"You were tired out by the length of your road, yet you did not SAY, 'It is hopeless.' You found RENEWED STRENGTH, therefore you did not faint." [Isaiah 57:10]
The Hebrew word for renewed is CHAY, meaning living, alive, life, fresh flowing. The Hebrew word for strength is our old friend, YAD...hand, strength, power...the powerful hand. [Read Yad, The Yad of God, The Yad of God 2]
We've seen in earlier posts that God's yad is in His mouth, and according to Proverbs 18:21, so is ours! Yes, we have physical hands, but it is the hand in our mouth that shapes physical reality.
Isaiah 57:10 tells us how to press on when hopelessness descends on us...the Hebrew word for hopeless here is YA'ASH, meaning to despair or to cause to despair. The instruction is clear...do NOT say 'it is hopeless' but find or attain LIVING YAD...LIVING STRENGTH so as not to faint!
Living strength is in your mouth. In fact, everything is in your mouth...see it, believe it, SAY IT.
Remember the Tower of Babel? That's what the power of the tongue can do, even in the mouths of unregenerate men! Jesus demonstrated how to reign in life with the tongue throughout His entire ministry, and in fact explained how to do it clearly in several places!
Instruction
Joel 3:10 says '...Let the weak SAY, "I am a mighty man."' Why? What was the purpose of that instruction?
If you read the whole chapter, God is calling warriors to rise up and prepare to avenge Judah and Jerusalem...to beat their farming tools into swords and spears. He is telling them to rouse themselves...get up! Get ready to fight! And how is He telling them to get strong for the battle? By the words of their mouths! SAY IT!! SAY IT!!
SAY "I am a mighty man!" That's God's boot camp...not weeks of punishing exercise, not month of weapons drills...SAY "I am a mighty man!"
The Hebrew word for mighty or strong man is GHIBBOWR, meaning champion, great, hero, mighty warrior, valiant warrior, man of outstanding! This is more than just a good soldier...this is a hero, a champion, a valiant warrior!
And how does this weak man become such a paragon? How does he go from a sickly, 98-pound weakling to a Medal of Honor recipient? He SAYS it!
In fact, the Hebrew word for faint in this verse is CHALAH...to become weak or sick, to make oneself sick, to become weak! The weak man had become weak by saying it--now God was telling him to change his life by changing his words!
Our Choice
Either way, it's our choice. SAY words of power and victory or SAY words of despair and defeat, for what we say we will become! SAY what God says about us or SAY what the deceiver whispers...either way, our life is in our mouths!
Make no mistake about it. I'm sure the weak man knew he was weak...I'm sure every circumstance in his life, including his own body, shouted it at him continuously. I'm sure his unseen enemies screamed it at him, especially when he considered obeying the Word of the Lord! His friends and family probably laughed at him..."Are you kidding? You're going where? In the shape you're in? Yeah, right..."
But the instruction of the Lord is clear...'Let the weak say, "I AM A MIGHTY MAN!"' It was clear, just as it was clear to Abraham, an old, childless man, married to an old, barren woman, to SAY "I am the Father of Nations!"
In fact, we know that, at first, both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the idea! All natural evidence pointed to the [fact] that this was a preposterous idea, totally irrational and impossible.
'Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old ? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" [Genesis 17:17]'Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"' [Genesis 18:12]
What Now?
Find out what God has said about you and SAY IT! Use the powerful hand below your nose and reign in life! Remember Proverbs 18:21...'Death and life are in the power [hand] of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.'
[Read Let the Weak Say...]
