Isaiah 55:11 …“So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void,but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

First of all, I love the fact that God says so clearly and so positively: “when I speak – stuff happens!” You might want to think on that like …for the rest of your life! Hmmm. In my mind, people often look at verses through the filter of brother or sister you-don’t-have-to-study-the-bible-deeply-I’ll-do-that-for-you-and-tell-YOU-what-God-told-me! That action keeps people immature.

You see, when we accept that what God Himself says is truth, then we actually have a fantastic diagnostic tool for our lives. Now, let’s think about that verse above for a moment… or nine! Does that mean that if nothing happens when I pray – HE DIDN’T SAY IT? Jesus Himself said,“I only do what I see the Father doing … I only say what I hear the Father saying…”  He was fulfilling that scripture in Isaiah. He understood that God’s word is never void.

When I read that verse again, what He actually says is: ‘My Word won’t just do what I sent it to do, My Word will THRIVE.” PLUS !! The Only One He intends to please is HIMSELF.Take a big breath alright? Almighty God is not your mother, who loved to spoil you. It seems if we take whatever the Lord says seriously, and pray about it, then we may need to revise whatever happens afterwards. There are times I wonder why things aren’t working out so well, and I hope like mad that it isn’t my faith or my theology that’s at fault. But, sadly, it probably is, because there isn’t anything wrong with what the Lord said!  His aim is to accomplish what HE intends. The bible says this:“He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.” Deuteronomy 32:4. 

Here’s a completely useless rabbit trail: I know a song from way back in the ark about that verse in Deuteronomy, which means now I’ll have it stuck in my head! 😱 Maybe that means I am now praying without ceasing …!!  Meanwhile, we had some pretty old fashioned music way back then. But I’m pretty sure most people had no clue what they were singing, they just liked joining in. The good bit is … we all got to memorise scripture. The bad bit is … it was in King James English. Someone ought to have a word with that guy, you can’t understand a word King James says!!

Meanwhile, I think it is time to take a teeny tiny look at what we say, and work out if it is in line with what He says and the way we are living. When God speaks, He means what He says – and we are to behave the same way because we all follow Jesus. This stuff is in the book for activation not just contemplation. There are times that I think none of us know what to do with what we believe, because what we say we believe seems to only work in somebody else’s life! We kind of shove all that mess under a rock and hope nobody notices. Some really brave souls may ask “what did I do wrong?” But most of us dumb sheep—BAA! We don’t have a clue what happened or why, and we are either too scared to ask the Lord “why”… because He might not answer us. OR … because He just might answer us!

At this point, I was hoping the trouble I had just might be the language, so I looked it up in another version – a more manageable one. Well the New International Version actually kind of stuck to the KJV, using a few less unto-s and goeth forths. So I went on to see what the Message bible says. The main trouble with the MSG bible as I see it is this, it really does say what it says in English, but it takes so darn long to say it you need to take a cut lunch. Have a read of this …

“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth. Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” Verses 8-11.

You may have noticed that I included w-a-y more than verse 11. That’s because the Message bible says things in clumps like daffodils, and you have to take them apart and look at each piece separately to get the meaning. That’s great for repotting plants, but a bit hard on the old concentration. 

So what IS my point today? Perhaps we need to be way more careful when we use the words…”God said…” unless we intend to follow it up with …”and this is what happened!” Always remembering that He already HAS plans.  …”to give us a hope and a future ..”   I think this entire verse explains itself in the first sentence of the Message bible version… “I don’t think the way you think ..” That seemed pretty easy to understand to me!  He knows how I think, but most of the time I know bupkis about what He is thinking or doing. BTW, I’m not talking about tacking on “if it be Your will” to our prayers – I’m talking about knowing Him well enough to see what He is doing, or trusting Him if we don’t!

Father God is perfectly capable of making Himself clear. He’s God — I’m not. We think we need proof, but that’s not actually faith. If I don’t think like He does then He’s going to “surprise” me — a LOT… 👋