ISAIAH 34:16-17
"Search from the book of the Lord, and read: Not one of these shall fail; not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it."
I sure hope not to stretch things a too far in seeking to learn about the Spirit's touch from this passage. Isaiah writes of the Spirit gathering wild animals to live in Jerusalem as the city would be abandoned during the time of God's judgment by the Babylonian empire. No longer would people dwell in Zion, but those of the animal kingdom would move in. God spoke it, and Isaiah proclaims that it will be so.
The lesson I see here for us is this. If God controls the lives of even the animal world, gathering them into a new home, how much more so is he also in touch with those who are his own through faith in Jesus Christ.
Isaiah tells us that just as God commands the nightly cries of the jackal, the fearful hiding of the ostrich, the scattering of wild goats about the foothills, arrow snakes and their slithering young, and even high-flying hawks, so also his Spirit gathers me along the paths he chooses for my life.
We also see that the Spirit is God's instrument of completing his will. When God speaks, it is the Spirit which brings about God's will. In perfect obedience in the God-head, the Spirit is always at work to bring about the will of the Father.
My prayer is this would also be so in our lives--that when God speaks, we'll be so moved by the Spirit to join him in doing this will. May the Spirit gather us as he chooses for the glory of the Lord.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I thank you for the faithfulness of your Spirit in gathering people to be obedient to your will. May I willingly follow after you in this gathering. Amen.
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