Enlarge!
Whenever God is about to do something significant, he tells his people in advance so that they can be a part of it. He looks for leaders he can trust, then instructs them in what they should be doing to prepare his people.
In Isaiah 54:1-3, God was doing exactly that at a key point in Israel's history. Israel was feeling barren and forgotten by God. Today, many European churches have never been 'in labour'. They are not producing spiritual children; they are feeling spiritually barren and desperate. Europe has seen no great awakening in modern times.
Isaiah 49:14 could have been written about many European churches: 'But [Europe] said, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me…' (because I am childless). Yet God promised that Israel would once again be productive.
Israel's cities had been laid waste. That, too, is the way it is for many European churches and cities. Many have lost their spiritual life. However, God promised that Israel's children, or offspring, would spread out and bring those cities to life! A new generation will arise to bring back what Israel had lost.
Isaiah 49:8 talks about God's promise to 'restore the land [and] reassign its desolate inheritances' God was going to re-establish the places he had promised to give his people, but which they had lost.
It's interesting to note that right through these passages, the new move God is promising is a generational one. Isaiah 54:13 says that: 'all your spiritual children shall be disciples, taught of the Lord and obedient to his will - and great will be the peace and undisturbed composure of your children' (Amplified version).
What, then, does God tell them to do to prepare for all this? The answer is in Isaiah 54:2. He tells them to:
- Enlarge (lit. broaden, make bigger, make cover more ground) the place where their tent (dwelling, covering, home);
- Hold nothing back (lit. do not restrain, refuse or refrain)
- Lengthen (stretch) the cords of the tent
- Strengthen (establish, maintain, encourage) the stakes
In modern terms, he was saying this:
'Build a bigger house, go for it big-time - build a stronger, deeper foundation and construct a taller, stronger frame. You're going to need it for all the children I'm going to give you and all the new growth you're going to see!'
This is the word of God for Europe today: ENLARGE. God is telling us again what he is about to do. He is bringing about a generational thing which will cause the church to take back the desolate cities or wasted cities and to seize her inheritance again.
God is telling us that we must build a bigger house! And that unless we do the preparation work, the promise will not be fulfilled - at least not in your time! Whether we are in business, in a profession, in ministry, whatever our walk in life - we must begin to believe for and work toward bigger things!
Let's look at the key words in this promise through the prophet Isaiah:
1. 'Do not hold back':
This literally means two things:
First, do not restrain anything - keep nothing back. We are not to be stingy, saying 'I can't afford to give that!' This is a time for liberality, for extravagance in giving. Our God is 'El Shaddai', not 'El Stingy'.
Second, do not refrain from anything - refuse nothing that is given to you. Don't say., 'I can't receive that, God doesn't want me to have that.' Probably the major thing that stops you and I receiving what God wants for us is false familiarity: thinking we know all that God has for us and limiting him to that.
Jesus went to his own home town but could do no great works there 'because of their unbelief'. They thought they knew everything about Jesus - who he was and what he could do - so not open to receive.
This is why Israel was forbidden to have idols. Idols caused false familiarity which robbed them of further revelation and blessing. So, don't refuse anything God wants to give you to fulfil the call and promise on you life.
2. 'Lengthen your cords'
Cords are important - they hold the structure upright, linking it to the foundation. For the church today, cords represent leaders who transfer the strength and shape of the promise and vision into tangible, practical forms.
Heads of churches and ministries must work to build leaders we can rely on; people we can 'put weight on', who won't fail when adverse winds blow. If we want and expect a 'bigger house', we must build bigger leaders to accommodate it!
3. 'Strengthen your stakes'
Stakes hold the structure to the foundation. They give it a grounding on something solid which doesn't move when the storms come. For us, stakes might represent the promises of God upon which our whole vision is based.
The process of building anything for God does not begin with vision. The first thing is a promise and a call. God not only calls us but he also shows us what future will look like as you obey him.
After the promise, comes purpose - the vision of what we will build as a result of God's favour upon us.
The practix follow the purpose. Once you have vision, you begin to construct a strategy, a plan for how you will go about building the vision.
So, before anything else we must have a promise from God. And once we receive this, we must 'strengthen' our hold on the promises and really build them into our lives. The meaning of the word 'strengthen' here, is to 'establish' and to 'encourage' and to 'seize or be urgent' in something.
We must establish the promises by recording them. In the Old Testament, memorial stones were not only used for remembering the past, but 'remembering' the future. They reminded people of where the covenant was taking them.
Then we must encourage ourselves in the promises by referring to them, going over them again and again. That's what Psalm 1 means when it talks about meditating on the word of the Lord 'day and night'. We need to chew over those promises until we get the full 'taste' of what they mean.
Then we must seize the promises by responding to them - acting as if they are going to come true. Hebrews 11:33 says that this is how we 'obtain [take hold of]' the promises.
So, there are desolate cities God is wanting to restore - now! There are 'barren' churches God is wanting to bring to life - now!
He has told us what he will do, now he calls us to ENLARGE so that we can receive the promise!
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