Head for the Highway

There have been many great awakenings in the course of church history, especially here in America. But if I am hearing the Lord correctly, none will equal the size, scope and longevity of the one that is coming. Because I believe this will be the wave to carry us home. And I'm not talking about heaven.

As the calendar flipped to 2011, these words of Isaiah caught my attention: "Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things from the past. Behold I will do something new, now it will spring forth, will you not be aware of it? I will make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:18,19).

For weeks I had been drawn to this recurring theme in Isaiah about streams in the desert, and a roadway in the wilderness, which he calls a "highway of holiness" (chapters 35, 41, 43,44). What could it all mean? Slowly I began to see it.

Although applicable to all ages, Isaiah is primarily prophesying about a time at the end of the age when God's people would be spiritually bone dry. Like the dry bones of Ezekiel 37. His people would be apathetic, backslidden, and powerless;His church as carnal as the world around. But in His mercy God would send His spirit to revive us once again.

"I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My spirit on your offspring and my blessings on your descendants. And they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water" Isaiah 44:4,5).

This awakening will terminate the church age as we've have practiced it for the last 1800 years. For God has been trying to deliver us from the religious mindset that imprisoned us in the second and third centuries. He kept sending us anointed men like Tyndale, Luther, Whitefield, Edwards, Finney, Seymour, Graham and countless others to pull us out of our fallen states of spirituality. But once awakened we would just alter our theology a bit and march right back into our religious ways and the cycle would repeat itself. We'd soon wither and die, requiring yet another emergency rescue by God's spirit.

But when this revival hits, the cycle will end. It will no longer be church as usual. This time the old wine skins will not be able to contain the dynamic power of the spirit about to be unleashed. A whole new kind of wineskin will be needed to handle the throngs of awakened joyous believers who will spring up like poplars. And this time we won't have to submit our wine to those who would rather cork it than dance with us.

That's where the highway comes in. When Isaiah mentioned the "something new" he first reminded us of the supernatural dry road God made through the Red Sea (43: 16,17). But this time it would be different. It would not be a dry road through the sea, but a spirit-soaked pathway through the wilderness.

I believe he was saying this future revival would be our final goodbye, as when He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. But this deliverance will be from Satan's entire world system, which is rapidly reaching critical mass, before His judgment falls.

Like the Israelites who discovered they were still within Pharaoh's grasp at the Red Sea, we too still live in Satan's Kingdom. Although we're not of this world, we are still in it. And "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).

But just as God opened a super highway to save His people then, He will do so for us. As Isaiah described it: "And a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called 'the highway of holiness'; the unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way. And fools will not wander up on it....And the redeemed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Isaiah 35:8,10).

So get excited and be expectant, knowing "we are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" ( 1 Peter 1:5).