'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 6

Before we enter the Life of the Spirit we must go through both the negations of God:

Not by might
Nor by power

First the natural, then the spiritual.

Twice we are warned; twice we are rebuked for a crime not yet committed, but it is the grace and mercy of God to warn us beforehand, as He did Cain. Zerubbabel was, and we still are, in danger from both traps that lurk at our door. 'Power' is not just a synonym for 'might'; there are two negations - not one, and both doors need to be slammed, if we are to enter into the Life of the Spirit in a particular work of God.

Would He allow us to take up 'Might' and 'Power' without complaint. Absolutely! The warning has already been given; we are expected to seek Him and not to put into motion any mechanical production. Once He tells Zerubbabel, He tells us. It would be so easy to employ all these mighty powers for God and then we could boast that we did it and not God, but on behalf of God, something like a franchise. God may permit this, but He will not bless it. The life of earth is demonstrated by ability and its execution: the mechanical system that produces the end result has an independent life of its own. It is the human system, and it mimics the life of God. Why on earth should we sidle up alongside it and consider it an option or leave it on the backburner? Well, if God doesn't come through we can always . . .

This is treachery. If the Lord bans such modes of being emphatically, so should we. Would we rather fail than embark on a enterprise that is 'successful' for God, yet doesn't have His seal of approval? But we can't upscale! We can't repoduce the franchise model! It's taking too long! It's not going to work like that! There have been too many problems - we should . . . Who is in control here? Who is exerting their power of veto and their power of might? It certainly isn't the Lord.

God will only allow the growth and 'success' of the natural enterprise so that He can eventually chop it down to expose it for what it truly is. If we try to rebuild it, our judgment is sealed.

Our wrists are slapped twice because our natural inclination is to reach for those things that have proved successful, and for which we know and understand and do not need to rely and depend in our weakness upon God. Each little task in church is an opportunity of throwing oneself upon the Lord's mercy and resolutely know nothing but Him crucified. It is His kingdom and not ours and His kingdom is from above. We need to be unplugged and to go off-grid to access the Life of God.

We must meet those negations as deaths; the organic life of the Spirit must come from a seed that must die. The Life of the Spirit is nothing less than the resurrection life that makes dry bones live, but they must be dead first. This is the prerequisite for the Life: death. It is a fast from all the power and might that could simulate the life of heaven. It is the quiet watching of a fire as it dwindles in the evening; it is the waiting for the ripples in a pond to cease, until the very rhythm and beat of human society drops to its resting rate, for it is only out of the Rest of God does God speak and we must work. Surely, by now! No! Past that boredom threshold into a different state of being steadfast upon Him, until the routines are shattered and we see Him. When we see Him, we will see like Him, and then we will be in the Life. Then we will know Him and speak for Him and act for Him.

It is the negations of God that we need to negotiate - but we have circumvented them. We have opted for an empty cross, for a C-section rather than the pain of contractions, for knowing rather than for not knowing.

It suggests to me that if we have entered into the 'Life of the Spirit' all too easily, then we are children. It is most dangerous to be given a job by the Lord for which we are qualified to do, as Zerubbabel was; more as like it is a test. And if we have entered too easily into a project and out the other end without meeting the negations of God or having had them resolved, then was that project God's? If we did not experience the pain and joy of birth, was the life demonstrated the Spirit's? Or did we just use a spiritualised 'might' and 'power'? Did we just counterfeit the work of God and what type of spirit inhabits such a work?

'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 5

"Power" is the exercise of might and is not necessarily synonymous with authority, but with control and influence. It is that which flows from the explicit ability of "might". It is firmness and hardiness, together with the fruits of such labours. It may even be used in relation to the fruit of the vine or the quality of meat: all derived from the strength of the soil, of the earth, of Adam. Ultimately, it is cold-blooded and morally neutral. It does not care as long as it achieves its required end - to bring something about. It is no surprise one other use of this word refers to a large lizard - also present in the Garden of Eden, that also slid across the ground and ate the dust of the earth. "Power" and "Might" are masculine and earthy; they are from below and speak from the viewpoint of the world with the wisdom of this age. They are potent and seductive and are an ever present temptation to God's people in every work of His church. If such things are utilised the World can make a claim in the Church, the World can exercise influence with the Church; the World becomes a part of the Church.

No!

What must be born must be born from above, and not of this world, so it can be clearly seen as being from God Himself. It is entirely appropriate that the word for Spirit - Ruach - is feminine.

It is clear, given the judgement of the Lord God in the Garden of Eden and the subsequent history of mankind through war and work throughout the world, that these two words, "Might" and "Power", should be allotted as masculine. The exercise of might through power is an overtly masculine thing.

Masculine nouns in Hebrew are often concrete, and feminine nouns - abstract. Still, it is the language that God chose to express His Testament of Promise. Man's essential relationship is with the Earth and the woman's is the man as they were taken from both. For both male and female, their origin of creation was cursed. There is only one hope here and it is through the woman. The fruit of the earth can produce nothing. Salvation will come through women. Feminity is the conduit and canal of salvation. She who was taken out from inside now gives birth. "Power" and "Might" are from below. The Spirit is from above. Out of the darkness of the womb, out of the unseen comes forth God's plan of salvation, and His heel shall crush the head of the serpent, that former "Power". Power and Might are in direct opposition to God; they are enemies of God. Even that term "Power" suggests explicitly the spiritual identity behind such Might and that it derives itself from the spirit of the air - even when that "Power" is sincerely considered to be God Himself; God will not lend Himself to such schemes of men.

Out of the smallest seed in the Day of Small Things where there is a watery darkness, through the travail of birth and the agony of contractions - those involuntary pulses that cannot be controlled, comes a nation of priests, comes the line of David, in the Ark of Noah through the waters of the Flood, sealed in pitch, squeezed through the Sea of Reeds, and finally up out of the River Jordan after going down into the waters of baptism, breaking up out of those waters comes New Life. God gives birth in no other way; any 'work of God' that was not born was manufactured.