The Lord Remembers: Perpetual Power for God’s People Zechariah 4:1-14, Acts 1:8
Essence of the Lesson:
The Holy Spirit is the perpetual power source for God’s People, and enables them to conquer insurmountable obstacles!
One New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas!
You will give your age away if you smile when I speak of gas lines, OPEC, 55mph, sub-compact cars, the Alaska Pipeline, thermostat on 78-it was the day of the Energy Crisis of the mid-seventies. Today with our SUVs, two-dollar gas , forty dollars to fill up, many of us are going through a crisis every time the E light comes on!
Men have dreamed for centuries of perpetual motion machines-devices which could continuously tap bottomless energy resources which will never run dry and be continuously replenished. Leonardo Da Vinci argued against yet dreamed of it, classical music has been written about it. Even today engineers dream of the theory and scam artists peddle stock in a free energy company across the Internet.
But the sad truth of reality is that we are all experiencing an energy crisis. We’re all running slower and slower. We rebound and rebuild at a decreasing rate. The entire universe is subject to the law of maximum entropy. We’re expanding at a decreasing rate. Even the speed of light is slowing measurably. Perpetual motion and free energy in the physical world that we know, is not going to happen.
Ultimately, it means that all history is Holy History-we are not cycling through or working out our karma as Eastern religion would tell us. We are proceeding to a culmination of history. God’s timer on His creation is winding down, and His purpose is being accomplished!
As we come to Zechariah Chapter 4, the prophetic vision shows us an unlimited supply of energy available to God’s People, as they face the tests and trials of accomplishing His Holy Purpose! If we are tapped into the power source, the Lord will empower us to face the impossible, the insurmountable!
The true and never-failing source of limitless power is the Holy Spirit! The only way that we can accomplish God’s will in our lives and in the earth-is to plug into this infinite, perpetual, continuously renewing resource!
As we approach Zechariah chapter 4, we find the Prophet experiencing the fifth of eight very special visions that an angelic messenger took him to in the night.
Zechariah has been called the "prophet of the long-range vision." Taken together, the visions that he was shown some four hundred years before Christ are simply amazing-Zechariah by the Spirit saw clear and detailed visions of Messiah, the Cross, the end of the age and the Millenial Kingdom.
The name Zechariah means "The Lord Remembers." It was a prophetic name, given a baby born among prophetic people. He was a third generation prophet of Israel, and God was raising up a young man who would encourage His people and their leaders in a time of great crisis.
Sometime around 538 BC, the King Cyrus of Persia obeyed the voice of the Lord, as prophesied by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He decreed for God’s People to leave Babylon and to return to their homeland to rebuild the Holy City. Not only did he decree for them to leave their captivity, but he financed the journey.
They left Babylon in the Spring, and towards the end of the seventh month (late September) the returning exiles were determined to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, complete with burnt offerings and all the ceremony, all upon the new altar which had been constructed. The altar was the first order of business. These exiles wanted to re-connect with their God on an intimate level most of all.
At the Great Feast, there were shouts of joy from many, yet cries of lament from others who had seen the former Temple in all its glory. This new altar of sacrifice, constructed hurriedly and with crude resources, paled in comparison to Solomon’s grand Temple, one of the most lavish edifices ever constructed in the time! Discouragement set in and began to take a dastardly toll.
An old man sobbed and wailed:
"How will we ever be able to return to the former glory that this place once knew? The former splendor and the manifest presence of God will never be a reality in Israel again. Surely we will only be able to experience a shell of religion, and remember the day when God dwelt among His people."
Discouragement became a mountain that seemed insurmountable.
The second step began when jealous kings from surrounding territories began to notice the work that was going on. These people were serious! The Jews had returned to Israel! Jerusalem had been capital of the known world just seventy years ago, as Jehovah himself resided among His people, with His presence and favor resting upon them.
The rebuilding of the Temple would certainly be the death knell for the sinister pagan rule of all of Palestine.
The enemies put on a ruse and offered to "help" in order to infiltrate the workers. They hired hecklers to discourage and frustrate the building process. Still, the work continued.
