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‘Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence ‘“ As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil ‘“ To make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!’  Isaiah 64:1-2

Everything has been on the line for us. The time God’s people need to take critical action is now. If He intends to deliver us, the plan will be accomplished through prayer and fasting. However, we must also be realistic about it.  Prayer is not a magical act to deliver us from trouble. Even with prayer, we may get sick, we may lose our life and the life of a loved one.  Our death, however, does not negate the power of prayer. Prayer equips us to rest in the sovereign will of God.

It is easy to use prayer as a means of expressing our wish list for personal comfort and safety. Whenever stresses press in upon me and those I love, I go to prayer and beg for deliverance. If a trial continues, I shouldn’t erroneously conclude that prayer doesn’t work. I might be tempted to think that that God doesn’t care and this so-called perfect Father fails His children in critical times. Not true.

Prayer mobilizes God to act according to His sovereign plan for my life. Satan is always on the loose, driven to inflict death and destruction. If his war against us is ill-timed, prayer cripples the best of his strategies and renders him impotent, just as it did when the death sentence of the Jews in Susa was lifted. However, I must not be childish in my expectations. I am told that I will also share in the sufferings of Jesus. Most of the prophets and Jesus’ disciples were murdered and I need only read the first chapter of the Fox’s Book of Martyrs to clear up unrealistic expectations. If you and I perish, as Esther believed she might, and as Peter knew he would because of Jesus’ prophetic words over him, we need prayer to give us grace and peace.  But if you and I are to be delivered, we need prayer to bring about the miracle.

My prayer life is characterized by two requests. “Deliver me if that is in your plan, Lord. Or, give me grace in the fire.”

You are not my fairy god-father. No matter what I experience at Your hand, Your plan for me and for Your people, at this time in history, was conceived in love and wisdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16b

Last year, I saw God move time and time again when I was pressed on all sides.  There were decisions that had to be made that would alter the rest of my life.  I needed to end some things that had been in place for nearly thirty years but I couldn’t discern how to move toward closure.  Every course of action I conceived promised only conflict and mis-judgement.  Have you been in this situation?  You know you need to do something but when you picture possible pathways, you know each one will take you to a bad place.  If you play it safe and do nothing, the outcome will be even worse.

Today’s scripture became so real to me.  I realized that the way forward was to admit that I was blind to the path. “Father, I don’t know what I’m doing here.  I don’t see how this is going to turn out well.  I am asking You to fulfill this promise ~ to go ahead of me and alter the path.”  And God did.  He made a way.  He cast light on what was dark.  An idea would present itself on the spot, enabling me to move forward with a difficult discussion. God’s ideas were not only customized for me, they were tailor made for the other people involved too.  They were customized down to the minutest detail.  I will tell you that what I feared rarely came to pass.  God’s ways of escape could never have been discovered on my own as viable options.

God promises to lead the blind but there are different kinds of blindness.  There is physical blindness where the eyes are impaired to see.  There is a mental blindness due to cognitive impairment.  But this promise is for those who know, and acknowledge, spiritual blindness.  I came to understand it at the point of salvation, at the foot of the cross.

What I thought was right, was wrong.  What I considered a treasure was worth nothing.  What I thought I deserved, was misguided.  What was bitter in my mouth, was really sweet.  What was sweet and desirable should have been bitter. Spiritual blindness was an incurable condition without Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.  There was no physical cure and no human cure.  No amount of education would correct it.  No input from self-help gurus could affect it for the good.  Spiritual blindness needed a spiritual cure.  What became dark when Adam sinned was remedied when the last Adam came as the Light of the world.

Salvation began at the cross when I came as a blind beggar.  Today, I can’t see the Jesus-path without help from the Word and the Spirit who gives light.  For whatever awaits me today (and it doesn’t need to be a desperate situation for my need to be desperate), I come to God with an admission of spiritual blindness.  It is for me, in this posture of poverty, that the promise was written.

Each day, each moment, breath into my darkened understanding so that my steps are in the Light.  Amen

With joy you will draw waters from the well of salvation.  Isaiah 12:3

From what will I need saving in the days ahead?  Eternal security and the forgiveness of sins were only the beginning of what I would need as a child of God.  So much more is offered to me in Christ.  That’s comforting as each of us faces a season, however long, of instability and uncertainty.  Christ says, “Come! Draw from the waters of salvation when you have need of Me.”  You and I need to walk into the future aware that there is help from God’s well.

