Zechariah 4:6 and 2 Corinthians 3:1-6

This month 200 years ago, Louis Harms was born. Louis Harms served the Lord and sent many missionaries out to many different countries. If it wasn’t for him this mission would not be here.

May we always bring the Spirit of God and not the letter to others. It is so easy to tell someone what he may or may not do and simply to give him the law. We make our own laws and traditions. We may have the form of Godliness buy deny the power (see 2 Timothy 3). We can teach the letter but have lost the Spirit. Before the revival, we were good Christians, going to church services and Bible studies, but it was only the letter, and the letter kills. Every Christian needs to be filled with the Spirit of God that our lives will be a living epistle of the Word of God. When you bring up your children, your duty is to teach your children in such a way that they can be led by the Spirit of God and not just to know the Ten Commandments. Let us beware of being “puppets of the law”.

As we find in the Corinthian text, Paul was a man who was filled with zeal for the Lord. He was zealous to be able to present the Christians as a bride, spotless to Christ. May Christ make us sufficient to administer the new covenant by the Spirit and not the letter. May we be filled with the Spirit of God that everyone is able to read in our lives that we are Christians. The reason people mock us and don’t want to turn to Christ is because we don’t live the Christian life. We need to be saved from our sins. Have you been saved from your sins? Have you been sanctified and purified, where God’s power has burnt away all sin and dross in your life. We must allow the Holy Spirit to take full control of our lives, because we read that He will lead us into all the truth. In John we read that He is the way, the truth and the life. See John 16:13; 14:17&18; 15:26.

Many say they are led by the Spirit, but it’s some other spirit – their own or demons. If one is filled with God’s Spirit it will be evident to all.

In Luke 2:25 onward we read how Simeon went into the temple and met up with Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. Who told Simeon to go into the temple at that moment? That is the Spirit we want and whom we are ministering to you. May you be filled by the Spirit and led by Him, that He can lead you and guide you, dwell in you and say “My child, this way, not that way” and lead you into all the truth. If He dwells in your heart then it will not be necessary to propagate the Ten Commandments because they will be written in your heart. The Spirit of God Who is in you will keep you and make you perfect, that no matter where you are and what the situation is, the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you and show you the way. This should be the natural way for you to live, so that even when the older people fall away, the younger ones will continue with the Lord’s work and even do it better, so that the work will grow and that we’ll reach the ends of the earth with the true gospel of Christ – not the letter or just the Ten Commandments, but by the Spirit of God. Everyone should be a Spirit-filled Christian and have an ear to hear so that when He speaks we will hear His Voice. In John we read “My sheep hear My Voice”. Are you Jesus’ sheep? Can you hear His Voice? What a comfort to know that my sons and daughters will do the Lord’s work better than I could do it because I have taught them how to hear that Voice and to listen to Him.

The story is told of a bank manager whose wife got converted. The husband was not happy about this as it did not suit his life-style – he was respected for his position and used to socializing. His wife’s prayer was that God would fill her with Himself and she prayed for His wisdom and guidance in her situation. The husband gave his wife a hard time and eventually started hating her. He then decided to kill her, the children and then himself. He decided to throw his keys into the river, then go to his friends and have a drink, then go home and shout to his wife for his keys. If she could not produce them, he’d kill her, the children and himself. His wife was totally unawares of his plans.

On the day that he threw his keys in the river and planned to carry out his plan, she wondered what she could do for him. She planned to prepare the best food for him that night. God’s still small Voice whispered that he likes fish and that she should prepare a good meal of fish. She then went to the fish market and asked God’s guidance as to which fish to buy. At home when she cut open the fish, she saw a familiar bunch of keys inside and recognized them to be her husband’s keys. She cleaned them and hung them up, full of joy. Later that evening the meal was prepared but her husband had not returned. She then went to bed and was awakened at about 10pm by a loud noise – her drunken husband had arrived home and shouted for his wife to open the door and demanded to know where his keys were. She got up, fetched the keys and handed them to him. He was so stunned that he immediately sobered up and wanted to know where she got the keys from. After hearing the story he fell on his knees and gave his heart to the Lord. Because she listened to that small Voice, the wife saved her life and the lives of her children, and caused her husband to come to the Lord.