Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The children of Israel are sinners. They've made huge mistakes, giant mistakes, and by the time Zechariah is on the scene, you might even call them in somewhat of a lost cause. At least we would. But God never calls His people a lost cause. He never gives up on His people.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminds us there's a plan and a purpose in God's timing.

Brett Meador: Don't forget that God loves you and He wants to work in your life, even if you're a rascal. Even if you're a sinner.

Guest (Male): The prophet Zechariah spoke to a discouraged people, encouraging them to renew their faith, calling God's people to seek the Lord as the source of every blessing rather than trusting in idols or empty leaders. In today's word, Pastor Brett Meador finds encouragement that even when God may seem distant, the Holy Spirit offers lasting hope for all who turn to Him.

Brett Meador: If you recall, we've been breaking down the book of Zechariah into three main sections. The first section was speaking of the eight visions of Zechariah. Dreams and visions, all in one night, having to do with Israel and its future and the ending on the millennial kingdom. That was chapters one through six.

Section two talks about these questions the people raised. Remember, should we weep and fast and mourn as we've done all these years? They asked the Lord some questions in chapters seven and eight. But chapters nine through 14, the third section, speak of both the first and second coming of Christ.

Now, if you just had the book of Zechariah to go on, it might be hard to discern which one would be first and which one would be second, or even if there were a first and second coming. But when you know the way the story shakes out, it really makes Zechariah come to life. We have the advantage of hindsight looking back to Zechariah and seeing how he did speak of both the first advent and the second advent, which is pretty fun and helps us understand that.

Here in Zechariah 10, starting with God's divine influence and His work on the people of Israel, He's going to really reach into their lives personally and practically and speak about their spiritual health and well-being along with their physical health and well-being. There's a crossing over of the figurative and the literal and we'll see that in these sections.

There are seven little sections within chapter 10. The first section is verse one. We're going to call this a divine rain. Check it out. Zechariah 10, verse one. It says, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain. So the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field."

Here we have this admonition just to ask the Lord for rain. But interesting, the people of God here in Zechariah, this literal asking of rain. Is this a literal rain or is it a spiritual rain? That's a question you might want to ask when we talk about rain, especially in prophetic sort of contexts here. The answer to this is both literal and figurative.

When we talk about the former and latter rain, one of the things as a Bible student you start to recognize is that the Bible talks about both. That's the case especially when you talk about the end times. But one of the things that I like about this is God is speaking to the children of Israel about what He wants to do for them.

He's talking about, "just ask me and I'll give you rain." Before we get to the rain topic, don't forget that God loves you and He wants to work in your life, even if you're a rascal, even if you're a sinner. The children of Israel are sinners. They've made huge mistakes, giant, giant mistakes. By the time Zechariah is on the scene, you might even call them in somewhat of a lost cause.

At least we would. But God never calls His people a lost cause. He never gives up on His people. It's interesting because there are times in our lives where we go through dry times where we feel like the Lord doesn't seem to care or maybe He's forgotten us. But the Lord doesn't forget us. He's got a plan and a purpose and a timing.

Let me remind you, His timing is often slower than our timing. We often want to do stuff right here and right now. We wonder what's going on. "Lord, I want to serve, I want to do this, I want to go on the mission field." The Lord just says, "chill out." One of the things I like to remind people is when you're being used by the Lord, sometimes it doesn't always work out very fast. That's okay.

Do you really want to be like Daniel? Some of you might say, "Yeah, I want to be like Daniel, constantly hearing from God, getting the word of the Lord. Daniel, yes!" But if you're going to be a Daniel, you'll probably have to bring in the lions' den too. Remember that. One thing I like to bring out in people's remembrance about Daniel is Daniel's whole thing started when he was around 14 years old.

Freshman in high school, if you could picture that. 14 years old and his ministry went all the way into his 80s when he was 80 years old. The 12 chapters of Daniel encompass from the age of 14 to 80. In 65-ish years, you think that's an amazing ministry that Daniel had. But if you do the math of all the major events in Daniel's life in those 65 years of ministry, that means the Lord spoke to Daniel once every 20 years.

We read the book of Daniel and think he had such a powerful walk where he was constantly hearing from the Lord. No, once every 20 years if you do the math. I wonder if sometimes we read the Bible and think, "make me like a Daniel or like a Moses." Daniel got 20 years gap. Moses got 40 years gap. 40 years, then 40 more years, and then his ministry began at age 80.

