Standard Bearer
Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the poor who are outcasts into your house? When you see the naked, to cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Isaiah 58:6-7
This text is the foundation for our becoming one of God's standard bearers. Too often the church has gone rushing into battle with dirty garments and soiled uniforms. Too often the church has tried to call the world to repent before she has left the night if sin. We need to come out of our deserts--soiled with past battles and sins--and be washed by living water.
In this text the Spirit of God admonishes us not to hide ourselves from our own flesh. We have been so busy playing the victim and blaming someone else for our failure to obey the commands of God we have forgotten we were the ones who made the conscious decision to sin.
Before you can progress and rise to the rank of a mighty standard bearer in the kingdom of God you must first hear and respond to His primary call. God's first trumpet call to raise up standard bearers in the church is not to battle but to repentance.
Before we can become clear, transparent, shining, bright as the sun, we must repent and convert so that when the refreshing, revival, and restoration of God comes, we can receive all God has for us as His standard-bearers.
Purify my heart, O God. Make me beautiful, clean, and pure as the moon reflecting Your light. Make me transparent, shining, and bright as the sun. Make my life a light shining for Jesus. Amen.
Further Reading
- Isaiah 58:6-7
- John 7:38
- Matthew 6:33
