Will God Use Me in Revival? The Servant of the Lord, Isaiah 49:1-2

¹ Listen to me, O coastlands,    

and give attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called me from the womb,    

from the body of my mother he named my name.

² He made my mouth like a sharp sword;    

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;    

in his quiver he hid me away.

Every ten years, the monks in the monastery break their vow of silence to speak two words. Ten years go by and the newest monk looks the head monk in the eye and says, “Food bad.” Ten years later he says to the head monk, “Bed hard.” A decade later. The man gives the head monk a long stare and says, “I quit.” “Well, I’m not surprised,” responds the head monk. “Ever since you got here all you do is complain.”

Everyone who loves Jesus wants God to use them. None of us is satisfied with limited or restricted service, much less two words a decade. Like the apostles, we want more faith, we want to see and participate in significant ministry and revival.

In essence Jesus tells his disciples, “It is not so much great faith that is required as faith in a great God.” And in case those with great faith should become prideful, Jesus warns us to be humble servants and to do the work we’ve been given to do.

To recap: Revival is the work of God our leader. You and I are called to be servant followers. Yet, when we are filled with God’s Spirit and guided by his leading, we become eagle Christians with whom God shares power. We receive that second nature whereby we can feel the wind of God and catch the wave as the Spirit leads us into new places of significant ministry and service.

The question is: Who will God use in Revival?

At creation, God intended all humanity to be his servants. But with the fall of humanity into sin God narrowed his focus and chose Israel. But Israel kept messing up. So God continued to narrow his focus until he came to a faithful remnant of Israel. But ultimately, his focus turned to one person. The one person was Jesus.

Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. It is God’s plan that the church, through the victory of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, can and should succeed. Isaiah 49:1-7 is meant to be understood at three levels that apply to Israel, Jesus, and the Church, each as the servant of God. Isaiah outlines three main tasks for God’s servant.

First, the servant is to declare God’s word. By speaking of islands and distant nations in verse 1 Isaiah is calling the whole world to listen to the Servant of the Lord. He says that his call to ministry predates his birth. He is like Jeremiah, of whom God says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and set you apart.”

In verse 2 we learn God has equipped his servant to speak by making his mouth like a sharp sword. Earlier in Isaiah 42:1 God says of his servant, “Here is my servant, who I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him.” We find that God’s word and God’s Spirit always go together.

Ephesians 6:17 calls the word of God the sword of the Spirit and Isaiah says his mouth is like a sharpened sword. The writer of Hebrews says, the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The words of Jesus had this same effect. He says in Matthew 10:32, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Jesus, like Isaiah, knew that his mission to speak out the word of God would cause people to be cut to the heart. God’s word is penetrating. Likewise, God equips his Church with the good news of Jesus to go to the heart of the human condition. That’s why the word of God must be at the center of all we do. That’s why the heart of revival is found in God’s Word and God’s Spirit coming together in us.