Finally they turned to politics and wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes who had now replaced Cyrus as the Persian monarch in Babylon. The surrounding kings played upon Artaxerxes’ emotions and he ordered the returned exiles to stop work. Things had never looked so dismal. Fifty thousand people are discouraged and downtrodden; they are on a journey from nowhere to nowhere. There is no sense of destiny, there is no sense of productivity or encouragement. Should they simply return to Babylon?
For sixteen years, they languished in failure and chaos.
But, the Lord Remembers! He will be faithful to His promise! Enter the prophetic priest whom God raised up as a lad from Babylon-Zechariah!
On the heels of his rough and tumble, in your face friend Haggai’s short and powerful prophetic word against the enemies of the Temple, Zechariah began to deliver powerful visions that literally swept all through Holy History!
God began revealing things to him that were not only warnings for the present, Zechariah began to see God’s plan for the ages unfold in front of him like a scroll!
Ezra, along with Nehemiah and Haggai tell the story of that trying time. Ezra, the "pastor" and resident theologian of the times summed up the climax of the sixteen years-
(1) Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.
(2) So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak [29] rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
Ezra 5:1-4
And the visions came!
Zechariah spoke the visions of the Lord over the lives of Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest, and over the people of God, and after sixteen years of malaise they "rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem."
As we approach Zechariah’s fifth vision of eight, we see timeless, eternal principles from the Word of God that will demonstrate His power in our lives! It’s a vision and a message for-TODAY!
First, we find
A Perpetual Power Source
Zechariah’s angelic host introduced him to a lamp-stand, and he had no idea why.
The lamp looked very much like the golden lamp-stand , the Menorah from Solomon’s Temple. Zechariah had probably seen pictures and replicas of it while receiving priestly training from his father and grandfather in Babylon. The temple menorah was of solid gold and had numerous bowls to hold oil and feed the lamps-
But- something was very different about this lamp; two olive trees stood beside it and continuously fed the seven lamps with fresh oil. Zechariah confesses to his host that he has no idea what this system is about.
And as if to say "let me give you the answer, and then I will explain the questions."
The angelic host utters words that will empower not only that generation, but will forever be catalogued in the pages of Holy Writ, energizing future generations, preparing God’s people for tests and trials and emboldening them against seemingly insurmountable tasks and odds-
"This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."
The Word of the Living God went forth like a holy flame! Suddenly Zechariah began to get his mind and spirit wrapped around what was happening here- his priestly and prophetic training told him that the lampstand was truly a symbol of God’s people and the oil, the energy source was provided by God to his people for service-it was pretty common knowledge among those trained in the Torah.
Today from this side of the cross we know that oil is symbolic of the Blessed Holy Spirit, and the lamp itself is a picture and type of the Church of the Living God.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, and, What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
(Revelation 1:11-13)
The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.
(Revelation 1:20)
Church, today we are the lampstands of God in this dark world! Jesus Christ himself stands among the lampstands at the very center of His Church.
But what were those olive trees? There seemed to be a pipe running directly from the trees to the lamp
In the Tabernacle and in Solomon’s Temple, the flames of the menorah burned continuously, and there was a never-ending processional of priests refilling the bowls. An entire family of priests, the Kohathites were in charge of keeping the lamps burning brightly with fresh olive oil.
It’s also interesting to note that in the Temple menorah, the solid gold lamps were fed by multiple bowls which fed olive oil to the flame, and they required constant, intense human effort and attention to fill the bowls so that God’s ministry could be served.
This system was quite different-it was bizarre! The olive oil was being produced by living trees, and directly piped into the brightly burning menorah! It was a never-ending supply, a living and self-maintaining system which would operate independent of human effort!
My friends, this self-perpetuating system-speaks to us of the Living, ever-present, ever-full source of power that comes from the Holy Spirit of the Living God!
It is a picture, some four hundred years before, of the coming Baptism in The Holy Spirit-where fresh oil would be poured out from on high upon God’s people-to empower them for life and service!
This new and fresh oil would be poured out upon God’s people in a never ending self-regenerating supply! Isaiah saw it prophetically in Chapter 61, and Jesus Christ proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor as fulfilled in Him!
