The Seraphim: Part 12: Isaiah 6:8-10: Hearing the Voice of God
Isaiah 6:8 – Also I heard the voice of the lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.
This verse, viewed in context of the previous seven verses, continues to show Isaiah as being a type of a person living in the end times who has just come into the fullness of Christ in response to the ministry of the seraphim/ministers. These ministers are fellow human beings who were the first to enter this fullness and now minister to help others rise up into their respective places in Christ.
And now, after having gone through a process with God, this person’s sin nature has been removed and all sins forgiven such that he is able to hear the Lord with greater clarity than ever before and at times actually hearing the Lord’s audible voice. The blockage to hearing God has been removed. Hearing God should include obeying God and when the sin nature was still in place, there could have been a reluctance to make an amenable response.
The first thing he becomes aware of is the concern the Lord has for other people. We see also that this person now in the fullness of Christ, no longer having a sin nature, still has free will. He still makes choices when he hears the voice of the Lord and the Lord does not command him to go but asks the question, “Who will go?” This, I believe, reveals this person still has freedom of choice. He still has a will but his will is congruent with the will of God. There need be no concern that one would lose one’s freedom and become an unwilling slave of the Lord when he has undergone this process of coming into the fullness of Christ. He does all freely because of his chosen oneness with God.
He immediately answers God’s question affirmatively. Now that his desire is no longer for his own will to be done (sin nature) but his sole desire is that the will of God be done, there is no hesitation. He will voluntarily do whatever the Lord asks and it will be done out of a pure motive. God’s motive for all he does is the unselfish love he has for all persons and now that same divine love is in all those in the fullness of Christ in the end times represented by Isaiah.
Love is a marvelous emotion and brings the greatest joy one could ever experience. It feels good to love others and to see them being blessed. Feeling God’s love continually and tangibly pouring into your own life is fantastic beyond words. So we see then that along with this new life of responsibility comes a life of great joy. There is something in all human beings that is asking the questions, “Am I loved?” and “Am I valuable?” When God answers these questions with the coming of his presence and asks us to join with him in his purpose, then one comes into the greatest fulfillment in living far beyond anything we could imagine.
When God asks, “Who will go for us?” we can’t help but notice the plurality of the word “us.” Here we see the triune nature of our God, but it also, I believe, includes the hosts of heaven comprised of all those who have lived on earth previously and are now in oneness with God on the other side of the veil.
It is the Lord’s divine nature to have us join with him in all he does. In his desire for a vast family of sons and daughters just like Jesus, he includes us in his plans and purposes as we move forward in him and he in us. Such unity! Such love! Such joy unspeakable and full of glory!
As we join with God in his plans and purposes we find everything within us is fulfilled. Our questions of “Am I loved?” and “Am I valuable?” are fully answered and now our focus can be solely outside of ourself. We can freely flow out of this fullness to minister to others because there will be no selfish motives in us to hinder the power and love of God pouring out of us for others.
This is not only on earth but also in heaven. Heaven is not a place where we just sit around on clouds, playing harps and singing praises to God. It is far more meaningful than that. When we are fully in oneness with the Lord as Jesus prayed we would be in John 17, his purpose will be our purpose also and we will find great joy and delight in fulfilling his desires in union with him wherever we are.
Isaiah 6:9, 10
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
This mysterious ministry assignment is quoted by Jesus in Matt 13:14, 15; Mark 4:12, 13; Luke 8:10; and by Paul in Acts 28:26. It is not that he is to preach these words but that he is to preach in such a manner that only those with good hearts will be able to understand and respond.
Jesus taught in parables that illustrated the message he wanted to convey. Some people understood but others didn’t. Whether or not they understood the message, they probably remembered the stories. Many times Jesus revealed the hidden meaning of the parables to his disciples.
How will these seraphim/ministers fulfill this teaching mandate in the end times? I don’t know for sure, but I believe they will be expounding on the Scriptures, giving illustrations from their own lives and then at times giving specific, personal messages from God to the people, as I explained earlier in my own testimony about my experience in El Paso, TX. At such times, the Holy Spirit will speak through them with specific words from God that will help people come to repentance and move forward in their pursuit of God.
I believe that much of the seraphim/ministers’ teachings will only be understandable to those who have a biblical foundation and an established relationship with God. These will be like the five wise virgins in Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins. Virgins would all be Christians, but the foolish virgins who did nothing to develop their relationship with God and their understanding of the Scriptures will not be permitted into the wedding at the Lord’s return.
As Jesus taught in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, those who did nothing to develop their relationship with him will be told, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” In other words he is saying, I do not have a relationship with you. This will not be based on any kind of favoritism but on the fact that those who did nothing to develop their relationship will have no foundation for understanding and no former work of spiritual development with which to move forward in God.
To be one of the five foolish virgins will be like those who, believing themselves to be Christians, have heard the Word preached and have heard the testimonies of others’ experiences with God, but have not incorporated these truths into their own lives. Every time they heard these things and chose not to act on them, they hardened their heart. They would have done this time after time until thick callouses lay over their hearts that render them incapable of responding to God’s truth and love.
Jesus said,
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. (John 14:21, NKJV)
This is not to say that the only ones who can respond to God’s message in these end times will be Christians who have seriously developed their relationship with God. There are others that will be gathered to him who have not heard the Scriptures per se.
These will be those who have chosen to follow God in their hearts without actually hearing the Word preached or reading a Bible. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in his letter to the Romans:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20 NASB)
We are all able to perceive something of God and his righteousness because there is something in all of us that knows there is a God and knows right from wrong. This knowledge is within us. God put it in us while we were still in our mother’s womb. He also gave us free will, something he will not violate. Over time, as we make daily decisions, the disposition of our heart is formed. Some people have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness and in so doing have hardened their hearts.
