I heard Him Say… “See, Stop, but Believe.”

After a busy weekend at work, and an awesome time in God’s presence at church last night… I came home, hungry for more time with the Father, and for the first time in a long time He started talking again. Not that I didn’t seek Him, not that I don’t start every day and end every day with Him.
There is a saying “Silence is golden”, and it surely is golden and very special; times we can sit with someone without saying a word, without the need to pay attention what the other person have to say, just sitting, being aware of the person being next to you… God showed me this year will be a year of rest, not that I will sit and do nothing but the fact that we can find rest, no matter what is happening around us, it is a sign of trust and belief in Who He really is. Being able to find rest at His feet, being able to rest with rest assurance that He will bring acceleration to me as a being, living for Him. Being able to see this rest as a weapon, it is a posture of confidence and faith.  

I read Isaiah 49 last week and something stood out for me, a piece of scripture caught my attention, it just didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the scripture. What made it stand out more is that I came across really a lot of scriptures regarding “Walls” in the last few weeks, resulting in a few studies around it.
I spent some valuable time in Nehemiah, again… during my battle 2 years back a sister in Christ suggested to me to read Nehemiah. If you have not read Nehemiah, do yourself a favour and read it; it is about how Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem; truly a tale of restoration, with all odds against him, with battles and attacks, with threats against his life, but he stood unshakable and completed the task God laid on his heart, in only 52 days.

Strange enough, Isaiah 49 talks about the “Restoration of Israel” … Strange? Or perfectly planned by the Holy Spirit?
What stood out for me is in verse 16 “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
The verses leading up to verse 16 is Isaiah prophesying about Jesus, the Redeemer and Savior, Israel will step into the Light, they will never go hungry, nor thirsty… God will return Israel from captivity, God will comfort and have compassion; He will NEVER forsake Israel… and it continues with glorious restoration after verse 16…

“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” Reading the whole passage over and over, trying to make sense of the walls God is referring to, for me it seems out of context… but God is never out of context.

Walls are generally referred to in the Bible as structures of protection, and that is one of the main reasons why Nehemiah rebuilt the walls, to protect God’s people from easy attacks.
But walls are also seen as structures of division, structures of separation; Uuuuuuhmmmm; okay. This scripture refers to “your walls”, NOT God’s walls… it was walls erected by Israel, not walls as instructed by God to Nehemiah, and with most things in our lives, whatever we do in our own ability is a failure.

A few points can be highlighted in this scripture. Firstly; The world is a broken place, all of us got hurt somewhere in the time and place we call earth, with our natural carnal instinct we will put up structures to protect our hearts from getting hurt again. We lay down boundaries for people not to cross and keep ourselves safe. An example of such; we decide not to fall in love again because love hurts, we build “structures” to keep love out as we see love as not being real and connect it to ending in pain, leading to rejection and be thrown out once we are not good enough anymore, by the same people that “loved” us. We paint our experience of love with an ending of pain and sorrow. But what we don’t realize is that we put up structures not just against a person, these structures are not selective, and ultimately, we are building a structure against love in totality. Doing this we build structures against God, who is Love, and our true source of affection and compassion is in Him… Blocking out love blocks out God; it blocks us from experiencing true unconditional love, and without it we will never experience peace and rest. These walls must fall, it must be removed for us to experience wholeness and healing.

And then… in my quiet time last night I was led to John 20:24-31. Jesus’ tomb was found empty; and Jesus started appearing to the people close to Him. One such person was not present on the occasion Jesus appeared to His disciples, Thomas. He said he will only believe Jesus is alive if he could see and touch Jesus’ palms with the scars of the nails.  And Jesus made it happen, He appeared to the disciples when Thomas was present… And he touched Jesus’ palms, inscribed with scars caused by the nails.
There is a connection between these two scriptures (Isaiah 49:16 & John 20:24-31).
Both scriptures refer to God’s palms, both with inscriptions of love in it… First is His palms with our beloved names on it, secondly the scars caused by the act of love, which He endured on the cross.

Then God said our walls are continually before Him; In John 20 Jesus came to a locked door, but then appeared in their midst beyond the “separation structure”, the shut door, to address Thomas’ disbelief… are these walls referring to a division between God and us, blocking restoration to wholeness of His nation, His body?

Jesus told Thomas “See; Stop with your faithlessness, but believe.”
Our disbelief creates structures of division… we all believe He is the creator of heaven and earth, the One and Only God who conquered and stood up from death. But do you truly believe He is who He say He is?

One of the enemy’s weapons and goals are… “Do you actually believe He is who He say He is… I mean really, He is the living loving God and He will let you starve in this desert? If You are who You say You are, turn this stone into bread.”
A common weapon, DOUBT… And then we respond with “If I see the wounds in His hands, I will believe He is alive…”

Be true to yourself; Have you ever made a vow of doubt to God? No need to answer me, do some introspect and let the Holy Spirit assist you in seeking your heart. Think nicely now…
“God, if You could only remove this mountain, I would commit my life to you…”
“God, if You would only give me a new job, I will start tithing…”
“God, if you only you could remove this addiction from me, I will…”
“God, if only You could deliver my spouse, I will make sure that my house will serve You…”

These “walls” stand between God and us… it is walls we create, not walls He erected to protect us. These walls of disbelief keep us from God.

Jesus then said to Thomas “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

BELIEVING is having confidence in the truth, the truth of believing what He say; the intention of believing His word grows into a state of BELIEF, which is a feeling of certainty of who God really is, this state of being in turn activates the evidence, the title deed, the rest assurance, of things not seen, FAITH. And Faith will not tolerate doubt in its presence.

Cast down every high thought and imagination that raises itself against the true knowledge of God, and force it to bow down in obedience before Jesus.
How do you know what the True Knowledge of God is? Spend time with Him, in His word, and He will reveal the Truth, and it will set you free from your disbelief.