Necessary Revelation

(What you are about to read is a selection from a retreat I spoke at this past weekend.  It is based on the discussion of our calling and comes from Isaiah 6.)

“When we search for & gain a grander perspective of who God is, we align ourselves to more readily accept His calling & revelation.”

What do you know of God?

If you had to explain Him, how would you start?

Here is a scary question, what does it mean to be holy?  What does that look like?  We can’t fully understand the full holiness of God, but do we have any concept of what holiness is?

I ask because, why is it such a big deal that the angels cry, “holy, holy, holy…?”

Isaiah was a prophet in a pivotal time in Israel, what we are reading (Isaiah 6) is his dramatic calling.  I have never experienced a calling like this, although I would like to…I think.  In fact, not many are called in the same fashion as Isaiah.  However, something interesting happens in Isaiah’s calling that I believe is vital when anyone is called.

Isaiah received a whole new perspective on God.

Isaiah didn’t earn it.  God did the work by revealing Himself to Isaiah.

When Isaiah saw this new perspective, it blew him away and it completely changed him.

In essence, when Isaiah saw God in this way he said, “Whatever you want, whenever you want it, I will do it!”

Have you ever been mugged at gun point?  The criminal may want your wallet or watch or purse or whatever.  You give it to them because the value of what is in your wallet is not as valuable to you as your life…right?

What Isaiah witnessed of God so far surpassed anything Isaiah could imagine that anything God wanted him to do; he was going to do it.  Basically, the richness and value of God’s desire and plan had to far surpass what Isaiah could do on his own with his life, so Isaiah laid his life down for God’s desire and calling.

So the question is, can we truly live out our calling without having any kind of deep experience with God?

Do we have to experience God before we can understand the gravity of His calling?

Remember, the calling probably won’t be as dramatic as Isaiah’s.  However, the concept is the same for our calling.  

How have we experienced God?

What is this holiness that Isaiah experienced of God that revolutionized his life?

What about the presence of God made Isaiah, a good guy by anyone’s standards, fall down with a deeper understanding of just how “unclean” he was?

What about the presence of God causes people to be “undone?”

What does “undone” even mean?

Are you open to being everything you have planned for your life turned upside down if it is what God wants?

I encourage you to enter into a time of worship, here is what the hope is…that we look for a deeper understanding of God…have that desire and enter into worship…with a searching…in the hopes that He reveals Himself to us.

That doesn’t mean we walk away with perfect clarity to every answer we will ever need.

It doesn’t mean we even have most of the answers.

It means that here and now, because of what we have experienced, we are ready and willing.

That is what experiencing God did for Isaiah.

Just look and listen for what God may want to do.