we can miss the Lord.  He knows how to bring us back.

We live in a time when many are pursuing the Lord and receiving dreams, visions, and revelations.  Consider how closely Christ Jesus was connected with the Father.  He was not so quick to share everything He knew or saw.  He patiently taught those who were close to Him saying, “How can I explain the kingdom of heaven.”  As He spoke in parables, I just used language that is common today.  He made comparisons to help His disciples to understand.  The Lord desires to communicate with each one of us and he knows what we need, what food is for us.  The manna was a common food for all His people in the wilderness.  Yet with Moses He spoke face to face as with a friend.

It is written that Moses was the meekest man on the earth.  He had been thoroughly processed and prepared for his calling.  We could certainly consider him a prophet but was a truly humble man.  He knew God for years and yet asked to know His ways.  Moses knew that he had not arrived, was not finished as he was fulfilling his calling.  And Moses desired that all God’s people would prophesy.

All that we see in Moses and a large family of God’s people passing through the wilderness is a foreshadow of what the Spirit is working among Jesus’ church in this day.  All that is unbelief in us must die.  It cannot inherit the kingdom.  Read in Revelation 21:7-8 that the first ones mentioned who are found outside the city are the fearful and unbelieving.  They are included with more unsavory characters.  Remember John’s words, “He who practices righteousness is righteous.”  As the Lord works in us, He is patient to move us out of our sinful habits.  I would say that all of our failures have some root in unbelief, in wrong understandings of the truth.  So Paul prays for believers to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ.  And the writer of the Hebrews says we must not fail of the grace of God.  At every failure we must turn and receive mercy and grace to get up and go on to maturity.  Remember John also wrote that when we confess our failures, the blood of the Lamb is sufficient to wash us clean from all unrighteousness.  We may falter but His love never fails.  Stay in the place of His love.  That is His presence.  That is the throne room of God.