In the last message, I told you that you should never underestimate Satan's power of discouragement.

It is his most effective tool against the believers.

In fact, the story told from the days of the Boer War in South Africa that went between 1899 and 1902.

There was a man who were found guilty of the most unusual crime during that war.

He was guilty of being a discourager.

The South African town of Lady Smith of being a discourager.

The South African town of Lady Smith was under attack, and the local army was defending it with all of their might.

But this traitor would go up and down the line of the soldiers who were defending that town with all of their

strength, and he would do everything in his power to discourage them. He would point to the

strength of the enemy. He would talk about the impossibility of victory. He would talk about the inevitability of their surrender.

This man did not use guns, he did not use weapons, but he used something stronger,

discouragement.

By the same token, don't underestimate the power of encouragement.

While Satan is the one who discourage us, God is the one who encourages us.

Encouragement strengthens the weak. Encouragement uplifts the faint-hearted.

Encouragement gives hope to the hopeless. Encouragement uplifts the faint-hearted. Encouragement gives hope to the hopeless.

Encouragement boils up the falling.

And that is why in the scripture, hundreds of times you read again and again, be of good courage, be encouraged.

Whenever you see the word of the Lord to somebody saying, be of good courage, be encouraged, have courage. Whenever you see that in the scripture, you can be absolutely sure that most times, if not all times, it is because that person being discouraged, and that person

is desperately in need of encouragement. And as we come to this concluding message from that

magnificent book of Haggai, we see how the Lord himself encourages his faithful people.

He encourages the remnant, even though they were discouraged, even though they were tempted

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