What Happens When God Comes to Us?
Isaiah 35:4-7
Pastor Jim Luthy
"Be strong." "Don’t be afraid." "Your God will come." These were the encouraging words that the Lord instructed Isaiah to tell the people who were floundering in the wilderness of judgment and exile.
James also encouraged us: "Come near to God and he will come near to you."
John the Baptist was a little less encouraging and a little more direct: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
What do you think when you hear these words of the prophets? Do you get excited about God coming near? Afraid? Isaiah said, "Your God will come." Is that a promise or a threat? What happens when God comes to us? As we look at that question, I think the answer will make you hungrier than ever to come near to God and have him come near to you.
As a young adult I worked at a health club selling memberships. That job was high pressure. We were under great pressure to sell, meaning our customers were under great pressure to buy. We made used car salesmen look like philanthropists. The sales manager for our region was a power lifter named Craig. Craig was very big and very intimidating. I would be spending time waltzing around the club, visiting with the members, and Craig would call the receptionist. She would mouth to me, "It’s Craig," and I would run off like a puppy with its tail between its legs as though Craig could see through the phone and would come through the phone line and grab me by the throat and fire me because I wasn’t in my office making cold calls. He scared me. He scared our whole staff. He actually fired one of our sales guys when he visited our club because the guy smelled bad. When we knew Craig was coming, we were ready for him. We would have phone calls lined up, tours scheduled, and pre-arranged sales ready to close while he was there. Why? Because we feared Craig.
There is a place for fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord alerts us to be ready. It is reflected in John the Baptists message, "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" and also in Amos’ warning to Israel, "prepare to meet your God." But fear is not the whole of the story. It makes us alert but it does not motivate us to desire his coming. John the Baptist preached repentance because he knew that God’s message was not that he wants us to live in fear of him like we lived in fear of Craig. He wants us to be ready so that we can enjoy him. We can’t enjoy him if we are ignoring him or disobeying him or dishonoring him with our sin. So we are called to repent not only to avoid his anger, but beyond that, to delight in his goodness, his holiness, and his everlasting love for us.
It is not what happens when a frightening God comes near that makes us want him to come. It is what happens when the love and power of God comes to us that makes us hunger and thirst for him. And the promise is clear that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. God does come to us. He comes with divine retribution, meaning he comes to make things right for us and with us. I want to give you three good reasons to be ready.
Healing
The first thing we look forward to when God comes near is healing. Isaiah says, "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy." The gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give one report after another of people that were healed by God in the flesh. Blind men. Crippled men. Even a dead man was raised when God came near in the person of Jesus.
After Jesus ascended into heaven and God came to the early church as the Holy Spirit, accounts of people being healed continued. Throughout history, whenever revival came to a city or country, these revivals were marked by accounts of people being physically healed. During the early part of what Tony Cauchi describes as the 5th Great Awakening from 1880 onwards, which featured the ministry of D.L. Moody, C.T. Studd, and Andrew Murray, God came near to Christian & Missionary Alliance founder A.B. Simpson. Simpson was miraculously healed of a chronic heart disorder during a vacation at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. With that experience, Simpson ensured that the good news of healing was part of the whole gospel message we proclaim. We ought not reject that message now.
While John the Baptist was imprisoned for preaching, he sent some men to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah:
"When the men came to Jesus, they said, ‘John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
"At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (Luke 7:20-23)
Jesus proclaimed that these healings were a sure sign that God had come. When God comes to us, you can be sure that there will be physical healing. Tammie and I have seen him heal our son, Connor of an ear infection. Dan Zollner had a tumor in his head shrink. Last year, Gloria Smith testified that one of her legs was loosened up at the hip and lengthened, relieving some of her pain, after she called the elders to anoint her with oil and pray for her. These things are real. Gloria was only healed in part, but there will come a day when she will be healed in full. Now we see in part, but there will come a day when we see in full. We have only tasted his healing. When God pours himself out upon us, the banquet of healing will increase. Isaiah proclaimed it. Jesus demonstrated it. Simpson experienced it. We’ve tasted it. We must be ready!
Spiritual Awakening
The second reward of God’s coming is spiritual awakening. Every visitation of God’s power in the history of the church has resulted in a spiritual awakening among the people. When God comes to us, spiritually blind people begin to see the truth about God. They begin to see God as he is revealed by the scriptures and the Holy Spirit when they couldn’t make sense of him before.
When God comes to us, spiritually deaf people begin to hear God when he speaks. As Henry Blackaby puts it, "God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal himself, his purposes, and his ways." Those who once couldn’t understand it when they heard people say, "God spoke to me," begin to recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice.
Spiritually lame people begin to walk. You know those people who claim to know God but seem to stumble all over themselves when they try to follow him (people like you and I), they begin to find obedience much easier as they experience the power of God and stand on the grace of God to say "no" to ungodliness. As Isaiah puts it, they begin to "leap like a deer." Their Christian walk begins to demonstrate the kind of power and grace we see in local whitetails.
Isaiah also points out that the mute tongue will shout for joy. When God comes to us, we cannot help but praise him and express our joy. When the Holy Spirit came upon the first church, the people were utterly amazed as they said, "We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" When God comes, he loosens our lips, and we cannot help but tell of all we have seen and heard. When God comes, the joyless begin to shout.
