Hosanna Restoration Church

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be for God when we do not bother to listen to Him. Obviously God does not get frustrated in the same sense that we do. He does not pitch fits and loose His cool. But we know from reading the Bible that He does not like rebellion. After all, He knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning, so where could we ever hear better advice. God help us to listen!

He gives us the mind of Christ, and honestly it seems that Christians leave it on the shelf and follow their own desires more often that they follow the word of God. For this reason many are defeated, frustrated, confused, weak, and even dead to the things of the Spirit. The fact is, we can not hear God if we will not listen. So God says listen now! Not when it is convenient, or after everything has fallen apart, but right now! I don’t think that people realize that if we wait to long, we can miss our opportunity to hear God on particular issues. We may go too far and it may be too late to recover. Then we suffer the consequences of our own rebellion. God has perfect timing and wisdom, so when He speaks, that is the time to listen.

He refers to Himself as the One who made us and the One who helps us. So when He speaks, His plan is to help. If we will listen, then we have nothing to fear. He promises that He will give us abundant water to quench our thirst, and to moisten our parched fields. Only the Lord can truly satisfy. If we will not seek Him and hear Him, our thirst will never be quenched. It is impossible for a person to experience fulfillment and wholeness without God. Yet when we will not listen to Him, we expose ourselves to a life of disappointment and defeat.

If we will listen, He promises that we will not only be satisfied, but our children will be blessed as well. “They will thrive,” the Lord says, “like watered grass.” It stands to reason then, that if we do not listen to God the opposite will be true. How can we train up our children if we will not be trained ourselves. I am always amazed when Christians go around expecting non Christians to act right, when they themselves refuse to be an example. Or when parents who are in rebellion themselves, wonder why their children rebel. Of course children can rebel with even the best of examples to follow. The point is to check ourselves.

If you will read this whole chapter in Isaiah, you will see the Lord speak of the foolishness of putting other things first in our lives. That is after all what an idol is. Anything that comes before God in our lives. Those things can never do anything for us. They can not move and be where ever we are. They cannot provide for us, heal us, or protect us. Actually, all they can do is rob us, of what God has for us.

In verse 21, God says “Pay attention.” He says that He will not forget to do His part. He even says that he will cause wise people to give bad advice and prove them to be fools. In other words, He will expose the foolishness of the idol whether it is a person or thing. On the other hand, He says that He will carry out the predictions of His prophets. We need to be very attentive to what the Spirit of Lord is saying. That is where the blessing of the Lord lies, and that is what will enable us to be witnesses to a world that is seeking true life.