Peter Brandon emphasizes the need for encouragement in times of defeat, drawing from Zechariah 4 to illustrate that true strength comes not from human might or power, but from the Spirit of the Lord. He highlights the historical context of the Israelites returning to rebuild Jerusalem amidst despair and opposition, reminding listeners that God can use small beginnings to achieve great outcomes. Brandon encourages believers to remain steadfast in their service to God, regardless of their circumstances, and to seek the Holy Spirit's empowerment for revival. He concludes with a call to recognize the potential of small acts of faith and the importance of humility in God's work.

I want to turn your attention to Zechariah chapter 4 and we'll read from verse 1. Zechariah chapter 4 reading from verse 1. And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me at a man that is wakened out of his sleep and he said unto me what seest thou and i said i have looked and behold a lampstand or a candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it and his seven lamps thereon and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof and two olive trees by it one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof so i answered and spake to the angel that talked with me saying what are these my lord then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me knowest thou not what these be and i said no my lord then he answered and spake unto me saying this is the word unto the rabbable saying not by might meaning a great army nor by power meaning great personalities and resources but by my spirit saith the lord of hosts who art thou all great maintain before the rabble thou shall become a flame and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace grace unto it moreover the word of the lord came unto me saying the hands of the rabble have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it and thou shalt know that the lord of hosts hath sent me unto you for who hath despised the day of small things for they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of the rabble with those seven they are the eyes of the lord which run to and fro through the whole earth speaking of the perfect understanding and the omniscience of the law then answered i and said unto him what are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof and i answered again and said unto him what be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves and he answered me and said knowest thou not what these be and i said no my lord then said he these are the two anointed ones that stand by the lord of the whole earth now the lord will bless to us the reading of the holy bible we are living in a day when all of us need encouragement there is so much that's bringing depression to the people of god we must be perfectly honest we are seeing the dwindling testimony all over the western world and therefore we need that message that will stir us awaken us and cause us to go out and work again for the glory of god when we study the prophecy of zechariah we shall find that the main reason for the prophecy was to stir up the people of god so that they might continue their building program therefore when you look at the whole book you will find from one to six there are eight visions and what visions they are five visions are for encouragement three are for judgment then you have from seven to eight four great penetrating messages and wouldn't it be wonderful if we could go through those messages and apply them to our state and then when you come from nine to fourteen you find there that there are two great judgments and in the midst of all those judgments you will see that there is the mercy of god when we come to the fourth chapter it is the holy spirit's activity in the days of emergency and that's what i want to speak of just for a few moments one or two things about the prophetic background to this book when we read the scripture we must remember this that sometimes there is a two-fold application let me give you the reason for this there is only one scripture that's mentioned three times in the word of god and that is the scripture that's mentioned in joel chapter two whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved now when it's mentioned there it's prophetical and if you look at it carefully it has to do with the coming of the holy spirit and then the apostle peter uses this word when he's preaching the gospel and therefore he makes a word that's prophetical contemporary and then of course if you look at the fulfillment of that prophecy it will be fulfilled during the great tribulation when the jewish people are under judgment and then the word comes whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved now there are two ways of looking at zechariah 4 you can apply it to our present situation and that's what i want to do just for a few minutes and then we can apply it to the great days of the tribulation when there will be the two witnesses who will bring judgment upon the earth and then eventually judgment will come upon the beast as you know they were miraculously raised and sent back to heaven and what a moment that must have been but during that period israel shall be revived and that will prepare the world for the coming of the lord jesus to reign as king of kings and lord of lords so we're going to apply this to ourselves and i believe we have every right to do that now let's get the historical background forty two thousand people left all the luxuries of the medan persian empire and they went back to jerusalem in order to rebuild the ruins and when they got there what a state nebuchadnezzar had literally left the place in ruins and you can imagine these people who came from a land of luxury for many of them were in the highest position in the land and here they are in the midst of all this ruin and they were there to rebuild the walls of jerusalem what a lesson beloved never retire in the service of god always remember the lord has called us to do a great work and go on working for the lord until he calls you home and remember this he can give you a springtime in the autumn of your life and i do trust that many of us will get an encouragement for that i was only thinking of moses i am wondering a little now old men can do that and quite frankly dear friends the lord called him to do his work when he actually said that a man's life was three score and ten and he began his ministry when he was 80 there wouldn't be a missionary society that would commend him and would you believe it when he was 120 he was as fresh as a day saint and he was the only man in the bible that walked to his own funeral and that upper mountain and quite frankly a dying man cannot climb a mountain and