Isaiah 43:1-2 “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” This episode talks to us about how God has called us by name, He has redeemed us. It also talks about how He protects us from the water and the fire in our lives. He is our protector and we are His! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am His (Identity Series)
Isaiah 43:1-2 “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
When I was looking at the sheet of verses titled “I Am Who God Says I Am,” I saw that it said Isaiah 43:1 for today, which makes sense. I am His is what God is saying when He Says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine.” We are the Lord’s. There are several places in the Bible where it talks about how we are His people, He formed us in our mother’s womb, He knew us before we existed, and so on. That might even make a great Bible study, just looking at all the places where God says that we are His. However, when I was reading that verse this morning I decided to read the verses that come after this verse as well.
What I realized is that the very next verse tells us not to fear, which I found interesting since that is what we talked about yesterday. I didn’t want to talk about verse 1 without also talking about verse 2 because I think they go hand and hand. I think verse 2 explains what verse 1 means for us. In verse one, God is telling us that we are His. He is saying that he has redeemed us and summoned us by name and that we are His. Let’s stay there for a moment. First, God says that He has redeemed us. Redeemed in the Bible means having been saved or delivered from sin or its consequences. I wonder if we understand what that means. I wonder if we are even capable of grasping the vastness of that statement. God has redeemed us. This means that the mistake that you made, the one that you keep beating yourself up for, God has already redeemed it. This means that those sins that you have committed, you have been delivered from them. All those negative things the enemy keeps whispering in our ears about ourselves, the Lord has already redeemed them; he has redeemed us, all of us. He has delivered us from ourselves, from our sinful nature.
The next part says He summoned us by name, in other words, He called us. Do you know what this means? It means that God knows our name. He knows your name, and He knows my name. He is calling us, not as a group, not as a whole, He is calling each one of us, by name, to Him. Almost every week in Prayer Group, we get at least one word of prophecy that says, “Come closer my children, again I say, come closer my children.” God is calling us to be close to Him. He is calling us to sit with Him daily and have a conversation, pray with Him, and tell Him what is going on in our lives. He is calling us to Him because He wishes to have a relationship with us.
Earlier I said I think verse 2 explains what verse 1 means to us. What I meant by this is that verse 2 tells us all the ways God will protect us because we are His. He gives us an idea of the lengths He will go to so that He can protect His children. That is what you are, you are a child of God. The second verse starts by saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” This tells us that God is with us always. Even when we are passing through waters, He will be there. He will not only be there but He will protect us from these waters. He will make sure they do not sweep over us.
I think this is important to remember because how many times in life have you felt like you were treading water? How many times have you felt like you were going to drown? This verse is meant to reassure us. It is telling us no matter how high those waters get, we won’t drown. We belong to God and He is here protecting us always. We heard all those words of prophecy yesterday telling us not to fear anything because God is right there with us. Now, today, we hear the same thing. I get the feeling some of us are fearful about something now. I am not sure what you are going through or what you might be afraid of, and yet I know that God is trying to reassure you that whatever it is, He is right there with you and that you don’t ever have to be afraid because He will never leave your side.
The last sentence in this verse is an even more dramatic statement of God’s love for us, His people. The verse ends with, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” This is a pretty vivid picture and yet I think we can all think of a time in our lives when we felt like we were walking through fire. God is reassuring us that although we may feel like we are in a fire, we may feel the heat of the flames all around us, He will not let the flames set us ablaze. I am sure we hear this, and we take it figuratively. We think about the things going on in our lives and how it feels like we are walking through fire. However, I want you to know that God saved three of His children from a literal fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three of God’s children. They loved God, and they wanted to serve Him and only Him. Then King Nebuchadnezzar created a statue made of gold and said everyone needed to bow before it. These three young men refused as they said they would only bow to the one true king, our Lord God. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered these three young me to be thrown in the fiery furnace. God saved these men from being touched by the fire.
When King Nebuchadnezzar looked through the window to make sure they had died, he saw four people in the furnace instead of three. God had sent one of His angels into the fiery furnace to protect them. There is one line in the story of these three young men that I just love. This story can be found in Daniel 3. My favorite line, though, is found in verses 14-18, " King Nebuchadnezzar questioned them: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Now, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I made, whenever you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, zither, dulcimer, harp, double-flute, and all the other musical instruments, then all will be well; if not, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, you should know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”
Wow, can you imagine saying that? Can you imagine the faith they must have had? They knew God could save them from the flames of that furnace, and yet even if God didn’t save them, they would still be faithful to Him. I wonder if we can say the same. I wonder if we would be willing to stake our lives on our faith in God. God is telling us with this story, as well as with the verses today, that He will be there for us, no matter what. He will protect us from drowning in the waters in our lives and He will protect us from burning in the fires in our life. We belong to God, and He will protect us from all that we encounter. He is there with us each step of the way, even in those really hard times. God wants us to come closer to Him and have a relationship with Him. He wants us to share with Him all that is going on in our lives so He can help us with it all. God loves you, and You are His!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for protecting us from the water and the fire in our lives. Thank you for calling us by name, thank you for redeeming us. We love you, Lord. Help us to draw closer to you. Help us to learn how to have a relationship with you. Help us not to fear anything because we have you in our lives protecting us. We are so grateful for you and all the ways that you protect us. You are so powerful, and we are so grateful we are Yours. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk body with Jesus. Tonight is mentoring if you have night signed up yet, I encourage you to check it out and sign up today. If you want to see what it is all about before joining, send me an email, and I will send you the link. If you would like to join mentoring but don’t have the $30 a month, send me an email, and I will send you the link. I hope you will consider joining us. I look forward to meeting you here again on tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My dear children, I love you. I will never stop loving you, no matter what you have done. My love is never-ending. My love is inexhaustible. Come and drink of the fountain of my love.”