Devotional - week of November 16, 2008

STIRRED UP SPIRITS
 

So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God … Haggai 1:14
 

The 70 years of captivity in Babylon were over and the exiles had returned to Jerusalem. They built paneled houses for themselves but had not decided that it was not time to rebuild the house of God.

However, from God’s point of view it was time to rebuild the temple, so He stirred up the spirits in the leaders and the people. They began rebuilding the temple.

There is every indication that the stirring up of the spirits was a sovereign work of God and was not prompted by any self-stirring of the spirits of the leaders or the people.

Most believers have seen the stirring of the spirits of God’s people as a sovereign work of God. Revivals have started that way. At first, the stirring of the spirit was usually in one person or at the most just a few people. But in time, it became a blaze of spiritual fire.

Does it always have to be that way? Those who have experienced living by grace know that their spirits are stirred daily to be in fellowship with God. They are available for the things that God wants to do through them.

A church living by grace is a church filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19 present the Holy Spirit as a fire. In such a church, the fire would continually stir up in the spirits of the members a desire for the advancement of the Kingdom of God and for other believers to experience spiritual growth and the abundant life.

Such a church would have stirred up spirits to tell the lost about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and to tell the saved of their own spiritual crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

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