SO YOU WANT THE BLESSING OF GOD!

“You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail” (Isaiah 58:11, ESV).

I believe there is a desire to have success in life in the heart of every person and every child of God has a desire to live in the blessing of the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Isaiah shared the above promise, there was a tragic irony to what he was saying. He was prophesying to a people who said they wanted the blessing of God, who followed religious routine, but it was all show. God did not hear their empty prayers or even show respect to their fasting. In fact, God was angry with the Jewish people over their showy legalistic behavior.

As a prophet/watchman, Isaiah got the unenviable responsibility of telling his own people, “God is unhappy with you!”

God’s word to Isaiah was, “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins” (58:1).

Why was God so upset? Simply put, it was because their fasting and prayer, their coming to the house of God for worship, was nothing but show. They wanted the blessing of God to expend it on their own pleasure. “You seek your own pleasure . . . fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high” (verses 3-4).

Tragically, these people had known the blessing of God. They had seen it over and over in God’s leading, protecting and providing for their nation. Even so they had drifted away from real worship to religious routine. The worship, the sacrifices, the prayers and the fasting all meant little to them. The people wanted the blessing of God but wanted nothing to do with Him. They wanted God’s blessing on their businesses but they had no intention of living like God’s people.  They had no intention of treating their employees like they wanted God to treat them.

I need to stop for just a moment and tell you that as I write this and study Isaiah 58, I hear the Spirit of God saying, “This is a prophetic word to the church in America/Canada right now. The church largely wants My blessing but they are not seeking Me!”

Isaiah shouted the message to his people, “God is unhappy and He does not respect or respond to your prayers and your fasting.” Along with this hard message of rebuke, however, came an incredible message of promise.

There is not room here to lay out all the powerful teaching and promise that Isaiah presents in this chapter. Two verses strongly stand out to me as a prescription for seeing the blessing of God and the flowing of the Spirit of God in our lives — now!

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail” (Isaiah 58:10-11, ESV).

 I think the first part of verse 10 is very clear. We are to give of our own personal resources, our money, our possessions, our time and talent to help meet the needs of those who are lost and in need. When the disciples asked Jesus to send the hungry crowd away and have someone else feed them, Jesus responded, “You give them something to eat” (Mark 6:37, ESV). Jesus refused to let His disciples off the hook then — and now. No believer today is free from the injunction, “You give them something to eat.” We all have a part to play in “pouring ourselves out.”

Find a ministry that is reaching out to the needy in your area, perhaps through your church, and “pour yourself out” by giving, praying and working to reach the needy, the underserved, the lost. You may say, “Well, this is not something I want to do. I’ll leave this in the hands of others.” If that is your attitude then don’t expect to see the blessing of God flowing freely in your life. God is not happy with followers who want His blessing so they can brag about it and fill up their own pleasure cup!

Here are the incredible promises God makes to those who “pour themselves out”

·         “Your light will rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” I believe this is speaking of the blessing and favor of God resting on your life. It will rise up out of what appeared to be hopeless despair and will become a shining testimony of God’s faithfulness.

·         “And the Lord will guide you continually.” What a promise! If God is constantly guiding, what more can you ask? If He is leading and we are listening then how can things go wrong?

·         “And will satisfy your desire in scorched places.” Even in the most desolate, unlikely circumstances you will experience God’s blessing and fulfillment.

·         “And make your bones strong.”  Tired, weary and depleted from the struggle as we “pour out” to the needy? God promises that we will experience His restoring/renewing of our strength. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29, ESV). As you pour out, God will pour in healing and restoration to the broken places in you.

·          “And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” These few words are full of the rich imagery of a productive, fruitful garden and an overflowing spring feeding the productivity of the garden. Among the images used in Scripture to describe the Holy Spirit is the word water. “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit” (John 7:37-38, ESV). This is a promise of the blessing of God and power of the Spirit flowing in and through the life of the obedient.

“You can trust His promises . . . all of them!” (David Wilkerson)