Micah 3:7-9 (ESV)

[7] the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

[8] But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the LORD,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

[9] Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

The prophet Micah challenged the false prophets of his day saying that they would be disgraced because they are not speaking truth. By contrast Micah says that he is “filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD” (Mic 3:8). Notice what is connected with speaking in the power of the Spirit. Micah’s Spirit directed message is filled with power, justice, and truth. Too often we are willing to settle for one of those, sometimes two. Unfortunately we seldom see all three combined.

The message of God is always connected with power, but not power generated by personal charisma, mood music, and manipulation. The power of God does not need to be “worked up.” The power of God does not need the proper setting. It is said that when Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God people were gripping their seats for fear of sliding into Hell. God moved mightily that night. The interesting thing is that he was not a charismatic speaker and he read his sermon. The other interesting thing is that the sermon never again received that kind of response though he preached it several times after that. In other words, the response was not about the sermon, the preacher, or the presentation. It was about an incredible move of God. When God moves, lives are changed, but it does not need manipulation.

The Spirit’s message was also connected with justice. In the Old Testament justice is always connected to issues of poverty, widows, orphans, and the underprivileged. Too often in American Christianity the assumption is that the poor are poor because they do not want to work. While that is certainly true of some, it is not true of all. The Spirit will never speak with power on the one hand, and use, abuse, or take advantage of the less privileged on the other hand. Too often Prosperity preachers build their own personal wealth off empty promises to the poor and underprivileged. Too often believers will talk negatively about government programs to help the poor, but fail to do anything to help the poor themselves. We are more interested in blame than in helping. I understand that helping is a complicated issue. Handouts without wisdom are not necessarily what is needed. But as believers we do need to prayerfully figure out how to help the needy. The Spirit of the Lord not only moves in power, he also moves his people to compassion and justice.

Finally, the Spirit’s message is connected to truth. He does not manipulate facts to his own ends. He speaks truth. He does not speak to please people. That is what the false prophets did. The Spirit speaks truth, whether people like the truth or not. As believers we tend toward one of two extremes. We either feel justified in being harsh and uncaring because we are “speaking truth,” or we temper the truth because we are people pleasers and don’t want to offend. Somewhere in between there is a place for speaking truth in love. Ephesians 4:15 instructs believers that “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” We forget to combine those two, but the same Spirit who spoke hard truth through Micah spoke these words through Paul. We cannot separate truth from love. Either one without the other is out of balance, and does not come from the Spirit.

Micah’s Spirit directed message was filled with power, justice, and truth. Too often we are willing to settle for one of those, sometimes two. Rarely do we find believers who practice or experience all three together. Where the Spirit of the Lord is truly moving we will see all three, power, justice, and truth, without manipulation. May that be the experience of every believer and each church that claims to follow Jesus.