Keep Praying 'Until' (Part Two)
- Nov 29, 2024
- 6 min read
Thank you for journeying with us in our reflections on prayer. I trust you will have been encouraged.
Can I recommend a few books on prayer: –
Timothy Keller’s “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God”
Pete Greig’s “How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People”
Pete Greig’s “God on Mute”
Philip Yancey’s “Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?”
This will be our last focus on prayer, so I want us to go back to Isaiah 62.
May we never stop coming to Him, giving Him no rest ...
UNTIL the breakthroughs occur and we move from deserted and desolate to a true, beautiful and right relationship with Jesus.
Until – beauty returns. What is God’s vision for us? "Until her righteousness shines out, and her salvation as a burning torch" (v1); “you will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God….the Lord will take delight in you…your God rejoices over you” (v3).
Today, Pray Until – Banner is raised (v10)
How do we live in the "until" when life is not fair, all is not always right with the world, and all we have hoped for has not yet come to pass?
We must keep faith in God. Because we know how the story ends. God will make things right. God is a just God and always keeps his promises. Do you know, God makes a way even when there isn’t one!
T. Constable said: “Isaiah called on God’s people to plan for the fulfilment of the promised redemption, return to the land… They should not just wait passively but should take steps to express and to bolster their faith in these promises. They should march through the gates of Babylon and return to their homeland.”
Verse 10 talks of a promise to return. It describes how to prepare for a way back to God.
Notice four things that Isaiah calls the people of Israel to do:
a. Pass through the gates. Not only be prepared but actually go from your old existence to something completely new.
b. Clear a way for the people. All obstacles are to be removed.
c. Build up a highway for them to come to me! Remove the stones. This could mean removing those stumbling blocks of traditions making the way open and free.
d. Raise a banner for the nations!
Raise up God’s highway!! A way of holiness, not one strewn with stones and rubbish.
Isaiah 35:8 says, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it.”
E. M. Bounds says: "Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God's saints have been held."
Do you know, Jesus is totally capable of handling your life if you let him?
He longs to create in you a godliness that has no explanation other than God has touched your life! But it must begin with a submission to Him.
Corrie Ten Boom said: "Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible."
We see a picture of this in our text today.
The wonder is that Christ reproduces His life in and through us. By the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit we are changed more and more like Jesus. The way of holiness is not that we struggle to live like Jesus, but that He by his Spirit comes to live in us.
John Stott notes: “Many of us would pursue holiness with far greater zeal and eagerness if we were convinced that the way of holiness is the way of life and peace - he goes onto say there is life and peace no other way”
The church of God must “prepare the way for the people.” It’s time to get down to work. Make the city accessible. Build up the roads for all the people to come. Identify the obstacles and remove them.
‘Raise a banner for the nations’. The word for banner is ‘nes’ meaning a flag, or a sail, a signal. Anyone seeing such should clearly see it as a sign or an instruction to follow.
Banners and flags were important means of communication for God’s people. Check out Numbers 2:2: “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses." And Isaiah 13:2 says,“Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.”
Children of Israel are to raise a banner to the world, letting the world know God is alive and well and that Jerusalem stands strong again. You see, the banner is raised by the one who has conquered and is in control.
Although this passage is about Jerusalem, you and I should also raise the banner of Jesus. A clear sign showing who Jesus is and His victory over sin and death that He has brought about in our hearts and lives.
One of God’s names is Jehovah Nissi (Ex 17:15) which means ‘God is my banner.’ How amazing is that! When we as Christians gather under the banner of God, we are saying that we have God’s power and resources available to us. The banner should not only identify Him but also each one of us as His children. When was the last time you saw or experienced God’s banner, the banner of love, or the banner of grace, the banner of hope right where you are?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if such banners were unfurled and raised again in and through our lives and the life of the church as we approach Christmas.
If we’re honest, there are far too many other banners that have just got in the way of the ones people need to see. The banner of fear, my own agenda, my work, my money, my possessions. Look at it another way... what's your banner in your family or over your relationships? How are you recognised? If we ask the family or those closest to you, what would they say is the predominant theme of your life? Is it intolerant, solemn, argumentative, sad, or is it love, gentleness, kindness and the like?
What's the banner over you at work? Is it one of apathy, dissatisfaction, stress, or is it one of joy, satisfaction and contentment?
What's the banner over the church? When people meet together, is it one of duty, monotony, joyless and lifeless, or is it one of expressions of praise, love and fulness of joy in Christ - the amazing life He has given to us?
Our Lord, reigning supreme must be our banner.
Stop and consider
The banners should be a reminder that God is moving and working in and through our lives. Do you see it?
What about if you ask yourself, "What are the signs of His presence, His promises and His plans in my life?"
If there are still things that aren’t right, what do you do "until?”
You remain persistent in faith in the promises of God, even when the fulfilment of God's promises are not visible to you at the time.
Isaiah 62:11 says, "The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: ‘See your Saviour comes! See, His reward is with Him.'"
When everything is not right and everything is not fair, allow God to gather up the broken pieces of our lives and to put a new heart within us that enables us to see beyond the ruins to a future with Him. You and I need to discover we are sought after by a loving Saviour.
Friends may have left you, the future may not look great, your life may have betrayed you, but our God is a loving God and has come to save you!
We’re not to be downhearted over what we once were, we’re to celebrate all that God promises we will be! That should give us hope!
We must allow God to breathe new life into our very beings and revive our vision for those things that so often feel impossibly out of reach.
Our text in Isaiah is the call to be confident and have faith in God’s purposes and His plan for restoration, to raise the banner of good news to all those we will come into contact with this Christmas.
Give Him no Rest
Until – Breakthrough happens
Until – Beauty returns
Until – Banner is raised
"They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted" (v12).
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