god buried him and paid all his expenses and the next time you see him you see him on the mount of transfiguration with a glorified face and with his friend elijah with the lord jesus speaking of his death so can you see my dear friends there's a great work for us to do now this particular vision is divided into three first of all we have the time for the vision secondly we have the object of the vision and then we get the five messages from the vision but i'm told by dr vick i must finish at 25 past five is that right all right well just raise your hand and then i will sit down the time of the vision look at the front of this narrative and the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of his sleep now you never get a vision when you're asleep you only get a vision when you're wide awake and that's the difference we must be very careful not to go by visions and not to go by dreams we must go by the word of god but if you go through the old testament all the people that got a vision got a vision when they were awake and so this man was fast asleep and the lord awakened him now why they went back and they started the real building program and they put the lord's work before their own homes that needed renovation and there they were clearing away the rubbish until they got to the foundation and when the foundation was laid they gathered together around the altar for the levitical sacrifices had all been revived and some of the feasts and there was a wonderful day of praise in fact the old men were weeping and the young men were shouting with praise and it must have been a wonderful moment of revival but watch the moment there is a movement of rebuilding and revival you will always find the devil is going to attack and there were two men one was reham and the other was called jim shire and they were both responsible men in charge of a group of people that had lost their pedigree completely they were like the heinz 57 variety and these people were surrounding them first of all they wanted to compromise with them and when they saw that was impossible then there was this front attack and they wrote to cyrus and they told him to look up the history of this people that was rebuilding the wall and he did so and immediately when he saw the power of the israelites he stopped the building of the wall and they all went into depression they lost their home now if you go through the scripture you will find that over and over again abraham came out of the ur of the chaldees and that was a wonderful moment the god of glory revealed himself to abraham and he saw his silly little terrapins and he thought what foolish things i've been doing worshipping those images they have eyes that see not and ears that hear not and in the light of the glory of god he finished with them once and for all and out he went but they got stuck at haran and we don't know how long he was there but again he lost the full vision and it wasn't until his father died that he went out into the land what a lesson until we see that the old man has been crucified we shall never get into our land of cana and beloved may it be that some of us will not only be brought out of egypt but we may get into that promised land and rejoice in that heavenly christ that was abraham then when we look at the story of the 10 virgins or if you like the 10 maidens they all went out to meet the bridegroom what a blessed hope that was but then when they were looking for the blessed hope on their tiptoes waiting for the lord to come the devil knew that that was the seat of revival so he attacked them how did he do it forgive my language this is the cockney coming out he gave them all a gigantic sleeping tablet and they went off into a deep sleep and they lost the hope of his coming and i suppose they lost the hope of his coming for nearly a thousand years or more but then in the midnight the call went out behold the bridegroom is coming go out to meet him and then we read these wonderful words then those virgins arose from their sleep and they trimmed their lamps and they went out to meet the bridegroom i know five were foolish i know five were wise because they had the oil make sure we've been born of the spirit but you see there was an awakening when we come to the new testament the highest spiritual teaching we had is in the ephesians and there we see that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heaven that's what a state to be in but in that very book he has to tell them awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead ones and he will give thee light you see where there was the danger of falling asleep you see it's possible to be awake but not up in my family there were five boys three girls one died and one of my brothers was working with my father in one of his shops they were small grocers and he had to get up at half past five but he was a rascal three of us were sleeping in one room and dad would call and he would say i'm up dad and then he would take his shoes and patter them on the liner as though he was walking but he was still in bed can you imagine how he tantalized his younger brothers many of us we hear the awakening call but do we get out of bed can you see the boy then he says wake up get up and then he uses a lovely expression and he will give thee light now that word is not the light of exposure like electric light it's the light of radiancy do you remember when moses came down from the mount after seeing his lord for 40 days and 40 nights the scripture says not his face shone his skin shone you can always tell someone that's been in the sun they bear its light and you can always tell someone that's been in the presence of god he has that lovely radiance but it needed an awakening beloved i can't point the finger at you may this a ministry that we are receiving awaken me and awaken us all that we may get into the work of god and become radiant with the loveliness of our precious lord now let's have a look at the vision first of all he saw a lamp stand we'll talk about that in a few moments the word candlestick is a paradox there because you don't need a candlestick when you've got oils the wax is its own independent fuel here of course it was a lamp stand that needed the fuel of the golden orc then you will notice coming from a great bowl there were seven pipes very difficult really to explain but the bowl was on the top of the lamp stand that meant if you can imagine a big brass bowl as a reservoir for the oil coming from it there would be seven lamps and to each particular lamp there would be seven pipes i'm quoting now from mr darvis urchin and he states emphatically that probably there were seven pipes going to each respective lamp so there were 49 pipes then at the end of these seven