The Lord's Emancipation Proclamation (Isaiah 49:8-13)

This is what the Lord says:

I will answer you in a time of favor,

And I will help you in the day of salvation.
I will keep you, 

And I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, 

To restore the land, 

To make them possess the desolate inheritances, 

Saying to the prisoners: Come out,
And to those who are in darkness: Show yourselves.
They will feed along the pathways,

And their pastures will be on all the barren heights.
They will not hunger or thirst,

The scorching heat or sun will not strike them;
For their compassionate One will guide them,
And lead them to springs of water.
I will make all My mountains into a road,
And My highways will be raised up.
See, these will come from far away,
From the north and from the west,
And from the land of Sinim.

Shout for joy, you heavens!
Earth, rejoice!
Mountains break into joyful shouts!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

-Isaiah 49:8-13 (HCSB)

What is God's will?  What will God do?  What is it that God wills to do?  How will I respond to God?

These are some questions I have.  I got the idea that God's plan for the season just ahead is Isaiah 49.  Last time, I wrote about how important servantship is for the follower of Christ.  He wants to bring out the gift he has placed in our lives for service.

God has an emancipation proclamation, for all those who are captive, that includes getting them completely free and being restored to God's plan or design.


The Lord's Emacapation Proclamation 

This is what the Lord says:

First, we need to be listeners.  To hear, we must listen.

I will answer you in a time of favor,

When we set ourselves to focus on God, at this time, we will realize God is listening.  God is always listening, but there are periods of grace when we hear and see answers.  When we focus on heaven and on God's kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven, we come under the auspice of God's time of favor.
Favor is not something we earn or deserve.  Favor is because of Christ.  The Son is The Father's favorite.  When you are walking in the Son, you have the Father's favor.

But there is also favor for those who don't even yet understand about being in Christ.  They might be prodigals who lost their way and long for God.  Or they might be people who do not know anything about God or Christ or the Holy Spirit, who are in bondage, captive, and enslaved in darkness.

And I will help you in the day of salvation.

God is going to help you.  Need help?  God is about to do something for you.  A day of salvation is coming and almost here.  You may already be saved, but God is about to save you.  Some of us need more salvation, salvation through and through, wholly and holy.

When  God saves you, it is undeniable and beyond doubt.  Some people have only felt like they had their tickets punched and they are about to have their lives transformed by God's intervention to such an extent that they will never be the same.

Salvation is all from God.  We add nothing to it.  We only receive it.  We are about to see multitudes of people get saved, by God.

I will keep you, 

What God does and will do in you, he will preserve.  It is undeniable and indelible.  You are about to get a new life.  What God designed he is about to consign and assign.  What God starts He finishes.  What God brings to life, he keeps alive.

And I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, 

God will bring us into covenant with Christ.  A covenant is not a contract.  It is a living partnership, where both give their all to fulfill it.  When God makes a covenant, he has all the power to fulfill it, and we just have to participate in it.

When a husband and a wife make a covenant at their wedding, they each say "yes" to it and each other and to Christ, who holds their covenant together.  We are about to rediscover that becoming a Christian is to get married to Christ as our husband.  We leave everything to be married to Jesus and let him become to head of our lives.

To restore the land, To make them possess the desolate inheritances, 

God cares about the land.  God wants to bring the land back to what it is supposed to be.  God wants to cleanse defiled land.  God wants to bring people into their lost inheritances.  God wants to reassign inheritances that have been lost or deserted.

Saying to the prisoners: Come out, and to those who are in darkness: Show yourselves.

There is going to be whole sale deliverance.  Setting the captives free is part of what Jesus does.  Jesus does not save you, just to leave you in bondage.  There are people in the church who are prisoners in darkness who are going to be called out.

Deliverance is going to be a ministry in the church again, in this next season.  There is going to a cleansing of shame.  People who thought they were disqualified will be requalified through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They will feed along the pathways, and their pastures will be on all the barren heights.

The Lord will lead his people he calls out anew.  The Lord will provide in ways that were unknown before.  There is provision waiting for the one God calls anew in Christ, along the path of faith.  You can see it and procure it until you step out and move out.

Where you saw nothing to eat, from your distance, in the past; there will be food, when you walk up to that place.  You will find that God rewards faith and that what God starts, God will finish.  God gives provision for his vision in Christ for you.

They will not hunger or thirst, the scorching heat or sun will not strike them;

There are no worries for the ones who hear the call and step out.  What looks like a desert, is an oasis, for the ones called to walk across it with God.  There will be plenty to eat and drink there and God will provide shade too.

For their compassionate One will guide them, and lead them to springs of water.

The Lord will become known as their compassionate One to those who are called anew.  A wave of God's mercy is going to touch people, who will never be the same.  They will experience the Lord's forgiveness and the healing of their diseases (Ps. 103:3).

I will make all My mountains into a road, and My highways will be raised up.

The Lord will make a road through the greatest difficulties or seemingly impossible ways.  Notice that the Lord calls the obstacles "My".  They are his to make a road through for you, his child.  It's not a problem for God.

When God saves you, he redeems everything in your life.  He restores you to what he has always wanted for you.  It does not matter how bad things look in your life.  No one is too hard to save, redeem, and restore, for God.

See, these will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Sinim.

The Lord is about the call in a harvest from every corner of the map, even from the least expected places.  A time of favor and the day of salvation is imminent.  We need to see it, because there is a possibility of not seeing it.

Think about the people who laughed at Noah.  Think about the people ignored Jesus of Nazareth, when he went around healing and delivering people.  There were many people who had the opportunity to hear the message from Isaiah, who never left Babylon.

In every revival or awakening, throughout the history of the church, there have been people, in the church, who have ignored it, rejected it, or closed their doors to it.  See what God is doing.  Be a part of it.  Welcome it.

Shout for joy, you heavens!  Earth, rejoice!  Mountains break into joyful shouts!  For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

The response from those who see God saving people and see the harvest is joyful praise.  The church is about to overflow with people saying, "what must I do to be saved?", or, "I have been saved.  Now what must I do?"

We will have a celebration.

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I found the painting above here.
1. Twelve Ways To Humble Yourself, by Janet Chismar; Humility and Exaltation, by Andrew Murray