Moving From The Natural to The Unnatural-Developing a Healthy Spiritual Appetite

 

“Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, Let your soul delight in abundance.” Isaiah 55: 2

• The natural appetite of my heart 

  • The natural tendencies of my soul 

  • The natural yearnings of my spirit 

 

All put me on the path of the worldly table, and a cuisine that ultimately does not satisfy. In Isaiah 55: 2, the prophet is calling me to do that which is not natural. However, while at the outset it may not be natural, the more this becomes the pattern of my life, the more natural it becomes. 

Towards the end of my second year of college basketball, I was upset at how little I made it off of the bench and onto the court. When I approached my coach, he challenged me to work hard on going against my natural tendency to the right hand, and instead spend time working on my left hand. That summer I worked almost exclusively on shooting with my left, as a result, the last two seasons I started almost every game.

What works in the physical, also works in the spiritual. The more we develop spiritual habits that draw us closer to the incredible spiritual feast our God has laid before us, the more natural the unnatural becomes to us. Our gracious God has laid before us an incredible feast, the choicest of spiritual foods, yet far too often when we turn from his table to the leaks and onions of Egypt.

Here are 2 books that have been instrumental in my development of Spiritual Habits, I recommend these for anyone interested in feasting on the incredible spiritual feast God has prepared for us.

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

Disciplines of A Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes

Come, All You Who Are Thirsty...

 

“Come, everyone who is thirsty,
come to the water;
and you without silver,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without silver and without cost!” Isaiah 55:1

 

Isaiah 55 begins with a call to the desolate, a call to those who were in great despair, who in a physical sense, had little more than the clothes on their backs. It is a prophecy with a dual fulfillment, with the first fulfillment serving as a precursor to the ultimate fulfillment. In this instance, the first fulfillment was around 150 years in the future when, by a decree of King Cyrus, the Nation of Judah, returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God, and later the walls around Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah). But its ultimate fulfillment is a spiritual fulfillment and it finds that fulfillment in the heart of the repentant Sinner. Isaiah begins; “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water”. In reading this, my mind is drawn to John 4 and to the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. She came to draw water from a physical well, Jesus directed her to draw from the spiritual well for living water. 

 

Isaiah goes on to write; “and you without silver, come buy, and eat!Come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!” Moving back to John 4, we see that, similar to the recipients of Isaiah’s message, the only thing The Woman At The Well brought to the table was a bankrupt soul. She was completely desolate. Here she is desolate, with a bankrupt soul, yet at the same time her spiritual mouth was parched with thirst, tongue dry and sticking to the roof of her mouth. In a spiritual sense, her stomach was completely void of any nutrition with an unquenchable hunger and deep rumblings that come with an empty stomach. Just as Isaiah does here in chapter 55, Jesus directs her attention to… well He had directed her attention to Himself. He was and is the Living Water, He was and is the Bread of Life. Spiritually, His Blood the wine, His Body the bread. She brought nothing to the table but a bankrupt soul, He laid before her an incredible feast, which He paid for in full, on the cross. 

 

What was true of her, what was true in the returning exiles, is also true of us. All that we bring to the table is a bankrupt soul, empty pockets spiritually, parched mouths, and spiritually empty stomachs. Jesus says, Come to a feast I have prepared for you. I know what it is you bring to the table, bankrupt souls, facing a debt you have no hope of repaying. That insurmountable debt you owe, you owe to Me, and I Myself have paid the debt, with My Own Blood, with My Own Body, broken for you. Come, drink and thirst no more. Come eat and be satisfied. 

 

Have you drawn from the well of living water that is Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so today?

The Future Glory of Israel and the church-Isaiah 54

The Future Glory of Israel and the Church-Isaiah 54

‘“Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate LORD. Isaiah 54:10

 

On the heels of the magnificent declaration of the coming Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb Who provides ultimate and total redemption, comes a blessing. First, on the returning exiles, but second, and more fully on the coming church, when Gentiles will, by faith in the Messiah, be grafted into the chosen ones of God. We will, as the Bride of Christ, be wed to our “Maker…the LORD of Armies … the Holy One of Israel … Redeemer … God of the whole earth” (Vs. 5).

 

He will be to us our Rock, so secure that ; “Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken” (Vs. 10). He is our “compassionate LORD” (Vs. 10). 

 

And though we will face many a foe; “No weapon fashioned against you will succeed” (Vs. 17) 

 

and our “vindication is from” the LORD.

1“Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth;

burst into song and shout,

you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than the children of the married woman,”

says the Lord.

2“Enlarge the site of your tent,

and let your tent curtains be stretched out;

do not hold back;

lengthen your ropes,

and drive your pegs deep.

3For you will spread out to the right and to the left,

and your descendants will dispossess nations

and inhabit the desolate cities.

4“Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame;

don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced.

For you will forget the shame of your youth,

and you will no longer remember

the disgrace of your widowhood.

5Indeed, your husband is your Maker  —

his name is the Lord of Armies —

and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

he is called the God of the whole earth.

6For the Lord has called you,

like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit,

a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”

says your God.

7“I deserted you for a brief moment,

but I will take you back with abundant compassion.

8In a surge of anger

I hid my face from you for a moment,

but I will have compassion on you

with everlasting love,”

says the Lord your Redeemer.

9“For this is like the days of Noah to me:

when I swore that the water of Noah

would never flood the earth again,

so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you

or rebuke you.

10Though the mountains move

and the hills shake,

my love will not be removed from you

and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,”

says your compassionate Lord.

11“Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted,

I will set your stones in black mortar,

and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.

12I will make your fortifications out of rubies,

your gates out of sparkling stones,

and all your walls out of precious stones.

13Then all your children will be taught by the Lord,

their prosperity will be great,

14and you will be established

on a foundation of righteousness.

You will be far from oppression,

you will certainly not be afraid;

you will be far from terror,

it will certainly not come near you.

15If anyone attacks you,

it is not from me;

whoever attacks you

will fall before you.

16Look, I have created the craftsman

who blows on the charcoal fire

and produces a weapon suitable for its task;

and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc.

17No weapon formed against you will succeed,

and you will refute any accusation

raised against you in court.

This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants,

and their vindication is from me.”

This is the Lord’s declaration. 

Isaiah 54