Set the Sail (Preparing for a Move of God) Sample

Conclusion: Rend the Heavens!

There are two types of people when it comes to opening presents. Those who carefully peel the tape off while keeping the wrapping paper intact and those who wildly tear the wrapping apart! The latter is the image associated with the word ‘rend’ (64:1). Isaiah prays out of deep urgency that God would rend (tear open) the heavens and reveal himself. That God would peel back the curtain that divides heaven and earth and come down in all His glory.

Isaiah’s prayer is a desperate cry for God to move. You can palpably sense his longing in it. This is a plea for God to turn up. For God to be demonstrably present! A prayer for a divine theophany with the full spectacle of shaking mountains and fire — just like He has in the past (think Moses and the burning bush, or on Mount Horeb!) And it’s the kind of prayer we can learn a lot from!

This prayer is birthed out of crisis (Isa. 63:15). God, in His judgment, has withheld Himself from Israel. His tenderness and compassion are suspended. So, Isaiah prays a bold, covenantal prayer for revival! “God, come down in full glory and do things that no-one could have anticipated”. In one way, this is exactly what God has definitively done in the incarnation of Jesus. Yet in many ways every generation needs God to renew his presence and power and revive His people.

It's probably not an overstatement to say that the church in Australia is in crisis. After seven decades of decline we’ve recently plateaued! Finally! We desperately need a move of God.

Crisis often precedes renewal. And prayers like this can bridge the gap between crisis and renewal. We must pray like this and wait on God, clinging to the promise that God acts on behalf of those who wait for him (Isa. 64:4).

In many ways the prayers of Peggy (84) & Christine (82) Smith were the bridge between the crisis in the church and the revival that broke out in the Hebrides. It was said there were no young people in the church at all. Peggy & Christine prayed twice a week from 10pm at night to 3am in the early morning and called on the elders of the church to pray as well! Believing that God had promised to “pour out water on a thirsty land” (Isa. 44:3) they pleaded for a divine visitation, and God acted on behalf of those who prayed and waited.

We should not despair at this moment, but instead we should be desperate for a move of God. The difference between despair and desperation is this type of covenantal prayer that cries out to God and waits faithfully on the only One who can.