Some of you, there's still hope for ministry to start when you're at the spring chicken age of 80. That's when Moses' whole thing first started, at 80 years old. That's an amazing thing. He was being trained in Egypt for the first 40 years of his life. Then he spent the next 40 years of his life the back side of the desert tending sheep, which was the lowest job on the totem pole back in those days to be the shepherd of sheep.

Moses had to spend 40 years tending sheep before the burning bush came and that whole part of the story happened. 40 years the Lord took between times. Don't be bummed if you feel like you're going through dry times. The key is to hang in there and to keep putting your trust in the Lord even if it seems dry or like a desert time.

Here the Lord says to them, "Ask for the divine rain," both spiritual and figurative. By the way, during Zechariah's time, there was a literal dryness and also a spiritual dryness. The Bible speaks of both things. Maybe you remember in the book of Joel, there were some prophecies that were given about the former rains and the latter rains.

In fact, you might want to jot these down in context of verse one here. Joel 2:23, we're told, and this is more the literal rain. Remember the book of Joel was about the swarm of locusts that had destroyed all the crops. The people needed some rain so that new crops would grow. There in Joel, he said, "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month."

That was the prophecy Joel gave about a literal needing some precipitation, literal rain. But then Joel sort of mysteriously, his gaze goes further than the local drought and then in chapter two of Joel, verse 28, a few verses later, he says, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions."

The idea of pouring out rain, former and latter, and then pouring out my spirit upon you. Of course, talking both spiritually and literally, they needed rain. Both the Holy Spirit being poured out and water. Water is often linked to the Holy Spirit and so we see that link. When Peter gives his sermon in the book of Acts chapter two, he quotes from the prophet Joel.

He says, remember the day of Pentecost, "these men are not drunk as you suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men will dream dreams."

The truth is, we need the Lord to pour out His rain upon us spiritually, His Spirit to fill us. That's something that I think the church is really lacking today. One of the things that's really heartbreaking is how I think the Holy Spirit is so often misrepresented. So much so that some of you, when I talk about the Holy Spirit, you're like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever, Brett. Can you talk about other stuff now?"

Because there's been people who have abused the idea of the Holy Spirit and done things that are outside of the Bible that are just stupid human things. People doing dumb stuff and making it seem like it's the Holy Spirit. We have to be really cautious about that. One of the problems with the church today, and I see it in myself, is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, in a way of speaking here.

The Holy Spirit is to be seen in the church of Jesus Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit, and without the power of the Holy Spirit, we become God's chosen frozen. We don't want that. You don't want to just be the Christians that are doctrinally sound but there's no life in the church. You've got to have the Holy Spirit moving.

That's why Paul told the church there at Thessalonica, he said in chapter five, verse 16 through 22, he said, "Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Then in verse 19, he said, "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil."

This verse alone we could spend months praying about it, thinking about it, how should we apply this to our lives? But not quenching the Spirit and not despising prophesyings. I thought John the Baptist was the last of the prophets. He was. But don't forget, this is a nuance and some people say this and people get all upset when I talk about this, but it's just really clear biblically that the prophets like the Old Testament days, those days are over.

When John the Baptist came, he was the last of the prophets. That's what Jesus said. But that's not the last of the word prophecy in the New Testament. In the New Testament, prophecy is something that the Holy Spirit does in manifesting himself in this new dispensation of time through the church. There was no church in the Old Testament.

Prophets were the way that God spoke to the people and then John the Baptist was the last of that. Then Jesus dies, raises up from the ground, and then the church, we get to have the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. One of those manifestations is the word of prophecy. So if somebody is innocently saying, "I am a prophet of the Lord" and they're going around on a speaking tour because they're a prophet, the answer is: no they're not.

They're not a prophet. They may not understand the nuances, but they may be giving a word of prophecy from God by His Spirit to people in the church. What's the difference? It's a difference. The word prophecy is defined for us later on in the New Testament as being giving, in 1 Corinthians 14, it says that prophecy is a word of edification, exhortation, or comfort.

Nothing about foretelling the future in that description. That's the Old Testament prophet like Daniel and Isaiah. But we don't necessarily tell the future, but it's more of a "thus saith the Lord" kind of thing where if the Holy Spirit comes upon any person, anybody who's a Christian who I believe is open to the filling of the Spirit and having the Spirit come upon them, they can speak a word from the Lord.

Maybe you've even done that without even knowing. Have you ever been talking to someone where you didn't really know what to tell them and the Lord just put something on your heart to tell them that was either comforting or an exhortation or something to edify? You just got something that was kind of— you sensed it wasn't from your brain. I love that when that happens, because then you know the word of the Lord through the Holy Spirit has given you a word of prophecy.

