Words of Encouragement

(Note: Often the pictures that are available of the prophets are of older men, but let us remember that all these men were not old when they were called, they were young.)

                                                                                                                                In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" - Isaiah 6:1-8
                                                                                                                             You Want Me? Isaiah: I Am Not Worthy! Can you image with me for a moment what the prophet Isaiah was experiencing.  He was beholding the wonder, beauty and excellence of the Lord.  He was seeing the glory of God before his very eyes.

When Isaiah experienced the presence of the Lord, he quickly took inventory of himself.  He said, I am unworthy!  I am unclean and I am amongst a nation of unclean people.  He acknowledge against the glory of God, there was none righteous.  He said "Woe to me, I am ruined!"  What an acknowledgement.

This was not a false "woe is me" but a true cry out of acknowledging what he looked like in the sight of God.  We are quick to think highly of ourselves, yet if we looked at ourselves against the back drop of a holy God we too would say, Lord, I am unworthy!

Yet, look at what God did. The angel took a hot coal and placed it upon his lips and purged his sins.  That hot coal came from the altar.  In otherwords, it was an example of the holy fire of God that will burn off the sins in our lives.  That hot coal became the example of the cleansing that took place in Isaiah.  What makes you and I worthy to stand for God is the work of the Holy Spirit that purges all the impurities from our lives.  The Holy Spirit with fire and power changes us.

When Isaiah was cleansed, the question then came, who will go for me? The answer came quickly, send me.  Do you know we can give a quick response to the Lord to send us when we allow his Holy Spirit to have total control in our lives?  When the power and the cleansing fire takes over in our lives, we become worthy for the journey.  Not because we say so, but because of what God makes so.

I pray for us today that we allow first ourselves to be submissive and acknowledge who we are before a holy God.  Then when we do, let God have total access to us so that he can send us on the mission that he has just for us.