How delightful are God’s ways and the goings forth of His will. Not by might nor by power, neither by native ability nor by training are men made apostles, but by God’s effectual calling. So it is with every office within the Church. Men are permitted to recognize the call and make public acknowledgment before the congregation, but never are they permitted themselves to make the choice. But where divine ways and the ways of men mix and mingle there is confusion and failure continually. Good men who are yet not called of God may, and often do, take upon them the sacred work of the ministry. Worse still is it when men who belong yet to the old world and have not been renewed by the miracle of regeneration try to carry on God’s holy work. How sad is the sight and how tragic the consequences, for the ways of man and the ways of God are forever contrary one to the other.
Is this one of the reasons behind our present state of spiritual weakness? How can the flesh serve the Spirit? Or how can men from another tribe than Levi’s minister before the altar? How vain to try to serve the new after the ways of the old. From this stems the rank growth of evil methods that characterizes the churches of our day. The bold and self-assertive push forward and the weak ones follow without asking for a proof of their right to lead. The divine call is ignored, and sterility and confusion result.
Verse
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 4:6
Thought
How sad is the sight and how tragic the consequences when unregenerated men try to carry on God’s work, for the ways of man and the ways of God are forever contrary one to the other.
Prayer
We want to hear the divine call, Lord. We will not settle for the words of men.