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
(Isaiah 61:1-3)
The "oil of joy for mourning" is that same fresh oil that Zechariah saw teeming through that odd lamp-stand with olive trees piped to it. It’s the joy of the Holy Spirit flowing through Christ’s Church!
The Apostle to the Hebrews understood this infilling with a fresh, endless supply of oil when he quoted the prophetic Psalm and explained its relation to Christ in:
And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire. But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
(Hebrews 1:7-9)
And the Lord and Savior, the Anointed One who was the fulfillment of the Year of God’s Favor, and who was anointed above all with the oil of gladness, told his Disciples as he departed this earth that not many days hence, this infusion of Power-explosive (dunamis (Gr)) power, would be upon them as it was upon Him.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
(Acts 1:8)
He has infused His people with power from on high, a limitless, boundless source of anointing and gladness; an inexhaustible power source with a living, dynamic source. It is no longer by the efforts of human priests and human hands, continuously refilling the bowls of oil-
HE is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit!
Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Head of The Church walks among his church today-and the Holy Spirit fills His Church with a supernatural perpetual source of limitless power!
And when one hundred and nine people were gathered with eleven disciples in an upper room that first Pentecost following Jesus’ promise that perpetual power source became a living reality!
But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved."
(Acts 2:16-21)
The promise is here today!
Picture if you will, a refinery tank full of petroleum. That tank may provide fuel to run an engine for what seems like unlimited hours. It can run day and night for weeks, for months.
But at the end of some period of time, the energy absorbed by the engine from the tank will be dissipated. The system will need to be replenished. The tank will need to be refilled, by some outside, human intervention. At some point the work done by the engine will be less profitable and will not justify the cost of the energy input to run it.
The system that the angel showed Zechariah that night, was a self-renewing one-it was a
Living, dynamic, perpetual power source, it is the power of the Holy Spirit operating in and through God’s people!
"The believer who seeks to live the Christian life through self-effort is like the man who, in attempting to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, found his boat becalmed for days. Finally, frustrated by his lack of progress, he tried to make his stalled boat move by pushing against the mast. Through strenuous efforts, he succeeded in making the boat rock and so created a few small waves on the otherwise smooth sea. Seeing the waves and feeling the rocking of the boat, he assumed that he was making progress and so continued his efforts. Of course, although he exerted himself a great deal, he actually got nowhere"
Michael Green
This living, dynamic, never-ending perpetual source of energy enables God’s people to make:
A Prophetic Proclamation
(7) Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
Zerubbabel, the Jewish Governor of Judah who had led the people of God back to Jerusalem under the decree of Cyrus, now faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles-for sixteen years the goal had been thwarted and the people had fallen into laziness, lethargy and selfishness. They had turned all their resources into building their own beautiful homes rather than following their destiny to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. Every day that ticked by the goal dissipated further.
But the good news is Zechariah-the Lord Remembers!
God empowered Zechariah with a prophetic word, a proclamation which goes forth from Zechariah to Zerubbabel on the Temple foundation, and comes through Holy History to reach our generation. It is a living and powerful word!
The prophetic word was foreshadowed by Isaiah some three hundred years before Zechariah heard it. Isaiah saw the Salvation of God coming, and Luke interpreted if for us in his Gospel:
Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
(Luke 3:4-6)
Seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the natural realm-mountains will disappear by God’s Grace and through His Power! Let God’s people be encouraged! Let His grace and mercy ring forth! EVERY mountain will be made low and every crooked path made straight! Because it’s not by might nor by power, but it’s BY MY SPIRIT SAYS THE LORD!
Jesus taught his disciples in Mark 11:23-24
"Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed and be cast into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
(Mark 11:22-23)
What is the mountain that stands between you and the dream God has given you? What is the mountain that has kept you from seeing His purpose come to fruition in your life? Has the mountain racked your body with pain or your spirit with discouragement? Can you no longer see hope?
That mountain is arrogant. It looks you in the face and speaks to you. It speaks defeat, discouragement.
That arrogant lie, the mountain that exalts itself- is dealt with by the weapons of our warfare!
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
(2Corinthians 10:4-5)
Our weapon is the Word of God! When we see that arrogant mountain in our life, speak to it! Do not be intimidated or fear it.
