The People Obeyed the Voice of the Lord

Haggai 1:12
"Then Zerubbabel...., and Joshua..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 feared the LORD"

I was reading the book of Haggai this morning and cried so much when I read Haggai 1:12. I started asking God to keep sending forth His word to all my friends in church for He said in Isaiah 55:11 that His word will not return to Him void but will go out and fulfill His purpose.

The remnant I saw were my CCF friends in church and He wants us to know in Haggai 1:13 that "I am with you".

It is the Lord who initiates revival as in Haggai 1:14 "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel.., the spirit of the high priest Joshua..., and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began to work on the house of Yahweh..."

It was just so beautiful to read His words to my church. And though God made us contemplate our former state of glory, this is what He tells us all, three times in fact "Be strong...be strong...be strong" in Haggai 2:4. And He even encouraged us further and gave us His promise in Haggai 2:5:

"This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.'"

It had been a long while since I could connect with God the way we used to connect. I was in Egypt, in the world, doing things my own fair, forgetting His power and how He could deliver me from my problems. But as I made my way back to Him and obeyed the voice of the Lord, He sent me His holy spirit to guide me right until now. Just only over the past two weeks, I have seen how God used me to speak to my friends and His words spoken to them made them view God in a different perspective. All glory to God!  It is really so powerful to be moving in the spirit.  I am in awe and am deeply encouraged by what the holy spirit has shown me. It has been a wonderful adventure to see my dear friends come out of Egypt too.

Yet God says in Haggai 2:6 that "Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land". The holy spirit is going to show my church great and mighty things and testimonies will be shared how their lives changed when they move in the spirit. I thank you Lord for your insight this morning. I praise you Lord for what you are doing in my church. Thank you for your promise of your holy spirit and your encouragement to us to be strong and not to be afraid.

Later, I did a check on the commentary and the lessons learned from these chapters were quite different from what God said above to me. Still, now i know better the difference between logos and  rhema. It was a Holy spirit guided bible study. :)