For the Display of His Splendor

 

When Jesus came out of the wilderness and 40 days of fasting after being baptized by water and the Spirit, he was filled with the power of the Spirit and began to teach in the synagogues. He was discovering His purpose and read from Isaiah 61:1-2,

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He sat back down and declared He, at that very hour and day, had fulfilled this purpose. When we are trying to help people discover our purpose, we often encourage them to look to their gifts, natural abilities, enthusiasm, and anointing. All of these will point to their purpose.

For instance, my purpose is writing, intercession, finance, leading and developing other leaders. He has given me natural abilities in these areas, anoints me, and an enthusiasm that has not waned over time. I love to do it. I write every week and feel sad when I miss the opportunity. I also love to develop leaders and it gives me great joy. I never tire when I am investing in other leaders. And I have done finance my whole career. Finally, intercession is the core of who I am. My name even means, “to pray.” Over time, my intercession has changed what it looks like to an extent but I can’t explain the inexpressible joy that I have in meeting God in the place of intercession.

The passion, enthusiasm and drive of Jesus, came from this place of seeing people set free. In seeing people comforted and let out of darkness. In seeing the despairing be pulled out of the pit and have hope, joy and light. His walk on the earth He made it clear, He was willing and no plight of His people was beyond Him unless they were unwilling or unbelieving. He loved to see them walking in healing, deliverance, and light.

Oh, but it is even more than this. The verse in Isaiah goes on to say that these despairing folks who lost all hope and were prisoners in darkness would not only be set free but be called “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.”

They would share this passion and rebuild places that were long devastated. Lineages of hopelessness and despair, addiction, sickness, and bondage would be cut off and rebuilt by them into places of refuge, being called, “priests of the Lord” and “ministers of our God.”

Instead of the heavy shame that was carried by these ones and the insurmountable pain and devastation, they would receive a double portion. They would be leveled up as if none of it were ever true. They would rejoice in their inheritance and they will inherit a double portion in the land.

Oh, doesn’t your heart just delight as Christians when you read this? The hopeless homeless become the hope bringers to the world. This is what Christmas is all about! This is the gift, the joy set before Jesus as He went to the cross.

For myself, I used to be buried in overwhelming shame and despair. I did not want to live. Every day was so hard and I was miserable. I was anxious, stressed out and hiding everything. I just wanted to blend in the crowd. I longed to be considered ‘normal’ and not discovered for what I felt was inside me with all my self-loathing.

Yet, it was this very condition of hopelessness and helplessness that made me so hungry for God when I found Him. When I discovered Jesus and how good He is, He just kept healing and delivering me over and over while helping me to understand grace. My life changed.

Now when I hear Him speak that I am “devout” or an “oak of righteousness” and He is proud of who I am as a “faithful friend,” I can receive it. It makes me who I am and I am amazed. I am still a sinner in need of a Savior and I am broken over the immensity of my Salvation. But I am not all the same.

I wonder if I had not experienced so much healing, deliverance and freedom if it would mean so much to me. If I was fine the way I was before and functioning, I don’t think that these things would matter do deeply to me perhaps. Perhaps the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law never felt they were that unrighteous and so seeing someone made whole just could not resonate with them.

All that to say, I have this deep longing to not only see Jesus return and come for His Bride but to see people made whole. I live for this… to see the broken and shattered receive this powerful goodness that is available. Besides enjoying my family, puppy, and friends, it is everything I want in life. Everything else feels empty.

He is an amazing door to overwhelming goodness. For a long time, my longing was really centered around my own healing, freedom, and deliverance. I longed for this and was so hungry for it that it drew me into these spaces where it was happening.

Then at some point, I had a dream and knew that, while always a sinner in need of a Savior, I have been healed and set free to the extent that I am more “normal” than most ‘normal’ people. Now my heart just aches for others to drink of this river and receive this, especially the broken who have no hope. Perhaps this is intercession at work inside of me.

When I have had “pictures” of my spirit, it has been either walking on a balance beam (the Word), leaping into this place of soaring with the Spirit from the balance beam, or as a young girl, opening a door for His glory flooding in. Oh, there is nothing like hearing, seeing, and possibly participating in this restoration work He does.

“Hope is coming” sings in the background as my heart aches with this longing for restoration. “I will shout for joy!” His goodness overwhelms me at times during prayer with such joy for the powerful things that He does. I have no clue what I am doing with my life but I just want more.

