How to Pray: Clean Me Up!

Isaiah didn't feel qualified for what God was calling him to do. He was dirty guy living in a dirty world, but then He prayed.

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Transcript

how-to-pray-clean-me-up

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everybody. How are you doing out there? Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast.

As we continue in our prayer journey, thanking God for a new year, prayerfully this year has been going well for you, but if not, prayerfully you are still standing. Whatever you do, do not quit. We are of them that believe to the saving of our souls, and we are those that press, because we believe that God has more for us, whether on this side of eternity or the next.

So, join me in Isaiah chapter 6 as we'll look at today's prayer. The Bible says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings.

With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. Seraphims are angels. Seraphims are majestic beings, and we don't see those around anymore, but they are referenced here and throughout the Old Testament.

Anyway, let's continue. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.

And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongues from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. As we look at this recognition of where Isaiah the prophet here stands, I don't know if I count this as a prayer.

I don't know if he was simply just acknowledging where he was and who he was, but I like that God stepped in his acknowledgement. The Lord counted it as something he wanted to answer. Therefore, we'll put it in the category of something we need to look at today.

As we look at this scripture, it starts off with, In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord. Now, Isaiah was actually a pretty good king for the most part. His name means my strength is Jehovah.

His mom's name was Jechaliah or Jehovah is Abel. He's the son of Amaziah who reigned 29 years. And the Bible says his dad did the right thing, but not with the perfect heart, according to 2 Chronicles 25 and 2. I do think that's noteworthy because God does judge your actions, but he also judges the reason behind your actions.

And so to note here that I saw Amaziah do the right thing, but his heart needed work is important. Anyway, Uzziah somewhat continues in that pattern. He was a good king.

He reigned for 52 years. He started reigning when he was 16 years old. The Bible says he sought God and God made him to according to 2 Chronicles 26 and 5. The scripture even records in 2 Chronicles 26, 15, that he was marvelously helped until he was strong.

But when he became strong, he got out of order. He got mad at Azariah for intervening when Uzziah tried to burn incense, which was the job of the priest. Azariah would have been the priest and he's angry with him.

He overstepped his boundaries. The Bible lets you know that after that, Uzziah got leprosy and died with it and he could never go back into the house of the Lord. Uzziah's story is a sad one in a lot of ways because God built him up and then he used the same thing God gave him as a reason to think he could stand on his own or be more than what he was with God.

How many times sometimes having everything you want or everything you're asking for is not a blessing. Sometimes God's no is a bigger blessing because he knows what you can handle. That's why the scripture says, give me what is convenient for me.

In Psalms 30, we don't want too much. We don't want too little. In fact, I think we covered this.

We don't want too much. We don't want too little. We covered this actual prayer and request.

God, give me what I can handle. Uzziah got more than he could handle. Anyway, when he died, Isaiah professes that I saw the Lord.

Now we don't know that it's because Uzziah died that Isaiah could see the Lord, but rather it may have just been a reference to timeline. But either way, it was a huge time of transition for the country, a huge time of looking towards what's next. Anytime a leader dies, you're going to have some fallout, some turmoil.

So it is important that in this time, God did not leave his people, but rather Isaiah saw the Lord. Isaiah is often referred to as the eagle-eyed prophet because of the way the Lord let him see. He didn't just hear, he saw.

And what he saw here is quite incredible because the Bible says he saw seraphims. Each one has six wings, and these are supernatural creatures that have wings that cover their faces, their feet, and they fly. Can you imagine that? Some of you might be perfectly calm.

I probably wouldn't. And there's crying and they're flying and they're saying, holy, holy, holy. And the doors of the place you're in are shaking.

And then there's smoke. No wonder Isaiah said, whoa, whoa, whoa is me. Now, whoa doesn't have the same definition that it has now, but it was a passionate cry of grief or despair.

It could mean danger. It could just mean, oh. Either way, it is perfectly understandable that Isaiah's reaction is, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I'm undone. I'm not qualified to be here, is what he's saying. I'm not sufficient.

I'm done with silence. I failed to be qualified to be here. I'm not the one you want.

He felt in over his head. And the reason he felt in over his head was he said, I am a man of unclean lips. That word unclean means defiled or infamous or polluted.

