Let us read from Isaiah 50. We see that Isaiah was a prophet, appointed by God and anointed by God. I was thinking about the strong verse, he was delivering and the verse he was sharing, was to show them the correct path. And Isaiah wanted them to come to the right path. This is what came to my heart when I was thinking of sharing. A familiar verse in Isaiah 50:4 The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.” As I was praying about it, I took it to my heart. God showed me the areas in which I need to repent and as we have come to the year 2019 end, December, I was thinking the way each month has gone by and how God is leading us. As we also saw last week, how God is looking for the fruit in our life and how far are we able to perform. If we put it in the graph against the months going on, from starting with January, February, March, and so on till December – how does the graph look? I was looking at myself and this is what came to my heart. Isaiah 50:4. “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples.” Why He is giving the tongue of disciples? That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a Word. This is the reason. We need to know how to sustain the weary one with a Word.
Isaiah 50:4-7 “4 The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. 5 The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back. 6 I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. 7 For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced” Here we see that Isaiah mentions clearly about the prophecy about Jesus. “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples.” There is a discipline we need to maintain with our tongue. We need to have a disciplined tongue. Why? We know that the tongue is a fire and is very difficult to tame. We see in James, that the tongue is a fire. “That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.” This is the reason why we need the tongue of a disciple which is also a tongue of discipline. We need to have a word, a word to sustain the weary which is possible only with a disciplined tongue. We see above verse; ‘The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciple.’ We see clearly that, “Me” is Jesus. He could comfort the downtrodden. This is what Jesus had done in His earthly life. Dear brothers and sisters, let us have this disciplined tongue for a brother or sister. A word to sustain the weary or downtrodden brother or sister. This is a disciplined tongue. Also, here in Isaiah 50:4, it says “He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”
Here we see, that even disciplined ear is also required. We need to cleanse us all, dear brothers and sisters. Here we see, morning by morning, we get up and seek the Lord and listen to the Lord. Have an open ear to the Lord. We see Jesus also, morning by morning he went to the Lord and listened to Him. He got the word from the Father every day. Isaiah 1:10 “ Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah.” Here we see, Isaiah is a strong prophet giving strong words. We see later in Isaiah 6 :1-8 his commission there. One of the verses that encouraged me, was Isaiah saw something in verses 1-3. He saw “a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
The whole earth is full of His glory. Dear brothers and sisters, if we compare ourselves in this light, there should not be any part in our body, that is not full of His glory. We should be full of God’s glory. This is what God wants. Also, we see, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” When Isaiah saw the glory of God, when he saw the throne of God, he knew he got something in his life. If we meditate on His Word, day and night, God will show us an amazing revelation of Jesus in our life. We see Isaiah here, from giving the strong words, now he came to realize he got unclean lips, when he saw the glory of God. When Isaiah saw the throne, he saw his unclean lips and also, that he was surrounded by the unclean lips. “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” When we see the glory of God, dear brothers and sisters, we will be able to see ourselves in the light of glory of God. There are colleagues with unclean lips. Wherever we go, there is a world filled with people having unclean lips. Dear brothers and sisters, are we able to see the throne?
Here, Isaiah saw something else also. He saw an altar. Also, at the altar, he got his deliverance! We see here, that “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.” Here, Isaiah saw an altar and the coal was taken from the altar and they touched it on his tongue with tongs. This is how he got his deliverance. Whenever there is a chance, we go out of His will and when we are able to move, into the filthiness of this world, slowly, slowly, we are getting entangled with the people around us. We need to see the “Throne” every time and we need to see the “altar”. If we are able to see these two, the throne of mercy and when we are able to come to the altar and submit ourselves at the altar, He is putting the coals. If we submit like that, we see that the whole earth is full of His glory. We compare this world to our body. All our body parts, our eyes, our ears, our tongue. If we see the throne and the altar in our lives, we will be able to cleanse ourselves. It is not so easy but God will help us 100%. We may slip here and there. We may make a lot of mistakes. But if we are able to repent and if we are able to come before the throne and see the altar, He is able to help us.
In Jeremiah, we see that He is also a strong prophet. We see the anointing which Jeremiah got. Jeremiah 1:4 “Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Before we were in the womb, before we were a small embryo, before we were a small speck, He knew us. Here it says about Jeremiah that, “I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” There was a special anointing on Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.” We see his humbleness. I cannot do that which the older people are doing and when he comes with a humble attitude, God is saying that, v7, “But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, “I am a youth”, Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak.” Dear brothers and sisters, what an encouraging word! It is God who is equipping us. It is not through our flesh. He is the one who is helping us to speak. Says here, v8. “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.’ v9, “Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” This is how Jeremiah is getting confirmation, that he is getting word in his mouth. V10, “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.” Jeremiah was anointed to do these things. There is a clear ministry here. He was anointed to do something. That is, to pluck up, to break down, to destroy and to overthrow and then, it comes to build up and to plant.
