Today’s Readings:
Isaiah 54
Isaiah 60
Leviticus 25:1-22
2 “Increase is coming, so enlarge your tent
Isaiah 54:2-4
and add extensions to your dwelling.
Hold nothing back! Make the tent ropes longer and the pegs stronger.
3 You will increase and spread out in every direction.
Your sons and daughters will conquer nations
and revitalize desolate cities.
4 Do not fear, for your shame is no more.
Do not be embarrassed,
for you will not be disgraced.
You will forget the inadequacy you felt in your youth
and will no longer remember the shame of your widowhood.
The Lord says,
It’s time for pure unbridled joy. It’s time for freedom from restraint. It’s time to come into the wide-open spacious place and wide-open spacious living. Increase the length of your tent curtains. Increase them on all sides, for the day of increase is near. The day of blessing is upon you. Can you feel My love arriving in wave after wave? This is the prelude to the increase and the arrival of blessing.
Just as in Isaiah, you will feel that nations have arrived in caravans loaded down with gifts and blessings. Like Elijah warned the widow, don’t prepare too few jars. Extend your tent more than a modest amount. Greatly extend your borders and lengthen your tent, so that you may receive. Greatly open your heart and your mind to receive.
11 “You unhappy one, storm-tossed and troubled,
Isaiah 54:11-12
I am ready to rebuild you with precious stones
and embed your foundation with sapphires.
12 I will make your towers of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious, delightful stones.
Don’t be suspicious of the gift. I have sent it. Can’t you feel My love on it? Can’t you feel My provision in it? Can’t you see the fingerprints of My love on it?
One who can graciously accept a gift is one who has learned humility. It’s a proud heart that refuses good gifts. Be among the wise and humble. Don’t refuse good gifts. Don’t refuse gifts that come from My Hand. Don’t refuse the caravans of blessing that are parked outside your gates. Act like a king, like a queen. Graciously welcome them, and graciously receive. It isn’t the place of royalty to hand wring and think about how to repay. It is theirs to receive. It is yours to receive.
4 Lift up your eyes higher! Look all around you and believe,
Isaiah 60:4-7
for your sons are returning from far away
and your daughters are being tenderly carried home.
Watch as they all gather together, eager to come back to you!
5 “Then you will understand and be radiant.
Your heart will be thrilled and swell with joy.
The fullness of the sea will flow to you
and the wealth of the nations will be transferred to you!
6 Caravans of camels will cover your land,
young camels loaded with goods from Midian and Ephah.
All the wealthy merchants from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and frankincense
and singing the praises of Yahweh!
7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you,
and the rams of Nebaioth will be yours
as acceptable sacrifices on my altar,
and I will adorn with more glory my glorious temple.
Rejoice like a child. Jump for joy. Worship. Sing praises. Allow your heart and your being to be overflowing with delight. Don’t be stoic. Don’t be huffy. Receive these gifts with great joy. Watch as I Am causing your cup to overflow with blessing, with gifts, with wisdom and with truth.
This will be a time like none you’ve never known. You will not have a grid for this. You will have to learn as you go. You will be pioneers in your own lives, marking out as you go the way to live in this place. I Am telling you now — joy, delight, honor and humility, childlike wonder — these are all acceptable and worthy ways to be here.
Forget your former ways. Forget your resistance to good gifts. Forget your inability to accept them. Forget your scrambling to reciprocate. A gift is just that, a gift. Receive it with grace and all joy. I will put it in your heart how to respond, how to receive, how to return favor. Don’t resist My instruction, though it is counterintuitive, though it is opposite of how you have lived. These are new days. They call for new ways. Welcome the caravans. Feed and water them as they arrive, and accept My blessings from their hands.
11 Your gateways will always remain wide open
Isaiah 60:11
around the clock to let in the procession of kings
bringing their constant stream of the riches of the nations.
This is the delayed Jubilee. The Jubilee that was promised, that was scheduled was held up. Now the traffic has cleared, and the caravan is beginning to arrive, loaded down and full of anticipation at meeting you, seeing you, and bringing you great gifts.
How to Respond
- The Lord has been speaking about posturing ourselves in childlike wonder. Let go of resistance to joy and resistance to accepting and welcoming good things into your life.
- Ask the Lord to help you retrain your reflexes to humbly accept good gifts, compliments, and good things of all kinds when the Lord brings them to you through people.
- Declare, “the delayed year of Jubilee is arriving now!”
- Get rid of limiting thoughts, beliefs and behaviors, so that you have space to accept the blessings the Lord has prepared to pour out in your life – for you and your family.
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