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We were standing in the aisle of the store one day, looking for whatever we were wanting to purchase. Down the aisle stood a woman, to whom I offered a tract. She drew back, as if in terror, and murmured, “Oh, no, no!” and forthwith fled around the corner. It was not me that she was afraid of—she had been perfectly content to stand in the same aisle before!—but, instead, a mere reminder of God.

When the angel came to Gideon in the book of Judges, he told Gideon that the Lord was with him. Gideon responded by lamenting the desperate condition the country was in, and its hopelessness. God responded in a very unusual way: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?”

“Go in this thy might...” God was, apparently, telling Gideon that the very hopelessness of the cause was the might by which he would defeat the Midianites. Two verses later, He explained that He would be with Gideon.

In the same way, as long as we believe that we have the resources to meet our problems, God will leave us to our own strength. Before He will work through us, we will have to accept the fact that “without me ye can do nothing.” The way to the power of God is by ending our own power, our own resources, our own plans, our own ambitions, our own abilities, and giving up everything to Him. He has sufficient power to do anything He wants, and He doesn't need our power. But He needs a life that will be only Him, revealing Him for the world to see. He needs someone's life because that is how He usually does His work in this world, not by simply manifesting His power, but by manifesting it in and through someone's life. That's how Paul can tell us that we are lights in the world, when Jesus can also tell us, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” We can be the lights because He is the light, and our Christian lives (meaning, our entire lives, as Christians) are manifestations of His life. So what His life does, our lives do as they manifest His life.

An incident during the time of the prophet Isaiah demonstrates this. The first verse of this book reveals that the things in the book were seen during the times of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, as the nation of Judah was winding down. Tradition says that Isaiah also prophesied during the time of Hezekiah's son Manasseh, but Manasseh, unwilling to hear the voice of reproof, killed him. In chapter nine, starting with the tenth verse, he appears to be turning his attention to Israel instead of Judah. It's a rather long passage that I want to draw your attention to, but I am going to put it here in what seems to be its entirety, then bring out some key points.

Isaiah 9:8-21 KJV 8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. 9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, 10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. 11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; 12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts. 14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. 15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. 17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. 19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. 20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: 21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

First, notice at the beginning of the passage, in verses 9-10, that these people are self-confident. If you listen, a lot of voices are calling for self-confidence these days, telling people to believe in themselves, to look on the bright side, to think that they are pretty great. But God looked at it from a different perspective. Because they believed themselves to be capable of whatever needed to be done, God was unable to use them. Most if not all of the rest of the passage is devoted to all the punishments God is going to send upon them. He says that because of this self-confidence He is going to gather their enemies together and they are going to smash them! They are going to come in and defeat them and destroy them and crush them. Thrice He repeats, “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” He is very merciful, but when His wrath comes down, you don't want to be under it. And why was He doing this to them? Because they believed too much in themselves. People would like to tell us to believe in ourselves. But when we consider the might and power of God, we have nothing to be confident in. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Another incident is found in the story of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel. Zerubbabel had come to Jerusalem and, with much celebration and ceremony laid the foundation of the temple. Zerubbabel had a lot of things going for him. He was a direct descendant of David—in fact, had the Davidic line continued to rule Israel, he would have probably been king—as well as governor of the Jews, and he had already finished laying the foundation of a temple that, if Cyrus's orders were followed, covered more ground than that of Solomon. God wanted Zerubbabel to know that these things were not sufficient to do His work; they could easily fail. So He gave a message to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah: “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Then he was able to give Zerubbabel a promise about the completion of the house. It is a sad situation to see people all around who claim God's promises, and yet are unwilling to give up their ambitions, dreams, goals, and plans, and thus fail to clear the way for God's Spirit to work through them. Almost every one of God's promises are good only when His Spirit is allowed to work. Revival, strength, victory, even salvation come only as we surrender to let the Spirit work through us.

Paul was one who knew the cost of victory. In II Cor. 12, he explains that the special revelations God gave to him were a temptation to pride, even for one so great as Paul. So God actually sent him a “messenger of Satan to buffet me,” in order that Paul not be puffed up. Paul, at first not understanding the purpose, and perhaps seeing the great things that could be done if the thorn were removed, asked God that it be removed. God explained to Paul that he needed to be weak so that God’s power could flow through him, because God’s power did not come through man’s strength, but through his weakness.