Isaiah 61:1-3 – “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”  NASU

 

You read my title and my text and just wondered how this connects?  Give me a few sessions to connect the dots before you come to a conclusion.  I want to lay a foundation upon which to build a truth from God’s Word that, in my view, is being missed by much of the Church today.  Life does not go on without changes.  Human history is not just going on in a continuous cycle of often confusing events.  God IS involved in history and is not an absentee landlord as some contend.  I believe that we are on the cusp of some incredible things in the spiritual realm that will bring radical change to the spiritual world around us.  When God acts things change!  Therefore, it is imperative that we do not settle into a rut just coasting along in the status quo spiritually.

It is my personal belief, based on my understanding of Scripture that we have come to a time when there is going to be some major shaking and changes.  God is doing things and as that day approaches things are going to change at the speed of light and many will wake up and say, “God, what is going on?  Clue me in.  I want to be a part of what You are doing.”  I believe we have an opportunity like no generation before us and we dare not sleep through it!

DOUBLE PORTION is a truth in Scripture that I fully believe in and believe that it is largely focused on the Last Generation or Last Days.  There are some things about what I will call The Law of Double Portion that are crucial for us to understand and we can lay the foundation in our text.

ISAIAH 61 is a Messianic Prophecy or a prediction of the ministry of Christ.  Jesus told us in Luke 4 that this was so.  He is our Messiah, our Pattern, our Model.  We understand this in Isaiah 6:1-2.  Then in Isaiah 61:3 we find that we will be allowed to trade our ‘ashes’ for the ‘beauty’ that God gives to us.  Trade our ‘mourning’ for His “Joy”.  We will be called ‘trees’ of righteousness, the ‘planting’ of the Lord and He will be glorified in the fruit that comes from our lives!  I find that exhilarating!

Isaiah 61:4 – – RESTORATION comes into the picture.  He will ‘rebuild’ the waste places.  He will ‘raise’ the former desolations.  They will ‘repair’ the ruined cities and the desolations of many generations.  I have noticed in my walk with God that when things look bad and do not seem to be working out God never loses hope, never gives up, and never quits!  He never says, “I tried to do something with these people, but they flopped so I guess I will just forget them!”  DOES NOT HAPPEN!!!  God made it and He can fix it for in God there is no such word as HOPELESS.

In verse 6 we are called priests of the Lord, ministers of our God and we will ‘eat’ the riches of the nations.  In verse 7 God declares that for our ‘shame’ we will receive DOUBLE, and for our ‘confusion’ we will rejoice in our portion.  So in the land there will be DOUBLE!  The last portion of the verse says:  “Everlasting Joy shall be upon them.”  That is a clue as to what DOUBLE means and it is something incredibly good because it is going to bring EVERLASTING JOY!   That will be the evidence that the DOUBLE PORTION has been received and is operational in our lives!  Verse 8 refers to an EVERLASTING COVENANT and in the Old Testament the theme of DOUBLE PORTION is always tied to COVENANT.  So our Covenant in the New Testament is enacted by the Blood of Jesus!  It is a better covenant established on better promises and those of the Old were not too shabby!  The reason it is connected to Covenant is to demonstrate just how serious God is about BLESSING us!  It is not wishful thinking it is biblical fact and promise!

I will pause here and pick up next post to lay the foundation further before we get into the nuts and bolts of The Law of Double Portion and its reality in our lives now!   So until then may God be with you as you go through your day!