Lord cleanse me so I can Go: Isaiah 6
Isaiah 6 is usually referred to as the call of Isaiah when he stepped into the office of a prophet, however, I would like to shift focus on the salvation of the Lord taking place in Isaiah’s life so that he could be all the Lord called him to be, not just a prophet but His overall. When the prophet Isaiah had a vision that took him to heaven and witnessed the glory of God in its fullness, he quickly encountered what the angels were declaring about God, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory”, Isaiah 6:3. When Isaiah first encountered the glory of God, his thought was not to become a well-known prophet that would be greatly talked about centuries later, but it was that He needed cleansing because God was just that Holy and worthy to be in awe of. He needed God’s help to purify him. It was like the presence of the Lord exposed all of Isaiah’s iniquity and the need for the Lord’s touch. This is how it is for believers today every time we dwell in the presence of the Lord, when we see how holy and good the Lord is, we can’t help but see how much we need Him and how much we need Him to make us like him in holiness. Do you ever think how many people who proclaim Jesus, act differently in the sanctuary than outside it in their regular lives? The people they hang around are different, the language they use is different, and their behavior is different, even the lukewarm are aware this is a place that you come in with reverence whether you truly understand it or not. What I love however is that the angels declared that the whole earth is full of the Lord’s glory, meaning that we don’t just “straighten ourselves out” when we get to church but that we honor the presence of God by how we live in our earthly temples, our bodies. In verse 5, prophet Isaiah cries out unto the Lord after his realization and says, “Then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” In the New Living Translation, it states, “Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” When we receive sight to see the Lord in truth we also receive the sight to examine ourselves and discern what is taking place on this earth correctly.
In this season, the prayer ringing in my spirit is the prayer of Isaiah, “Lord cleanse me! Loose one of your angels to put a burning coal to my mouth and heart so that no iniquity is found in me! Lord cleanse me like how you cleansed Isaiah and put your words in my mouth like How you did prophet Jeremiah” (Jeremiah 1:9). I am not praying this prayer so that I look like a god in people’s eyes, but so that I am righteous in the Lord’s eyes and that any desire for me to be praised or any desire that I have that is against the Lord’s will for me dies. The times are getting more serious, having a heart eager for the lust of the flesh is not something we can afford to have. We have to learn how to delight in the Lord at all times, not get distracted, and not backslide from living a holy, pure, and intimate life before the Lord. Though desires may present themselves, they can not stay, they must go in Jesus’ name. The life and call God desires us to live is worth more than anything the enemy is trying to make us jeopardize. The Lord has been showing me that I need to get myself out of the way and not interfere with what He wants to do through me and in me. I have been under a surgical work that requires me to give up the pride I had, the thoughts, and ideas I had of how I thought God should move in my life, and killing people pleasing. God is trying to make me a dead man walking, completely free from the world’s way of living and thinking, and completely alive in Christ, where I serve Him without limitations. It has been uncomfortable for my flesh but I know that the Lord will Keep me, so I can pray things such as “Lord, keep me pure” or “God, do what you have to do to keep me saved” and know that I have my request.
The beautiful thing about the prophet Isaiah receiving salvation from God the Father is that he called out and asked for it and God did not deny him of it because he had iniquity but immediately set Him free. God wants us free from everything that keeps us from Him. Wanting to be pure before God is not so that we can avoid hell but so that we can have good fellowship with the Father. The more we look like Jesus, the less we feel like we have to force ourselves to worship him, our love and appreciation grow for Him, and simultaneously our fear and delighting the Lord grows too. Growing deeper in the Lord is not for spiritual warfare, wanting a blessing, or even wanting to be elevated in something but because of love, God loves us so much and wants us to experience His love in these different things that we go through. We go through these things so that our faith can grow in God and so that we can love Him more because of the new revelation that we have on how God loves us. Healing? Oh, look how Jehovah Rapha loves you! Emotional Healing oh look how God loves you! Got married to a man who loves you well and treats you like Christ? Oh, look how God loves you! Answered prayer! Oh, look how God loves you! Did you wake up this morning? Oh, Look how God loves you! People came up against you but it didn’t destroy you? Oh, look how God loves you! Sometimes you just have to boast in the Lord and say “Look how God loves me” and thank the Lord!
The presence of God not only made Isaiah aware that he was a man full of sin but so were the people who he dwelled with on earth, this is not to say that Isaiah was the worst of sinners, he may have been a man who grew up knowing the Jewish law and upholding the customs. However, his plea for cleansing did not come from him comparing himself with other humans, like most of us typically do, but to the standard of holiness which is God. He knew that both he and everyone on this earth needed the Lord. When we gaze upon the Lord in true worship, we will no longer find ourselves carrying the title “Christian” through pride and self-righteousness nor do we evangelize as if everyone is going to hell except for us. Instead, we do it through the personal conviction that we have gotten from dwelling in the Father’s love. May I remind you all of a story the Lord Jesus told about a self-righteous pharisee and a man, a tax collector who acknowledged he was not even worthy to look unto heaven where God dwelled:
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”- Luke 18:9-14 NKJV
A disclaimer I would like to make is, that when we say we are saved it is not to say we are Holier than thou but it is a declaration that Jesus saved us from some stuff, he saved us from a life of sin, and blessed us with a life of freedom we could not get on our own but that Jesus did it for us! Jesus is the God of our salvation! It is from the well of Jesus, that we get living waters that come out of our bellies to testify about the goodness of God and evangelize it to everyone we know. This is the same living water that caused the woman in John 4 to go and evangelize to her whole village. Saying “I’m saved is not to boast in self-righteousness but to smile with joy and testify about who did the saving”.
Phase 2: Cleanse me Lord so I can go!
A prayer of surrender, keeping us right with the Lord, to be pure, the prayer of Isaiah, asking God to keep us even when it’s tempting.
