The times of restoration of the Temple, described in the book of Ezra, were prophesied by Haggai and Zechariah. The restoration they were prophesying in their time is closely paralleled with our situation today. We are believing to see the restoration of all creation for God’s Kingdom on earth.
The book of Haggai shows us how involved God is even with the simplest commands and directives He gives us, especially in relationship to time. Because we are fighting a battle against time, we should have a very sensitive conscience concerning the value of time. Without this awareness, we will fail to redeem the time to wait on the Lord. The important things will escape us completely. We will never see them accomplished.
When we are diligent with our time, our days are hoarded like a precious stewardship. We count our time, and all that God sets before us to accomplish in that time, more important even than silver and gold, because it is the true wealth. We need to see the importance of the greater works before the Lord and seek for their accomplishment. Our works must be done in obedience and with a great deal of faith. To have only a sense of duty and responsibility is not enough. Without faith behind our actions, we will miss much of what God wants done.
Our actions must be diligent, as well as based on faith, to release the fulfillment of the spiritual promises that we could not attain otherwise. Actions that are based on diligent faith—using our time wisely and doing what God says with faith—will release those promises to us.
We realize that God uses our intercession; but He also uses our obedient faith, our vision, and our diligence to walk with Him under a real anointing to accomplish what He tells us to do. In the same way that our intercession opens up new horizons in God, so also does our obedience with faith and our diligence to discipline our time.
Many times I have received great blessings from God when I worked diligently, without slacking off, doing what He had set before me. After working day after day for a long period of time, there would be a breakthrough in my spirit. Instead of being weary and exhausted, I would find that suddenly laboring had ceased because I was thrust onto a higher level. In the book of Haggai, the Lord promised this release of blessings if His people would work in obedience of faith.
In the second year of Darius, during the time of restoration, Haggai prophesied to Zerubbabel and Joshua, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” ’ ” Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.” Haggai 1:2–9.
Many churches seem to be in this category. They are so preoccupied with their own personal pursuits that they miss the pure vision of the Kingdom of God. Though they are always busy, they wonder why the abundance of God is never poured out upon them. Instead, they are always limited, with never quite enough spiritual or material blessing. It seems as if their purse is a bag with holes, and whatever they earn leaks away.
God will bless us with His abundance as we work to complete what He is setting before us. Though some may think that it is not the time to do this, again God is saying, “Is it time to dwell in your own houses?” People can find excuses not to work for the Kingdom. With unconfirmed “revelations” and convictions of a religious heart—a pharisaism which spreads like cancer—they feel that they are excluded from work. This is not so. It is in labor that the Lord brings blessing.
In Haggai 1:12–13, we notice that the people first embraced the Word of the Lord. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people showed reverence for the Lord. Then Haggai prophesied, … “ ‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord.” God was with them because they showed reverence for the Word He had spoken. Then the people proceeded to rebuild the Temple.
A shallow worship of the Lord, with only your lips, will not spring from the depth of your heart or the motivations and energies of your life. The Lord wants you to worship Him with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Everything is to come forth unto Him. Until you have given yourself fully to Him, you have not grasped the formula for His fullness. It is not based on legalism or dead works. His formula for abundance consists of these ingredients: your obedience of faith, your reverence for the Word of the Lord, and the total response of your whole nature to what God says.
When God says, “It is time to work My works,” let no one say, “This is not the time to do it.” It is time to do exactly what He says! His blessings are being measured on the scales of heaven right now. God is determining His reactions according to our responses. Like Zerubbabel, let us arise and finish the work He has set before us. The Lord will test us to see if we will willingly do it. Apply yourself to His service with diligence, even though you are already working hard. Be diligent! Work!
The way you apply your heart to what God has said determines the return. You yourself are measuring out the amount of blessing you will receive. It is not based upon how much you accomplish, but upon the obedience of your faith toward God.
The way you respond to God will be the way He responds to you. In the day that you seek Him with a whole heart, you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). And the way you serve Him with a whole heart is the way He will meet you and heap blessings upon you. Rarely does God deeply meet anyone who is lazy to respond to Him.
Watch the people who hear a Living Word over and over, but continue on in the same slothful ruts. They have no sustaining blessing. They have not sustained themselves in obedience to God. They have not responded to a Word from the Lord with the same whole heart with which they expect God to respond to them. If a man is always vigilant for the interests of God, then God is always vigilant about his interests.
Smith Wigglesworth was well known a generation ago as an apostle of faith. He once made a deal with God because he became so busy ministering that he did not have time to provide for his own finances. Basically, he told the Lord, “I will take care of Your business, and You take care of mine.” From that time on, he never worried about money. God seemed to pour it into his pockets. Sometimes a fortune passed through his hands while he was in a service; he gave away all the money before he left. He did not worry about being poor. He never had to, because God always blessed him abundantly. He was diligent about the Lord’s business, and the Lord was diligent about his business.
