We Need You Now!

Isaiah cries out for God to come and visit the earth with such magnificence, such ferocity, that the mountains quake, and absolutely everything recognises exactly who God is. This is revival. He prays for God to come down and impact himself and those around him (God…who acts on behalf of those who wait for him), and those who do not know God, or are against God (make your name known to your enemies).

Isaiah wanted God to make an entrance. He knew God was everywhere, and that he didn’t have to ‘come down’, in that sense, but just to bring a bit of his Kingdom with him to show what people are missing out on. And he wanted the people of Israel to remember that their God was with them. So he asks God to come in such a way that people have no choice but to take notice – God’s people and God’s enemies.

Isaiah prophesied the coming of a Saviour to earth. Did the people Isaiah spoke to and the following generations think that God would make the kind of entrance that he did about 700 years later?

Verse 2 says 2 ‘As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!’

He wants God’s coming to cause such a stir, that people have to react. Isaiah uses the example of fire, twigs, and water – talking about natural occurrences. In the same way, it is only natural for people to react to God when he comes into contact with them.

We see this in Acts chapter 2, when God sends his Holy Spirit. God moved in a way that no one expected but its effect was massive – 3,000 lives in a single day!

For Isaiah, his passion was for that in his time, God making a move that turned people back to him. Is that kind of impact what we are looking for from God for now?

Isaiah has confidence in his God’s power to come into this situation and make a difference.

1. He’d seen it before, E.g.

2. His faith and closeness with God told him that God works for those who follow him.

3. He’d met with God, Isaiah had entered God’s throne room and seen that God wanted to forgive, and that he still loved his people.

Isaiah knew that there was nothing that could compare with God – the only one who ever has, will or could act SO perfectly for those who follow him.

This is the confidence that we should have.

We have seen God working. Haven’t we? (Wait of reaction)

We have met with God – maybe not in quite the way that Isaiah did, but we have God’s Spirit inside us and we believe that he works for our good.

And we have the Bible – the word of God promises that he will deliver, he will provide, heal, protect, comfort and strengthen.

Do you have confidence in your God, that he can do what Isaiah asks for, today?

Isaiah’s passion is clearly evident. – ‘rend the heavens and come down’ – don’t waste any time getting here, we need you now! He’s desperate for God to come and change his nation’s situation. There is sin, disobedience, threat of foreign attack, complacency, unwise leadership. Does that sound familiar? Have you seen these things? Some of these things, we can see in our place of work, or study – we don’t need to look at a newspaper, or hear about another country.

Isaiah intercedes on behalf of those who don’t know God, or have turned their backs on him. He is pleading to God on behalf of his family, neighbours, friends, bosses, the rest of the country and other nations.

Isaiah was put in a position where he could see these things going on – and we’ve been given the same responsibility, to look at the things round us, and the people around us, and passionately intercede in prayer for God to change these situations and lives.

But it doesn’t start outside. It starts with us. Here and now.

Firstly, do we have anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God? How can we intercede for others if we have not yet confessed these things ourselves?

And secondly – do we have the passion that Isaiah had? – do we cry out for God to come down and impact our lives and the lives of those around us? Do we see the need for it?

Passion to see God move can cover anything. Anything that concerns you. Two examples:

• My best friend concerns me. (explain why… non-Christian etc)

She concerns me, but am I concerned enough to ask God to come down and impact her life so that her mountains tremble, and she desire’s to know God for herself?