“Then Spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, ‘I am with you,’ saith the Lord.” Haggai 1:13
That which appears to be at the origin of every godly change is the matter of the Lord speaking. Why? It is because there is power and authority in His words. His voice at creation brought creation out of nothing. His word to Abraham in his old age with his call to “walk before Me and be thou perfect,” was prefaced by the statment: “I am the Almighty God…” (Gen. 17:1) The Apostle Paul declares that the gospel is the “…power of God unto salvation.” Why? Because it is the word of God. The same God who spoke creation into existance is that One who speaks life into the dead, and saves the soul. So, how is the believer, the disciple of Christ, to go forth into the day, every day, in such a manner and attitude that he can appropriate the victorious life of Christ for every need? It is the response of faith to “the word of the Lord.” Then comes the question: “What is that specific word of God for the heart?”
In the book of Haggai, after years of being hindered from rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, God spoke through Haggai the prophet. Scripture tells us that Haggai was the Lord’s “messenger” with a “message” from heaven. In other words, the Lord had a specific word for the people. It was not just a group of words in phrases that the Lord spoke, but conviction spoken into the heart of the people. God’s words were given in such a faithful, and clear manner, that all concerned were brought face to face with God’s presence. The Lord reasoned with the people, revealing to them the contrast between their present experience of need, and His will of fulness and victory. He told them exactly what to do, and why the full blessing was not there. Specifically, His word was: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?” (Haggai 1:4) Then He commanded them what they were to do. The result of this “word of the Lord” was that the people were stirred up by God, and they feared God more than they feared their adversaries. We see another example of this moving of the Spirit, when after Pentecost, we find the Apostle Peter standing up and confronting the Sanhedrin, who were seeking to silence him. He and the apostle John “…answered and said unto them, ‘Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19,20) Returning to Haggai, we find that the men of his day, as well as the apostles and brethren in their day, lived by the same promise, reality, and conviction given by God by His word: “I am with you.” (Hab. 1:13) So, how is one to rise in the morning, prepare for the day, and then go out into the day to walk with and before God, confonting the enemy, and seeing the victory of Christ?
Worship is the first thing. True and personal worship of the Father and the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit, the triune God, is the first and great essential. Why? The salvation which Christ has accomplished for every believer has for its objective to deal with every obstacle, and spiritual need, so that the individual can have true fellowship with God. This is the believer’s highest blessing, to be IN Christ, by the Spirit, put into a position where he or she can truly worship God in “Spirit and truth.” With clean hands and a pure heart, possible by the Spirit and the precious blood of Christ, true worship is possible. Out of that worship comes conviction, not only of God speaking in His word, but by the assurance and peace that He communicates to the heart. Filled with the Spirit, the believer goes confidently forth.
Father, Strengthen our faith to walk. In Jesus’ name, Amen.