BURNING WITH REVIVAL FIRE – One Person at a Time
Isaiah 6:1-8
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
Isa 6:4-6
4And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5So I said:
“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 my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”
8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
PRAYER:
Holy Spirit, Author of the Word, Your people are bowing before Your presence now – because they are waiting to hear as You speak through the lips of clay. We expect You to minister to us, the ancient Word – ever true, Ah! The Word that changes me and changes everyone who would receive. We have come with open hearts; Impact the ancient Word to our hearts now. Amen!
BURNING WITH REVIVAL FIRE – One Person at a Time
The book of Isaiah is miniature bible. It is like the bible. There are sixty-six books in the bible, and there are sixty-six chapters in Isaiah. The first thirty-nine books in the bible is the Old Testament; and the twenty-seven books, the rest of the, the New Testament. The first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah deal with the sins of the people of God: the people of Israel – including the gentile nations. You know, God is the God of the whole earth.
Psalms 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein
God is not just the God of Israel. He is the God of the whole world. And, do you know that God does not have standards? Hmm. He has one standard. He doesn’t have standards – one standard: and that is His Word. And He holds all mankind responsible for what is in His Word: by that same standard everywhere. So, God addresses the sin of not only Israel, but also the gentile nations around them. In the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah and then in the rest twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, he speaks of the Messiah that was to come to take care of this sin problem. And it doesn’t surprise us then that the issue of revival or the burning fire of revival is in the section that deals with sin, and that is Isaiah 6.
But before I proceed, I want to make sure that we understand what revival is. We’ve been praying for revival. We’ve been longing for revival. But do we know what revival really is? What is revival? Revival is restoration: restoration of life. The word is a compound word, it is two words in one: ‘re’, again; then the second half, actually, the word, as we have it in English is borrowed from Latin. ‘Re’, again; Vival from the Latin Word de vere means, to live, or viva in French, to live. Revival then is life again.
With the understanding that there is something wrong with the life that already is or there are lives that already exist. So then, who needs revival? Revival is not for unbelievers. Revival is not for those who do not know Christ. First and foremost, revival is for believers: for it is life again those who already have the life of God in them, those who already have the light of God in them, those who already have the fire of God in them. And this life is dying, or this fire is dying. Therefore they need to be rekindled. This fire needs to be rekindled. This life needs to be restored. That is why revival is for those who already have had the life of God in them.
And the word revival is used in the bible in two different senses.
In Genesis 45:26-27, it is used in an emotional sense. You remember the Story of the Sons of Jacob, when they went looking for food: to buy food in Egypt, and they stumbled on their brother Joseph whom they thought was dead? But fortunately for them he was the Prime Minister of Egypt at this point. They had gone the first trip, came back, and then the second time they went to bring their father. If you don’t mind turn to,
Genesis 45:26-27
26 And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.” And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
It is used in an emotional sense in this place.
It is used in a spiritual sense in Psalms 85:6 and Habakkuk 3:2.
Psalms 85:6
Will You not revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
There you have a tip already, and that is, revival brings joy. It brings great rejoicing among the people who are revived.
In Habakkuk 3:2
O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.
Burning with revival fire – one person at a time.
Isaiah burned with revival fire. And I want us to answer four questions:
- When?
- Where?
- How?
- Why?
Isaiah burned with revival fire. When? Isaiah burned with revival fire. Where did it take place, and how did it take place, and why? When did this revival fire take place?
Isaiah 6:1
In the year that King Uzziah died…
That’s when. It was a critical time in the history of Judah, a time of great loss, a time of anxiety, a time of great concern, nationally. Why? Because of the legacy that Uzziah left behind. The name Uzziah means Jehovah is strength. He is also called Azaraiah in 2 Kings – the same person. He succeeded his father as a king at the age of 16, and reigned in Judah for fifty-two years. A very long time. And his time or his reign was a time of great prosperity, both politically, militarily, economically and personally: they had not seen a time like that. He was a military genius, inventing weapons of warfare that made the army of Judah very powerful. And he subdued all the nations around him, and expanded their territory. And of course with those conquests, economic goods will come in.
But after all their accomplishment his biography did not end well. His success ended in failure, because his biography ended with these words: he was a leper.
God knew what He was doing when He came up with the separation of powers. Americans think that they are the first people to come up with the idea. No: it was God. Nobody could hold the office of king, the office of prophet and the office of priest at the same time. God separated them. But Uzziah, who was the king, tried to merge the office of king with the office of priests, and he went into the temple and started offering incense, which was the function of priests. And the priest came in, and they were shocked. And they tried to stop him. He was angry with them; and in a moment he became a leper. God struck him with leprosy. And they pushed him out of the temple in a hurry. And for the rest of his life he was separated from the people. You find that account in 2 chronicles 26-19-23. And so he was in that leprous state. And in that state he died.
And when he died it was a great concern because a vacuum has been created. Remember that he had conquered so many nations around them, and his absence could create a problem for Judah.
It was the kind of thing that happened when the shah of Iran died. The shah of Iran was strong, very powerful. The United States helped him to be powerful –because with the oil money he bought all the arms he could buy; and he seized some of the territories of the Iraqis. And when he died it was a strong temptation for Saddam Hussein to try to get back the land seized by the Iranians. That was why they had the war.
So that temptation could also be very strong with the neighbors of Judah when Uzziah died. And Isaiah happened to have come from a noble family. So he understood the politics of the land. So when he saw what was happening he went to the temple. How do we apply this to ourselves?
Have you observed that some of us have a hard time looking up until something or someone dear to us disappears from this scene? Some of us feel so satisfied with ourselves and with our circumstance that we do not have time to look up to God until something happens, then we are forced to look heavenward.
Isaiah’s king died, a prominent king, a powerful king for that matter; and he was forced to look upwards. If your king has died…your king could be anything that you treasure so much. Your king could be something that is important to you. Your king could be something that you are relying upon in your life, in your experience. I want you to look up.
There is another King that is alive, a King that never dies. He holds on the throne and He was in control of everything happening, not only in Judah – but in the whole world. That is the King that you should look up to.
PRAYER
Father, into Your hands I commit my friends, praying, Lord, that You keep them this weekend and in the week to come, keeping them close to You, and safe in Your hands, and free from the touch or the operation of the evil one. Deliver those who need deliverance, and dear Lord, reassure those who have lost faith. For those who have given their lives to You, give them assurance of Your salvation. And we thank You…In Jesus Name, Amen!