Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, "declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:7-9
What a powerful scripture. Man as intelligent as he thinks he is, not even in the ballpark when it comes to Godly divine wisdom and knowledge. We try to compare our intelligence to a God who spoke everything into existence with just a word. He is everywhere at one time, past, present and future. Not a hair on our head ever falls to the ground without Him knowing about it. He hears every word, thought and prayer all at the same time and hears them all individually. He knows what it is we need before we ask,
Do we think we are going to get over on Him ?
That's why He said:
Let the wicked man forsake his way and his thoughts.
Why do you think that Isaiah wrote this scripture in the way that he did ?
Most people would think that it was just the accepted language style back then, some would say that he was pre-occupied with being holier than thou, and some would look deeper to find out what the real reasons were. In order to understand Isaiah thinking processes you have to know a little bit about him. Isaiah was called to prophetic service during the reign of Oziah (Uzziah), king of Judea, and he prophesied for 60 years during the reign of kings Joatham, Achaz (Ahaz), Hezekiah and Manasseh.
The start of his service was marked by the following vision:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “ Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1-4
You know what Isaiah did when he saw this ?
The prophet cried out in terror, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”
To look and see God in all of His glory illuminated and in the brilliance of His countanance is deadly to the human body because it cannot not take it all in, we go into a short circuit immediately because we are not built to with stand the presense of a glorified God because He is awesome beyond our abilities, so that is why Isaiah screamed out in terror and hit the deck face down. Then there was an intercession from the angel to protect him from death:Then was sent him one of the Seraphim, having in hand a red-hot coal, which he took with tongs from the altar
of the Lord. He touched it to the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah and said, "Lo, this has touched thy lips, and will take away with thine iniquities, and will cleanse thy sins." After this Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord, directed towards him,
"Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?"
What a powerful event in Isaiah's life !!!
How would you act if that were you in the presense of God ?
It is the same question He is always asking of all those that serve Him. He wants us to bring salvation, healing and deliverence to all those who are far from Him.
"Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?"
Isaiah answered,
"Here am I, send me". And so began a commitment that lasted for 60 years after that moment. And we say the same thing, send me Lord !! This is my commitment to God for the rest of my life. This ministry has always been my calling. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.
Do you know what the problem with our thoughts are ?
They are nothing like God's thoughts because we have a problem. We have a sin nature in us that is against God, it is against the laws of God, we are alienated from God in our thoughts right off the starting blocks. It is easier to live in sin than it is to live the way God wants us to live. Because living in sin has only two requirements:
1. Feed the addiction
2. Buy into the lie.
The addiction is anything that you put before doing what is right, wether it is alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling or money. You cannot serve two masters. To do that is sin.
Do you know what sin really is ?
A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to redefine what the meaning of sin is all the time. They come up with formulas that delute it from what it really is, they try to white wash it, make it into a not such a bad a thing after all, but no matter how you try to make it come out it is just simply this:
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4:17
The King James Version says: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
If you know what is right and you refuse to do it, you are a sinner. That's as simple as the bible gets. You can talk all you want and try to change the wording in the bible to say whatever it is you want it to say, but it is still not the truth. When you stand in front of that mirror and you have come up with a way to mask your shortcomings and make them pleasing and acceptable all you are doing is buying into the lie.
Buying into the lie has two parts to it:
1.
You lie to yourself.
2.
You believe Satan's lie to you.
We just said about looking is the mirror and lying to yourself is, very simple.
There is another lie that keep us paralized, How could God love me ?
How can God love you, very simply you just won't believe it. But buying into the third lie is just a little bit more complicated because Satan wants you to believe God just wants to punish the world for being sinful.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
God doesn't want to destroy us, God wants to pardon our sins, not condemn us. He wants to be a part of our lives and have fellowship with us. But Satan has lied to us and turned our hearts away from God because he has a plan for you too. He wants to torture and torment you in imaginable suffering for an eternity. That is his plan for you. Satan is very easy to figure out unless you just don't care, which is a lie in itself too, Satan gives you the best of everything he has to offer right up front and then it all down hill from there. All you have to do is look around you and you see the hardships that living in sin brings on you, you see the hardships that it brings people you know.
People are destroying their lives and their bodies for what ?
A moment of what you think is pleasure, fun, excitement. It don't look like that fun to me because I've lived it. I was miserable, I was cold and I was empty. But I believed Satan's lies because I was goofy and used to tell everyone that I sold my soul to the devil even though I really didn't mean it.