pipes there would be a lamp that will receive the communication of the oil and then give its life what was feeding then the reservoir the bowl well it was two golden pipes and the two golden pipes were connected with two branches and the two branches were connected with two olive trees and therefore you have the source of the oil you have the communication or the outpouring of the oil then you have the communication of the oil and then you have the light of the oil now let's bear that in mind first of all what do the two olive trees refer to well if you look at verse 14 it tells us these are the two anointed ones that stand by the lord of the whole earth they were historically joshua and seraphable and those two people represent the twofold character of christ christ as our great high priest christ as our sovereign lord now why should it be like that the holy spirit did not come until the lord jesus was glorified john chapter 7 makes that perfectly clear and therefore it necessitated his death it necessitated his burial it necessitated his ascension and when the lord jesus went back to heaven you'll remember the great song of the ascension lift up your heads oh ye gates be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts mighty in battle what does that mean he took back with him to heaven all the spoils of calvary hallelujah he took back the fact that he had shed his blood and therefore he was the great master sin offering he took back the very fact that he had tasted death for every man he took back to heaven the fact that he by death destroyed him who had the power of death that is the devil and he took it right into the throne room of god what a moment that was for the glory of god when he saw his son glorified but still marked by the scars of calvary and there at god's right hand is a man with all power and all authority and that's where this story begins secondly there is this great outpouring of blessing now when did that commence do you remember in that large upper room there were 120 believers we know on one occasion when he obviously arranged a meeting there were 500 but there were only 120 according to acts chapter 1 in that upper room when the holy spirit came where were the 380 we are not told they weren't there but the 120 were there they were waiting for the coming of the spirit now please note this we never wait for the coming of the spirit the holy spirit has been poured out the habitation of the spirit is the church of god in its universality and he is still with us at this moment but they were waiting for the coming of the spirit and when he was poured out he came out to them with two beautiful signs first of all the sound of a rushing mighty wind filled the house that's the collective symbol of the holy spirit and cloven tongues of fire sat upon each of them and the scripture says they were all filled with the spirit therefore there are two fillings there's the filling of the house there's the filling of the believers now beloved revival always begins with god's people getting back to the upper room and not waiting for the coming of the spirit but rediscovering the power of the spirit and that's what we need today for us to get back until we are genuinely filled with the spirit then you will notice that there are two branches and it seems to me there were two manifestations of the power of the holy spirit one in acts 2 and the other in acts 10 well when both jew and gentile were brought into that wonderful body of christ i cannot go into the details of that otherwise i will not finish according to the appointed time then you will notice that there's a diffusion of that oil through about 49 pipes now let's get our facts right the oil obviously speaks of the holy spirit we shall discuss this more in detail tonight and that speaks of the holy spirit being the spirit of god secondly the spirit of christ revealing the glory of god in jesus christ as we heard this afternoon then you will notice there's the pipes and therefore there is this diffusion of the oil through that pipes to the lamp now if there's going to be a problem you will notice it's going to be a problem in the pipe a blocked pipe could cause great difficulty to the light but you will notice here it's a lamp stand all of god of gold therefore it was israel really being a nation that will become a light to the whole world that's why you have the sevens here but you will see there are complications there are no complications with the oil there are no complications with the gold but there are complications with us now would you note this beloved we have five enemies one i'm going to admit we have an enemy within us called the flesh we have an enemy outside of us called the world we have an enemy associated with us called self that we were hearing and then the last enemy is trying to get sanctification the law way and not faith way now the secret of a christian is to die for those four to those four monsters you see the moment you become a christian you receive the holy spirit and quickly you understand there are two natures like two personalities living within you one is called the flesh and the other is called the spirit and immediately you're born again of the holy spirit there is a civil war within you the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another and the reason why we have that conflict is to show to us the utter depravity of our flesh nature now that's all i can say for a moment i would like to go into more details but that's not the thought and therefore when we have learned to see the utter depravity of our flesh nature that it is totally corrupt so that we say in me that in my flesh there dwells no good thing then we will do with it what the lord has done and here's the good news you will never go to hell for your flesh nature it's already been judged at the cross and that's what it means the old man has been crucified with Christ but it's yet to be judged in you and what does that mean they that a christ have crucified the flesh with the lust and affections thereof a young man came to me quite recently and said this if i could take my flesh nature out i would stick a saw through it again and again now that's lovely but he says how do you do it i thought that was good and this is what i said it's none too theological but it's near to the heart of god i said this you have to say no to all the shouts of the flesh and yes to the sweet overtures of the spirit and then you'll live victoriously but the next enemy is the world that our brother was mentioning now can i share this with you without throwing stone the world has got into the church and robbed us of our power 35 years ago or perhaps 40 years ago in the western world the church was separated from the world now