Proverbs 25:2-3


It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, So the heart of kings is unsearchable.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Isaiah 63

I've been reading in Isaiah 63 this morning, well afternoon now.
This is a chapter filled with passion and zeal of the Lord.  As the chapter progresses you see Isaiah speaking with the Lord.  And then you see Isaiah crying out to the Lord to return to the place of His holy habitation.  The NLT speaks it so well:
15 LORD, look down from heaven and see us from your holy, glorious home. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? 16 Surely you are still our Father! Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us, LORD, you would still be our Father. You are our Redeemer from ages past. 17 LORD, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you? Return and help us, for we are your servants and your special possession. 18 How briefly your holy people possessed the holy place, and now our enemies have destroyed it. 19 LORD, why do you treat us as though we never belonged to you? Why do you act as though we had never been known as your people?
Isaiah's words continue straight into chapter 64:
Isaiah 64:1-12 Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence! 2 As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame! 3 When you came down long ago, you did awesome things beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! 4 For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! 5 You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways. But we are not godly. We are constant sinners, so your anger is heavy on us. How can people like us be saved? 6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away. 7 Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins. 8 And yet, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand. 9 Oh, don't be so angry with us, LORD. Please don't remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people. 10 Your holy cities are destroyed; even Jerusalem is a desolate wilderness. 11 The holy, beautiful Temple where our ancestors praised you has been burned down, and all the things of beauty are destroyed. 12 After all this, LORD, must you still refuse to help us? Will you continue to be silent and punish us?
I feel that this is the Lord's cry today and not just for today... that we would cry out to Him and ask for His mercy.  That He would be our Father, truly!  The next move of the Lord, the one that is gathering like a storm, is the heart of the Father coming forth in the earth.  The movement we've been in has been focused on Jesus, and rightly so!!  Jesus is the Way to the Father.  We have to know Him in His sufferings, in His death and His resurrection.  But it doesn't stop there!  We must keep going and pressing forward to what's next?  The Father, His heart, His life.  Cry out to the Lord!!  Have mercy on me, Lord!  Cleanse my heart and my mind, the deepest places within me.  I want to go forwards, deeper into the heart of the Father.  I want to know the Father!  Like Isaiah said: Oh, that You would rend the heavens!  That You would come down!  That the mountains might shake at Your presence! 

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