In the Old Testament, David’s greatest sin against the Lord was not his sin with Bathsheba. The sin that brought the greatest trouble to Israel occurred when David numbered the children of Israel (II Samuel 24). From a human viewpoint, that action can be easily understood—he wanted to know how many men he could depend upon as a standing army. However, God did not want David to count the resources he could depend on from the human level. God had always given him the victory. From his many experiences with the Lord, David should have learned his lesson. He should have known to put his trust in God.
The Scriptures tell us that God is not limited to save by many or to save by few (I Samuel 14:6). Jonathan and his armor bearer knew that. When the two of them went out alone from the camp of Israel to tackle the Philistines, their only question was this: “Where will we meet them?” They decided to reveal themselves to the Philistines; and if the Philistines said, “Come on up and we will show you something,” they knew that they should go up and take them on the mountain. If the Philistines said, “Wait, and we will come down,” then they could meet them where they were. It was not a question of whether or not to meet the Philistines. They just wanted to know where God would give the victory. The defeat of the whole Philistine army was the result of the faith of these two men.
Zechariah 2 records a vision the Lord gave to Zechariah and a prophecy about the restoration. In verses 1–4, notice the two angels and what they were set to do. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.” And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, and said to him, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.’ ”
In this vision, God was saying, “Do not try to measure the walls of Jerusalem, because what I am bringing forth will not have walls.” We must learn this lesson. We must never try to measure the size of the New Testament churches God is bringing forth in the earth today. Numbers are not the issue. God is not limited to save by many or to save by few. What God is doing in the earth today will grow so fast that it will be impossible to build a wall around it before the multitudes have reached out and have begun living beyond that wall. There will not be room within the confines of any man-made boundaries for all of God’s people. We cannot make a boundary around what we believe. We should even believe in all of the things that we do not know anything about yet. God has hidden many more wonderful truths in plain sight right in the Word, and He will reveal them in this day. When He does, let us walk in them. Let us be progressive enough and flexible enough to believe in all of the things that God will yet reveal.
We know only a small percentage of what we will know as we continue to walk with God. Probably ninety percent of the teaching and revelation that God has for His people is yet to come. We are going to discover vast fields of ignorance. In fact, the greatest discovery will be when God starts showing us the areas of our ignorance and begins bringing revelation to fill them in.
We cannot put boundary lines around the wisdom and anointing which will flow. Neither can we become self-centered, seeing only what God is doing in our immediate surroundings and finding ourselves hemmed in because we are focused on our own interests. Many Christians still retain that self-centered focus in their lives; yet if someone tells them about it, they deny it. They do not see how self-centered they are, how in their own minds the world revolves around their own interests and their own thinking. We must change that. Let us seek the revelation of how God is building spiritual Zion which cannot be measured. In Zechariah’s vision the first angel started to measure Jerusalem, but the second angel told him, “Never mind. It is not possible to put boundaries on it.”
You must learn to live without circumscribing your horizons. Never say, “I will believe everything that I can see,” and then put a wall around what you see. By the time you travel a little further, you will see a lot more. There must be a flexibility in your faith. As you believe for more, God will show you more. It is almost as if God sets a blank contract before you and asks you to sign it. When you ask about all the details, He says, “I will fill them in from week to week. You just sign the contract.” That may not be the way to do business in the world, but it is the way the Lord does business. He wants you to sign an unconditional surrender. You cannot say just how much or how little you will do for God. If you are open to the Lord, your dedication will expand from week to week. There never will be a moment that you are not challenged to believe more, to become more, to do more, and to create more in the Lord.
Spiritual Jerusalem will be without walls, “ ‘For, I’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ” Zechariah 2:5. God is telling His people, “You do not need any boundaries. You do not need any protection.” The denominations came into being because people built walls around their creeds and doctrines thinking they were protecting the truth. While they were protecting the truth, it died with them. New truths that came along could not reach them because they had built walls, saying, “This we will believe and no more.” You cannot build walls if you want to keep your truth alive. The day that God’s people are tempted to build walls and become a denomination is the day that their spiritual lives are in jeopardy. God is not raising up believers in this end time to become a denomination with limitations and restrictions.