So many of my friends these days have these incredible ministries. They are doing something amazing like running a school, a church, a missionary field or other avenue of bringing the gospel to people around them. I so admire them and feel inadequate at times for not doing this myself. I feel a little left behind when they all want me to be “part of their prayer team.”

But I pray about it and I seem to lack enthusiasm for establishing my own ministry and don’t necessarily feel called to lead a ministry. I long for these places of standing in the Lord’s presence or walking closely with Him and sharing His heart. Everything I love is wrapped up in seeing His goodness pour out. When it does, my heart fills with this unexplainable overwhelming joy that is so hard to contain at times. It can make me feel at times like my heart will burst. There is nothing like it and no place I would rather be.

As I write this my heart just aches. Pictures flash before me of places I have been where the Spirit of God has been poured out. Where goodness abounds and people are being delivered. Of being a prayer minister and feeling like the hand maiden of the Lord as God is moving or just being in the background watching God move and feeling overwhelmed by His work. His works are wonderful and I know this full well.

This brings me back to Isaiah 58, a few chapters earlier than speaking of the year of the Lord’s favor with His purpose abounding in freedom for those it touches. Here the Lord is speaking of fasting. He speaks of two different kinds of fast. One that pushes Him away and the other that draws Him in.

In the first, one fasts with eagerness for just decisions and have God draw near. Yet, they do so with their teeth grinding, striving, fists clenched, and while exploiting workers, quarreling and strife. God challenges them, is this what you call a fast?

Ever try to make things happen? Sometimes I am like this person. I long for God to move. But as I am fasting, I feel my teeth clench up. I put my all into the process of not eating, feel hungry, tired and crabby and ultimately, I am unkind and difficult to be around. Some poor person bumps into me and what spills out of me is not grace but crabbiness. I finally give up, say what’s the point, and eat food I shouldn’t as I feel empty and frustrated with myself.

Here in Isaiah 58, God is speaking to get one’s own life aligned first. I was recently hearing and then reading through the Word of God that being a hearer and not a doer of the word hardens up your heart. When we hear God speak and disregard it, we are pushing ourselves out of alignment with Him. How can two walk together unless they be agreed?

It is only as we live in obedience that we live in alignment with Him. 1 John 3:24 tells us, "Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with Him, and He with them. And we know He lives in us because the Spirit He gave us lives in us."

So while they may seem like small things in the moment to disregard, they are actually causing a lack of alignment. Things like holding onto grudges when someone hurt us, envy for someone who seems to have more favor and opportunity, and judgement of others for their sin trip us (me) up.

God has spoken to me on several occasions about my driving and I still struggle with speeding. I looked at an app that tracks my driving and it seems that I am pretty regularly exceeding the speed limit. I want to ‘save time” this way. However, as I rush and push in my driving to get the few extra minutes, I am just more impatient and hurried during the day. Later in the day when God gives me divine appointments, I press past them in a hurried rush wanting to be efficient. I miss out on more than just driving safety as a result because I am giving in to hurried sickness. It is that constant voice that says the clock is ticking and there is more that needs to be accomplished.

Sometimes I can make a grudge such a big deal and hold the resentment in my heart over time. What it does is harden my heart towards God as I allow it to harden my heart towards others. Ever have this? I tell God I need help with it but don’t want to forgive and let it go as they never experienced any consequences for their actions. But then when I look at my life, I have never experienced the full consequences of my actions either.

Watching a movie last night about people who came back after having a death experience, it helped remind me of how little these little grudges, frustrations and resentments matter in the big picture. They are meaningless distractions and God has so much more for us. Caring about tit for tat for how I am treated has to do with making myself an idol. At the end of my life, all that will matter is how God sees my life.

In this, He sees our lives as Christians as goats or sheep. As goats, we are trying to get ahead and hungry for the wrong things while we miss opportunities to care for others. As sheep, everything we do exudes this care and love for others around us, especially for the broken and in bondage who are oppressed and in lack. We love others well because we love the Lord and we share His heart.

He comes back to this place of sharing His passion in our fasting. This is the place of alignment with Him and His will that He partners with:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wonderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 57:6-7)

He goes on to say that when we align ourselves with Him and His heart for the oppressed, in lack and hungry, not going our own way or even speaking idle words as we please, that we will overflow like spring waters. We will be called “Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

Lord, forgive us for wherever we are not aligned with you or listening and genuinely following you. We waste so much of this incredible life you have gave us as it seems the enemy is continually looking for ways to distract and drain us. Fill us afresh with Your Spirit and cause us to follow You wholeheartedly. Give us a passion and longing for those things that deeply move Your heart.