Those who Hear

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8

It takes a pure heart to see God (Matt. 5:8). You can attend church services, read your Bible, and pray; but if sin fills your heart, you will not see God. You will know when you have encountered God because your life will no longer be the same.

Now that God had cleansed Isaiah, he was aware of heavenly concerns and prepared to offer himself in God's service. Whereas Isaiah had been preoccupied with earthly matters, now his only concern was the activity of God.

- Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day

Blackaby was writing more than these two parts.  He was making a very valid point about life and truly listening to God.

Isaiah had been preoccupied with the death of the King. Of earthly things.  He obviously was a man of prayer because of where he was. The Temple.

It was when he was there that the Lord decided to visit him.  He saw how far his sinfulness really was between him and God.  He was sure that he was going to die.  Instead, the Lord had an angel take a coal from the altar and touch Isaiah with it. It was to take away his sins. Then, all the sudden, he could hear and understand all he was hearing in Heaven.  His mind was on things above, not on things here below.  Now that his focus was where it should be, his life would change.

We are all walking in his shoes. With the heaviness of deception, we know not just how much our vision is obscured.

We are so consumed with our immediate world around us, in our thought life and prayer life that we have little time to be consumed with the Lord's agenda.

Oh don't get yourself too down on this revelation concerning you.  Think about it.  Every single Christian has faced this. It's part of Spiritual warfare.  We do not fight against flesh and blood but we fight against the enemy of God.  The chains that bind us are of our own makings. Our own makings?  Yes, we allow and we take hold of things to add to our lives that don't belong there.  It slowly begins to drag us down. We get slower and slower.  Then before we know it we are no longer walking.  So preoccupied with life around us we forget what it means to walk.  We are enticed by a great many things. 

You forget, my dear reader, that as a Child of God, your enemy is the only one who knows you as well as God does.  Whereas God's plans are to further His Kingdom, the enemy is out to sabotage that effort. Distractions, chains, chaos.  Anything to get you to want the very things that will hamper your growth more than you would want what God wants of you.

We have all known 'button pushers'.  Satan's minions are far more subtle. They get you to push your own buttons.

The result is a life spent on the concerns of this world and not on things above.

Look in Corinthians.  Wow, the things plaguing the early church!

2 Corinthians 12:20b-21 "strife, jealousy, angry, tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip,
 arrogance, disturbances; I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced."

Those things were very real in the Churches that Paul had planted.  Not just the one in Corinth.  They are amplified in the Churches of today.  The only key difference is we have a faster way of encouraging sin than they did.

Be real with yourself and God.

Where does your mind go when you are idle?  Is it solely and only on what's going on around you?

Isaiah's was.  What changed was God came to Him.  God had come to you too.

Isaiah didn't run. He stayed and obeyed.

What have you been doing?

My life changed when I went through my own times of what probably was a coal from the altar touching me.  My focus changed.  My priorities changed.  As it happened with Isaiah, my life hasn't been the same since.  My head used to be constantly bowed down in a despair that I couldn't break free from.  In my plea to God, He began breaking the chains.  Lifting my head.  Anointing my eyes to see Spiritual things.  It's ongoing.  In am having to learn to walk again on legs that I forgot I had in this Spiritual world.  There's still baggage that hasn't been removed yet. I am a work in progress.

So what about you?  Are you like the other Disciples in the boat, holding on to it for dear life?  So focused on the storm that you aren't looking through it to Christ who says to step out and join Him?

Look at your life.  I can't do that for you. Where is your concerns, yes, even where are your worries? Your desires?  Your passion?

That's between you and God.  But I urge you to really look at things.  Freedom comes from letting go.