SPEAKING, STIRRING AND SHAKING

Tags: pvl

[Stirring of the Spirit]
[ Haggai 1:12-15; 2:6,7 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 17 & 18 February 2001

How does God communicate with His people so that they will do His work? What does it take to motivate and mobilize a people? It takes God speaking, stirring, and shaking His people!

I. GOD SPOKE … THE PEOPLE BELIEVED AND OBEYED [1:12,13]

How had the voice of the Lord come to the people? “And the message of the prophet Haggai, because their God had sent him.” “And” here, might well be rendered “that is.” It does not add another source of information but clarifies how the Lord’s voice had come to the people. They recognized that it was indeed the Lord who had commissioned Haggai.

God’s Word had produced in them a conviction of their own failure; their conscience smitten by awareness of their former lapses. They had not carried out all the plans they had made. They had failed to do what God required. Sometimes God’s Word makes us uncomfortable; it reproves us [2 Tim.3:16]

When God speaks to us by His Word, there’s only one acceptable response, and that’s obedience. We don’t weigh the options, we don’t examine the alternatives, and we don’t negotiate the terms. We simply do what God tells us to do and leave the rest with Him. “Faith is not believing in spite of the evidence; It’s obeying in spite of consequences.”

Divine Encouragement [1:13-14a]. “I AM WITH YOU” When God saw the penitence of the people He passes from reproof to tenderness and encouragement. God promises to be “with” us over 100 times in the OT. He is with us in our service to Him. [Exo.3:12; Josh.1:5; Jer.1:8,19 and Mat.28:20].

II. GOD STIRRED … THE PEOPLE MOVED [1:14]

“Stir up” is literally “wake up” [It is the word used in Zech.4:1]. The people had become lethargic with respect to divine things. God granted a new vitality to the community of exiles as He “stirred up” [:14] the people and their leadership. This involved restoring their vision and renewing their energy for the tasks that lay before them. A complete change of heart had taken place, and the leadership and people now wanted to do the work of God.

All were involved – “the spirit of the whole remnant of the people.” It is a picture of harmony and unison. The leaders did not have to coerce a reluctant populace, nor did the people have to convince their leaders what to do. All were agreed on it. When there is a united grasp of the reality of Gods presence with his people, great things are accomplished in his cause.

• The Stirring of the Spirit
  - Ezra 1:1,5; Esther 6:1; Gen.1:2b
  - Easily ignored or dismissed.
  - Take heed! Listen to the promptings/stirrings of the Spirit.

WILL WE BE STIRRED TO DO SOMETHING? The future of the Church depends upon our being stirred for the work of God. Those stirred will become the “movers” for God.

III. GOD SHOOK … THE NATIONS TREMBLED [2:6,7]

The first shaking is that connected with Sinai. The whole mountain trembled violently [Exo.19:18] when the Lord descended on Sinai.

The shaking indicates a sudden intervention of God in judgment [Isa.24:18-20; 29:6]. “I will shake all nations” [2:7] envisages an upsetting of the political and social structures that the nations had put in place by their own power and wisdom, and which they thought would last. It presages the great shaking to come at the final judgment, when what is created will be removed, so that what pertains to the eternal kingdom of God, which cannot be shaken, may remain [Heb.12:26-28]. Those who trust in the Lord will, however, not be shaken [Psalm 16:8; 21:7; 62:2,6; 112:6; 125:1]

• Ananias and Sapphira [Acts 5:1-10].
• Jonah.
• The solemn reality came home to them of how dreadful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God [Heb.10:31].

CONCLUSION:

God speaks softly … will we listen … and OBEY?
God stirs gently … will we take heed and MOVE?
God shakes violently … do we tremble and RETURN TO HIM?