February 25, 2011

  • When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion & on Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:12a)

    This year I've been studying through the book of Isaiah in Bible Study Fellowship. Throughout the year there has been one verse the Lord has kept bringing me back to. Actually, it is a portion of a verse:

    Isaiah 10:12  When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem...

    So often as we seek to see God's hand rend the heavens and bring revival to a greater portion of His Church, to bring revival in a greater scale, we can be tempted to be discouraged, but this verse gives us cause to be assured of God's sovereign hand upon us, upon His Church, even as we wait upon Him. As we consider our Lord may we be strengthened to continue to seek His face for revival in our own lives, in our congregations and denominations as well as in the Church at large throughout the world. As we seek Him in the darkness, may His words to us here provide encouragement and sustenance to us as we watch and wait for Him to come again in glory to revive us again.

    When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem...

    WHEN - First we have the assurance the Lord's work will be finished. So we don't read "IF the Lord might finish..." but rather "WHEN the Lord has finished..." And so let us be comforted that the Lord's work is all under His sovereign hand and it will all happen in His sovereign time according to the counsel of His will for His glory and the good of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. Every delay in His coming has been divinely ordained by His strong arm.

    THE LORD - Who is it who will do this work? The Lord. THE Lord. The Lord of lords.

    Now, who is the Lord? Just looking ahead a few verses in this same chapter we find the Lord to be the Lord GOD of hosts, the Light of Israel, the Holy One, the mighty God. May we consider our God who is the God of hosts and is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Let us consider our God who is Light and in Him is no darkness. Let us consider He is the God who has cleansed us from our sins by the blood of Christ, clothed us with His righteousness and has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light to proclaim His praises. Let us consider our God who is the Light of Israel, His chosen people, His Church today, and we have been called out who were not His people to be His people – not because of anything in us, but we are His people and He is our God only because of His electing, sovereign grace, all to His glory alone. Consider how we have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world! Let us consider this Lord who is our God and who has chosen and adopted us  is continuing to guard and keep and watch over us, His Church, even in these dark times. Consider that He will never leave or forsake us! Consider how He is faithful even when we are not! Consider that nothing can separate us from His love for us in Christ Jesus! Consider this God who is Holy, Holy, Holy! Consider how He sent His only begotten sinless Son to die for our sin to bring us back to Him. Consider His might and power! May we not limit Him and forget He is the God for whom nothing is impossible! Let us remember His works! Let us remember He is the God who does wonders! Let us not forget His benefits!

    HAS FINISHED - Not "might finish" or "perhaps will finish" or "may finish." There is a definite assurance and confidence for the people of God who were under attack and threat at the time these words were spoken, and they provide the same assurance and confidence for us today, a definite promise that the work He has begun in His people will be finished. We can look back in history to see how God's words here regarding Judah were fulfilled just as He said, and we can have the same hope today as we look to these exceeding great and precious promises from His Word.

    ALL HIS WORK - Again, another wonderful assurance to us. Not just SOME of the work, but ALL His work. Our God has a definite purpose in mind for His Church as a whole and for each one of us as individuals. We do not know His mind, we cannot be His counselor in these things. His judgments are inscrutable and His ways past finding out. Though His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, we do know that all His workings are for His glory, our good, our refining, the furtherance of the Gospel and the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know His love for us endures forever. Therefore we can take heart in any delay or in any trial or in any chastening or in any suffering – for we know it is ALL HIS WORK, it is all coming to us through His sovereign hand. We can be encouraged to know that ALL HIS WORK for all His Church must be accomplished in His way and in His time – and that none of that work is unnecessary work. No matter the circumstance, no matter the darkness, we know His Spirit continues to hover over the waters, no matter how turbulent, no matter how high, no matter how deep, no matter how stagnant they might be. Therefore, as we are tempted to become anxious or weary or doubting in waiting upon Him, may we take heart that any delay or any sorrow or any suffering is due to His desire for us and His intention to complete all His work in us.

    ON MOUNT ZION AND ON JERUSALEM - One more assurance I would like to leave you with today:  the Lord is working on behalf of MOUNT ZION AND JERUSALEM - which in this time means He is working for all those who are spiritual Israel, all who have been saved with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by grace alone through faith alone. If we are Christ's we are Abraham's seed according to the promise (see Gal. 3). We can often be tempted to question and doubt and wonder what the Lord is doing as we look around at the sin in our lives, in the world and in our churches. We can often be tempted to question and doubt and wonder as we look at perplexing events and trying circumstances in our own lives, in the world and in the church. However, when we are mindful that the Lord is ever mindful of us – as we consider that the Lord's desire has always been and will always be for Mount Zion and Jerusalem – we will be greatly comforted to persevere in the work He has for us. As we look out and see many events in the world that seem to us haphazard or disheartening and even so contrary to God's purposes, we can be assured each and every one of them is ordained by the Lord and they are all an outworking for His love for Mount Zion and Jerusalem - for us, for the elect, for the Church today. They are all part of the Lord's plan to FINISH ALL HIS WORK ON MOUNT ZION AND ON JERUSALEM.

    May God's words to His chosen people provide us with strong consolation this day and every day.


    *Please add your PRAYERS as His Spirit leads you.*

Comments (1)

  • Dear Father,  As I was reading here this post encouraging us to remember that You alone are the sovereign God and that You WILL accomplish all that you have promised, my heart was stirred.   I have been so concerned about what man is doing and is going to do as though that somehow negates what You have purposed to do.

    In my home church, we are watching the 'votes' come in regarding a proposition in our constitution denomination-wide to eliminate some scriptural mandates for leaders in Your church and, consequently, the local church.   Personally, I have been contemplating what action I should take if this thing is voted in - if the changes are accepted.   I have always proclaimed Your sovereignty, and now I am acting as though puny man can upset Your divine plan.   Please forgive me, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.  Instead of setting a contingency plan, I will wait on You.  You have said: "They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength..."  Help me, Lord to wait, and not to fret. Help me to so want You and Your will that nothing else comes to mind before that.   All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to You my God.  Amen

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"he called it the tent of meeting..."

I am burdened to pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the reformation and reviving of Christ's church.

The phrase tent of meeting comes from Exodus 33:7: Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

This site is devoted to God first and foremost. In all that is done here, my prayer is that God is glorified and His Name magnified and Christ and Him crucified is lifted up so He might be preeminent and God might receive all the praise, honor and glory due His Holy Name. All who have come to a saving knowledge of our Father by grace through faith in the all-sufficient sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are welcome to enter this tent of meeting to seek the Lord.

This blog is a place for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to come and seek God's face for revival. My intention is for this tent of meeting to be a holy place where we can enter into PRAYER together to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit leads you, please enter into prayer either here (think of "comments" as prayers) or on your own.

Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

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