A Prayer For Our Generation

I read this yesterday and it really struck me as something that needs to become the cry of our hearts for our generation:

Isaiah 63:15-64:5

Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.

O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts fro those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time and shall we be saved?

I long to see God restore His glory to His church. To stretch out His hand and move once again on the earth in a mighty way. To raise up His church as a spotless bride, having no blemish or wrinkle, ready to receive her King.

 

With a Right Heart

Isaiah 58 (Amplified Bible)

1 CRY ALOUD, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins!      

2 Yet they seek, inquire for, and require Me daily and delight [externally] to know My ways, as [if they were in reality] a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God [in visible ways].

3 Why have we fasted, they say, and You do not see it? Why have we afflicted ourselves, and You take no knowledge [of it]? Behold [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins], you find profit in your business, and [instead of stopping all work, as the law implies you and your workmen should do] you extort from your hired servants a full amount of labor.

4 [The facts are that] you fast only for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Fasting as you do today will not cause your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul? [Is true fasting merely mechanical?] Is it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him [to indicate a condition of heart that he does not have]? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 [Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?

7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house–when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood? 

  8 Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

  9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,

  10 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.

  11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

  12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

  13 If you turn away your foot from [traveling unduly on] the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a [spiritual] delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor Him and it, not going your own way or seeking or finding your own pleasure or speaking with your own [idle] words,

  14 Then will you delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage [promised for you] of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

 

Oh Lord, let our hearts be right before you in this. Prepare us to truly fast not just outwardly, but inwardly, in a manner pleasing unto you. Expose any unconfessed sin within us Lord that we may be pure before you.

Edit: I just went back through and re-read that chapter fully. Wow. There is such promise there, such reward for doing well with a right heart, but such rebuke for doing it outwardly only. Verses 10-14 just rocked me though.

 

For he endured as seeing Him who is invisible

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisble.
Hebrews 11:27 ESV

Man that verse just rocked me. I’ve been dwelling a lot on faith lately, spending a ton of time in Romans 8 and Hebrews 10 & 11. I had a picture the other night of what faith is: If there is a chair in the same room as you, but in another dimension, you could walk right through it and not even realize its there. Faith is the thing that crosses the dimensional boundary and allows you to not only perceive the existence of the chair, but with enough of it, possibly even sit in the chair. Its weird, I know, but it helped me a lot when trying to understand faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [...] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what was seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:1,3 ESV 

I haven’t figured out yet why I’m connecting those 2 verses, or why the writer interjected a verse about creation into an essay about the faith of the forefathers, but I find it really interesting. Anyways, to the reason that verse rocked me: I have come into the belief, and have been attempting to practice doing so, that it is possible to perceive Christ with the eyes of your heart on a regular basis. That you can learn in the spirit to go before His throne literally and just wait upon Him, but also see Him while doing so.

A couple weeks ago I had a dream about being broke. Like, our financial issues were so troubling me that they were seeping into my dreams, sheesh. So I woke up thinking about it, and as I did, I felt the Lord prompting me to just wait upon Him. So I just went and sat on the couch and waited, meditating on Jesus. As I did so, I began to have this picture in my Spirit of me just sitting on the floor in front of His throne cross-legged, just waiting. And there was a line of people stretching out before Him standing, waiting on Him to call them up to His throne and bless them, and give them a great big hug. I kept wanting to get up from my spot and get in line so He’d give me a big hug and bless me too, but I just felt the Holy Spirit telling me it wasn’t time yet, and that I just needed to sit there and look at Him. However subtle the vision was, it was a pretty neat experience. Since then, I’ve tried to practice going there to just sit before His throne, and a couple of times I’ve been able to. I wonder if thats what the writer was referring to about Moses?