Isaiah 65: 17 For, lo, I am creating new heavens, and a new earth, And the former things are not remembered, Nor do they ascend on the heart (come to mind).
21And they have built houses, and inhabited, And planted vineyards, and eaten their fruit. 22They do not build, and another inhabit, They do not plant, and another eat, For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, And the work of their hands wear out do My chosen ones. 23They labour not for a vain thing, Nor do they bring forth for trouble, For the seed of the blessed of Jehovah are they, And their offspring with them. 24And it hath come to pass, They do not yet call, and I answer, They are yet speaking, and I hear. 25Wolf and lamb do feed as one, And a lion as an ox eateth straw, As to the serpent—dust is its food, They do no evil, nor destroy, In all My holy mountain, said Jehovah!
The creation of the new heavens and earth is a continuous process as we speak the word-co-creators with God
Before they call I shall answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
We are entering into a new age, we don’t have to pray for revival it is coming whether we are ready or not. We don’t have to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit, we have to get ready for it. And the Lord is going to teach us how to have a pure heart, how to walk in perfection.
This Scripture presents the positive picture of what the sons of God will walk in. The spirit of futility which is upon creation has harassed the people of God, and they have been in a conflict with satanic powers over it. But now the positive side must be emphasized. The release of creation and of ourselves from futility is to bring forth the plan and purpose of God and the order which He had in mind all the time.
What God is bringing forth now is not just another movement; He is progressively bringing forth a remnant who is the progenitors of a new age (those who bring forth). They are the ones who are opening the door to many things.
In times past, even going back to the time when Abraham received promises, people would pray and receive a Word from God, and then cry out to the Lord about that Word; but years would pass before the fulfillment of it came.
Hebrews 11:39–40 describes those who received promises from God, and though they embraced them from afar, they died without receiving the fulfillment of the promises. With prophetic vision they realized that someday there would be a people who would walk in those promises and blessings. They prophesied things that seemed unreal, because they did not see them. Some of the prophets inquired concerning the things which they themselves prophesied (I Peter 1:10–12). They did not even see them clearly, but they looked forward to the day when these things would be fulfilled.
Abraham lived almost as many centuries before Christ as we live after Christ; and Abraham, with all his faith, simply walked with God. He was called a friend of God, and he believed that what God had promised him, he was going to be. He did not stagger at God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations. At the end of his life he could point to only a handful of people who had come forth from his loins. He certainly did not see a logical fulfillment of the promise in his time. But the promise to Abraham is being fulfilled today in us who are in Christ Jesus.
In the past when people received prophecies it would sometimes take years for them to come to pass. This, of course, was a time of impatience, because everyone wanted God to do it yesterday instead of today. Nevertheless, He gave the promise first and then began to work the conditions into the person so that the promise could be fulfilled; then He fulfilled it.
As the years are passing, what God is speaking is being fulfilled within decreasing periods of time. Instead of two or three years, prophecies may be fulfilled within two or three months. Where will this all end, and what is it leading to? It is leading to the days of the Kingdom when the hearts of the people are prepared by God. When He gives them a Word, there is not a lot of flesh that needs to be repented of before the Word can come to pass. Instead, to speak the Word will find it falling upon a heart that is prepared for fulfillment.
God is dealing with His people deeply today because He is preparing their hearts to be receptacles of His Word, so that when He speaks, it will happen. As we are prepared, we will echo what the little boy said in the Tabernacle long ago, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth” (I Samuel 3:10). Of that little boy it was said that God let none of his words fall to the ground. He was a prepared vessel of the Lord, prepared by the agonizing cries of his mother, Hannah, even before he was conceived. He was lent to the Lord as long as he would live, and he was taught very early to hear the voice of God and to have a heart that said, “Lord, You speak. I hear it. I am ready to do it.”
In the days of the Kingdom, prayer will be different than it is now. “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” The days will come in which it will be difficult for us to finish the prayer before it is answered. The realization of what is coming must dawn upon us, because hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13:12).
Therefore, constant repentance and heart-searching, as God deals with us for a deeper and deeper dedication, will prove fruitful beyond what has ever happened to us. Think what can happen when a thoroughly prepared congregation comes together to hear the Word of the Lord, and to worship. Think what will happen within a single service when the creative force of God is fully turned loose! We need to have the vision to foresee that this is only the threshold, the beginning of what can happen?
Usually as we see a season pass, we can mark a person’s growth. However, God gave a promise from Psalm 144 which is to be fulfilled in our day: “Thy sons shall be as plants grown up in their youth.” The day has come when young men will spring into maturity. They are going to spring up so fast that their growth will exceed that of Jack’s beanstalk, which sprang up overnight. Because their hearts are prepared to hear a Word from the Lord, immediately they will become that which is embraced in that Word.
