Isaiah 54:1-8,17 (3)
I’m Breaking Out
H Lee Clay
I have lived long enough to appreciate the fact that anytime that you are trying to go to a new place or new level in your life and the enemy comes against you, you will tend to exercise a proclivity or instinct to hold on to everything you can. But you cannot fill your hands with the new if your hands are still occupied with the old. There are some things that you just need to let go of.
In chapter 54 of Isaiah the Israelites are being wonderfully persuaded by God after a bitter exile to recover themselves psychologically from the debilitating influence of their experience. I don’t know if you have or have not experienced any real battles. But one thing that I have learned about battles is that one can never go into a battle without coming out with some scars.
And it is here that God is endeavoring to overcome their sense of perception with faith.Because of the tense and alarming battle that they fought while in exile. If you’ll notice in chapter 52:1-2, He
declares, “Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. 2Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! They have a battle because they were being completely controlled and overrun by nations that did not worship their God. And in chapter 53 the prophet is crying out to them from the question, “Who will believe our report?”
And you sense then that the Lord is doing His best to arouse in them that faith again.Because sometimes when you’re faith or your expectation has been hurt, it is not easy to just wake up and charge forward again. Something has to change within your mind. Something has to change psychologically. But the greatest challenge seems to be in chapter 54. It is here that He wants to revive them and to bring them again to a place of power. If anybody is going to get anywhere in terms of advancing forward toward their God-given destiny and destination, they must understand that they will inevitably encounter some battles.
And it should be because no one gets to where God wants them to be without a fight. Nobody; look at someone and say “nobody”. And coming out of Egypt was the first battle that God‘s people the Israelites encountered. If one is going to come into tomorrow’s blessing, they must first come out of today’s curse.If you are going to walk into the victory that God has already established for those who will walk uprightly before Him, you must walk boldly and be willing to shake off some things and even some people. You must break loose from the fetters of the present.
They started this way. And it is critical to see that they had to battle their way out of Egypt.They had to fight to get to the place of blessing. And it is essential to understand that overcoming obstacles is essential to getting to the place of blessing. There is always something else in the way. And so for those of you that have signed on and you didn’t think that you had to fight I’m giving you notice today that for you to move to that next level, to get to the place of spiritual peace, emotional joy, financial blessings, and even psychological good health, you’re going to have to fight.
And it’s critical because not only do you have to fight but you have to press before your miracle. The woman with the issue of blood, she had to press her way to get her breakthrough. You have to expect to need before your deliverance comes because only “hunger and thirst” shall be filled. You’ve got to want it bad.
And the battles were not always battles that you know are coming. There are some battles that simply ambush you along the way. I remember Israel having to face the Amalekites and the ambush that they threw right at them. And sometimes you have got to fight where you least expect when you think it’s all together and it’s all fixed.
And then they had to battle in Canaan the place of God’s promise. The land that God would hand over to them. The land that they would conquer for themselves. But even in Canaan they had to fight. They had to fight the Hittites, the Jebushites, the Harvidites, they had to fight the Philistines and the Moabites. They were always fighting.
So not only do you have to fight to get to your blessing. You have to fight to keep and maintain your blessing. Because Satan is not sitting around here and desiring you to have anything that God has designed for you to have. And whenever he senses the anointing that God has on your life and that God is getting ready to move and that God is getting ready to lift you to the next level. And that God is getting ready to move some things out of your way. You’ve got to be ready for the fight.
Help me Holy Ghost. The struggle continued because in a God-ruled theocracy they failed to continue to trust God. And they had to struggle within themselves. Not only did they have to fight the outside battles but they had to fight the battle that rages on the inside. It’s because they had leaders who erred and were envious. And injustice, greed and idolatry had became the order of the day. They had to fight within themselves to give God the praise due His name and not take God’s praise and give it to another god named Baal.
They had to fight to not become like the folk that they had conquered. Like the folk who were around them because sometimes when God moves you to another level instead of remembering how and why He did it for you, you’ll try to act like somebody that you’re really not.Oftentimes it is not your failures that gives you your biggest troubles, sometimes it’s your successes that give you more trouble than your failures ever gave you. They had to fight within themselves because they had isolated God and they wouldn’t worship Him nor serve Him as they should.
And because they wouldn’t worship nor serve Him as they should, He withdrew from them. And they ended up now in frustration. And they end up suffering for the failures of their fathers. And they ended up because they would not rise up to the standards that God had required. (ELABORATE)
And then they moved into compromise. They allowed the other nations and what the other nations seemed to have to compromise their standard towards God. Please understand that whatever standard that God does to bring you where you are you better continue to maintain that standard.Don’t allow other people to seep in and pull you away from what you know got you your blessing. Amen, God fought for me and God made a way for me. It was prayer that got me to where I am. It was meditating in the Word. It was lifting up the name of God.
