The Bible is inspired. It is the sword of the Spirit, and that sword is most effectively used when the Spirit Himself makes it burn like fire in our hearts. When we quote Scripture, there is an anointing on it; but when the Holy Spirit Himself brings it to us, it is as real as the day God penned it by a human channel.
Don’t you love the way God honors what He has done, and the way He honors His people? He knows who He is, and we know who He is: He is the Lord Almighty. He talks to us and says, “You are My friend, My servant. But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts, and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.’ ” Isaiah 41:8–9.
Do you ever feel that you are rejected? Sometimes you look that way. You are not rejected! God gives you a promise: “ ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.’ ” Isaiah 41:10a. Do not look around; just keep walking.
Only people who are afraid look back. When you see someone walking down the street who keeps looking back, you suspect that something is wrong. He is afraid—afraid of discovery or afraid that someone is following him. Do not look around you. You do not have to, for the Lord will be the one bringing up the rear. He also goes before you. He is your shade on your right hand and the everlasting arms underneath you. You are surrounded by God!
“ ‘I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing, and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, those who war with you will be as nothing, and nonexistent. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ ” Isaiah 41:10b–13.
That is what God is saying to us as we face days of persecution. People will come against us because we believe that God can again speak to His people and lead them. We believe that we will walk with God as the Body of the Lord, revived and restored in the end time.
“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; you will thresh the mountains, and pulverize them, and will make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them; but you will rejoice in the Lord, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 41:14–16.
If you can believe all that the Lord says—what He is going to do for you and the way He will be with you—then you must accept a new identity: mountain thresher. That is exactly what you will be. You will not be timid or fearful as you proceed step by step. You will break into victory after victory.
We are being brought to a place where the groaning of the sons of God, the first travail that will loose all creation, is taking place. Romans 8 speaks about this travail. God imposed futility on all of creation at the beginning, but in hope that the sons of God would loose creation from futility. The King James Version calls it “vanity,” but the better word is “futility” because that is what it is.
When you sense the travail and the futility, you may say, “What is the use of going on? I struggle and struggle and struggle; yet everything seems impossible.” An Old Testament Scripture in the prophecy of Isaiah refers to the days before the exile. God says, “I will bring to birth, and as Zion travails she shall bring forth” (Isaiah 66:8–9). There is the joyful expectancy of the sons of God who are beginning to come forth. Once we ourselves break loose from futility, we can loose all creation from it.
We will be mountain threshers, breaking futility, loosing things. You will feel it on a personal level because that is where futility is felt. You will feel it in yourself and in all of your expectations. God is telling you, “I am with you to help you to do My will. Forget your own interests for just a little while. Get busy on the Kingdom and I will take care of your interests. Great things will happen.” Seek first the Kingdom. Glorify the Lord and enter into the travail. Minister and be ministered unto. Be the Body of the Lord. Be the instruments whom the Lord calls His “mountain threshers.”
You may start out thinking that you are just a worm, but do not single out that identity and call yourself “only a worm.” Remember—God has called you a lot of other things too: “Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, My friend.” Do not focus only on the worm title.
Remember this promise too, where He identifies His relationship with you: “… you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 41:14. Learn who you are. You may be a worm as far as the strength of the flesh is concerned; but as far as God is concerned, you are His friend, His servant, His instrument having sharp teeth to thresh mountains. God is taking the weak to confound the mighty. He is moving upon you in a special way. Believe it and walk into it with all of your heart.
“The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the Lord, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights.” That is not where you find rivers! Rivers flow down through the valleys. However, He is going to start on the bare heights where nothing grows. What if God did that physically? Imagine a dry mountaintop with a river suddenly flowing forth from it! “And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land fountains of water.” Isaiah 41:17–18.
When you feel that something strange has happened to you which you cannot understand, remember that the Lord is going to let a spirit of glory rest upon you. That is what Peter was referring to in this promise: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 1 Peter 4:12.
God is preparing to bless you as you have never been blessed before. But you are always tried and tested first. It is always hot and humid “marching around Jericho.” On the sixth day they probably felt like complaining, “This is a drag. Forget it. Do you know what is facing us tomorrow? We have to get up at dawn and march around this city seven times.” But on they marched because God told them to. Before that seventh-day march was over, there were probably a number of Israelites with aching feet, and before long this got to their spirits too. But they did not dare say a word. When Joshua gave the order, the priests blew their trumpets and the people shouted. Down came the walls, falling out flat (archeologists say the walls fell straight out), so that the Israelites could move right in. The Lord had given them the city.
Do you get a little weary of praying and interceding? Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of endurance, that, after you have done the will of God, you will receive the promise (Hebrews 10:35–36). Begin looking to the Lord. Shout the shouts of Jericho, and move in with all of your heart. Gird your loins and get ready to bring the floods on the dry ground and to thresh the mountains. God gives us the assurance, “You are My servant.” We will do the will of the Lord.
We have truly been called into this glorious day of sonship. All creation will be loosed into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Perhaps you feel that you cannot make it. You are like Lazarus, still wrapped hand and foot in grave clothes. You still have the stench of death on you. The death wrappings of old habits and old conditioning have to go. You have come into life, and you must leave the trappings of death behind and prepare to move into a whole new day. Find those who still have some of the old life upon them, and help them shake it off. We will be door slammers on an old age and door openers to a new one. God will be with us to preach a Word that will change things.