By: Gina Guy-Warren
We are all familiar with Isaiah 6:8 as the Prophet Isaiah responds to the Lord when he hears the question asked, “Whom shall I send?” “Lord,” Isaiah enthusiastically responds with, “Here am I. Lord, send me!” Isn’t it easy to take scripture out of context, and with boldness and courage respond as did our heroes of faith? I too, over the course of my life, reacted with such eager expectation to take every opportunity and assign myself to declare that which the Father’s heart desires for His people. However, this morning I was faced with what I believe Isaiah must have felt when he answered the call of the Lord.
It’s important to take into context Isaiah’s experience in the presence of the holy angels both before he accepted his assignment as well as after he heard what that assignment entailed. First, Isaiah saw something. He had a heavenly moment where he caught a glimpse in the heavens. He didn’t see himself preaching to the world, or the Father speaking words such as, “Go expose them. They are wicked people and I need you to go and deal with them on my behalf.” What did this prophet first see? He saw the Lord seated on His throne, not man’s. Isaiah first caught a glimpse of the position of the Lord! He was seated and it was not a seat that man would take, but upon a throne only deserving of one who had paid a great price for mankind. Secondly, Isaiah saw heavenly angels and he was able to describe them in detail. Though the Lord was seated, the angels were in flight and you know what those angels were doing as they flew above the throne of the Lord? They were calling out to one another! How majestic this scene must have been for this earthly body to behold! Any of us who have read our Bibles for any length of time, are familiar with what the angel seraphs were declaring,”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” It was at this very sound, that the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. Let’s pause for a moment to really grasp what just took place because if we don’t understand what happened to Isaiah, the remnant rising will step out prematurely or maybe even not at all, when they too are called by the Lord.
First, Isaiah had to see who the Lord was in all of His glory. When war is breaking out in the land, but the Lord of Lords is seated, this should give us all pause to know, the master has this chaos all under control but at the same time calling forth voices! Isaiah had to be in awe at this vision, but it was the sound that had to shake him to his core because the angel voices caused a shaking! What three things did these voices impact? Doorposts, thresholds and temples! Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward. Once the prophet Isaiah saw this glorious vision, his response wasn’t ‘Lord send me, I’ve got this!’ His response was one of great humility and repentance! He understood that when one is experiencing the presence of the King, the only response was to see his own unworthiness. When one fully understands who we are next to a holy King, we will see ourselves for who we truly are! This is and should be the first response in a believer’s life. Isaiah understood he first was unclean, and then recognized he lives among an unclean people. He literally said their lips were unclean! What happens next is why we all need a Savior! These awesome heavenly beings flew straight to Isaiah delivering hot coals to a man of unclean lips! Now, I’m going to share a vision I had with this passage concerning the tongs used to deliver the coals. As soon as I read that the angels used tongs to pick up the hot coals, I immediately thought of forceps that are used to deliver babies when they need help being guided out of the birth canal! Prophetically speaking, our words can abort destinies or our words help deliver destiny. I always say in the world of social media, most keyboard warriors use their words to abort destiny with their comments and opinions. These tongs delivered a hot coal to the lips of a prophet who was about to accept an assignment that would shake him and Israel to the core and ultimately bring deliverance!
After the angels used the tongs to place hot coals upon Isaiah’s lips and removed his guilt and atone for his sin, Isaiah heard the Lord’s voice! “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” It wasn’t until after this entire experience took place that Isaiah answered the call! What a call it was! The Lord tells Isaiah the people hear but can’t understand and they see but lack perception. After the deteriorating condition of the people is made known to Isaiah, the Lord tells him about the destruction that is imminent. He told Isaiah, (now that his lips were clean and sin atoned for) that the cities would be left in ruin. This lands us on Isaiah 6:13 and the revelation I was shown in depth regarding this chapter. “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” Or as the message translation says so beautifully, “ Every tree is stump, a huge field of stumps. But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.” Even though we know God is cleaning out and exposing sin in the Churchhouse, there will be those who God has reserved for this end time battle! Great sweeping of exposures, however there is a rising remnant!
You see, there was a process that Isaiah had to go through before he could accept this assignment. Arrogance and pride can’t exist in the presence of the one true God. If we continue in this state it’s indicative of striving on our own without the presence of the holy spirit. Undoubtedly, it will be clear who operates in the spirit of the Lord and who operates by religion. (2 Corinthians 3:6, “Who also made us sufficient ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Now let us revisit those 3 things that shook at the sound of the angels’ voices so we can better understand what’s about to shake in the churchouse! Verse 4, “ At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.” God is using the voices of His true and authentic prophets to shake the church! The doorposts are symbolic of our hearts, the thresholds symbolic of a point of entry and our temples house the Holy Spirit! These truth-telling voices that have been in the presence of the Lord and see His holiness, not their own, will be used to break down every threshold, or point of entry the enemy or thief has entered in through that has kept the remnant from true deliverance! True deliverance will consist of understanding how one was overtaken! You can’t just lay hands and move on with no revelation or that stronghold returns with more evil spirits ( Mark 3:27). What has taken years to form in the soul of His wounded remnant, will be exhibited in their daily personality. Once this threshold, or point of entry is revealed, the fear of the Lord takes place. This is what happened to Isaiah and this is the reason the Lord called him to warn the people.
Many have not seen the Lord high and lifted up, nor have they been shaken by the sound of heaven’s messengers. They have raised themselves up among men and are leading God’s people straight into destruction. The good news is after all the shaking, cutting down and exposures, there will be a seed! A holy seed in the land. Jesus as we well know is the holy one of Israel. We are redeemed by the blood of the lamb and our sins atoned for, yet if we don’t repent of our wicked ways and the curses that come from our lips, we will not see the promises we have in Jesus. Secondly, you will live a bound life full of strongholds that choke out your fruit! Our faith must be active. Daily humbling and repentance and just like Isaiah, we must allow him to take the coals to our lips.
Lord send me doesn’t sound so exhilarating now does it? Are you really ready to be sent? Not only will you see your sin, but it will reveal the sin of others and you may not be ready to see this. Secondly, going forth to declare this wickedness is not for the faint of heart, but I remind you. He is seated on the throne. If He sent you, all of heaven’s angelic forces go too! Remember, evil will never want to accept the light of Christ. You’re a carrier of that light but God’s about to shine His glorious light so bright that the doorposts of every heart will have to open, and all will be found on the threshing floor because His glory will fill the temple, and that temple must be pure.
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