How dumb is that ?
How could I sell something to Satan that he owns already ?
It's not that I thought I could really sell my soul but what I was really feeling was that I wasn't worthy to come and ask God, I didn't feel He wanted to forgive me for everything that I had done to that point. But that is what the difference between a God who wants to destroy you and a God that wants to have a relationship with you.
The fact is that none of us are worthy.
In Romans it tells us this:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:22
We are unworthy but that is what grace is all about. The definition of grace is this:
1 a: unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification
b: a virtue coming from God c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace 2 a: approval
, favor
graces> barchaic : mercy
, pardon
c: a special favor : privilege
d: disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency
e: a temporary exemption : reprieve
Grace is something that we cannot do anything to earn. It is a gift of God given freely because He loves us. But to say I sold my soul to the devil is just plain stupid. That's just one of the lies we tell ourselves hoping we get a laugh out of our friends, but there's only one person really laughing and he can't wait to get his hands on you.
So Satan wants you to believe that God wants the pleasure of condemning you and in reality it's just the opposite.
Jesus said in John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Wait a minute !!! I thought God wanted to send me to hell !!!
Well You Thought Wrong !!! Because your thoughts are programmed to hate the God that loves you so much that He sent His Son to die in your place, you really don't know what God's love is really about. That's why He says:
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3:16-21
That's why God told Isaiah:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, "declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 6:8- 9
We cannot begin to know how much God loves us because we won't let God show us, we have to wait until everything is coming apart at the seams before we even begin to think about calling out to Him.
Why ?
We've bought into the lies, it's as simple as that. We would rather lie to ourselves, and lie to everyone around us in order to feel comfortable about the things that we are destroying our lives with. Misery loves company, except in hell. There is no break in hell, you can't take five and catch your breath, there is no hold on a minute, I'll get back to you on that, or let me smoke my cigarette or joint first because that's not what hell is about. It is confrontation every second without rest, it is isolation and total hopelessness, you have no friends and no one to cover your back because they want to tear you apart too. Fear that is overwhelming to the point of insanity, and it never ever goes away because it is forever, for an eternity With out hope, with out deliverance. That is the reward Satan has for you.
Well some of you will say “I don't believe in hell.” Maybe not now, but you will.
There is a prophecy about these times we are living in, it was written by Paul the apostle, let's see if Paul was right or not when he shared this with a young Timothy.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. I Timothy 4:1-5
Whichever way the wind blows is where people go. If it is blowing one way they go that way, if it blows the other way they go that way. That is what the bible calls blown about by every wind of doctrine. It means you will believe whatever the most popular belief or fad is at that moment. We are living in a time now where the spirit of atheism is sweeping the country as well as some of the churches. That doesn't mean all churches are bad, you just have to find one that won't buy into the lie with you.
We are in the very last days, morality as well as right and wrong are being questioned more now than any time in history, Hollywood is putting out movies that are trying to lead our youth down the paths of immorality, promiscuity and away from God. Video games are trying to desensitize our kids to death and destruction, music is all about sex, lust and homosexuality. Satan has people in addictions that never existed 30 years ago that are almost impossible to break. Diseases have come to this land that are more destructive and deadly than any of the strains before them, cancer has taken many of the people you know and aids has killed more people in the world than any plaque before it and it's all because we think these are plaques sent from God to destroy us when in reality they are a result of our lifestyle choices and the person who brings sickness and destruction to our lives,
Satan the Devil.
And all this is only because God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. We've tried to water down the laws of God to fit our lifestyles, to be able to justify our twisted thinking and lives. We have lied to ourselves and bought into the lies of the Prince of the Power of the Air. We have convinced ourselves that we can bend the rules and get away with it.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 16:25
Look around you and see if you're living the way that God intended you to live, if you can say your not then you have to quit lying to yourself and let Him help you the rest of the way. If you can say that you are truly happy living the way you are, then this message isn't for you because you're still not finished lying to yourself yet. But if you aren't happy and you know you need to change then you need to reach out now and don't worry what people think about you. You are going to stand before God alone so what they will think doesn't matter.
Jesus wants to change your life and make your life fulfilling, not empty and hollow inside. Jesus said that if you call on the name of the Lord, YOU WILL BE SAVED. It is His promise to you.
God said through Isaiah the prophet:
so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
God's promises are real, You just need to quit lying to yourself long enough to find that out. Prayer Time
