Not by might

So he answered and 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 of hosts. - Zechariah 4v6

The first section of the Irish census for 2011 was made public yesterday. As I looked over it I was amazed at what a tiny percentage of people here were part of any group or denomination that could be considered ‘born again.’ Out of 4.5 million respondents only 53,000 fit that description. There were 14,043 apostolic or Pentecostals, 4,188 evangelicals, and 3,531 Baptists in that group.

Let’s double that number of 53,000 to include any on the other Christian religions who might truly be born again and assume that everyone in all those churches above are believers. That means, even with this stretched numbers, that about 2% of the Irish population are born again believers.

It makes our task here in Ireland look a little hopeless doesn’t it? After all, there are about the same number of atheists and agnostics as there are Baptists and evangelicals. The number of

So what do you do in a situation like this?

We take the word of the Lord through Zechariah to heart. Zechariah saw his nation in collapse and yet God was telling him that it would be restored one day. ‘How can this be?’ asked Zechariah. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.’

We as believers in Ireland are greatly outnumbered. Our gospel message is not popular or accepted. We cannot do this job drawing men to Christ through our own might or by our own power. We can only do this through the power of the Spirit. Everything we do must be in reliance on Him. Otherwise we are certainly doomed.