The well of salvation is deep, Lord.  Help us to remember that ~

• We need not feed on our fears, withdraw and become small; we can drink from your well of courage. You promise us salvation from anxiety.
• We need not feel angry over the tumultuous waters that have overtaken us. We confess our sin of entitlement and drink from your well of promises.  You will bend low to save us if we come in humility.
• We need not feel hopeless over dismal predictions. You are sovereign and your scepter of authority extends over our kings and governments.  Your children have always been safe in the palms of your hands.

We live as a people who prove that You are enough.

You give abundant life, even now.  Your kingdom is alive and well inside of me.  Amen

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.  Hebrews 12:26

It was an earthquake.  The whole mountain, Mt. Sinai, trembled violently when God descended upon it.  The law was given, God spoke, and His power proved that He had ultimate authority.  To have stood at the base of that mountain would have been awe inspiring, even terrifying.  Exodus 19

One day, there will be another shaking.  (Haggai 2)  Perhaps we are feeling its beginnings!   God will shake, not just the mountains, but the earth and the heavens combined.  He will end the corrupt power of kings and rulers and establish the reign of His Son, Jesus.  He will also destroy the evil one and all of his demons, the very spirits who worked through every flawed leader to inflict cruelty and corruption. What a day of promise for God’s children and what a day of dread for all those who have rejected the way of salvation and the rule of God in their lives.

Shaking separates.  Shaking reveals what is solid beneath the veneer.  What is pure is left, what is defiled breaks loose.  So it shall be in the end times, and yet, so it is today for any of us who are in a time of trembling.  In God’s sovereignty, suffering has defined our current season of life.  Our world trembles and, with the shaking, the substance at the center of our lives is revealed.  For the one who has planted the seeds of the Word of God in their heart and learned to live in kingdom shoes, faith in God remains. For others, a vast emptiness opens up behind the veneer of religiosity.

Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your judgments like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.  Psalm 36:6  Oh, that I would have my world in order!  When I look into the face of Jesus, I tremble with awe.  When I look into the fires of adversity, I tremble with fear, yet also with a faith that sustains.  When I look into the expanse of eternity, I tremble with anticipation.  Evil will be vanquished and the righteous ones will remain in the courts of our God.

Trembling is my opportunity for introspection.  Reveal the substance of my life.  Amen

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.   Isaiah 54:10

In 1998, I met an older lady (never married) who lived and cared for her mother.  They lived together and had both devoted their lives to intercessory prayer.  They were on staff at a large church in Cincinnati.  I was privileged to be in their weekly prayer meeting and, by far, no one has shaped my prayer life like these two. The mother is now in heaven and her daughter, in her 70’s, has become a beautiful friend of mine.  Once every few months, she will call with stories about God  and how He has broken through in prayer to teach and reveal Himself.

She called yesterday morning to share a dream she had this past week.  Immediately, I was engaged.   In the dream, she saw a beautiful oak tree.  It was old, sturdy, and strong.  As she stood appreciating it, an oozing black slime came from beneath the soil, spread out horizontally like its roots were expanding, and then proceeded to climb the trunk of the tree in order to take it over and kill it.  She watched helplessly and feared the worst.  But, where the trunk ended and the branching began, the takeover stopped.  It was as if there was an invisible line it couldn’t cross.  This is not too unlike the narrative from the book of Job.  Satan was given permission to oppress Job but God drew a definite line and he wasn’t allowed to cross it.

Waking up, she sought God about the meaning of the dream and whether it was relevant for these times.  She believed it was symbolic of this worldwide pandemic.  It has spread its roots and it is oppressing, but not entirely destroying.  It is testing God’s people, but it not overtaking their faith.  This crisis is refining the church, renewing dependence on God, and is bringing spiritual awakening across the globe.

Oh, but at great cost.  The mountains are shaking.  The familiar hills of our past are disappearing.  But one thing remains and in this truth we are not destroyed; we are pressed down but not forsaken.  God’s love is unfailing.  God’s covenant of peace with us, through Christ, is not threatened by chaos.  When we lay down our head at night, there is a resident calm, even in the turmoil.  God’s compassion has not ceased and His peace is still promised.

God is talking in the thunder. He is speaking through a microscopic virus that has brought a whole planet to its knees.  I pray we are listening – and then bowing in submission.

