Isaiah 53:1-3 (NKJ)

Who has believed our report?

And whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

Who has Believed Our Report?

 Some people of Jesus day rejected Him, His message of truth, His true identity as Messiah and who His Father is.  Do we expect the report of His true message today will be any different today?  God says go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20) and some will want to believe and some will reject.  For all are given free choice (Prov. 16:9).  It was the discerning Spirit of God that recognizes the Messiah.  Jesus didn’t come dressed in royalty as the King of Glory that He is.  The Messiah was overlooked. Only those with discernment of God could discern the unchanging truth of who Jesus was, is and will be (Hebrews 13:8).  He came humbly as one among us (Emmanuel- God with us). Nothing in the way He was dressed set Him apart.   He was unrecognized by the world.  He was unrecognized by some who were called religious (Pharisees).  The eye of faith must reveal the Son of God to a hostile and often evil world that is blind and deaf to who He was, is and will be!

Unrecognized by the World!

Many in the body of Christ are the same as Jesus!  As Jesus is so are we in this world.  Unrecognized by the world sometimes even by those who call themselves believers, yet we are fully known by God.  Who has ordered out every moment and circumstance of our lives for His fame and glory and our exceedingly great joy and delight in being His vessel on earth.  We are predestined to walk (Eph. 2:10) in His ways.  Often overlooked and rejected as outcasts of the world, because we refuse to follow man and his ways and choose God alone and His ways no matter the cost of the circumstance (Matt. 16:23)!

No Condemnation just NEW LIFE!

Our covenantal God is always in our midst and we choose to live in TRUE godliness (2Tim. 3:5) and in the constant and consistent pleasure of His presence every moment of our lives whether awake or asleep (Psalm 139).  He sees our choices He measures our thoughts and knows every detail of the motive in our hearts.  Everything is laid bare before Him.  Nothing is ever out of His sight.  No condemnation do we receive in this very honest place but instead we receive the overwhelming LOVE OF OUR EVERLASTING GOD that fills our hearts, souls and spirits.  God’s breath blows new life into our sails so we might move forward to the upward call (Phil.3:14)!   His breath of life under our wings calls us up continually to new levels of faith crushing fear, from victory to victory in Christ (1Cor. 15:57).

OUR VICTORY WON!

Our victories are won in the strength, trust and confidence of God’s life lived out of our vessels moment by moment.   Although we remain unrecognized by the world, we are fully known by our intimate God who made all heaven and earth as well as each and every human being on earth!  Only the discerning eye of faith will see our true identity as He sees Himself being displayed in us by grace through faith. (Eph 2:8)

Rejected? Misunderstood? Overlooked?

We “feel” rejected, misunderstood and so we kneel and bend to His Truth and His throne of grace (Heb. 4:16) and find that to be known by Him is sufficient and all satisfying.  At the throne of grace we are renewed and filled again with the hope and promises of God.  Trusting in Him while we are hidden in Him (Col 3:3), waiting on Him for His perfect timing that when He may choose to make us known we will be fully ready (equipped for every good work, 2Tim. 3:17); having learned to rely, depend and lean in our entire being onto Him.  To trust Him alone for everything and to not look at what we see but to the unseen that is painted in beautiful hues of God’s Great Goodness.

Keep looking UP!

Keeping our eyes looking on earthly, worldly circumstances will often depress and cause us to be sad.  When we keep our eyes looking and involved in the toil on the earth we will miss our opportunity to look up for where our help comes from.  To Praise Him even in the midst of what looks to be dry ground while believing for higher grounds filled with living waters (faith in action)! (Col. 3:2)  When we look with eyes and ears and hearts of faith we look up and Praise and regain our strength.  Because Praise brings the joy of the Lord Who is our strength!

Isaiah 53:4

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him

And by His stripes we are healed.

Royal King on a Cross!

Jesus was rejected by man and it caused Him to become acquainted with grief and sorrow.  He was despised and not esteemed as the Royal King He is but judged by the world as stricken, afflicted and smitten by God, A King on a Cross (Luke 16:14-15)!  Have you ever felt this way?  This happened to Him so He could learn it and conquer it for us.  So He could be the example to follow and know everything is going to be all right, and righteous!  By faith we overcome (1John 5:4)! He endured the cross, the shame, and the judgment of the world that spit in His face so that we could look to Him, the high Priest who prays and intercedes for you (1John 2:1) because He knows intimately just how we are to overcome and conquer it thru Christ (Romans 8:37)! He helps us conquer all things thru His finished work at the cross on our behalf! We can do nothing of without Him!

WE OVERCOME BY OUR FAITH!

We learn to overcome by faith displacing fear, and by the word of our testimony which no one may take from us.  This is pure peace in Christ (Eph. 2:14; 1John 4:18)!  It is in the still quiet intimate prayers and study that He has fashioned you to His specifications that are perfectly chiseled, smoothed and molded out for His glory and our good.  No one else may see into these places but you and God.  He is the Potter and we the clay when we yield to the Master Potter’s Hands (Isaiah 29:16; 64:8; Romans 9:21).  Although these are unseen (2Cor. 4:18) places they remain precious places of deep Holy Spirit work and of high value to God.  One day of His choosing He may then uncover all the work wrought in the quiet places to a world in need of what He has produced in each one of us as He did with Jesus. The Father unveiled the Son to the world at the cross and on the earth it looked like death but the reality was everlasting life for all mankind and for all times and generations! Not everyone received it then either!

HE TOOK THE NAILS FOR YOU!

We pour ourselves out in service to the Lord and sometimes others receive and other times they do not.  Either way the Lord sees knows and accounts for the motives of our hearts and whether we backslide or we honor Him He remains faithful because all our wounds, transgressions and iniquities were accounted for and put on His Son Jesus for each one of us!  It cost God everything!  We are healed by His stripes because He paid the penalty of all our transgressions and iniquities by Jesus blood at the cross.  He took the nails for us.  We continue to repent (Luke 15:10) on the earth for our failures to live in His righteous ways so that we might receive the opportunity to be molded more intimately and precisely into the image of His sinless Son.  This is so that His glory might be on display in our vessels on the earth.  That all may come to the saving faith of Jesus death, resurrection and redemptive salvation and gift of grace available to all mankind who will believe on Jesus finished work at the cross!

Let’s Pray:

John 17:20-26

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will^[a] believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”