As I was reading my devotional tonight, I was drawn to Isaiah 55:8-11.
"8'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.' It is a declaration of Adonai. 9'For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without having watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to sow and bread to eat, 11so My word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend, and will succeed in what I sent it for.'" (TLV)
This has been a favorite passage of mine for some time (I actually did my first ever exegetical paper on it), but tonight, I was struck by a different aspect of it. The devotional book that I'm going through is The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn (for those of you not familiar with him, he's a Messianic Jew and a renown teacher of Prophecy). In this particular story, He asks the question "Can that which is finite encompass that which is infinite?" The answer given is "It can if it's an open vessel. A closed vessel can never contain anything larger than its own size. But an open vessel has no limitations. It now can contain the blowing of the wind or the outpouring of the rain. It could even contain the flowing of a river."
I thought this illustration pairs nicely with the imagery in Scripture of the Word of God being like rain and snow coming down from heaven to water the earth (Isaiah 55:10-11). According to the Beacon Bible Commentary, "The divine word (11) achieves its purpose. There is no word that man can say that will melt the stony heart. Therefore let the preacher strive to be in the goodly fellowship of the prophets and let his message be, 'Thus saith the Lord.' Let the word he utters be the very word of God. It alone controls the future. Its fulfillment is beyond question, for what God says carries in itself a life-giving and fertilizing energy. 'It will not come back an empty echo' (Knox)."
This commentary uses the word "preacher," but I would expand that out to "believer." I believe that we are called to some form of ministry, every one of us. Whether or not you stand behind a pulpit is irrelevant: if you claim the title of "Christian," you are called to be a minister of the Gospel. So, when you speak, is it God's objective Truth, or your subjective truth? If you are speaking under your own power and authority, there is every chance you will make a fool of yourself. However, if you are speaking from the Holy Spirit, that message will accomplish its task, even if it doesn't seem like it right away.
I will close with a final quote from The Book of Mysteries: "Only by opening yourself up can you come to know that which you don't already know. And only by becoming an open vessel can you contain that which is greater than yourself. The truth is always greater than our knowing. Your mind and heart are finite, clay jars. But the truth has no end. God has no end. The Eternal is infinite...always flowing."
Are you willing to open up and let the Spirit flow through you?