Do you want to do God’s work diligently? He may test you with personal problems until it would be very easy for you to say, “I have to drop His work for a while and take care of my own affairs. My own problems must have a solution.” This is a sure way for them not to be solved and a quick way to take on more problems.
Why does God lay problems before you? It would seem that He lays problems before you so that you will have faith and trust Him to see your problems solved. But that is not always the reason. Sometimes the Lord lays problems before His elect, His saints, His end-time army, to see if they will concern themselves with the affairs of this life, or if they will strive to please Him who has called them to be soldiers (II Timothy 2:4). The Lord’s end-time saints seem to neglect their own lives and their own interests because they have put these things in second place. Primarily, they seek after the interests of the Kingdom. They seek first the Kingdom; and because they put God first, He takes care of their problems.
People who are always distracted by their problems never see them solved. If your problems occupy the biggest place in your life, you will always have them. Lay them aside, realizing that they are keeping you from doing what God wants you to do. Be determined to do what God wants you to do, and He will take care of your problems. It is amazing how God runs interference for those who are determined to do His perfect will.
When Haggai prophesied the Word of the Lord to the people, they set about with all their heart to restore the Temple. It is interesting to see the short span of time which the book of Haggai covers, a period of about four months. God raised up Haggai to announce, “It is time! It is the time to move, the time for you to finish God’s house!” God is saying the same thing to us today. It is time for us to finish what He has set before us. Now is the time to do it. Five years from now, God will not tell us again to get the same job done. Now is the time to do it!
After Haggai first prophesied to the people, their prime concern was to build the Lord’s house. Four months later Haggai prophesied, “’Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider: Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.’ ” Haggai 2:18–19. The day that the people set themselves to sacrifice and build the Temple—with no obvious blessing upon them, and with their own problems laid aside as they put God first and sought Him first—that day God proclaimed this promise: “From this day on I will bless you.”
Intercession is one way to reach through to the promises of God, but in the book of Haggai we see a parallel way—the obedience of faith also stirs God to lay new promises and higher levels before you. Do you want a breakthrough? Consider this way of breaking through to God as carefully as you would consider intercession.
In Haggai 2:6–7, the Word of the Lord told the people how He was going to shake the heavens and the earth and all nations. In verses 20 and 21 we read again about the time of shaking: Then the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth.’ ” God gave Zerubbabel a promise that looked right to our day. Hebrews 12:26–27 repeats these same verses, telling how God would shake the heavens and the earth; and everything that could be shaken would be shaken. There would come a King of kings and He would bring forth the Kingdom. Zerubbabel, because of his obedience, became a prophet of eternity, a prophet who was timeless. He reached into the future and obtained promises that we have rejoiced in over and over again in this very hour.
Haggai further prophesied, “ ‘And I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, every one by the sword of another.’ ” Haggai 2:22. What is God saying to us in this Scripture? “Do you want to bring down Babylon? Then finish building what I have set before you.” Do we want to see our communities taken for God and see people loosed? Do we want true liberation? God’s promises will be ours, and He will bestow that high level of blessing upon us when we go forward in faith and obedience. We need encouragement to keep working. We need the vision, the promise of God that tells us what He will do. Let us work to see that God has facilities to fill with His glory, places in which to bless His people.
God will have a people to bless because that is what He is looking for. He is looking for you! If you want to be one of His prophets, then do what He sets before you, and He will open up a spiritual level to you that seems impossible now. It may seem as if you could never reach it, because you have none of the qualifications, none of the abilities, none of the anointing or gifts that would make you excel. Watch what happens when you walk in obedience to the Lord. The Lord changes the fortunes and circumstances of people by lifting them up into another realm when they start walking with Him. Amazing things begin to happen for them.
A real instrument in the hand of God has an aggressive yieldedness like that of a spirited horse, which is trained and ready to respond at an instant’s notice. A person who is passively yielded to the Lord is like an old plug horse that shuffles along, eating his oats and pulling his load, but without any enthusiasm. God wants an aggressive yieldedness in you, so that when He lays the reins on your neck you will turn, doing His will. The best way to please God is to find out what He wants, and then do it quickly.
God gave the following promise to Zerubbabel, concerning the time when He would shake the heavens and the earth: “’On that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ ” declares the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:23. This refers to the signet rings which kings wore in ancient times. Cuneiform tablets and records of kings from centuries past bear the imprints of signet rings. Even in more recent times, kings wore signet rings to seal wax on documents. To steal a man’s ring was a capital offense in ancient times. The thief was killed because he had stolen a man’s personality, his identity, and his ability to transact business. It was considered more of an offense than the modern-day crime of forging a man’s signature to a check and cashing it. It amounted to forgery, but it also amounted to usurping all that a man held in his authority. If a man was found guilty of preparing a document, and sealing wax on it with the king’s signet ring, but without authorization, that man would lose his life.