God also comes to refresh the tired and weary. Isaiah describes water gushing forth like streams in the desert. The dry ground of our hearts is broken up and made fertile by the living water of God’s spirit. Do you know what it is like when it is so hot that you sweat just standing in the sun, and then you have an opportunity to dip into a nice cool swimming pool? When we experience the presence of God, the circumstances of life that make us feel like we’re walking on burning sand suddenly become like pools of refreshment—not because the circumstances go way, but because we have the living water of God’s Spirit flowing over us and in us. When God comes near, we can count all things joy because we know that even the fires of life are preparing us to know God and become more like him in our character.
And finally, regarding this spiritual awakening, let it be clear that when God comes near, the oppressed break free. Those jackals that are holed up in the haunts of your soul will be cast aside. God heals our physical bodies, for sure, but he also heals our damaged emotions. He clears up the pain of the past. He casts out those fears and doubts and habits and strongholds that make God seem so distant to you. He eliminates those demons that have attached themselves to you as though they have a right to live there. When God comes, he sets you free. He takes out the old and puts in something new. In the haunts where jackals once lay, he sprouts up life.
Joel prophesied for the Lord, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy (the mute speak), your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions (the blind see). Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." Those days of spiritual awakening began when the church received the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The same awakening awaits all of us who draw close to God.
When people are awakened spiritually, the church and the community are revived. Geoff Waugh concluded, "Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts." Jonathan Edwards described the characteristics of revival as first, an extraordinary sense of the awful majesty, greatness and holiness of God, and second, a great longing for humility before God and adoration of God. Arthur Wallis observed that "revival is Divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. It is God revealing himself to man in awesome holiness and irresistible power."
We heard a testimony of awakening when Jeff Bither shared how God revealed himself through his liver transplant. We saw evidence of that awakening in the testimony of Scott and Daina Woods, as God quickened their hearts to know him and see his deliverance in the midst of substance abuse and marital struggle. We have tasted and seen, again in part. When we draw near, we will be even more alive to God. When we stand in glory, we will be awakened in full. We must be ready.
Community Transformation
Wallis continued, "Revival must of necessity make an impact on the community and this is one means by which we may distinguish it from the more usual operations of the Holy Spirit." When God comes in power to heal us and awaken us spiritually, it impacts the whole community.
When David Brainerd took the message of redemption to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at age 29 just four years later, a revival broke out that impacted the Native American community. Baugh writes, "The revival had greatest impact when Brainerd emphasized the compassion of the Savior, the provisions of the gospel, and the free offer of divine grace. Idolatry was abandoned, marriages repaired, drunkenness practically disappeared, honesty and repayments of debts prevailed. Money once wasted on excessive drinking was used for family and communal needs. Their communities were filled with love."
In 1857, four young Irishmen began a weekly prayer meeting in a village school. The next year, more prayer meetings started and revival was the common theme of the preachers. The next year, 100,000 people were converted into the churches of Ireland in what is marked as the beginning of the Ulster revival of 1859. By 1860, crime was reduced and the judges had no cases to try. One county in Ireland reported no crime and the no prisoners were held in the jail. It was the greatest thing to hit Ireland since the ministry of Saint Patrick. Services were packed with people, there was an abundance of prayer meetings, family prayers increased, Scripture reading was unmatched, Sunday Schools prospered, people stood firm, giving increased, vice abated, and crime was reduced significantly.
In the Welsh revival that occured around the turn of the 20th century, 100,000 outsiders were added to the churches. Again from Baugh: "Drunkenness was immediately cut in half, and many taverns went bankrupt. Crime was so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves signifying that there were no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider. The police became ‘unemployed’ in many districts." This is my favorite part… "Stoppages occurred in coal mines, not due to unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foulmouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that the horses which hauled the coal trucks in the mines could no longer understand what was being said to them, and transportation ground to a halt."
Church, we’ve tried so many things to try and change our community. We’ve picketed abortion clinics and wrote letters to the editor disagreeing with people’s positions and actions. We’ve elected or tried to elect Christian men and women to public office. Have we not learned that these things do not change society? Done primarily in a spirit of judgment rather than love, these kinds of actions have simply alienated us from the world we’re called to reach with the love of Jesus. But when judgment begins with us and we humble ourselves and seek God’s face and pray, then God will heal our land. He must come! We must be ready.
Waugh concludes: "Revival may not be wanted because it involves humility, awareness of our unworthiness, confession of sin, repentance, restitution, seeking and offering forgiveness, and following Christ wholeheartedly. It then impacts society with conviction, godliness, justice, peace and righteousness. This is not always welcome."
Do you welcome revival? Are you wanting to see God come with healing in his wings? Are you in need of a spiritual awakening? Do you long to see our community transformed?
Welsh revivalist Evan Roberts insisted on 4 actions from those who truly sought God. You might say these are the ways we can strengthen our feeble hands and steady our knees that give way:
1. You must put away any unconfessed sin.
2. You must put away any doubtful habit.
3. You must obey the Spirit promptly.
4. You must confess Christ publicly.
Let me point out the good news in this. Putting away unconfessed sin and doubtful habits is uncomfortable. Obeying the Spirit promptly is not always desirable. Confessing Christ publicly is not always "safe." But the prize is this: your God will come. He is faithful to come as he promised. He is faithful to give you his Holy Spirit to see and hear him. He is faithful to give you the strength to press on. He is faithful to put praise on your lips and joy in your heart. He must come! Are you ready?
