ARE YOU LIVING FROM THE POWER SOURCE OR TRYING IN YOUR OWN STRENGTH?

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KEY SCRIPTURE

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts. — Zechariah 4:6

INTRODUCTION: THE FUTILE GLORY OF HUMAN STRENGTH

There is a quiet exhaustion that seeps into the soul of the believer who tries to live for God without living from God.

It is the weariness of the vine cut off from its root, still trying to bear fruit by sheer will. We attend, we strive, we pray, we perform—but the fragrance of divine ease is absent. Something sacred has been replaced by something mechanical. That is why Jesus says,

“Without me you can do nothing.” —John 15:5

Zechariah’s vision speaks directly to this condition. In the days of rebuilding the temple, when the task seemed beyond human ability, the word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel:

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.”

The Hebrew word for might (חַיִל, chayil) speaks of strength, wealth, or life-force, i.e. human resourcefulness. Power (כֹּחַ, koach) denotes physical energy or capacity. Both point to the limited reservoir of human ability. Yet God’s word declares that the true building of His house cannot be achieved by any of these. The temple of His presence is raised not by mortal will but by the ruach—the breath and current of His Spirit.

We find in this verse not merely a rebuke but an invitation: Cease striving. Return to the Source. Let the work proceed from within you, not against you.

THE LIMIT OF HUMAN STRENGTH

The natural mind loves the language of self-preservation. It believes that what is not forced will fail. We glorify busyness as though fatigue were proof of faithfulness. Yet Scripture gently reveals that human zeal, unaided by the Spirit, becomes idolatry—the worship of our own will.

Paul describes this tension in Romans 8, contrasting the life of the sarx (flesh, the human self acting independently of God) with the life of the pneuma (spirit). The flesh is restless, anxious, and self-defending; it operates under law, pressure and limitation. The Spirit, however, is effortless power—flow, harmony, and peace.

“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.” —Romans 8:6

Even our religious works can become forms of flesh when they are self-initiated rather than Spirit-breathed. It becomes a pseudo-spiritual checkbox or to-do list that we can complete so that we can move on to the business of saving ourselves. The prophets continually exposed this: Israel’s fasting, sacrifices, and rituals meant nothing when performed without alignment to the divine current.

Rashi, commenting on Zechariah 4:6, notes that this message was meant to encourage Zerubbabel:

“It is not with armies or with power that you will prevail over your enemies, but with the help of the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew Henry similarly observed,

“The work of God shall be done, not by any human ability or authority, but by the power of God’s Spirit; and therefore it shall be done effectually and gloriously.”

What both saw was this: God’s design is not merely to accomplish a task but to reveal dependence. Every victory that is truly divine bears the signature of grace—impossible without Him.

But God, in His mercy, sometimes allows us to wrestle in our own stubbornness as the pressure mounts—not to destroy us, but to teach us that the only truly safe place is abiding in Him. It is there, and only there, that all we desire and need for life and godliness can be found. It does not emerge from the strained effort of our fleshly nature but flows from the renewed human spirit—the part of us that connects directly to the Source of divine power…when we live within charging distance.

God is the heavenly power station that energises the new creation now residing within us. Our struggles do not arise from His absence, but from our own. We often disconnect ourselves, stubbornly trying to generate our own strength, and then lament that our lives are surrounded by the shadows of death—in our health, relationships, and finances etc.

It is we who have drifted, pulling the plug on our divine connection while expecting the lights to remain on.

This is, in truth, the great ailment of the modern West. We have turned away from God, severing the invisible spiritual roots that once drew power, wisdom, and vitality from Him. Those roots once nourished the brilliance and moral strength of Western civilisation, but for decades we have drifted further from that Source. And now, we stand bewildered, accusing God of indifference—yet He has never moved.

THE INVISIBLE CURRENT OF GRACE

The Spirit is not a supplement to human strength; He is the Source from which all true life proceeds.
When we “walk in the spirit” (Galatians 5:16, small “s”), we are not adding spirituality to our efforts—we are learning to abide in the flow. The imagery of “living water” in Scripture beautifully portrays how we are sustained.

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” —John 7:38

The Greek word for “flow” (rheō) conveys continuous motion—life moving through, not stored within. The believer is not a reservoir but a conduit. The Spirit’s power is not static; it must circulate through obedience, trust, and rest.

If you believe you abide (regardless of how you feel). If you abide you (will begin to) believe. Abiding and believing are two sides of the same coin.

THE HALF-LIFE OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

When this flow is blocked by anxiety or self-effort, we experience stagnation. Like a dammed river, the inner life loses its vitality and begins to decay. The cure is not more activity but renewed yielding—a conscious surrender into divine rhythm.

This is the mystery of kenosis (self-emptying) that Christ modelled: “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (John 5:19), so what makes us think we can? The incarnate Word lived entirely from the Father’s power source. Every miracle, every word, every movement originated not in ambition but in communion.