Do not buy the arrogant satanic lie!
It may be called discouragement, it may be called sickness, it may be called family strife, it may be called dysfunction-it may be called intimidation and fear...
NAME that mountain and speak to it in Jesus name. Declare the Word of the Lord over it. Speak HIS word over that thing, that obstacle that has almost defeated you! You have been made more than conquerors and YOU my friend are an overcomer!
The Word of the Lord has declared that "GREATER is he that is in you than he that is in the world!" The Word of God says that HE will complete the good work that He began in you-
Church of the Living God-stand on His promise and make that declaration today! Mountains be leveled! Be removed and cast into the sea..because
It’ss not by might nor by power but BY MY SPIRIT SAYS THE LORD!
The Perpetual Power and the Prophetic Proclamation operate in and through God’s people. Yet another obstacle can appear in the form of intimidation. A formidable weapon of the devil against the dreams of God’s people is the principle of size. Zechariah’s vision goes forward into
A Perspective Principle
(9) The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
(10) For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.
How often have we been discouraged by smallness? It is a difficult thing, humanly speaking to see the God of the universe, the Lord of Heaven and Earth involved in things we consider small and insignificant.
God specializes in the weak, the foolish, the small, the despised...
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
(1Corinthians 1:27-29)
Are you discouraged with the dream that God gave you? Do you see other things flourishing around you while your portion stays small?
Do you hear the lies of the enemy telling you that your ministry is insignificant? That your past, or your station in life will prevent you from ever doing anything big?
Do you hear someone from the past saying "you will never amount to anything?"
Do you hear someone laughing at your dream, saying "It will never happen" ?
"That little church will never get off the ground."
Or "we’re just a small church without much money-we can only do so much."
Do you hear perhaps well-meaning brothers and sisters saying:
"maybe you ought to try something different", knowing that they truly believe your vision will never happen.
The people of God were discouraged and defeated.
Yet, this was a God-breathed, God-ordained, God-engineered and God-carried out vision coming to fruition before their eyes! A heathen king’s heart had been turned by God-and the people of God were commissioned to return to their homeland and rebuild!
It was a small, humble beginning, and God had sent His
Prophet Zechariah to show them that this humble, basic beginning would be the next step in Holy History-where His Glory would sweep throughout human history!
Little is much, when God is in it! God specializes in "little things!"
Because, a little tool called the plummet or the "plumb line" is in the hands of God’s man! The man upon whom the favor of God rests-the one with the vision and the dream as the plumb line is stretched forth, as the lines are drawn and the blueprint becomes a reality!
God is watching. The seven spirits of God-the symbol of his omniscient and sovereign watch over the earth-
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
(2Chronicles 16:9)
It is God’s great pleasure to find one whose heart is loyal to Him! He’s looking for that faithful one with a plummet in hand, and those who will catch the vision- "not by might nor by power but BY MY SPIRIT says the Lord!"
Charles Eliet had a problem. He had a contract to build an engineering marvel-a suspension bridge over the Niagara River. But he had no way of stretching his first cable between the shores. Any boat that tried to cross the falls would be swept over. Then Eliet hit on an idea. If a kite carrying a cord could be flown across the river, the cord could then be used to pull larger cables across. So Eliet announced a kite-flying contest, and a young man named Homan Walsh responded. On Walsh’s first attempt the kite’s cord broke with it caught in the river’s ice, but on his next try he succeeded in flying his kite to the opposite shore of the river. The vital link was established, and the bridge built.
Today in the Word, MBI,August, 1991, p. 6
The Principle of Perspective gives birth to mighty, seemingly impossible projects with generational impacts!
The first electric light was so dim that a candle was needed to see its socket.
One of the first steamboats took 32 hours to chug its way from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles.
Wilbur and Orville Wright’s first airplane flight lasted only 12 seconds.
And the first automobiles traveled 2 to 4 miles per hour and broke down often. Carriages would pass them with their passengers shouting, "Get a horse!"
