Zechariah 4:6: “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This [is] the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”

I thought of this verse very early this morning as I sat on my porch reconnecting with God’s creation. It was a quiet Saturday morning, my neighbors stayed up late celebrating what I think is the Mexican day of independence so the only creatures that were stirring where those non-communicative little creations of God who go about their business every day trying to show us something of God’s nature that we are just too busy to listen to and besides you cannot hear what they are saying unless you listen with your heart.

An alley cat that I have never seen before came wandering up to me and jumped on my lap.  You see when you listen with your heart you can hear what they are saying and although this alley cat just sat on my lap purring he was telling me about Zechariah 4:6.

Many years ago when I was a Baptist pastor in my first church I conducted a home Bible study of about a dozen people from my church who were really quite anxious to evangelize the community like a good Baptist should.  I announced that I was flying to Pittsburgh the next week for a speaking engagement and that our head deacon would conduct the Bible study.  For whatever reason everyone got excited about my plane trip, believing God was going to put someone in a seat next to mine that I would lead into salvation. In fact they conducted special prayer for the trip and the person sitting next to me and all said they were anxiously awaiting my return to tell of the wonderful evangelistic experience I would have.

As luck would have it there was someone sitting next to me and after a half hour into the trip with sweating palms I managed to give a witness making an absolute fool of myself. The person was polite, I am sure he was as anxious to tell his friends about the weird sky pilot he met on the plane as I was not anxious to share my story with the Bible study the following week when they would surely ask about my evangelistic attempts.  They were polite, “Well pastor, we can’t win them all.”

I felt like such a failure, a pastor, a Bible College and Seminary graduate and I was terrified to share the simply plan of salvation with a stranger. I was so ashamed I was ready dust off my teacher’s certification and go back to teaching Shakespeare to a bunch of high school students.  However, later that week I was doing my pastoral rounds and called on a woman who was a member of our church but never attended.  I rang the bell, no answer, knocked on the door no answer and as I started to walk away I noticed two eyes peering between the blinds. “Who are you? What do you want? Go away?”   I replied that I was the pastor from the First Baptist Church and just wanted to visit. I heard at least three locks unlock and one bolt come unbolted.  An elderly woman in a housecoat stood glaring at me over her glasses and said, “Well, since you’re a preacher, I guess I have to let you in.  But mind you, I don’t like people, I have nothing to do with people and the only reason I am letting you in is because you are a preacher and I have to.  The only ones you can trust are these.”  She then pointed to three cats wandering around her living room.  As I sat down the three cats came to me, one jumped on my lap and the other two laid by my side.  The hostile woman’s mouth dropped and she said, “I’ve never seen my cats do that. They always run from strangers. You must be someone very special.”

I responded, “Believe me, I am no one special, if I have learned anything these past few weeks it is that I am no one special. All I know is that I have a very special God that lives inside of me. He uses his creation to speak to me.”  Now much softened the woman asked, “What are my cats saying to you?”   I responded, “They are speaking to you as well, they are telling us that God is just like them. See how they just love on me?  They don’t ask who I am, what my job is nor even the color of skin. I could be a mass murderer off the street and yet they will still just show love and that is what God is like, He is just love.  Believe me I know how cruel people can be and I don’t blame you, but these cats here, they don’t care, just as God does not care. He just wants to love us and for us to return that love. If you can trust these cats, surely you can trust God.”   By this time my new friend was in tears and before long we prayed together as she invited the Savior into her life. I made an absolute fool of myself telling her I was communicating with animals, what sane person says something like that?  Yet, I did not feel foolish, definitely not as foolish as I felt on that plane.

This morning as I sat with this ally cat on my lap I thought of this incident that happened so many years ago and I thought of Zechariah 4:6, “Not of might not of power.”  The word for might is chyil.  This word carries the idea of self-sufficiency.  It is a word used for using sources of power such as wealth or influence to control others.  I tried to witness on that plane with chyil, my own self sufficiency, trying to establish control with my credentials as an ordained minister and seminary graduate.  I failed miserably, I hated even doing it and I only did it because it was expected of me to do it. The verse also says not of power.  This word for power is koach which is the word for strength.  In its Semitic root it is a word used for a lizard or a reptile type animal, some believe the word refers to an extinct reptile type animal.  A lizard, particularly a large one can look very intimidating and fearsome.  I tried to win this guy on the plane through talking about hell and the dangers of rejecting Jesus.  I could tell he was laughing at me; I was doing it in my own koach, my own attempts to be intimidating and authoritative. I only appeared to be a fool.

Yet with this elderly woman I let go of my own chyil self-sufficiency and koach attempts to establish control and be intimidating, instead I made an absolute fool of myself by suggesting that her cats were communicating with us.  But you know what, the Spirit of God had prepared her for this and that is exactly what she needed to hear.

As I sat on that porch this morning petting my new little friend, I knew he was reminding me that God doesn’t need my strength, power, intelligence, credentials or whatever talents I might have, He only needs someone who will communicate what His Spirit wants to say. If we seek His heart and learn of Him His Spirit will do all the talking and if we are just too full of ourselves, then He will use an ally cat to communicate His message.