Lord, we do not know the extent of the damage and what remains to be shaken loose.  But this we know ~ nothing shall separate us from your love, your peace, your compassion.  Just as more rainbows will appear, we remember your covenant.  Amen

Your sun will never go down, and your moon keep back her light; the LORD will be your eternal light, and your days of your sorrow will be ended.  Isaiah 60:20

One of the things I love to do in the middle of the night is to take a verse completely apart.  Each significant word is unwrapped, the meaning captured in a journal.  After it’s dismantled, what a rewarding exercise to paraphrase it with my new understanding.  (No, the paraphrase is not inspired.  I can see some theologians wincing!)  The paraphrase is for me to personalize the Word and take it to heart.

When I encountered this verse, it was 3:30 a.m., and I thought I knew what it meant.  I almost moved on to the next but stopped.  I’m excited to share what happened next as each concept was unwrapped.

Sun ~ is God and His divine love and wisdom.

Going down ~ refers to natural and earthly things, lower in value.

Moon ~ signifies an intelligence in the natural self.

Light ~ is divine truth; knowledge and understanding that come to us from the Lord.

Eternal light ~ ‘is the fervor of the church, the zeal of those who live in love with the Lord.

Days ~ describes a state in which we are turned toward the Lord and are receiving light .

Sorrow ~ encompasses the anxieties and warfare we experience while learning the truth.

The clock said 4:30 and I was wide awake. I realized that each concept expanded in a direction I never would have gone.  I couldn’t wait to paraphrase it, and when I finished, I would go back to sleep ~ in peace.  Here’s my paraphrase.

God’s divine love and wisdom will never stoop to become earthly things, nor will my natural intelligence diminish divine truth. The power and goodness that are God, Himself, will make me as an innocent soul who lives in love with the Lord.  The days I turn toward God and seek His light will greatly affect my anxiety and my ability to engage in warfare in my fight for God’s truth.

It’s always a surprise to discover what a verse really means compared to what I thought it meant.  How many have I skipped over because of false presumptions of understanding?  A lot.  I am making up for lost time.  The big takeaway from this scripture, for these times, is the remedy for anxiety and the ingredient needed for the spiritual energy to do warfare.

Your Word always means more than I think it did.  I’m learning that this is true across the board.  You are bigger than I think you are.  Your love is wider than I can conceive.  Everything about you is too large for me to grasp and when I breathe my last, I’ll only have just begun to know You.  I love my future.  Amen

It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’  And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’  Isaiah 44:28 

As we sit on calamitous events, it’s instinctive to ask God where He is in all of it.  Oh, how Isaiah’s voice reassures us in our fears.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he predicted the coming of Cyrus to deliver God’s people from exile.  At the time of this writing, Cyrus was not even born yet.  It would be another 200 years before he arrived on the scene to do exactly what God said He would.

God had predicted Israel’s defeat and capture before they were carried off into captivity.  God had predicted, with great detail, what exile would be like and how they were to survive it.  Now through Isaiah, God predicted their deliverance through a foreign ruler the likes of Cyrus.  He had always been their God and He is still waiting to fulfill more prophecies concerning future events.

No one changes the courses of God’s Word.  This inspires holy fear, respect, and worship for who He is.  His prediction of Cyrus comforts us since life has taken a turn and our immediate future is uncertain.  Just as surely as I’m writing this, He knows the nature of our exiles and deliverances.  The names of those who will shape our future are already pre-chosen. All is on schedule to lead us to glory.

Just as God has foreknowledge of the main characters which comprise the leadership of world governments, He also has foreknowledge of every single detail which comprise our lives.  He spoke our name long before we existed, called us by name at our moment of re-birth, and will speak our name again when He welcomes us home.  Our past, present, and future was written with red ink and not one step (though uncertain as it may seem for us) causes Him to worry about us.

He is the God who dismantles and the God who re-builds.  He is the God who wounds and the God who comforts.  He is the God of the faithful and the God of the exiles.  In these days when anger and fear make up our global emotional climate, we trust a Father who whispers, “Don’t be afraid.”  Our life does not begin and end with deliberate, even erratic actions, of powerful people.  God’s scepter of justice holds them in check.

Your people are written, prophetically, into these days.  Let us rise up to carry out the work of an ambassador with confidence and joy.  Amen