Dear brothers and sisters, on the basis of this word, are we able to destroy whatever ungodly thing is there in our lives? So that God can build us up every day, in His likeness. He wants to have His nature in us. When my authorities or elders try to pluck me or to break me down and destroy and overthrow, literally, they are not going to pull you down, but the elders are appointed to pluck out, whatever is not Christlike from our life, so that we can yield to the Word and have a Godly life. Verse 10 says, “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.” In engineering terms, there is a term called “controlled explosion” which is collapsing a building with an explosion in a controlled way. In the light of this, dear brothers and sisters, there should be a ‘controlled explosion’ which needs to happen in our heart. In a controlled explosion, the debris won’t fly all over wherever it can. It will flow only in a limited area unlike when we use a dynamite where, because we won’t have any control, the debris will fly everywhere. In the Church, we have brothers and sisters, who are specifically appointed for this. Am I allowing this controlled explosion to happen? If my elders tell me something, where I need to repent, am I able to listen to it? I was thinking, in these terms, when a controlled explosion happens, the debris won’t fly. This is how, controlled explosion has to happen in our heart. There is no grumbling. The debris is not flowing out. It is between you and God. And you accept that explosion, which is tearing you down. And we see the result, it is going to help to build you up. It is going to give you a new field. A new seed is sown, growing into plant. Before building, it is landscaped, it is made into a level ground, then whatever structures are there, they are brought down by the explosion, whatever it is. Then the building up is going on. When I allow myself to be broken, to be laid down, the Lord can do a miracle in my life. Then He can build us. He will seed us and we will be grown into a plant bearing fruit. And through that, other brothers and sisters can enjoy the fruit. Are we able to do this?
In a Rig, when fire happens, they extinguish it by ‘cutting off the oxygen supply’, as oxygen helps the fire to grow. The same technology is used here. In my life, if there is an argument between brothers or at my home, if I have a strong tendency to ‘talk’, this is the solution. Cut off the oxygen from there. This came to me very heavily. When I have a tendency to ‘talk’, or when I talk much, God showed me to cut off the oxygen from there. Once the oxygen is cut off, the fire goes out. We see in James how the tongue is compared to fire and it says that through a small ignition, the forest is set on fire. The only way is to cut off the oxygen. Are we able to cut off the oxygen through multiple explosions in our heart? Are we able to keep quiet and submit ourselves to God? Dear brothers and sisters, I need to repent, where in my life, I have the tendency to talk much or to argue or to talk more to project myself. Am I able to cut off the oxygen with a controlled explosion? Let the Holy Spirit work on us. God will use you mightily. We can help other brothers and sisters also, who are weary and downtrodden. If we do not allow the controlled explosion to happen in our life, we won’t be able to lift up other brothers and sisters, as we won’t allow God’s nature to come into our life.
One of the things that encouraged me is from Colossians. Paul had a burden in his life and we also have that authority in the Church, where we need to lead our brothers and sisters into that godly nature. Colossians 1:25 – 29 “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” Paul was appointed as a steward and he was supposed to preach. It was not for him; he was anointed for the Church. There was a mystery hidden, but now is revealed. There is the riches and there is a glory in this mystery. As the verse 28 says, “we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” This is the responsibility of an elder in the Church. To present every man complete in Christ. To be able to do this, we need to control the areas and we need to repent on the areas, God wants us to repent.
Even at home, at Church, we are responsible. We need to teach our children, our brothers and sisters, so that they can stand as complete and perfect in Christ Jesus. Verse 29 says, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” We see the purpose for which Paul was having a burden. There is also “striving” according to His power which works mightily within me. Holy Spirit is there, to help us and others, to stand complete in Christ Jesus. We see in 1Corinthians 14:3-4 “But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.” This is what we need to do, dear brothers and sisters. We need to speak to the men, for the edification, exhortation and consolation. We need to challenge, comfort and console each other every day. Are we able to do this? We need the Holy Spirit to do this every day in our life. Because Bible says in James 3:5, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” . With this tongue you can do two things. We can either set a forest on fire or we can encourage them.
What are we choosing? Are we allowing God to do that in your life? Where Isaiah saw God, he saw the throne and the altar of God. Every day, are we able to see the throne of God and are we coming to the altar in full submission? Otherwise, we see our tongue is a fire. As in verse 6, And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. The whole body is getting burnt up, dear brothers and sisters. This body, God has given us, to have an overcoming life in us and He wants us, our every part of our body, to have the glory of God. The whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Through a small error or a small argument, we can set up our body on fire. Do you want to do that?
We see that God gave us a beautiful land ie; a beautiful body, so that we can conquer the lusts in us. 1 Corinthians 10:6 says, “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.” There is a ‘craving,’ in our life to want to have something. Verse 8 says, “Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day Verse 10, “Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” Dear brothers and sisters, are we able to come to God and repent? Or are we grumbling? Are we allowing ourselves to the controlled explosion, where the debris does not fly everywhere? Are we yielding? Verse 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
I need to come to the Lord, to the throne, to the altar every day so that I may not fall. Verse 13 says, 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. We see here that God is faithful. Through every temptation, there is a way of escape. And the way of escape comes through the throne of God and submitting ourselves to that altar, every day in our lives.
Thank God for His Word.