He lived fully as a human to show us the way. All He did, He did as a human. He knew that spiritual tourism—the occasional visit to prayer, the superficial dip into devotion—can never sustain a life formed in union with God. That is why He returned regularly to the Source of power. He understood that the thirst of life cannot be quenched with a single sip; we must drink deeply and return frequently for a refill because it decays—that is, ears off. In His life we see a rhythm of withdrawal and return, of communion and mission, teaching us that true endurance is learned in the practice of abiding.

We cannot complain that the lights in the house are off if we are disconnected from the grid.

God is the heavenly power station that energises the new creation now residing within us. Our struggles do not arise from His absence, but from our own. We often disconnect ourselves, stubbornly trying to generate our own strength, and then lament that our lives are surrounded by the shadows of death—in our health, relationships, and finances.

THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE TABLE: BODY, SOUL, SPIRIT

To understand this alignment more deeply, let us look at the states of being through which the human consciousness operates, and how they correspond to biblical principles of surrender and empowerment.

Level	Brain State	Domain	Scripture Reference	State / Practice	Description
Body	Beta	Physical and sensory engagement	1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6	Casting cares, letting go of anxiety	The active, awake state. Here we consciously choose to release burdens and entrust control to God. “Casting all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Soul	Alpha	Imaginative reflection, emotion, meditation	Psalm 1:2; Psalm 46:10	Visualising the Word, meditating in stillness	The calm awareness between thought and feeling. We align our desires and imagination with divine truth. “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Spirit	Theta	Deep intuitive communion	Galatians 2:20	Imagination united with Christ	The contemplative, visionary state. The self is yielded to the indwelling Christ: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Mystical Rest	Delta	Union with Divine Presence	Galatians 2:20; Luke 8:28	Resting in Oneness, the prayer beyond words	The state of inner death and resurrection. Here all striving ceases, and life flows purely from God’s Spirit.

The prophets grasped this rhythm. Habakkuk was told, “Write the vision, make it plain upon tablets” (Hab. 2:2)—a command that links imagination with divine instruction. Isaiah echoes this in 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed [focused] on You.”

These stages reveal that true power flows not from motion but from stillness. We are transformed “by the renewing of our mind” (Romans 12:2), not by the intensifying of our efforts.

One framework draws its power from the self; the other flows from God as the Source. Which one governs your life?

THE GRACE THAT BUILDS

When Zerubbabel faced the monumental task of rebuilding the temple, the mountain before him seemed insurmountable. But the Lord declared:

“Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!” —Zechariah 4:7

The Spirit transforms obstacles into pathways, not through external might but through divine grace operating within. “He shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” The repetition of “grace” symbolises the double portion—divine enablement for both beginning and completion that emanates from the Spirit of God.

In Hebrew, chen (grace) shares a root with channun, meaning “to stoop in kindness.” God bends toward us, supplying what we lack. The very act of humility attracts divine energy. The lower we bow, the higher His strength lifts us. So get on your”knees” and fight like a man!

This is not passivity but partnership. As Paul declared,

“I laboured more abundantly than they all—yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” —1 Corinthians 15:10

Here lies the paradox: divine rest empowers divine work. The one who ceases striving is not idle but efficient, because the current of the Spirit propels every action. Thus, the one who rests well, works well and achieves much.

THE INNER MECHANISM OF POWER: DUNAMIS AND ENERGEIA

In the Greek New Testament, two words often describe divine power: dunamis and energeia.

• Dunamis (δύναμις) is potential energy—the inherent capability or explosive force of God. It is the same word from which we derive “dynamite.”
• Energeia (ἐνέργεια) is active operation—the energy of God working within and through us.

Paul uses both terms in Ephesians 1:19–20:

“…the exceeding greatness of His power [dunamis] toward us who believe, according to the working [energeia] of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.”

The resurrection is the template of divine energy. The same Spirit that raised Christ now animates every believer—not as an abstract theology, but as a living current accessible through faith and alignment (abiding).

When you live from the Power Source, your actions carry a fragrance of inevitability. They are not forced but flowed. There is precision without pressure, accomplishment without anxiety. It is the quiet might of divine orchestration—God doing through you what you could never do by yourself.

THE FAILURE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Every age of the Church has wrestled with the temptation to rely on technique instead of Presence. We replace revelation with strategy, communion with branding, and anointing with charisma. Yet human innovation, without divine unction, becomes Babel—ambitious but hollow.

The tower of Babel was built with baked bricks—uniform, manmade, mass-produced. By contrast, God’s altar was built with unhewn stones (Exodus 20:25)—raw, uncut, and natural. The altar that hosts His fire cannot be constructed by human pride.

Our modern equivalents are subtler: the obsession with productivity, the performance of perfection, the anxious belief that everything depends on us. These are the bricks of Babel in ecclesial form.

But the Spirit calls us back to the unhewn altar of sacrificial prayer—authentic, unpolished surrender. Power flows where humility dwells. Therefor it is wirtten,

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” —James 4:6

A prayerless life is the very measure of a prideful life. When we pray we demonstrate our humility, that is, we demonstrates our dependence on God.