Walking with God is a challenge in which you must yield to every demand that He makes. Sometimes you almost have to fight God, but you do not fight Him in order to win; you fight Him in order to lose. Sometimes you have to come to grips with God as Jacob did. Jacob had promised to give God ten percent of all God gave him if God would take care of him (Genesis 28:20–22). But that did not prevent Laban, his father-in-law, from cheating him several times and then chasing him to kill him when Jacob finally left with his family. After Jacob made peace with Laban, he still had to face his brother Esau who had sworn years before to kill him. Jacob was tired of a lifetime of trying to make deals with God. The night before he was to face Esau, Jacob met the Lord and wrestled with Him. All night long he wrestled, and finally he lost (Genesis 32:24–32). But there was nothing more wonderful for him than to wrestle with God and limp away with a blessing as the sun was coming up.
The Lord will be the wall of fire round about you. What God demands of you is what you will be. Whatever He says is the way it will be. If you do not like what God says, He will wrestle with you. He will challenge you and make you lose the battle. Sooner or later you have to be a loser, or you will not be a winner.
Zechariah’s vision continues in verses 6–7 with God calling the scattered people back to the city He is building which will never have walls. These are the ones who will cause Zion to overflow. “Ho, there! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the Lord, “for I have dispersed you as the four winds of the heavens,” declares the Lord. “Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.” The religious systems are holding many people captive who are hungry for the Word of God. At the present they are barely existing on scraps of truth, but one of these days they will be released. Because of them the city of God cannot have walls. Multitudes will be added to it—those who are being restored from Babylon.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. For behold, I will wave My hand over them, so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me.” Verses 8–9. Babylon will be the plunder of her slaves. In Revelation 17 and 18, Babylon is the great mystery harlot, the great whore who sits upon the beast; but the beast turns and devours her (Revelation 17:16). Babylon will be destroyed by the ones she is plundering or holding in captivity now. They will turn and make a plunder of her. The kingdoms of Satan are self-destructive; they will all come down.
“Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord. “And many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people.” Verses 10–11a. This is the beginning of the Kingdom, and the nations are going to become the people of the Lord. This could happen in one or two generations if the Lord were to cut off the fertility of Babylon (Psalm 37:28). If everyone who does not bow to worship the Lord, or open up to His Lordship, were stricken barren or sterile, for a generation in Babylon there would not be a man or a woman who could reproduce. It could happen literally. There are many plans of the Lord that we do not even imagine. Because of the momentum of the world system, we have the idea that it will go on and on and on and will never end; but that is not true. It is doomed. The stone that Daniel saw—the stone cut out of the mountain without hands—strikes the image, representing the governments of all the cultures and civilizations throughout the history of the world, and grinds the image to powder. Then the rock fills the whole earth as it expands (Daniel 2:31–35).
The Kingdom must come. The best songs have not yet been sung. The best books have not yet been written. The great discoveries have not yet been made. The creativity that God will turn loose has not yet been seen. In the past, creativity has had a negative note. Many medical advances have been made during times of war, while men tried to piece together the world which scientific discoveries had helped to destroy. We must pray for the Lord’s creativity to come forth.
Believe the Word of the Lord. Every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that Jesus is the Lord. The ungodly nations must come down. The rod of iron will bring them down. Even if it has to break their rebellious legs, they will kneel. Let us cry before God with violent faith against the ungodly and everything they do, against the forces that would hinder the will of God from coming to pass. Only from the realm of the Spirit can we dominate the course of events and determine the way they will go.
Zechariah 2 ends with this beautiful promise to God’s people: “Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord. “And many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He is aroused from His holy habitation.”