Process For Renewal
by Ray Prinzing

"Keep silence before Me, O Islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment."      (Isaiah 41:1)

The islands bespeak a place of much activity, surrounded by the constant roaring of the sea, the waves ebb and flow, with the commotion of the ships that come and go.  Into the midst of all this, the command comes ringing clear, KEEP SILENCE, quiet all this external confusion, and let the people renew there strength, pass on from the weakness of the flesh, into the very strength of the Spirit.  Then the prophet tells of the process:

"LET THEM COME NEAR." "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw night to you."  (James 4:8).  "Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart."  (Jeremiah 29:13).

"THEN LET THEM SPEAK. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."  (Jeremiah 33:3).   "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."  (Philippians 4:6).  "Beloved, if your heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask, we receive."  (1 John 3:21-22).

"LET US COME NEAR TOGETHER TO JUDGMENT. Backed into a corner, desperation causes many to try and come near to God, they search out a sanctuary, and they are willing to speak to God, to offer their requests, but let it be known, all true operations of our renewal and change will include the judgments of God.  Yet, these are not to be feared, they are for our good, being correctional in nature, and for the purposes of restoring us into rightness again.  Therefore the Psalmist declared, "for I have hoped in Thy judgments."  (Psalm 119:43).  While the prophet adds, "when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."  (Isaiah 26:9).  Many of the situations that occur, if we only knew it, are but the judgments of God working in us, bringing us into alignment with the will of God, and thus into new realms of joy and peace.