THE SILENCE THAT RESTORES ALIGNMENT

Stillness is not inactivity; it is awareness returned to Source. When Elijah fled into the wilderness, exhausted and despairing, God’s presence did not manifest in wind, earthquake, or fire—but in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).

That phrase in Hebrew is qol demamah daqqah—literally, “the voice of thin silence.” The voice that carries no sound yet quenches the parched soul. It is in this dimension that human striving ends and divine energy begins.

This stillness is the workshop of the Spirit—the womb where new realities are formed. As Psalm 46:10 declares, “Be still, and know that I am God.” To live in pray is to demonstrate that He is God, not I. That means, that we recognise we are not the Messiah’s of our lives, He is, The Hebrew verb raphah (“be still”) means “to let go, to cease.”

It is the same spiritual technology Christ embodied when He slept through the storm.

To “live from the Power Source” is to remain centered in this inner stillness, by practicing external stillness, even amid external turmoil. The practice of stillness is the quite storm in the eye of the hurricane. It is to move without losing the awareness of flow—to act while remaining acted upon.

LIVING FROM THE SOURCE: A PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK

Let us apply this theologically and practically through three layers: awareness, surrender, and alignment.

1. AWARENESS:
   Recognise that your spirit is already one with God’s Spirit. You are not trying to connect—you are remembering connection. Prayer becomes communion, not transaction.
2. SURRENDER:
   Let go of outcomes, methods, and timetables. As Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” Anxiety blocks flow because it presumes separation, abandonment. Trust opens the channel.
3. ALIGNMENT:
   Keep your imagination sanctified. As Habakkuk 2:2 commands, “Write the vision.” When you hold an image inspired by the Spirit, you co-operate with divine intention. The Spirit shapes form through thought, just as God spoke creation into being.

Transformation is not something you strive to achieve; it is something you surrender to—like the chrysalis yielding to its hidden design, until the butterfly emerges, no longer bound by what it once was. You allow it, you don’t achieve it by your own effort.

This process echoes Romans 12:2—“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The Greek word metamorphousthe (be transformed) is passive—be acted upon. But how can He act upon us, if we do not present ourselves to Him in chrystaline stillness (Rom.12:1)?

THE SPIRITUAL ECONOMY OF REST

Everything in creation operates from rest. The planets do not strain to orbit; rivers do not force themselves to flow. Even God rested, not because He was weary, but because rest is the crown of completion.

Likewise, spiritual rest is not laziness but alignment. When you are connected to the Power Source, you accomplish more with less effort because grace multiplies motion. Jesus’ yoke is easy not because life is simple, but because His rhythm is sustainable.

“Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” —Matthew 11:28

The Greek for “rest” (anapausis) also means “intermission” or “pause.” It implies rhythmic renewal—a cycle of receiving and releasing. This is the breathing pattern of divine life found in abiding prayer.

THE MOUNTAIN MADE PLAIN: THE FRUIT OF DEPENDENCE

When you live by the Spirit, obstacles lose their tyranny. Mountains flatten under the weight of grace. The same Spirit that hovered over chaos in Genesis now broods over your circumstances, bringing form from formlessness.

In this mode of being, your prayer shifts from pleading to partaking. You no longer beg for power; you realise you are its conduit. Like the branch abiding in the vine, your fruitfulness becomes inevitable.

You begin to notice the subtle difference between pressure and presence:

→ Pressure comes from self.

→ Presence flows from God.

The question, then, is not whether you are working hard enough but whether you are working plugged in enough. Are your actions charged by divine energy or drained by self-reliance?

DEVOTIONAL PRAYER

Beloved Source of Life,
I confess the vanity of my own striving. I have tried to serve You with strength that was never mine to give.
Teach me the holy art of yielding—to breathe with Your rhythm, to move by Your current, to rest in Your sufficiency.
Let Your ruach flow through my thoughts, words, and deeds until all that remains is harmony.
Strip away the illusion of control and clothe me with quiet power.
May my life be a temple not built by might or by power, but by Your Spirit alone.
In the name of Christ, my Life and my Source. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. In what areas of your life are you still relying on “might and power” instead of Spirit?
2. How can you practise awareness of the inner flow of God’s presence in daily activities?
3. Which stage of the spiritual practice table do you most often operate from—body, soul, or spirit? How might you ascend to the next?
4. What would it mean for you to “cease striving” in your relationship with God?
5. How can the stillness of qol demamah daqqah—the “thin silence”—become part of your prayer life this week?

CONCLUSION

To live from the Power Source is to rediscover the secret simplicity of faith: Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is not an invitation to inactivity but to intimacy; not an escape from responsibility, but an entrance into divine co-operation.

“Not by might, nor by power,” whispers the Spirit through the ages, “but by My breath within you.”
When that becomes our daily awareness, every act becomes worship, every moment becomes grace, and the mountains themselves bow before the current of God.

Beloved If you are out of breath, stop for a moment and take a deep breath in the courts of heaven.