07.Oct.2009 A Time of Change
Isaiah 62 (NLT):
Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch. The nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your glory. And you will be given a new name by the Lord’s own mouth. The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—a splendid crown in the hand of God. Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth. The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength: “I will never again hand you over to your enemies. Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine. You raised the grain, and you will eat it, praising the Lord. Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.” Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see. The Lord has sent this message to every land: “Tell the people of Israel, ‘Look, your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’” They will be called “The Holy People” and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.” And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place” and “The City No Longer Forsaken.”
It is interesting to note that Isaiah spoke prophetically of the coming of Christ more so than any other Old Testament prophet. He had a vision of what the world would be like once it met Christ. He had a vision of what the people of God would be like; how they would be seen; and what they would be called. He spoke titles like “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God.” He believed that the world would see the righteousness of the people of God, for they would shine with His glory. They would be a people who not only met the one true God (salvation) but submitted to His will (His Lordship). Oh, what a people they would be!
And yet, how many of us can honestly say that the Church today is “the City of God’s Delight”? The world certainly does not see us as that. When did “The Bride of Christ” become a place of malice, judgment, anger, and bitterness? Imagine how different things would be if the world saw the church as it was intended to be: a place of righteousness shining with the glory of God. It would shine was brightly that the entire world would see it can call it “The Delight of God.” How wondrous would that be? It can be so if we submit to the Lordship of Christ.
How best do we submit? Through prayer. Prayer is a fundamental Christian practice, true; but have you noticed that prayer meetings are kept out of the main service and is often limited to the “Weird few” who are tolerated among the mainstream Christians? These few who want to seek the spiritual often meet in a back room, forgotten by the rest. And yet, Isaiah says in verse ten that we should “Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see.” Those who pray need to be out on the front line and in the watchtowers preparing the way. We are to pray that God’s promises will come to pass in accordance to His will. His will is moved by our prayers. We pray; He moves. So, let’s move the prayer out of the backroom and into the main meeting. Let’s see what happens when the House of God submits to His Lordship.
The righteousness of God will be seen in His House. And it starts with loving people. In prayer. In action. Love the world and “prepare the highway for my people to return!”