Let us be so receptive that just as God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, so He will say now, “Let there be a prophet,” and there will be a prophet; “let there be a prophetess,” and there will be a prophetess; “let this situation come to judgment,” and it will come to judgment. It must be that way. If we go on with what we have from the Lord, content with what the Lord has possessed of us, we will never reach that goal.
Let us have the hunger, the cry, and the yearning after the Lord. Let us learn what it means to stand and cry in agony, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name! Thy Kingdom come! Thy Kingdom come! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done! Thy will be done! Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven!”
When that prayer becomes not just something that we learned in Sunday school but something that has become the yearning cry of our hearts, then as total believers we will be able to bind the kings with chains and fetters, for this is the heritage of God’s people (Psalm 149:8–9).
Will the Kingdom come forth with observation? No, it is within us. When God has prepared our heart, and He speaks, out of us will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Out of us will come forth the reality that God wants in the whole earth. Let this truth reach the very depth of your heart. Let this text have meaning to you: “I create new heavens and a new earth … be glad and rejoice … I create Jerusalem for rejoicing, and her people for gladness.” This translation indicates that the word for is not in the original. The original manuscript reads, “I create Jerusalem rejoicing, and her people gladness.” “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people; and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”
How can we get into this joy and rejoicing? It is very simple. In our minds, intercession must cease to be the quest for a petition to be answered. Intercession, as well as repentance, will have to be a continual state of being in our hearts, a continual crying unto the Lord, so that we will always be ready for the Lord to speak a Word and for it to come to pass within us.
As it is now, God speaks a Word, and we go through a process of preparation—repenting, coming to faith, and beginning to intercede for it—and months later we give birth to its fulfillment. The Word falls within the womb of the heart and is received; then we proceed to see that thing created and growing within us.
Isaiah 65 is the chapter that precedes the prophecies of Zion travailing; but notice the promise of Isaiah 66:7–9: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth, and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God. We misinterpret this Scripture if we think that the results of Zion’s travail will not be seen for years. Intercession and travail are taking place within God’s people; and when they have become what God wants them to be, then the Scripture will be fulfilled which says, “Before she travailed, she brought forth.”
In days past, we may have felt that by fasting and prayer and seeking the Lord we would ultimately come into a place where God could bring His Word to pass. But now we should be continually in the state where it can come to pass. God is bringing us to a place where no longer will the Kingdom of God come through a long process. A nation will come forth in a day. Before Zion travails, she will bring forth. God said, “Before you speak, I will answer. While you are yet speaking, I will hear.” Let us become instant channels for God’s Kingdom.
Soon the Holy Spirit will prompt us to pray for something, “Lord, give me—oh, there it is,” and before the prayer is out of our mouth, we will have it. we need to anticipate how the Holy Spirit will constantly be prompting us in a creative understanding of what God wants to bring forth in our life and in the church? To pray will be to literally release it into being!
Prayer becomes the activation of revelation and authority after God has first purified the vessel and made it ready. Prayer actually will activate the revelation and the authority that God gives, because He has prepared the vessel. Many times we may have seen the conditions and realized that we could not meet them, or at least we knew we had not met them. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask what you will and it shall be done” (John 15:7). “Whatsoever you ask, when you pray, believe that you have received it, and you shall have it” (Mark 11:24). The tense of the verbs may be confusing, but it is the only way that the Scriptures could express timelessness. The day will come in the Kingdom when we will pray with faith and believe that we have received it, and there it will be.
Isaiah prophesied that a man’s lifetime will be like the days of a tree. A man who dies at the age of one hundred will seem to have had a premature death. This is not speaking of people who have passed into transformed bodies; it is referring to the days of the Kingdom. This generation is about to see a reversal of the futility, decay, and corruption that is upon creation. We are about to see principalities and powers bound, and a whole new remnant come forth that will speak these things into being and create them by the power of the anointed Word within their mouths. The living Word will become so fantastic that to stand and prophesy will be to see a valley of bones become an exceeding great army of the Lord! Let us not only believe this; let us reach for it.
If you are in spiritual conflict, rejoice. Remember that it is not a way of life; you are just battling through. When you take the summit, it is all yours. After a little guerrilla and mop-up action, you will soon find that the balance in the spirit world is completely reversed. The spiritual climate will be changed. Instead of being on the defensive, be on the aggressive. The accuser of the brethren will become the one who is judged, accused, and sent into judgment by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the prince of this world is judged (John 16:11).