Awake To His Promises
“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord:…” Isaiah 51:1 NKJV
Four times in this chapter we are told to “listen” or “hear this”. So we know that this is really important because he is drawing our attention to it. This chapter from Isaiah speaks prophetically about the good news of Jesus. Those who were the original hearers of this word from Isaiah were looking forward with hope and encouragement to the time of their Messiah’s coming. We read this today from the opposite perspective. We are the recipients of what they longed for. We are looking back on the words of Isaiah and seeing them as a promise that has been fulfilled for us already by Jesus. All of the promises that are in this chapter have already been done and they already belong to you as a believer in Jesus. So, we need to “LISTEN!
We are told here that we need to listen to the good news that is already ours and not listen to the words of the deceiver. Listen to the Words that you have the opportunity to read every day in His Word, read those words and listen to the truth and promise that is there for you today.
Two times in this chapter Isaiah says “Awake, Awake”. We need to awake to the work that has already been done for us in Jesus and realize the promises that are right now ours. Awake to the Word of truth.
In verse 16 we read this: “And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ “
The readers of this from Isaiah’s time were encouraged to listen to this truth that was a part of the future for them. They had to believe for the promises from the other side of Jesus, before He became flesh and lived, died and rose again for us. They could only see this as a promise a far off. You and I look back and see that all these promises have already been fulfilled for us. He has in fact now put His Words in our mouths. We have the Word of God and the authority of Jesus name to stand on those Words in victory. We are the people of His promise. As we speak those words He has put in our mouths to speak, His Word, His hand goes with those words we speak and brings them to pass in this life. As we speak He plants the promises and the realities of heaven in this realm in which we live, in your very life!
Listen and hear the promises that Jesus spoke through Isaiah. Realize you hear them on the victory side of Jesus. Awake, awake to those truths and that power invested in you.
J Todd Hostetler