And you should never allow yourself to forget what gets you to the place of God. Don’t forget your worship to God. I don’t care how big you get and how much you think that you now have got it going on. Don’t you dare forget to worship the God that brought you over.Don’t forget how to throw your hands up and give Him glory. I don’t care how powerful you get, give Him the praise. I don’t care how much juice that you think that you now have,You better know that if God steps back for just a moment, the devil will step in and waste you and every thing that you have that God has given to you.
They were making alliances with other nations that had rejected God and God told them that “I Am the One that you need. I Am the One that will give you victory. I Am the One that should seek. “
But Israel ignored the prophets and ignored the voice of God and made alliances with their enemies. Look at them now. They have ended up in captivity again. But instead of being taken by Egypt they are now taken by Babylon.Have you ever been there? You know that it was God that brought you from a mighty long way. You know that it was God that proved Himself to be: “THE SOURCE OF EVERY GIFT”.
Your Bridge over troubled water. Your Shelter in the time of the storm.Your Way-maker Who somehow that you cannot explain made a way out of no way.
Your Rock in a weary land. Your Friend when you were friendless.Your Balm in your hellified Gilead. And your Mind-Regulator Who kept your mind right when the hell that you were going though was threatening to blow your mental gaskets.
And yet, although He’s brought you out of the hell of your past captivity.And yet, although He’s given you victory over the things that were trying to destroy you.What did we do? Just like the Israelites in this text, our heads got too big and we forget about the battle that’s on the inside of us.
That monster called our flesh that fights our spirit and will inspire that “internal battle”.That battle on the inside that causes us to now put our issues before His will for our lives.That battle on the inside that causes us to struggle to worship Him, & to serve Him .That battle that’s on the inside of us that makes us say one thing to Him and do another.
Look at them now. Because they have “minimized the God of glory” and “maximized themselves” God has like a Husband Whose wife has broken His heart separated from them.
Look at them now. They have left God and God has left them. The enemy on the inside of them has proven to be the source of their undoing.Their false pride has given them over to Babylon the invader.
Their faithlessness to God has given them over to Nebuchadnezzar their oppressor.Their idolatry, by which they put other relationships and things in the place of God has now become the source of their agony.
Look at them. Once prosperous and powerful. And now they are beaten, battered and bruised by the enemy that’s gotten in because their hard hearts have angered God and driven Him away.
We find a few interesting things that speak out of this text:
1.Israel’s disgrace. (But she will prosper)
54:1-3. In Israel a barren woman was disgraced, for children aided in family chores and helped the parents in their old age. Israel was like a woman who had no children and was therefore in a continual state of mourning. But by God’s sovereignty and grace He will enable her to have many children. So she will break into song and shout for joy.
2. Israel’s regathering.
54:4-8. The Lord will regather Israel the way a man would take back his wife. The nation need have no fear (cf. 41:10, 14; 43:5; 44:2, 8) of disgrace, for she will no longer be desolate and helpless like a widow. God, like a husband (cf. Jer. 3:14; 31:32; Hosea 2:16), will take back Israel, His wife.
She was unfaithful and backslidden but that couldn’t break God’s love and committment to her (Jer. 3:14)
3. Israel Security.
54:17. No nation will be allowed to defeat Israel because the Lord has so decreed. Nations rise and fall on the basis of His word. In the past He allowed the destroyer (Babylon) to overcome His people, but this will never again occur. Peace and safety are the heritage of those who trust in the Lord. And if you are a child of God this applies to you as well. If you are trusting in Christ Jesus know that "no weapon"
that comes against will prosper.
Look at the heart of God.
Israel got cocky but He comforted them.
Israel got weak but He showed up strong.
Israel’s spirit was devastated but God brought them revival. That’s what happens when you trust in my King.
He’s the Doorway of Deliverance. He’s the Pathway of Peace. He’s the Key To Knowledge. He’s the Wellspring to Wisdom. His life is matchless. His goodness is limitless. He’s the Gateway of Glory. His Love never Changes. His Word Is Enough. His Grace Is Sufficient.His Reign Is Righteous. His Yoke Is Easy. And His Burden Is Light.
I wonder, DO YOU KNOW HIM?
Just as the text declares, I too made some choices that I wish I hadn’t made. But blessed be God, He never gave up on me. And now that He saved me; Now that He has redeemed me; Now that He’s made a way out of no way,
I’M BREAKING OUT! OUT OF DESPAIR
I’M BREAKING OUT! OUT OF DEPRESSION
I’M BREAKING OUT! OUT OF POVERTY
I’M BREAKING OUT! OUT OF SICKNESS
I’M BREAKING OUT! OUT OF DARKNESS