And finally, Zechariah’s Perepetual Energy source and Prophetic Proclamation, being couched in the perspective of small things that are used for big things by a Big God gives way to a whole new breed of individuals:
God’s people are:
A Priestly People
The journey continued, and Zechariah was still a bit perplexed-he queries the angel:
What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles* of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?
The angel answered and said:
These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.
The oil delivery system was God’s two anointed men for the times: Zerubbabel the Governor and Joshua, the High Priest. The Lord had raised them up and equipped them and filled them with this unlimited supply of anointing so that they could lead God’s people to victory!
Notice the term-"anointed ones." The typical Hebrew word for "anointed" is mashiakh-which is translated "Messiah."
Jesus is spoken of as "Yeshua ha Mashchia",- Jesus the Messiah; Jesus The Anointed One. He is the unique one, the One True Savior, the One who is the very source of oil in our lamps, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit.
Yet here, in Zechariah, the Hebrew word is vene-hayyitshar, which literally translated is "Sons of Fresh Oil."
In the Old Testament day, only the High Priest and the King were anointed for office, the descendants of Aaron and David. They were the ones upon whom the oil of anointing was poured out, and they ministered among the people.
But today, we celebrate that day when everything turned around-when the prophecies of old came to fruition and God’s Spirit was poured out in limitless, boundless supply upon His people!
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
(1Peter 2:9-10)
YOU my dear friends; you are the Sons of Fresh Oil!
God is anointing you this day-He stands ready to pour out His Spirit upon you to prepare you for service in His Kingdom! You are the ones who will do "greater works" -you will touch the sick and they shall recover, you are the ones who will bring hope and peace to your world-you are the ones who will lift up the downtrodden and deliver the oil of gladness to the brokenhearted, to the downtrodden-you are the ones who will speak the words of life into a dark and dying world-
Conclusion: The Psalmist speaks of the impact of the fresh anointing:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing-
Life forevermore!
(Psalm 133: 1-3)
Sons of Fresh Oil-just as the anointing oil ran down the first high Priest, and all his progeny as he was anointed for priestly service-the oil that anoints you today goes forth-into your world, and declares LIFE FOREVERMORE!
You have been filled up with the Oil of The Holy Spirit to BURN brightly and to spill over into your generation!
Declare it to the world! Speak it to the darkness-you have been filled and you are continuously infused with a PERPETUAL POWER SOUCE, a PROPHETIC PROCLAMATION is on your lips as the oil runs through you church-and you have the eyes of Christ, who has baptized you with this oil of power and anointing-to see in His PERSPECTIVE!
GO in power, make your proclamation and feed that vision, Sons and Daughters of Fresh Oil- in the Name of Jesus! PROCLAIM THE WORD OF LIFE FOREVERMORE!
It’s not by might, nor by power but BY MY SPIRIT SAYS THE LORD!
ALTERNATIVE CONCLUSION: Preached on Pentecost Sunday
Conclusion: And You Shall be My Witnesses.
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
My witnesses: The greek word is "Martus" from which we get our English word "martyr."
The kind of empowered witness that Jesus is calling, and empowering with the Holy Spirit is the type of witness with such power-that they can stand when-
Their brains are being dashed out in the streets of India with a club-as in "doubting Thomas";
They are being crucified and insist upon being crucified upside-down as they are not worth to die in the same manner as their Master-as in the once-fearful and of little faith Peter.
It’s the power, the witness to die alone in foreign lands while serving your Master-as did at least ten of the apostles;
It’s the perpetual power source given to an old man in exile, who was "in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day", alone on Patmos- as in the one that Jesus loved, the teenaged John who once followed Him everywhere.
It’s the prophetic proclamation that causes a high school girl named Cassie Bernall to touch the generation in a way that few have on a dreadful day in Columbine.
It’s the prophetic proclamation that come from an old man named Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of John The Apostle:
Amidst an angry mob, the Roman proconsul took pity on such a gentle old man and urged Polycarp to proclaim, "Caesar is Lord". If only Polycarp would make this declaration and offer a small pinch of incense to Caesar�s statue he would escape torture and death. To this Polycarp responded, "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"
Go in perpetual power, making prophetic proclamation, with God’s perspective, you Priestly People!
And be filled with "martus" power from on high this day as His Witnesses!
