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Day 29 – Let the Redeemed of the Lord, Say So!Tuesday August 21
As I looked, suddenly in the vision, I saw a vase fall to the floor and shatter into a million pieces. What a picture of my broken life! So much pain, so many broken relationships. And I heard the Lord speak, “Can this vase come back together?” And in that moment, I felt like Ezekiel surveying a vast valley of dry bones. “You alone know, O God, “ I groaned, inwardly weighed down by the hopelessness I felt.
And then before my eyes, the pieces began to spin as if picked up by an unseen whirlwind. And in an instant, the vase re-appeared before me perfect, flawless.
“My heart”, He said, “is always redemption. Many things that you feel are broken beyond repair, are not. Is my arm too short to save? What is impossible for you even to imagine, is more than possible for Me to accomplish.
Before you lies a wide, vast and open vista – the plain of redemption. It is up to you to decide how fast you want to run. I can redeem in one instant of time what the enemy has taken years of elaborate plans to destroy. For I am a God beyond time. My ultimate plan of redemption, Jesus death on the cross, not only touched the present, but stretched forward into the future and back even into the past. His blood was shed not only for you - but for Abraham, for David. For the fullness of redemption know no boundaries of time.
Accept our brokenness. That is the complete opposite of the message we get everyday. We are perhaps the most self-aware generation in history – from Oprah to Dr. Phil, we’ve identified and codified all our problems. And then we set about to fix our brokenness – striving diligently to “get it all together” so that…..
So that? That is the question. It’s not that it’s wrong to be aware of our weaknesses and want them to change. But the million dollar question is what is driving that desire not to be seen as weak but strong?
If it’s a voice inside us that says “unless you are perfect, unless you do everything right, you will be disqualified, you won’t be good enough to be wanted or used by God” - then that voice is a lie.
That voice is the voice of fear that has gotten a root in our heart to drive us into a bondage of works, of human effort to nullify the power of grace and redemption in our lives.
No one wants to fail. But the fact is, we are human beings and by that very nature we are fallible. Imperfect. Sinful
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! Rom 7:21-25
We are also, by our very human nature, candidates for redemption! We know we were redeemed when we accepted Christ’s sacrifice for us and became born again. But redemption wasn’t meant to be a one-time event in our lives – it is God’s ongoing plan to nullify the stealing, killing, and destroying works of the enemy in the lives of human kind.
You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Isa 63:16
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary Psalm 107:1-2
Redeemer is the very nature of God and we, as His children, are by our very nature now, the redeemed.
So how then shall we live? Do we just fail wildly so we can be better candidates for redemption?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Rom 6:1-2
No, our heart attitude must be to walk as much as the grace of the Lord enables us, in perfect obedience to His will.
But if, as we follow the Lord, we fail or we make a mistake, we don’t have to live bound by the fear that our mistakes are fatal, that somehow we throw our destiny off track and are disqualified. We are not meant to live as if our service to God, our standing with Him is somehow based on our own goodness, righteousness, or works.
So when we fail, we don’t have to fall into discouragement or blaming and shaming ourselves or beating ourselves to try harder. We can get off that hamster wheel of human performance.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
We can live a life of no regrets realizing that as we hand all our failures to the Lord, they will turn to gold in His hands.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
There is an acceptance the Lord wants to bring us to, of our own limitations and an understanding, deep within our hearts, that our perfection is not what He is looking for, not what moves His heart. What pleases Him is not that we do everything right – it’s that our heart is longing, because of love for Him, to be perfect even as He is perfect. We need to know profoundly that He loves us for our heart – not our works – our heart. And that despite any and every failure, no matter how horrible, how dastardly, nothing is beyond the power of His redemption.
Redemption means we can resist the urge to fall into destructive cycles of trying to make ourselves good enough; striving to fix our brokenness – driven by the fear we will miss out.
Instead we can rest – embracing our failures and weaknesses and declaring, as Job did, our faith does not rest in our own ability but in Him, our Rock, Our Redeemer.
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! Job 19:25-27
When we can come to this place of humility, of acceptance of our brokenness then an amazing thing happens: our God is GLORIFIED as the magnificent and awesome God that He is.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 2 Corinthinans 4:5-11
No matter how bleak we feel our situation is, no matter how hopeless it seems, the Lord’s word to us today and always is the same: there is a wide vista, a plain of redemption lying before us – RUN!
Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband-- the LORD Almighty is his name-- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. Isaiah 54:1-5
Let’s pray this prayer together: Lord Jesus I come to you and I ask you to shine your light on my heart that I might have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God which is in the face of Jesus. I want to see Jesus as the Redeemer of my life – not just once when I was born again, but continually Lord.
God I ask you to expose and cut off the lying voices of the enemy that have told me that I have to be perfect in order to be acceptable to You or to be valued in Your kingdom.
God I choose, like Paul, to glory in my weakness – to trust you and not walk in fear of failure. I believe Your word that says You make all things work together for good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose. And I declare that Your power and glory will be shown as You triumph over the enemy in any area of weakness in my life. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Heather Clark and Tracy Rahn released this prophetic cry, I Can See Clearly Now, at the Homecoming Gathering. Today let us sing this together as a declaration that the veil of unbelief the enemy has tried to put over our hearts is removed and the light of the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ is shining in our hearts.
I Can See Clearly Now– Heather Clark and Tracy Rahn
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone I can see all the obstacles in my way I can see The mist is lifted
I can see so clear For miles in the distance I can see
Open up my eyes And I can see
I lift my eyes to the hills
Where does my help come from? Maker of heaven Maker of earth
I lift up my eyes I lift up my eyes (repeat)
I can see clearly now I can see Jesus I can see Jesus coming closer now I can see Jesus coming closer now I can see I can see Him drawing near to us
I lift up my eyes! (repeat)
I want to see Jesus! 
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