He said, and I dwell amongst an unclean people. The people I'm around are also polluted. How can you be clean in a polluted place or when you're surrounded by polluted things? I submit to you that Isaiah asked God, clean me up.

No, he didn't. It makes sense that when you are in a polluted place and surrounded by polluted things that you are yourself polluted. That is why we have to, at times, disconnect from the society around us in terms of we can't watch everything.

We can't listen to everything. We don't hang with everybody. Why? Because I might get contaminated and I need to be clean.

And Isaiah recognized to be used by God, I need to be clean. He didn't even know here what to ask God specifically, it seems, but rather he's exclaiming what you're showing me. I'm not qualified to be or be here in this place with you.

And yet God doesn't disregard him, this request, this plea or this acknowledgement, but rather he says, let me qualify you. Let me clean you up. The Bible says that one of the seraphims, they take a live coal in their hand.

Okay. A glowing coal. You would think it was burning hot because this coal is glowing, but he's holding it in his hand.

It's neat to me that he removed it from the altar with tongs, but he's still able to handle it with his hand. And he laid it upon the mouth of Isaiah. He said, lo, this have touched thy lips and that iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged.

Taken away means your iniquity has departed. It's been turned. It's been put aside.

Your iniquity is separate from you. And not only is he separating iniquity, he also says that it has been purged. Thy sin has been purged, which means atoned or reconciled.

He's telling Isaiah, you've been separated from your sin and it has been paid for. God is so merciful to his people because he doesn't save us so we can stay in sin. When he calls us, when he wants to use us, when he's working with us, he doesn't want us to stay dirty, but he also recognizes we are not able to clean up ourselves.

And so he finds a way even in the Old Testament to purge Isaiah and take away his sins. In the New Testament, baptism does what fire did in the old, what this fire, this hot, cold did for Isaiah in the old. In the New Testament, the Bible says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

That word remission means release from bondage, forgiveness, or pardon. It's in Acts 2 38, remission of the penalty of sin. So it is a lot like the word used to describe Isaiah's sin being purged, that it'll be used to describe Isaiah's sin being taken away, that it'll be separated from him.

It'll be departed. It will be removed. But then the other side of baptism is not just the remission or removal of sin.

The Bible calls it the answer of a good conscience toward God. So that allows you to stand before God and be reconciled, to be purged, to be clean. The Bible says that baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.

It's not something you do on the outside. It doesn't work from the outside in. It works from the inside out because it doesn't clean your outward man, according to 1 Peter 3 21.

But it cleans up everything your conscience feels like you have to answer for. Understand that's where Isaiah was. There were some things that made him stand and say, I'm too dirty for this.

And I live in the dirty stuff. But when he was purged, when he was reconciled, when his iniquity was removed from him, he believed God had in fact cleaned him up. Some of you have been baptized.

Some of you have not. If you have not been baptized in Jesus name, please reach out to this press movement. We will you connected no matter where you are in the world.

But if you have, there comes a time you need to remind yourself God handled that already. God has touched that already. God forgave me for that already.

A lot of times we hang on to stuff past when it's dead. We hang on to our failures. We hang on to our shortcomings.

And God said, I let that go. I separated that from you. You don't have to live in the residue of what God has separated you from.

That is the beauty of the way God saves us and the way he keeps us. With him comes a freedom and the freedom comes because baptism, like I said, is not just about water. It is the answer of a good conscience, but it's also the way we take part in what he did on the cross.

The Bible says in Romans six and four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. There is a dying out and he compares it that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. He does say the word should there, not because he's wondering if the cross is effective, but because he knows we have the choice of letting it be effective today.

God is still cleaning up people for himself. If you need to be cleaned up, perhaps you're like, I've already been baptized, but I messed up since then. Repent, turn, ask for help from people who walk this thing before you.

God will be with you. And if you want to read more about it, you know what? The press just dropped a blog or two on repentance, because this is the time that is time to live right, be right, get right, and encourage one another to do so. So no matter where you are in your prayer journey, I encourage you to continue to press because prayer reaches every single situation.

Join the movement, join the community, like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at press to pray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

Visit PressToPray.com.

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