God promised Zerubbabel, “I will make you like a signet ring.” In other words, he would be the authority—not only the governor over a handful of Jews who had come back from exile, but one moving in the authority of the Most High God, authorized as the signet ring to execute God’s will in the earth. He would be a force in the Kingdom to “overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.”
Zerubbabel was a type of God’s remnant in this end time. So, also, were Joshua and Elijah. Prophecies over these men were not for them as individuals alone, but for a company of people to be brought forth—a Zerubbabel company, a Joshua-the-priest company, an Elijah company—a group of people who will have the same spirit and anointing that these men had, to walk in the fulfillment of the prophecies over them.
There may be hundreds of Zerubbabels, men upon whom the spirit of Zerubbabel will rest, because it is a day when God is bringing down thrones of kingdoms. He is raising up many men to be His signet ring, the executors of His authority in the earth to bring forth His Kingdom.
All of Haggai’s prophecy will be fulfilled because the people who first heard him were obedient. A realm of blessing opened up because they obeyed God. With real faith, a few people did what the prophet Haggai told them, and the obedience of their faith so blessed God that He opened up new levels which they walked in then and which we can walk in now. When Haggai first prophesied, God said to the people, “You have much, but harvest little.” Then when they proved their obedient faith, God said, “From this day on I will bless you. Now look for blessings to come forth from your life.”
There is a price to be paid on every annuity policy you take out in the Kingdom of God, an investment of yourself, a total investment of everything you are. When you believe His Word and you put your whole life behind it to do the will of God, then He says, “From this time on, see what I will do for you. See the dividends.” You will be clipping coupons on those stocks of heaven that you purchased with your sweat that was obedient to God. God will dignify it with promise after promise after promise.
It is impossible for you to humble yourself in what God is doing today without being exalted. It is impossible for you to do the will of God that is set before you without His putting you in a position that you could never attain by yourself. God has given us a vision to do what He is speaking in this hour. Let us publish His Living Word. Let us speak it to one another. Let us be diligent to do whatever He tells us, and He will dignify everything we are doing.
Maybe your job does not seem very great. Perhaps it is only a menial task like scrubbing pots, cleaning up the kitchen, and sweeping the floor. God dignifies and elevates this work as one of the channels through which He will bring His abundance. When you, like Cinderella, are “cleaning out the ashes in the fireplace,” God is measuring you and bringing you forth in His own way. Maybe you are doing a lowly task that many would never do. Maybe you are barely surviving while you are working for the Lord. Many would not do it; but many also will not receive the blessings that will be visited upon God’s people, even upon those who seemed to lose out because of rebellion, those who were defeated in spiritual warfare.
It will be amazing to see the return of those who had lost out. Because of their faith and blessing while they were trying to do what God said to do, He will bring them back and work changes within their lives. Let us have great faith for those who became casualties while doing God’s will. The final chapter has not been written in today’s epic. God will turn the tide to bring people back and bless them.
Have faith for those who walked in the army of God until they were wounded and became casualties. Stand before God and say, “Lord, stretch forth Your hand and raise them from the dead!” In God’s army you can seemingly die a number of times and still get up and march right on to victory.
In the book of Haggai we read that first the Lord blew on what the people did. Study what God does. When He blows on something, woe be to it. Did not Jesus breathe on the disciples and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? We do not want the Lord to blow on us; we want Him to breathe on us. His ministers should learn obedience to what God wants and become true bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. All authority is with the bond servants.
Although I was not born until about twelve years after the Azusa Street moving of the Holy Spirit in Los Angeles, I did have the privilege of attending church with some of the families who laid the foundation where that breakthrough came. In an old livery stable where mules and delivery wagons were once kept before the days of combustion engines, these people were so met by God that they never lost what they had gained from Him. Other people later came into that moving of the Spirit and described it as “back at Azusa Street this happened.” But those first families did more than talk about it; they walked in their Azusa Street experience. As a boy I listened to them. Some of them were old by that time, but they still had a glow because they had been obedient.
Today we are experiencing a deep, end-time moving of God’s Spirit, which is not a momentary blessing. Others will come later and share this blessing in a measure. However, they need to walk in an initial obedience of faith if they expect a permanent blessing. Let us become the signet ring of the Lord and experience something permanent to live in and walk in. Who wants blessings that will fade away as the glory that was upon Moses when he put a veil over his face (II Corinthians 3:7). Let us look for the glory that is permanent.
