Isa 44

Devotion 1 of 1: Isa 44

In v.28, Isaiah gave an amazing prophecy of the temple and Jerusalem’s restoration: “Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’ “ This prophecy is claiming that, in the future, a king named Cyrus will allow the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple! This prophecy was fulfilled in 2 Chron 36:22-23 and Ezra 5:1-4.
Isaiah lived from about 760-690BC, and Cyrus, over 100 years later, about 590-529BC! Not only was the time difference amazing, but Cyrus was king over the Persian Empire, so for Isaiah to predict that a Persian king over 100 years later would command the Jews to return and rebuild their city and temple was quite astounding!
Another astounding factor about this prophecy is that the Jews had not yet been taken captive to another country, and the temple and Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed! God’s prophecies are accurate and are certain to come to pass, so let’s be confident that his endtime revival prophecies will also be fulfilled!

EPH 1: Free sharing!
Ephesians is the greatest book about the church in the whole Bible. It presents the church through many pictures. In chapter 1, we see the church described as Christ’s body in v.22-23: “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
It also says that the church is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. I believe this means that the church has the potential of doing everything Jesus did while he was on the earth, multiplied many times over because Christians number hundreds of millions of people around the globe!
So, just as Christ attracted thousands of people through his ministry of teaching and healing, each Christian also has the potential of leading thousands of people to salvation through preaching the gospel and healing the sick!
This is what Paul is praying for in v.18-19: “…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe…”
This is how the endtime revival will come to the world—through millions of Christians understanding their calling and the glory and power God has provided to us so we can fulfill that calling! Let’s believe it and do it!