Others who have never heard the Scriptures have obeyed the truth within them and by so doing have made decisions for God which over time formed within them a heart open to God and his righteousness. This heart instinctively knows God and sees him in creation and in their fellowmen. These too will be open to receive the teaching of the seraphim/ministers. They will accept the teachings and prophecies from God and move forward in a walk with God that will lead them eventually into the fullness of Christ.
All l am explaining here is based on the truth that Jesus is coming to earth, not to take his church out of the world, but to raise his church up into a spiritual realm of perfection in Christ so they can minister to those in the lost and dying world around them. This will be a ministry of helping others with good hearts to receive the Holy Spirit in a new dimension of power that will lift them up into this spiritual realm called the kingdom of God. The establishing of the kingdom of God on earth will be a process in which God’s people will minister even as Jesus did. They will do the works Jesus described when he said in John 14 that we will do the works that he did and even greater works because he was going to his Father.
This new ministry will also be a ministry of judging the wicked because judgment will automatically take place as the truth comes and righteousness prevails in more and more people. God will judge the wicked as he comes in his people, and at the same time, he will destroy the works of the Devil.
The wicked will not understand what is going on, but God’s spiritual people will understand. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. (NLT)
The preaching of the Seraphim/ministers will be judgment day preaching. It is not that every evil thing or good thing the hearers ever did will pass before their eyes, but that who they have become is being judged—who they have become based on all the decisions they have made throughout their lifetime. Therefore when they hear with their natural ears what the speaker is presenting, they cannot understand, repent and be healed because of whom they have made themselves to be.
Our Holy Spirit inspired Bible tells us in many places what God desires for us to do. These things are for our own good and will help our hearts be open to the things of God. For example Philippians 4:8, 9:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
We become like that which we repeatedly focus on with our mind. This is why the enemy of our souls has televisions in every home, every hospital room, every motel room, every waiting room, many restaurants and just about any place you go.
People don’t realize that the mindless dribble of entertainment and the propaganda of government controlled news programs that continually pour into their minds are gradually rendering them incapable of having a relationship with God. These programs are filled with propaganda and lies straight out of hell day in and day out slowly hardening people’s hearts as they gradually become like what they focus on with their mind. Even the fabulous nature programs continually emphasize the lie of evolution when the glory of God’s creation is brought into our sight in glorious color in the comfort of our living rooms.
Jesus used his parable of the four kinds of soil to teach about what men’s hearts are like. It was immediately after this teaching that the disciples asked him why he taught the people with parables. Jesus answered that it had been given to the disciples to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to the others it had not been given.
This statement should be a warning to all who read it that very few people are going to understand and know God because it is only given to disciples. Who are disciples? They are followers of Jesus. The multitudes who had heard Jesus teaching and seen his miracles were not followers of Jesus. They were onlookers who wanted his blessing but who were not actively seeking him for any reason other than he could heal their bodies and give them bread to eat.
It is sad but true that our churches are filled with people who are like the multitudes. They come to get what they can from Jesus but when the truth be known, they aren’t seeking God for himself but only for what they can get out of him to fulfill their own agendas and plans. To be a follower of Jesus, we must be willing to give up our plans and submit to God’s plans for our lives. That’s what the disciples did. They left their professions, their homes and families and whatever else was required of them in order to follow Jesus.
After telling the disciples that it had been given to them to know the secrets of heaven but not to the multitudes, he added the following teaching:
For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. (Matt 13:12-15, ESV)
To receive all the blessed understandings of the kingdom of heaven, which is really Jesus and all that he is and stands for, without wholeheartedly seeking him would cheapen God. It would devalue him, and this is unthinkable. They would never appreciate God and what he has done for them because they never struggled and suffered loss in order to have him. We only appreciate what we have had to work for. Yes, salvation is a free gift, but if we don’t do something with that gift, if we do not progress forward in God, we will cheapen that salvation and could even lose it.
Salvation by grace is a wonderful thing and an important truth to know, but if we do nothing with it, I don’t believe we really have it. Salvation is dependent upon the life of Christ within us. If we don’t let him do anything for others through us or change our wicked hearts to be like his, I question that we really have salvation after all. If we continually turn our backs on him and seek to follow the wicked ways of the world, should we think we’re going to wind up in heaven when all is said and done? I don’t think so. Heaven is all about Jesus. If we weren’t interested in him here on earth, we won’t be any different in the afterlife. We are who we are and we don’t suddenly become someone else when we pass through physical death to the other side. If we didn’t want him here, we won’t want him on the other side.
In Matthew 13 when Jesus said that those who have will be given more and those who do not have will lose even what they have, he was speaking about the spiritual reality of the dynamics of understanding. Those who have understanding about God can be given more understanding about him because each new thing we learn can only be comprehended if we have the foundation for it based on what preceded it. It is like mathematics. How can someone understand algebra, for example, if they never learned general math? And if they never use general math in their life, say like multiplication, they will forget how to employ it in their life. This is often seen when one is checking out at a store. If the whole transaction is not completed through the calculator in the cash register, the young cashier often doesn’t know how to give change on their own. Anything they learned of math in school never stayed with them because they do all calculations on a calculator rather than with their own mind. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
Understanding about the spiritual things of God is predicated on a walk of holiness and obedience to God. If we are to have his truth in depth, we need to demonstrate that we will not abuse it or defile it. Therefore, we are made in such a way that unless our heart is right before God, we can’t understand the truths he wants us to know. This protects the preciousness of the Word and protects us from the penalty we would incur from profaning it.
