Isaiah 59:1 – “BEHOLD (sit up and take note), the LORD’S hand is not short (Aramaic idiom, which means He is not helpless), that it cannot save; neither is His ear dull that it cannot hear…”

As I read, prayed, and contemplated the Word of God today, the first words I read encouraged and challenged me.  The beginning of that challenge came from Isaiah 59:1.   The next verse focuses on why they were not enjoying the presence, peace, protection, and provision of God.  It was iniquity.

I sense that the Holy Spirit wants me to focus in a slightly different way.   The focus was not on iniquity but the place of forgiveness that is realized IN Christ.   Psalm 24:3 asks, “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD?  Or who shall stand in His Holy place?”  The next verse tells us, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not sworn by his soul falsely, nor taken an oath deceitfully.”  That is our position in Jesus through the new birth.  Born again into the newness of life.  A transformed, recreated person with a clean slate in life.

Isaiah 61 is about Jesus, but also about us because He said in John 14:12 that what He did, we would do.  How or why is that a possibility?  Because He opened the door to a new life in union and partnership with Him, “Christ IN us…”   

Out of that union, we have been commissioned and equipped to GO into the world, proclaiming the Good News and manifesting Him.   As God told Jeremiah, before he was even conceived, he had been designed for a particular work and ministry.  That is true for each of us.

This God who has called, created, commissioned, and purposed us is capable!  Isaiah 55:11 is our guarantee, “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it SHALL NOT return to Me void (incomplete or unfulfilled), BUT it SHALL DO what I please, AND it SHALL accomplish that for which I sent it.”

God can!   God wants to!  God will keep His Word!   Our responsibility is to trust and obey!   It is complicatedly that simple!   Complicated because of us.   Simple because of Him.  Let’s get self out of the way and be who He says we are through who He is.

Rejoice, today is a day of victory in Jesus!