Serving in the Emergency

“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” Luke 21:28 (NIV)

With all that is happening around us today, it would no longer be hard for even those with little knowledge of Bible prophesy to see that we are living in the time the Bible describes as “the last days”, a time of widespread uncertainty and turmoil. Jesus described these times this way: “Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world” (v26).

Much has been written and said about the prophetic meaning of some of these recent events that I do not want to concern myself with that here. Rather my concern is to share some simple practical truths that our Lord gives us in Luke Chapter 21 on how we ought to live in the light of the time in which we find ourselves.

Firstly, we must beware of fainting in our hearts. Jesus said “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap” (v 34). It is so easy with all the terrible news on TV for our hearts to be weighed down by fear and anxiety. If you are a child of God then your life is in his hands. We can walk in peace when we choose to trust God, even when the whole earth is shaking. Resist fear and worry, understand that this is Satan’s strategy to paralyse you and make you ineffective for God. With thanksgiving submit your cares to God. God wants to give us peace in the midst of uncertainty. Walking in peace is not only important for our own soul’s safety but it is also a very powerful testimony of the reality of Jesus, to the confused multitude around us who are yet to know him.

Secondly, we must avoid distraction by all means because we know that time is short. Jesus said, “When these things begin to take place, stand up …” (v.28a). We need to “stand up”. We cannot afford to be complacent anymore. We need to straighten up our relationship with the Lord. It’s time to stand up. We cannot afford to be cold or lukewarm now, or else we will be lost. Let nothing distract us from seeking a deepening communion with the Lord. I encourage you to find time daily to shut out the world so as to be alone with God.

Then he says “…and lift up your heads” (v.28b). Jesus knows that distraction comes to us because we focus on the petty issues of life all around us. He wants us to lift up our heads and look up to catch a vision of what God is about in our world. You may never see it reported on TV but God is at work in the midst of all this chaos. God still loves the world and he is about to do a quick work in righteousness. God is harvesting the nations. Unless we are able to look beyond ourselves and our personal ambitions, we will not see what God is doing in our neighbourhood and in our world. Ours is a time of great opportunity and responsibility for the Kingdom of God. God wants to do an incredible work in our day, but he seeks co-labourers – you and me. I personally believe that if we will co-operate with God and pray and play our part, we are going to see in our day a massive harvest of souls in our community and among the unreached nations (particularly among Muslims) like never before.

So we have become aware that the end of times has come upon us and we are seeing the “beginning of sorrows”. Yet God is saying to us “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1 (KJV). Rather he is calling us to greater intimacy; to be focused, and to be a people of vision; to give up our small ambitions and to sacrifice to see his Kingdom come.

“As long as it is day, we must work the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4 (NIV)

Go out in Joy and be led forth in Peace

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts…singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord’ ~ Colossians 3:15-16 (NIV 2010)

We can look back now at what we have gathered from Isaiah 55 in the last two articles. The issue of getting our expectations right has to do with focussing our vision (our eyes), and that of getting our hearts right has to do with focussing our hearts. Now, this final exhortation from the last two verses of Isaiah 55 has to do with focussing our minds. Isaiah 55:12-13 says;

12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn-bush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”

God does not promise that the days ahead will be trouble-free, but he promises to make the mountains of troubles and the hills of challenges to burst into song before you. Also that the tall trees of distractions will not succeed in hindering your advance, but instead they will clap their hands as they cheer you on into all of God’s will for your life.

He promises that the days ahead will not be days of labouring and producing a harvest of thorns. He promises that instead of the thornbush you will have a harvest of juniper. Whereas the thornbush is useless and a symbol of wasted labour, the juniper is a very useful type of tree widely distributed throughout the Northern hemisphere from which men have found a wide variety of benefits from culinary to medicinal uses. It symbolises healing, strength, athleticism, and fertility. God’s will is to make you strong and fertile. He wants to quicken every barren area of your life and grant you increased usefulness and fruitfulness. Instead of being a prickly brier, he promises to turn you into the myrtle that remains evergreen no matter what the weather is like.

These are glorious promises. But there are some things that have to be present in us for these things to follow. ‘You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace’ comes before these other manifestations. What comes first is important. It is as we go out daily in joy and are led forth by the peace of God that these things will happen. It is a pre-requisite to the manifestation of these promises. There are two important things that God has given us that we must guard jealously day by day if we desire to see all these glorious promises fulfilled:  namely, the joy of the Lord and the peace of the Holy Spirit. We must choose to walk every day in his joy no matter what happens and to let his peace lead us. His joy comes from his presence in us and does not depend on our circumstances. The peace of the Holy Spirit in our spirit-man is the primary way he leads his children. We must not lose his joy or his peace.

Now that is easier said than done! You cannot imagine the kind of intense struggle I have had in the past few days of this New Year in maintaining a walk in joy and peace. The enemy will fight a battle to steal our joy and peace through minor irritations and major catastrophes, so it is going to be challenging to walk consistently in God’s joy and be led by his peace. But it is possible if we depend on him. When Moses was faced with failure after his first visit to Pharaoh brought increased hardship for the Israelites, he did what we all have to learn to do: He returned to God (Exodus 5:22). In the face of discouragements let’s make it a habit to turn to the Lord immediately and not allow our joy or peace to be stolen. There is a battle for our minds. Will we count it all joy or will we roll over and swim in discouragement? Whatever it will take to rest in the Lord and keep his joy and peace, then do it. If you have to sing out loud at the top of your voice to hold onto your joy then do it. You see, if the devil cannot steal your joy, he cannot prevent these promises from being fulfilled in your life. So guard your joy and your peace at all costs.

