Preparing for Celebration for the Nations 2011

July 12th 2011

Very soon now we will all be together worshipping our incredible Lord who has freed us from sin and brought us into his Kingdom as sons and heirs of all his incredible promises! How can anything we do ever come near what he deserves? Yet he accepts us and is pleased with our worship.

Our longing is that Jesus receives the reward of his suffering. Amazingly we have the privilege to work with him and make sure his Bride is made up of people from every tribe and tongue and nation. No place is too hard for him, no heart too closed.

This year, our 5th year, he has promised us fruitfulness.

The Lord has been speaking to me about Isaac, and saying he wants us to have the same spirit as this great man of faith. Isaac went willingly up Mount Moriah with his father, carrying the wood on which he was to be sacrificed, as did his Great Descendant, Jesus. He could have escaped, but he allowed his father to bind him to the altar, trusting that somehow the Lord would deliver him. Isaac was the first living sacrifice. He was a true worshipper.

Isaac knew who he was; a child of promise, the son of a free woman. He was the one who could laugh, as the Lord laughs, at everything that tries to stop him. He did not get discouraged in the time of famine. He did not give up when enemies blocked up his father’s wells (and his inheritance). He unblocked his father’s wells, and dug new ones too. Even those were disputed over. Yet he kept moving on, transforming the desert into a garden. Everywhere he dug, he found water, because the Source of all life was with him.

The Lord is looking for Isaac’s descendants, those who will keep on, with the laugh of faith in their hearts, transforming the desert into a garden flowing with water; those who will not give up when they feel the heat of the desert and the stony hearts of the people; those who will live as sacrifices, worshipping the Lord with laid-down lives. He is looking for people who believe that the Source of Life is not only with them, but within them, that our communities can be transformed, that the wells can again be unblocked!

I believe that the Lord wants us to know that he sees every sacrifice, he values every step of faith. He is forming the One, who is greater than Isaac, in us as we follow him step by step. He is enthroned in heaven, and he laughs at all who oppose him. He says to us;

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession (Psalm 2:8).
We are in our fifth year. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob built seven altars between them to cleanse the land and take it for the Lord. Isaac’s altar was the fifth one. It is the only altar that was built where a well was dug, Beersheba. This year is special.

As we prepare for this Celebration for the Nations, let’s consecrate ourselves to the Lord as Isaac did, so that our lives may be a living sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to him. This way, as we do not give up, we will see transformation, in Llanelli, in Pyongyang, in the nations. Let us sing to the wells and see them spring up for salvation to many and for the glory of the Lord!

Looking forward to worshipping with you all!

Shalom,

Gail