Yesterday we saw a unique experience of a man who suddenly disappeared. Today we look at a man who also suddenly disappeared and returned.
It reminds me of the first time I ever saw Star Trek and of course the familiar catchphrase “beam me up Scotty”. Well, in this case, it’s not Scotty. It is a man called Isaiah.
Isaiah was about to have a divine appointment which was to change his whole life. Such was this appointment that there too, in one sense, is a catchphrase which followers of Jesus have often said and still do. That catchphrase is here I am send me, send me.
That’s a long way ahead of our story today. It is though the final outcome of such a divine appointment. Many followers of Jesus have received a divine calling, perhaps not the same as Isaiah, but certainly, the same response was required. Do you know you also have a calling and perhaps you might need to revisit or even consider are you responding to the divine calling by saying here am I send me, send me? Let me say that this does not mean packing up and heading off to some faraway country. It simply means where do you want me to be that I might represent God.
Isaiah’s appointment is recorded in the book of Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah was minding his own business. An ordinary day turns into something completely unexpected. He saw the Lord.
In the last book of the Bible, we too have a recording of someone who like Isaiah had the exact same experience. His ordinary day differed from Isaiah in the sense that he was a prisoner on a rat-infested island called Patmos. Nevertheless, he too was suddenly caught up with the divine appointment and hence we get that amazing book called Revelation. By the way, his name is John.
My point is this we too may be having an ordinary day and experience a divine appointment. I’m not suggesting you we will be taken out of your body and literally transported into heaven but in the sense that you do not know when God is going to show up, let me ask you are you ready for a divine appointment? Are you ready to respond?
In chapter 6 Isaiah recounts his encounter dating it from the year that King Uzziah died, 740 b.c. With the death of godly Uzziah, Judah’s golden age was fast slipping away. No human leader appeared on the scene to reverse the decadence that had begun during Uzziah’s final years of isolation due to leprosy. God had a plan though. In order for that plan to be carried out God needs humans to act. Today is no different, God has a message for this world and needs followers of Jesus to proclaim that message.
Have you ever forgot to set your alarm and overslept slept? Or the alarm has not gone off? Ever been in a hotel and asked for a wake-up call?
Hurricane Katerina was a wake-up call as towns were swept away. Security in wealth, materials buildings collapsed that day when Katerina came that day.
Who can remember 9/11 and I am sure you do. I can remember where I was and rushing home to see those two towers come tumbling down with such an appalling loss of life. That day the world witnessed a wake-up call.
I can also remember listening to the audiobook I Saw The Lord by the authoress Ann Graham Lotz. Track 1 speaks on a wake-up call (it is also in book form).
Ann believed she had an appointment with God in the sense that God gave Ann a message which Ann headed up a wake-up call. I truly believe God wanted to say something to our world and when 9/11 happened Ann was asked to speak on American TV on the 9/11 situation. After speaking on TV Ann was invited to Parliament to speak to us here in the United Kingdom. It would seem after Katerina and 9/11 perhaps like Isaiah God is given a wake-up call.
May I put a suggestion to you? Is our current crisis not a wake-up call too? Perhaps God wants to use this to get our attention. Certainly church services by media have greatly increased and there is a revival in people thinking about God etc in these different times which have awakened in our world. So could it be that the divine appointment has already been issued and God is awaiting a response from his followers to simply say Here I am send me, just a thought.
Stay Safe and Blessed.