Talking to the LORD about one who is broken but filled with pride, I asked concerning him and how I might stand in the gap and pray on his behalf (Isaiah 45:11). In HIS tender love and mercy, the LORD spoke a verse to me as a rhema word for the situation.
“… he kept on in his willful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him. I will lead him also and I will restore comfort to him and those who mourn for him” (Isaiah 57:17-18 ESV).
GOD said HE was going to manage it.
How can GOD promise that being righteous and having set the standard and the way, yet having given man choices? The LORD can only promise what will be done, because HE knows all things past, present, and future. Included in HIS amazing knowledge is how my rebel will respond in each situation he faces.
In Job 36:8 one is described as bound and held in the cords of his own sins. GOD promises in Job 36:9 that HE will show such a one his sins and how he has gone beyond the boundaries GOD HIMSELF has set. Then GOD declares that HE will open the rebel’s ears through problems and through discipline and tell that one what he needs to do. Then comes that person’s choice (Job 36-10-12). If one chooses to believe GOD, he will do what GOD directs. But If he chooses not to believe that which GOD has shown him, he will lose that which he was told, and he will die without knowledge.
So, for GOD to speak of healing one as HE did in Isaiah 57, we can be sure HE sees a whole lot more than we can. HE sees the choices that one will make before he makes them.
The truth related in Psalm 139 about how well GOD knows each person that has or will live blows my mind. And to think included in all that knowledge is what it will take to get my loved ones to see clearly and receive truth. It makes seeing the discipline and affliction they must endure so much more bearable for me to watch.
I find myself paraphrasing 2 Corinthians 4:15, 17 “All things are for their benefit…their light and momentary troubles are achieving for them great and eternal things that far surpass the pain of today.”
In Isaiah 57 GOD was saying that HE- the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY would heal my rebel and lead him and will restore comfort to him. I was reminded (Proverbs 21:1, John 14:26), of Jonah who was tossed into the depths of the freezing cold ocean. Yet GOD had provided a fish to swallow him, to protect and keep him safe until the time when GOD commanded the fish to spit Jonah out on dry land.
My loved ones present troubles are no more an issue to GOD, than that deep ocean.
I praised the LORD, HE knows what HE is doing. The LORD’s word that jumped off the page into my heart (the rhema word) concerning what the LORD HIMSELF was doing, assures me and gives me peace and joy, filling my heart with thanksgiving and telling me how to pray (Proverbs 3:5-7).
When GOD speaks, and you receive HIS word into your heart, choosing to believe it (Romans 10:10), it creates faith whether in JESUS, or what HE is doing in an individual or situation. For faith come from hearing (paying attention to what is being said) and hearing (in your heart) from the (rhema) word of CHRIST. (Romans 10:17).
Faith the is assurance of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction of the reality) of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
Has GOD, who cannot lie, given you a (rhema) promise? Hold on to it. If it seems long in coming, wait for it. For it is for an appointed time (Acts 17:26). It will surely come, and that not second late (Habakkuk 2:3).
Hugs
Sharon
wakemyear 