Zerubbabel was beset with troubles when the angel brought him the word of the Lord through the prophet: “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4.6).
How often we have heard those words applied to problems of today, as if they were a warning against human effort in Kingdom work! But they were not that. Indeed not–for the Lord encouraged Zerubbabel in the work of his hands. The angel says, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of the house, and his hands shall also finish it.” The Spirit of the Lord, using the hands of Zerubbabel, would accomplish the work, though physical might and power to match that of the enemy was lacking in the little band of zealous workers.
There are Christians who maintain that the godly life is a life of quiet submission, of patient waiting–waiting upon the Lord till He perform His own work…
God works by one of two methods–through man or without man, mediately or immediately.
When He chooses to work immediately, he commands man to stand aside, to be still and wait, to keep hands off.
But the era of such miraculous intervention is past… He is working mediately through us. And it is ours to be up and doing; ours to work the work of the Lord; ours to labor in the Name of the Lord, amid troubles that beset us on every hand.