This past Sunday, Jan 17th, during a church service focused on the earthquake in Haiti (at Status church, www.whatsyourstatus.com), the Lord gave me a verse to read while I was in prayer: Isaiah 61. I don't have much scripture memorized, so I didn't remember what it was about. I looked it up, and was at a loss for words, and knew I needed to share it with the rest of the church, so I went to the front to read it aloud after we prayed. Below is what I believe the Lord was saying with this scripture; most of this is what I felt as I read it during that time of prayer, along with more recent meditations and references:
The Good News of Salvation
1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
We know from Luke 4 that this verse is what Jesus proclaimed to be true of Himself from the prophet's book during a meeting in the temple. It is true that we, as believers in Christ, those who, "have been crucified with Christ," (Galatians 2:20) have been commissioned by Him to perform these exact same things! He has given us the Holy Spirit which empowers us to do these things from v. 1; therefore, let us act accordingly in our lives, especially in Haiti. This Vodou-plagued country needs to hear the good tidings and liberty of the Gospel; to be given hope! Those who are brokenhearted from a great loss due to this tragedy and those who are bound up with the practices of Vodou shall be set free in Jesus Christ!
Isaiah continues:
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
The "acceptable year of the Lord" is related to the year of Jubilee (every 50 years in Jewish tradition, slaves set free, land given a year of rest, land being returned to original owners; essentially debt cancellation) and also corresponds to "the day of salvation" from Isaiah 49:8. The Hebrew word for "acceptable" is "rason" which is defined as pleasure, acceptance, favor, and will. In the aftermath of the earthquake, I believe that this is a glimpse of what the Lord will be doing in Haiti, having a vengeance of salvation over the demonic Vodou presence, abject poverty and general oppression of the country.
In this acceptable year of the Lord, the love of God through His Son Jesus shall comfort and console the Haitians; God's people shall bring in the true Gospel which can turn ashes to beauty, mourning into joy, and heaviness into praise! How? Through our quickness of generosity, guidance from the Spirit, and boldness to speak the Word of God!
4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
This verse is central to what is being spoken by God. In the context and time of Isaiah, it was referring to the rebuilding of the cities of Judah by both Jews and Gentiles, also mentioned in Isaiah 58:12 --
12 Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
My interpretation of verse 4 is that there is hope for the rebuilding of what was lost in the earthquake; my hope is that God will transform Port-au-Prince into a beacon of the light of Christ! Let's pray that this is not done in vain, but that the rebuilding would begin in the hearts of the people. God is steadfast to His Word, and He hears and listens to His children crying out.
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