Isaiah28
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he
speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may
cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
In Isaiah 28 we see a
promise that God made to Israel but which they would not believe or receive. He
promised a time when He would give them another tongue and stammering lips. He promised
to give them rest and refreshing. He promised to cause them to rest, to relax,
to have shalom peace by this gift that they would receive. We now know that
this promise was one of the several promises of the infilling of the Holy
Spirit.
Act 3:19
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord
Peter also speaks about
this day of refreshing when preaching in Jerusalem. He says that when we repent
and believe on Jesus, times of refreshing shall come to us from the presence of
the Father. Father will send us refreshing by His Holy Spirit. That promise in
Isaiah28 shall come to pass.
The Holy Spirit brings us
rest, refreshing and shalom peace. He takes away the heavy burden. He breaks
the yoke of sin, weariness, the old nature etc.
Isaiah10:27
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden
shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and
the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
Jesus promised us the
same in Matthew11
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My
yoke is easy and My burden is light."
The Holy Spirit by His
anointing breaks the yoke that is upon us and takes away the heavy burden we
have been carrying. He replaces it with the yoke of Jesus which is easy and
with the burden of Jesus which is light.
MORE PROMISES OF REFRESHING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
As we discuss these there
are two things we should bear in mind. First is that these prophecies in the
Old Testament aren’t prophecies to us. They have been fulfilled in Christ. They
are present day realities to us who are in Christ. They are promises and
blessings that are available to us.
2Corinthians1
20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in
Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you
in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us
the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
All of these promises are
unto us who have believed. They are yes to us in Christ and Amen in Him. Amen
means so be it. Let it be unto us as these promises say. Our job is to say
amen. To acknowledge. To receive. To yield and accept.
2Peter1
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by
glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and
precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
As we accept and
acknowledge Christ in us, we accept and acknowledge who we are in Him. As we
know and accept and believe what He has done for us and who He has made us to
be, we become what we believe and acknowledge and yield to. As we behold,
meditate on and understand the glory of God, we are transformed into that same
glory that we see by the Holy Spirit.
2Corinthians3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This brings us to the
second point we should bear in mind. The Holy Spirit is the doer of these
things. He is the one who manifests these promises in us. he is the one who
brings them to pass. As we discussed earlier, Father is the client, Christ is the architect, Holy Spirit is the
builder of the house.
He is the one doing these
things in us. He is the one bringing the promises to pass. He is the one at
work in us by His Spirit. He is the parakletos according to John14:16. The Counselor,
Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby. Refer to the previous
classes we did; Who is the Holy Spirit, The Ministry of the Holy Spirit and The
Names of the Holy Spirit for more details.
Christ has already
purchased these blessings and promises by His blood, our job is to believe them
and receive them. As we declare Christ, we declare them. As we testify of
Christ, we fulfill prophecy. The testimony of Christ is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation19:10
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said
unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that
have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy.
As we believe and receive
the gospel, we believe and receive all these promises. We believe and therefore
we speak. These are not things God will do tomorrow or in the future. These are
things He has already done in Christ and is doing in us now by the Holy Spirit.
2Corinthians6:2
For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Now is the acceptable
time. Now is the day of salvation. Don’t postpone this any further.
Like Israel in the
wilderness, we have delayed to possess our inheritance in Christ. Christ has
already given it to us, He has already paid the price, and He has already given
us the victory. But because of our unbelief, we have delayed to enter the land.
We have delayed to possess the land. Now God is saying to us like He said to
them; You have dwelt in the wilderness long enough. It is time to possess.
Deuteronomy1
6 "The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying:
'You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and
go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the
plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast,
to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the
River Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land
which the LORD swore to your fathers- to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- to give to
them and their descendants after them.'
We have dwelt long enough
in unbelief. We have dwelt long enough in sin and weakness and poverty and
shame and insignificance and powerlessness. Now is the time to possess. The
Holy Spirit is here to take us into possession of our inheritance. He is the
guarantor of the inheritance as we saw earlier. He is finishing in us today
what He finished already at the Cross.
So bearing these two
points in mind, first that all these prophecies and promises are already ours
in Christ and secondly that the Holy Spirit is doing them in us now, let us
proceed to look at a few of them that concern rest and refreshing.
Psalm107:35
35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water, And dry
land into watersprings. 36 There He makes the hungry dwell, That they may
establish a city for a dwelling place, 37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest. 38 He also blesses them, and they
multiply greatly; And He does not let their cattle decrease.
This is what the Holy
Spirit does in us when we are filled with Him. He turns our wilderness into a
pool of water and our dry ground into fountains. He makes us fruitful, blessed
and mighty. He increases us, He prospers us and makes us great.
SEE ALSO ISAIAH35, ISAIAH41,ISAIAH43, ISAIAH44, ISAIAH49, PHILIPPIANS3:3, GALATIANS3:26-29, JOEL2, EZEKIEL37, EPHESIANS5
Comments
Post a Comment