The prophetic utterance is what you might call it that's there in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. The idea of quenching the Spirit is just saying, "I'm not into that, I'm a cessationist, the Holy Spirit doesn't move like He did in the book of Acts. That ceased." If you're that person, you're probably part of God's chosen frozen. You're cutting off a bunch of what the New Testament says is part of church behavior, along with speaking in tongues.

That's one of those things that I believe is still for today. But there is a big priority there. See, here's the thing. What is the Lord going to do in the last days? He's going to pour out His Spirit in the last days. That's what the Lord says. He wants to do that, but it's like the Holy Spirit turns on the spigot. The question is, are you quenching or turning off the spigot?

I think we should be open to the Holy Spirit moving in our lives. In fact, Luke, Jesus told us this: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?" So to ask the Lord, "Lord, would you fill me with your Spirit? And give me the power by your Spirit."

Now, why do you want the Holy Spirit? To gyrate on the floor? Some churches, that's what the Holy Spirit means to them. That's not in the Bible. Bible doesn't say anything about that. That's just people making stuff up. Now, speaking in tongues can be kind of a crazy situation in some churches. In some churches, if I'm preaching up here and suddenly you get the Holy Spirit, man, you'd burst up and start speaking in tongues.

I'll tell you to sit down and be quiet because there's a time and a place for that. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. Somebody might say, "Well, I couldn't control it, I was filled with Holy Spirit" and start speaking in tongues. No, that doesn't happen that way. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet and there's a time and a place for speaking in tongues. That's very important to know that.

The chapter there talking about tongues, well check this out. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, kind of the manual on prophecy and tongues is this chapter. It says, "In the church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." Paul sets a priority on the speaking in tongues as way down on the list compared to speaking a word of understanding.

To be students of the word on how the Holy Spirit moves in His church, man, we need to do that and keeping the parameters that the word sets on speaking in tongues and about Holy Spirit stuff. By the way, the Lord puts bigger and better gifts in priorities, as there's better gifts of the Holy Spirit or manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 14, "But he that prophesieth," it says, "speaketh unto men edification, exhortation, and comfort." That's by definition. Prophecy is to edify others and to build up others. Tongues are spoken to sort of edify the person speaking in tongues. It's something a little more inward and you might even call it selfish compared to prophecy.

That's why prophecy gets the higher list. The person who's giving a word of prophecy is not a prophet, but they're given a gift of prophecy for that moment at that time. Any Spirit-filled Christian can speak a word of prophecy. You don't have to be a prophet and show your prophet card when you do that. Good news. You can do that if you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

Back to our analogy. The Lord says, "I'm going to pour out my spirit in the latter days." That's really what this verse is talking about. Both literal rain, but figurative rain pouring out His Spirit on the people, the Jews during that time and also in future times. In the Bible, there's several types of the Holy Spirit. You've got rain and water being a type of the Holy Spirit. You've got the holy anointing oil is a type of the Holy Spirit.

What's another picture of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, anybody? The dove. I love that it's a dove, especially for you Pentecostal folks. We love you. Athey Creek, we're charismatics with a safety belt. And our safety belt is the word of God. I love it's the dove. It's not a chicken running around with its head cut off.

Some churches you think, "Oh man, that's chicken, Holy Spirit is a chicken." Nope. I love that the Holy Spirit is pictured as a dove. Not a dodo bird stumbling around. But I do find it interesting it's a dove. Remember what happens when Noah sends the dove from the ark. It says that first finding, the dove had no place to land and he reached out and took in the dove.

Too many of us can be like that, closed off to the work of the Holy Spirit, and I think that's a big mistake. Jesus told the disciples to go and wait for the coming upon of the Holy Spirit and it'll bring you power. I've always liked to bring up that word, the Greek word for power is that Greek word "dunamis."

It's where we get our word dynamite. The Greek word "dunamis" means power, it's a mighty work, strength, and I love that. So, where do we land on this? 1 Corinthians 14:39 through 40, "Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy." In other words, that's something you should want to do. "And forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order."

That last phrase is the operative thing. Let all things be done. Now our Pentecostal brothers are like, "Let all things be done!" And our Baptist brothers are like, "Decently and in order." And I'd say we're Baptist-costals. Let all things be done, but let them be done decently and in order, and that's the mantra of the word.

But don't forget to actually do them. I think if we err, if we, Athey Creek, err, we probably err on the safe side of being more decent and in order. I'm just going to say that. I think we have to be careful to be open to the working and the power of the Holy Spirit and not quench the Spirit.

