Heritage!

Heritage! 

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 54:17 KJV

The verse before today's extract seems to be the best place to start. It reads: Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. NOTE: this is God speaking: every weapon of war, the skilled craftsman who designs and builds them and the skilled person who takes and uses them for war, are all created by me. There is a process for the design and manufacture of these weapons, and as long as the earth remains, that knowledge and skill will not be taken away. The designer has an idea in mind, and he takes the necessary steps required to bring the plan to fruition. 

God who speaks here is also the same: He has a clear idea what He wants to achieve and all that is required to fulfil His plans have been provided by Him. In fact, even the waster, whose job it is to destroy, was created by God. It then means that what is key here is to align yourself with what God wants to achieve. If you fight against God's express purpose, how do you imagine that will end? The God who can send wasters to destroy and give wisdom to create tools that can kill must be feared. If this was where the story ends, maybe there won't be hope but as today's extract makes clear, there is something else that God does that should give our hearts joy and peace.

Let men use their skill and design weapons; let men rise up and speak against you; let men take up arms and come against you; as long as you are my child, nothing can go wrong. Men may fashion weapons of mass destruction, yet God is saying to me: you are only safe when you are my servant, serving at my pleasure, not at your own convenience. This is key: you can't claim control of your own destiny and expect God to fight you over control. You cannot be the lord and master of your own destiny, and still expect that God's promises will be unconditionally fulfilled in you, with no input or effort on your part. Did you see that you are empowered to condemn the tongue by yourself? As long as you have aligned yourself with the God who can fetch water with a basket to disgrace the bucket, you have all the power you need. 

So, let it be clear: fights will come. If the weapons will fail, it is not for lack of trying but because God has decided to give me a heritage of protection. Whether it is the physical machinations of men, or the cutting use of the tongue to wage war against me, God is saying: as long as your total allegiance is to me, I will keep you safe. There is no knowledge of warfare that can truly keep a man safe; there is no scheme of man that can prevent war from happening, but there is one certainty in all of these: those who are the true servants of God enjoy protection that nothing on earth can threaten or replicate.

Guess the question then is: who am I? Am I a servant of God or the master of my own destiny? Do I have a heritage of protection and safety from God, or am I striving to secure myself by myself? Don't fear man whose worst effort can only impact the physical life; fear God who can destroy both the body and soul in hell. All that God does proves that I cannot question Him, but again, the one question I need to answer is this: who am I? The answer to that question is the answer to my earthly impact and eternal reality. His time of favour is here