When God puts you through humbling experiences, remain obedient in faith. God will not vindicate you to show the world that you were right. God will not give you such a small result of your faith. He does not want to defend you and say, “You did the right thing. No one understood it. No one appreciated you. But now I will vindicate you so everyone will know that you were really My servant.” The vindication of any man is insignificant. God wants a vessel who can glorify Him through the years on a higher level.
What caused Moses to lose out when he struck the rock? He did not glorify God and give Him honor among the people. He said, “You rebels, do I have to show you again what I can do?” Then he struck the rock. He had the wrong attitude (Numbers 20:8–12).
You do not need vindication; do not even look for it. When people say evil against you, do not worry about that. Do not worry about anything that God is not worrying about. He is concerned about bringing forth His will and His glory in the earth and being magnified within you. By obedient faith you are preparing for God to make you a blessing and glory to the world.
In Haggai’s day, the people who went up to the mountains to get wood to build the Temple faced many difficulties. For their own lives it was difficult, but it was not difficult for the people who were building only their own sealed houses and their own little kingdoms. This is true today. But God is not in a man’s kingdom, which will perish with the man.
If you are faithful during difficult times, God will see this and will elevate you and open the door to greater things. Move in obedience to the Lord when He is testing you, and you will be blessed because you are in the will of God. Be faithful, whether you are opposed, criticized, or persecuted. Stand faithful under pressure, and the Lord will open up a new level to you. If you are faithful on one level, then He will open up the next level. Because God is looking for obedience of faith, He will exalt it to a place where He can use it. This is not to exalt you, but He must have a vessel in whom He has worked this, someone He can trust.
The problem with gifts and endowments is that men who have them often fail. How many kings in the Old Testament did not follow in the ways of David and the ways of the Lord? Once they were established as kings, they followed their own pursuits. God is looking for people who do not automatically inherit a place; they become kings and priests because they have been bond servants and handmaidens of the Lord first. First they serve in a humble way. The people who are humble and faithful in their walk with God will find themselves moving in the Kingdom.
God is blowing on the individual kingdoms, as He did in Haggai’s day when the people worked and looked for much, but little came. They earned wages to put in a purse with holes. Again God is blowing on all of man’s human efforts. His Word is shaking everything that can be shaken so that we will receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken.
Some people are busy doing many things. Herod, in the time of John the Baptist, was motivated to do many good things. Only one important thing he did not do: he did not stop living with his brother Philip’s wife when John the Baptist confronted him about her, even though he enjoyed listening to John otherwise. We can dissipate the conviction and the intensity of the Spirit’s speaking to us by being busy about a lot of things. No matter how good these things seem to be, are we doing what God has said?
There is a deep need for all of us to stop and ask ourselves, “What is God speaking to the churches? What does He want us to do? Let us set about to do it.” Why have service as usual? Let us forget anything, no matter how good it is, if it is not the very best in the will of the Lord.
In chapter 34 of Ezekiel, God says that He will take His sheep away from the shepherds who have not led them in His ways, and He will give them a shepherd after His own heart. God will bring us down if we set about to build our own kingdoms after having the vision that He is the Lord. The Lordship of Christ and His Kingdom is the one point of teaching that is indispensable. It is the foundation of our walk with God. He will blow on anything else.
The Lord is purifying our spirits and bringing us back to the original desires which were in our hearts to accomplish. The one thing that counts is the Word of God—speaking His Word and walking in His Word. If we walk in obedience, the Lord will open up the days of abundance. In the meantime we must not be critical, but reach in and do our very best with what we have. Let us bless God for our present provision and know that the days of abundance are coming.
The Kingdom will not come suddenly; there will be a progressive unfolding of it. But it seems to be up to us to decide how fast we will enter into it. We do not want it to take a long time. As we receive a principle of the Kingdom, we must embrace it and walk in it. We will then be a son of the Kingdom.
The new level of Kingdom discipleship will not come forth except by the pattern of all resurrected life: death, burial, and resurrection. This is the only way. Blessed are those who go through the death of self and come forth into the resurrection life of Christ. They are not failures. They are the only vessels God can use. Woe to the successful. Woe to those who are prospering and still not doing the perfect will of the Lord, for soon they will lament and weep for the day that is coming.
As we receive this Living Word of the Lord, our vision will become clearer and purer. Then we can walk in it. Our performing of the Word is by the Holy Spirit’s moving on our hearts. It is the spirit of the Kingdom moving in us for God’s glory.
All who have been raised up to walk in the Kingdom should humble themselves, knowing that they are all under the same yoke, carrying the same load, striving to do the will of the Lord. It matters not what circumstances would seem to oppose or what problems we have personally. All that matters is our dedication and devotion to do God’s will and to seek first His Kingdom.