Isaiah 35:10 ‘Gladness and joy will overtake them'

• DAY 29 BIBLE READING

REVELATION1-10


• DAY 29 PRAYER DEVOTIONAL

Isaiah 35:10

WHEN THE HOLINESS OF GOD GOES PUBLIC

We know that salvation has come into this world and it will come fully at the end of this age.In Romans 8 we read that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. Tom Wright says in 'Surprised by hope' ‘The early Christians did not believe in ’progress’, that the world was getting better and better under its own steam. They believed that God was going to do for the whole cosmos what he had done for Jesus at Easter…. The whole creation…. is on tiptoe with expectation, longing for the day when God’s children are revealed, when their resurrection will herald new life.’

Here at the end of Isaiah 35 we are caught up with some of the joy of this glorious future that is ahead of us. The whole of creation is going to be redeemed and restored. Isaiah 55:12 says ‘ the trees of the field will clap their hands.’ But Jesus told us to pray for the kingdom of God to come TODAY and as we pursue the Lord,as we ask for the Lord to take us on his highway of holiness,we can be encouraged that although the gladness and joy will overtake us at the end of this present age, the joy of the coming kingdom can break out TODAY.

Corey Russell expressed this passion for the kingdom to come today at the One Thing Conference in December 2013 at the `International House of Prayer in Kansas City . He said I want the manifest presence of God in my life, in our churches and in our cities, in this nation . I am desperate for the revival spirit to touch this nation. I don’t worship revival, I worship Jesus but revival is Jesus. It is the manifest presence of God when the holiness of God goes public, when the glory of God goes pubic, when God’s presence breaks in and when God shifts that landscape, where there is a tangible geographical zone , where the Lord breaks into bars and into crack houses.’


• Lord we wait on tip-toe in expectation for the glory of God to be revealed… we long for revival in our lives , we long for it in our churches we long for it in our nation. Break into our lives today we pray. We are desperate , we are hungry for you Lord Jesus. Change the landscape Lord and let the joy of the coming kingdom break out in my life, my family's life and my church today.

Wright, T Surprised by hope, 104, 115

Russell, C . One Thing Conference 2013, 31/12/13