The Power of God’s Spirit

God’s Spirit convicts us of sin, and then He cleanses us from sin. According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit works even in the lives of unbelievers, as the Spirit convicts the world about “sin, righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). For Christians, the Holy Spirit not only cleanses and removes sin at the time of salvation (1 Cor 6:11), but He continues to produce the fruit of God’s holiness in our lives (Gal 5:22-23) and transforms us into the image of Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). By the Spirit, believers are able to “put to death the deeds of the body” and live holy lives (Rom 8:13).

A man purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the mouse into the snake’s glass cage. The tiny mouse saw that he had a serious problem on his hands. The snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust and though the snake was asleep, the mouse knew at any moment the snake could wake up and eat him. So the mouse did the only thing he could think to do: He started covering up the snake with sawdust chips. He dug down and pushed the sawdust chips onto the snake until the snake was completely buried under the sawdust. When he had finished burying the snake, the mouse sat down and rested. He thought the problem was solved.

But the man watching knew the problem was not solved, but only hidden. The solution to the mouse’s problem could not come from the mouse, the solution had to come from the outside. The man took pity on that little mouse and reached in, picked him up, and removed the mouse from the cage.

No matter how hard we may try, we cannot cover our sin or deny our sinful nature. Our own sin will eventually awake from its sleep and shake off its cover, and sin’s consequences will devour us. Were it not for the saving grace of the Master’s hand, sin would eat us alive. But, praise God, His Spirit can convict us of our sin and guilt, and then He can take the guilt and shame of sin away from us! His Spirit can deliver us from the power of sin and temptation. He removes the darkest sin. There’s no sin that Jesus Christ didn’t die for. There’s no sin that His resurrection did not conquer. There’s no sin from which the power of the Holy Spirit cannot deliver us. Sometimes God delivers us from sin instantly: we ask God to deliver us from a particular sin, He takes away the inclination of our heart toward that sin, and we never struggle with that sin again. Sometimes God takes sin away from us that way. But many times, I have found, God takes sin away from us on a day-by-day basis as we walk with Him. He teaches us to trust in the power of His Spirit for daily deliverance from sin’s power in our lives.

Chapter 6 brings us to Zechariah’s eighth vision. The vision indicates that God’s justice was brought to the wicked nations that have oppressed Israel. Following this last vision, God acts to give hope to His people.

At the beginning of Zechariah 6, the prophet sees four chariots coming out from two mountains. The location of these mountains in Judah is uncertain, though some have speculated that the use of the definite article (i.e., the two mountains) points to specific mountains, perhaps Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. In this case, though, it is hard to understand why the mountains would be described as being made of bronze, since the mountains in Jerusalem are made of limestone. The material of the mountains, however, does seem significant. Bronze is often used in Scripture to depict the sureness and resoluteness of God’s judgment. For instance, the bronze altar in Exodus 27:2 and the bronze snake in Numbers 21:9 both speak of God’s judgment on sin. Likewise, Jesus is described as having feet of bronze in Revelation 1:15 and 2:18 as He stands in judgment over His churches.

Powerful horses draw the chariots that come from between the two bronze mountains. The horses are reminiscent of the ones described in the first vision (Zech 1:8-9), though the colors of the horses are not the same in the two visions. These horses are red, black, white, and dappled (6:2-3). Walter Kaiser notes that the horses bear a strong resemblance to the four horsemen of Revelation 6:1-8 and suggests that the red horse indicates martyrdom, white stands for victory, black stands for famine, and dappled symbolizes death (Micah, 355). When Zechariah asks what the horses and chariots are, the interpreting angel explains that they are “the four spirits of heaven going out.” While the Hebrew word can mean either “spirits” or “wind” as in 5:9, the context seems to indicate these are angelic spirits sent from the Lord to go throughout the earth.

The chariots are going north and south, each direction representing enemies faced by God’s people. The chariots pulled by the black and white horses go to the north, referring to Babylon, while the dappled horses traveled to the south, which represents Egypt (v. 6). Though no specific mention is made of the direction of the red horses, all of the horses and their chariots go out to exert God’s control and sovereignty over the nations. Following these patrols, the Lord Himself speaks in response to the chariots that have gone out to Babylon: “See, those going to the land of the north have pacified My Spirit in the northern land.” The report from Babylon pacifies God’s Spirit and puts His Spirit to rest. Though God had been angry at the oppressive nations (1:15), His work of judgment has been completed and His Spirit is satisfied.

The remainder of Zechariah 6 is a denouement based on the reports from the chariots. Because the Lord’s wrath against the nations was satisfied, in verses 9-11 God instructs Zechariah to crown Joshua the high priest. The crown was of silver and gold, precious metals that were to come from a small delegation of exiles from Babylon, namely Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah. The crown was to be an elaborate one, as indicated by the plural of majesty (HCSB reads “crowns”). Joshua’s coronation united the priesthood with the monarchy. While there was no precedent in Scripture for a priest to be crowned as a king, the message the Lord gave to Joshua in verses 12-15 explains the reason behind this coronation.

In these verses the Lord offers Joshua, Zechariah, and all the people of Judah a renewed hope through His promises. Just as the Lord had promised to use Zerubabbel to rebuild the temple by His Spirit in Zechariah 4, He now specifies how His Spirit will work through Joshua. The oracle given to Joshua contains both promises that are contemporaneous to Zechariah’s time and those that await future fulfillment. While God indeed used Joshua to rebuild the temple in the days of Zechariah, the final realization of these promises from God will come when Jesus Christ establishes the millennial temple described in Ezekiel 40–46. God’s message to Joshua includes several noteworthy and emphatic promises concerning the Messiah, or “the Branch.”

In Zechariah’s day Joshua’s crown would be placed in the completed temple as a remembrance of the men who donated the silver and gold (v. 14). Morever, people from far away—presumably other Jews who were presently in Babylon—would come to complete the construction of the temple as a validation of the Lord’s message to Zechariah (v. 15). God concluded this vision with a warning: “This will happen when you fully obey the Lord your God.” These words, evocative of Deuteronomy 28:1, remind God’s people that the blessings that come from His Spirit and the hope that flows from those blessings are reserved for those who diligently obey Him.

Some time back I was with a group of friends at a retreat near a small lake. On the banks of the lake there was an old sailboat that looked like it had been abandoned and unused for a long time. On the first evening of the retreat I was talking to my friend, Paul.

“What did you do this afternoon?” I asked.

Paul answered, “I took that little sailboat out on the lake.”

“I figured nobody ever took that thing out,” I said. “Did you have any trouble?”

Paul replied, “Oh, no, I had no trouble at all.”

“But the wind was barely blowing,” I said.

Paul smiled and answered, “Stephen, I’ve got some experience with sailboats. And I know how to trim the sails to catch the breeze.” And then he said, “If you know how to catch the wind, there’s almost always enough wind to sail.”

So it is with the power of the Spirit. There is always enough of Him to keep the wind in the sails of our spiritual lives. God wants us to learn how to keep His wind in our sails. The Spirit’s power will work in our lives when we (1) obey the book of the Spirit, the Bible, (2) surrender each day to the filling and control of the Spirit (Eph 5:18), and (3) stay connected to the family of the Spirit, the body of Christ.