the separation's gone and therefore there's hardly any difference between a christian and a non-christian you say brother peter what is the world the world is that aggregate of people that separated from god the world is that congregation of people who are entertained by the devil the world is that group of people who unknowingly are controlled by satan and hallelujah we don't belong to the world we belong to the family of christ we're finished with it therefore we need again that statement and i want to say this to you lovingly come out from among them be separate touch not the unclean thing and i will receive you and that's what we need to do in these last days say to god thank god i don't belong to the system of this world i belong to the ecclesia of heaven and walk with your god and the other thing is self now here's a scripture the greeks came saying we would see jesus and again like our friend was saying the lord jesus went round the bush in order to answer the question he said except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit then he applied it he that loves his life shall lose it he that loses his life shall keep it until life eternal beloved one day we are all going to stand before the judgment seat of christ it's called the beam we shall stand there with us in a glorified body we shall look lovely all of us then we shall see what we did in the body you know all those things you have spent on self will be burnt up and you'll be glad to see it burnt up and all that we have spent for christ will be rewarded now i heard a brother say and i had to correct him when we die we take nothing with us we do we take a lot with us what do we take with us the whole of christ that has been formed in our personality goes with us and it's put in the glorified body that's what it means to lay up treasure in heaven that's what it means to glorify god and that's what it means to say no to self lose life that you might gain it for him oh dear my time has gone now dr vick would you give me five minutes you won't tell me off when we get home will you you promise yes all right now the five messages first of all i want you to look at verse six then he answered and spake unto me saying this is the word of the lord unto the rabble saying not by night you say what does that mean not by a great army it doesn't mean we've got to have thousands all together before we'll see revival it's not by night nor by power that means outstanding men men that can sway the crowds or outstanding gimmicks no it's by my spirit saith the lord of hosts now here's a fact a hundred and twenty people filled with the holy spirit and all they had in those days was the word of god and the power of the spirit they shook the roman world within 40 years can i tell you something that's more modern it's a hundred years today that the welsh revival broke out 20 young men there in lacquer praying through the night with tears cried out oh that the mountains might flow down at your presence and they did and a young man went out and preached and that shook the whole of wales and a good part of great britain i love australia and every time i come i say this lord are you going to light a fire somewhere wouldn't it be lovely if through this little conference god lit a fire and in the power of the spirit we went out and preached his word may god make this the beginning of great days for us it was a message of power then it was a message of victory notice what he says verse 7 who are thou who art thou oh great mountain before the rubble shall become a plain and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace grace unto it what was that great mountain was it the army that surrounded them no it was the greatest mountain of all for them the Medo-Persian empire the great world empire and that great mountain was going to become a plain and the lord removed it and this temple was built beloved he can remove all the obstacles i wanted to speak of the mountains in the book of the acts that he removed but we haven't got time then i want you to look at verse 10 and with this i must close for who hath despised the day of small things for they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of the rubble with those seven they are the eyes of the lord which run to and throw through the whole earth i miss out the day of completeness this is the day of humility now what does that mean some tell us that it speaks that in the last days god will not be able to do great things but small things and therefore we mustn't be worried about this assemblies dwindling and fading and dying and evangelical churches closing because in the last days he will only do little things and probably he may come for one soul at the end and that will be the end of the church well i don't believe that do you well what does it mean it means this that god will take little things small things and with the small things do great things removing that mountain say was that a small thing now let me show you this through the scripture it was a jawbone in the hands of samson that threw hundreds of philistines it was just a torch and a sword in the hands of 300 of gideon's men that defeated the midianites it was a little boy that gave his five loaves and two small fishes that the lord used to feed 5,000 and it will be a little group of people that god will use to bring a movement of the spirit of god i close with this on thursday i received a letter that shook me one of our leading teachers who is being wonderfully used of god john sawsbury who has just retired from his business in order to give himself to the teaching of the word went to a place called gateshead and last year or two years ago to be correct they were going to close the assembly because there was just a handful of old people left there who were well into their 80s and they came together to pray and god broke them old people and they wept and wept before the lord because they were utter failures they didn't explain away their position theologically they weren't crafty they humbled themselves before the lord and they were utterly broken and then god started to move and people started to come in there's a vast immigration camp there and people started to come in and they befriended them then some got saved and then they told others then more got saved and they told others and then they met together and john went there and when he saw a morning meeting that was completely controlled by the holy spirit and iranians russians nigerians people from jordan all standing up praising and worshipping the lord he saw the power of god and when he saw the gospel meeting packed to capacity and people being broken he saw the glory of god it was god doing great things through little things may god do it again amen