It is time to seek the Lord

‘Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near’ – Isaiah 55:6

Last week, it was expedient to introduce the issues before us by looking at the latter half of Isaiah 55 and speaking of the need to get our expectations right for this year. But we must now go further to say that to get our expectations right, we must get our hearts right.

That why that chapter begins with an invitation to come and drink from the waters of Life.

‘“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost” – Isaiah 55:1

This invitation is only to the thirsty. The man who is complacent, satisfied and indifferent cannot have access to these waters. No, the key to the door that leads to these waters is spiritual thirst. It is only those who are seeking that will find. It is only to those who are desperate enough to knock, that the door will be opened.

But let me point out the problem is not always that we are not thirsty. Often it is that we have not learnt to recognise spiritual thirst. Spiritual thirst (just like every other thing that we need to have in us to come to God) is a work of grace in the human heart. God himself puts it in us. (Note that God will never require of us what he has not first put in us). Spiritual thirst comes as God allows a sense of dissatisfaction to develop in our hearts. But often when God is stirring our hearts thus, we interpret it as our need for other things. We mistakenly feel that it is more of this or more of that that we need. We are like the boy Samuel who did not recognise God calling him, but rather ran to man. Or like Ephraim in Hosea 11 whom God wooed with cords of love but it is written, ‘they did not realize it was I (God)’. We too do not often recognise it is God drawing our hearts, so we run after many other things – more exciting activities, or another book, or a bigger car, or a better job, or a newer relationship to satisfy our thirst. That’s why God cautions the people here,

Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.  – Isaiah 55:2-3

God was saying ‘I am the one drawing you. Why waste your resources, time and strength pursuing those things that can never satisfy the thirst in you?’  Like I said last week, I believe we are living in exciting days when God is pouring out his abundant rain of grace upon his people. My beloved, God is not far from you. He is near – so near. He wants you to drink of him. He wants you to find him. He is saying to us:

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon. – Isaiah 55:6-7

Now is the time when ‘he may be found’. This is the time that he is near. So this is not a year to focus on seeking things from God but on seeking to find Him. It is a year of drinking from his waters until we overflow. It is time to seek the Lord. This is the time to turn to the LORD through repentance, for he is near to have mercy. It is time to turn from our own ways and make seeking the Lord the disposition of our hearts,and to make drawing near to hear him a daily discipline. Last week we said: ‘Do not tailor your expectations to fit your experiences. Let your expectations remain based on what God is saying’. It is as we set our hearts’ pursuit in the right direction that our expectations too will begin to line up to what God wants.

Beloved, I want you to make up your mind to seek the Lord this year. I am not talking of a determination (for ‘the arm of flesh will fail you’). Rather I am talking of a decision you make depending on the grace of God at work in you. Pray and say ‘Lord, I will seek you. My heart cry this year is to know you. I want to find you’. And as you focus on this all other things will be added unto you. His rain of grace is falling down, but to drink we must recognise and respond to the spiritual thirst in us.

What Are Your Expectations for the New Year?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD – Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)

Let me ask you some questions: What are your expectations for 2011 based upon? How much are you really expecting God to do in, through and for you in this New Year? How much of your expectations is coloured by your past experiences? As we prayed for this New Year the Spirit seemed to be saying; ‘Do not tailor your expectations to fit your experiences. Let your expectations remain based on what God is saying’.

God doesn’t look at things the way we do. He says:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” – Isaiah 55:8-9

Not only are his thoughts (how he sees things) and his ways (how he goes about things) different from ours, they are also higher than ours. Where you may look back at an experience in disappointment, God might actually be seeing a rich experience which is part of his work in progress in your life. And where you may look back in self-satisfaction, God might be calling you away from the complacency that stifles God-born expectations. So, what are your expectations for 2011 based upon? Let us ask God to help us tailor our expectations to measure up to all that he is saying to us – nothing less, nothing more.

Are you expecting victory over that sin that easily entangles you or have you come to terms with it just because you have tried in the past but failed? Are you expecting to bear a lot of fruit this year? Are your expectations big enough for your family, community and nation? Are you also lifting up your eyes and catching a vision of God using your prayers, giving and presence even among the unreached nations? Are you expecting God’s promises to you to still come to pass or have you lost the excitement because you have grown weary of waiting? Are your expectations based on what God has said?

For no matter what has or hasn’t been in this past year, we need to have this settled in our hearts: God is committed to fulfilling his promises. Here is how he declares his commitment in this passage:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. – Isaiah 55:10-11

In the above passage we see why our expectation or faith in God is crucial for the accomplishing of God’s purpose in our lives. The word or promise that God sends is likened to the rain and we are the earth on which it falls – through which it bears fruit. But it is not just rain and earth that gives the harvest. There is the need for good seed to be in the ground or else, though the rain may pour down on the earth, only weeds will spring up. That seed is our faith or expectation.

Beloved I believe we are living in a wonderful season of the outpouring of God’s grace. God is raining upon us right now the rain of grace through his Word that he is sending to us. With every word God sends comes grace to ensure its accomplishment. But no land receiving this rain is going to bring forth a harvest (Hebrew 6:7-8). It will depend on the seed in it – and this seed is our response to God’s word – it is the response of faith. It will depend on our responding with expectations that match what God is saying. This is what will bring the budding and flourishing in our lives.

So as we enter this New Year let me ask you again,“What are your expectations and what are they based on?” The only way to have the right expectations is to start by asking: ”Lord what are you saying to me concerning this year?“ He will show you in simple ways. He will put his thoughts in your mind. Don’t be afraid to accept and believe them.

I will continue from here next week.  May the Lord enable you to be faithful and fruitful in this New Year. Happy New Year!