December 20


Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6


This chapter describes the full effect of the Messiah’s ministry. How can lame people leap and dumb people sing? The answer is that, wherever Messiah appears, the effect is the reversal of all that hindered and destroyed the lives of sinners. These verses prophesy the literal healing of broken bodies – and this ministry continues today; but how much more wonderful that the healing also refers to broken hearts and damaged emotions. Messiah brings a fountain of bliss, and our voices, once despairing and sorrowful, can now sing like a lark. What is your experience of the boundless joy of His Presence? Bliss means joy unspeakable and full of glory. Bliss is when you realise that the gulf of darkness that threatened you has been swept aside for ever. Bliss is when you realise that God’s love and supply of strength will never fail you. Bliss is when you have to pinch yourself to remind you that this is really happening to you. How easily we fall back into old patterns of thought and feeling. Don’t let that happen. The world changed for ever when Christ died, rose again and sent the Holy Spirit. Your world has changed for ever, and wherever people realise who He is and what He has done, lame people dance and dumb people sing. Multitudes stop and stare at the power of Him who reverses years of stiffness and shyness, and the heaviness of a world that had no Messiah, to exchange them for the bliss of the Kingdom of God.