All that to say, one of my favorite expressions as it should be yours, not tongue, our favorite expression should be the word of prophecy. That's what the Lord says. Covet prophecy over tongues. That's what it says. The word of prophecy is, like I shared with you, edification, exhortation, and comfort.

By the way, the supernatural nature of the Holy Spirit, I believe it's meant to be supernaturally natural. There's no spinning heads and green vomit flying. There's no gyrating and quiver of the voice. That's just people being stupid. When Jesus did great miracles, there was no antics and circus and dancing bears and clowns and wheelchairs flying off the stage.

Demonstration! Running back and forth and falling over—that was just people being dumb. But Jesus just calmed the storm, "be still." He didn't gyrate, He didn't shriek or scream or do an incantation or anything like that. He didn't Harry Potter it up or anything like that. Jesus just said, "be still. Peace."

It was just very supernaturally natural. I believe that's the way the Holy Spirit moves and it's not an ugly thing. The Holy Spirit never is a grotesque or ugly thing. Let all things be done decently and in order. Now, back to our pouring out of the rain. It's interesting because the literal part where they needed rain, this was happening all throughout Israel's history.

Whenever, question, whenever Israel didn't have rain, what was the problem? Anybody remember? Sin, right? But there were two kinds of sin. Do you remember when Elijah, there in James we're reminded of what happened there in James 5:17 where Elijah was a man subject like passions like we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months.

Interesting, three and a half years. Is that an interesting Bible prophecy number? Sure is, three and a half years. But I'm going to resist the temptation to dive into that. He prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. Now, when Elijah does this, he's doing this in accordance with the law of the Jews, the Torah.

He got it from two main passages. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 13 through 17. Let me just read to you it says in Deuteronomy 11:13, "it shall come to pass, if you hearken diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to serve the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, then I will give you rain in your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather your corn and your wine and your oil."

But he goes on and says, "take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived and you turn aside and swerve to other gods to worship them, and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and there shut up the heavens that there be no rain and that the land yield not her fruit and lest you perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord gives you."

He says if you go and turn aside and worship other gods, it'll cause there to be no rain. Interesting. So the Lord would withhold rain because of turning away from the Lord. By the way, do you remember talking about the history of Israel? One of the eras I told you about was the Ottoman Turk Empire. Remember that?

What was one of the biggest things that happened to the nation Israel during the Ottoman Turk? The Jews are scattered, remember, they're already scattered. What happened to Israel during the Ottomans? It dried up and became like a desert. I told you about the Ottomans how they taxed trees in Israel so that anybody that had trees on their property, they cut them all down and they literally changed the climate of the whole state of Palestine as it was called back then. Changing the climate and that's when Mark Twain wrote about the dryness and all that. But after the diaspora, the Jews travel back and they start gathering again in Israel and we're starting to see Israel turn the desert back into a place like a garden.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador drawing important insight on the power of the Spirit of the Lord to restore those who truly seek Him. And there's more to come from this verse-by-verse study of Zechariah 10 next time on Today's Word. And also stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, if you're new to Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church in the Portland suburb of West Linn, Oregon. Each day, he'll share an in-depth study of God's word.

If you've missed any portion of our time today, you can find this message online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch or listen to Pastor Brett's past messages, including his monthly prophecy updates at todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, with all that's going on in the world today—wars, discord in politics, and a growing hatred of Christians, it seems—if you were to give a state of the church address right now, what would you say is the current state? Are you encouraged or discouraged?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, that's an important question and it'd be easy to get discouraged when you just look at some of the things at the surface. But when I think about the state of the church, I'm actually encouraged and the reason why is really part of what Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18. He said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

I think we've seen evil really actively pushing against Christ's followers and Jesus' people. But what that means to me is what we're seeing is that we're facing challenges, yes, but the gospel always shines brighter in the darkest times. And so the state of the church today is one of refining. I think God is purifying His people. I think there's a line being drawn.

Some churches are falling off and being recognized as not really Bible-based churches anymore. But the churches that are getting back to the word of God, we see a purifying effect and the raising up of a young generation that's not ashamed of the gospel. So my outlook is really hopeful.

The church's future isn't tied to political peace or cultural approval from everyone. It's really tied to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ who's promised, He said, "I'll be with you even to the very end of the world." So that gives me every reason to move forward with courage and trust that God's doing a great work in the church.

Guest (Male): Well, that is encouraging. And to see people coming back to church recently is really great to see as well. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, I want to mention that if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or Today's Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com.

Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will look at God's divine influence and how it's always been upon the people of Israel. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.