Principles of Prayer from the Book of Isaiah

Principles of Prayer from the Book of Isaiah

By Jay Wegter

Introduction: Every true believer would agree that prayer is the heartbeat of our communion with God, the very lifeblood and directive of our Christian walk. So, biblical prayer cannot be reduced to any of the following things: a ‘laundry list’ of requests to God; ‘chatting’ with God; telling God what we think He wants to hear; reciting our petitions for others to God. No, biblical prayer is so much more than these, and cannot be reduced to any combination of these things. This morning we are going to locate some of the vital principles of prayer from the book of Isaiah. And, I believe that if these biblical principles are incorporated in your walk with God, it will transform your prayer life renew your walk with the Lord (worshipful). ‘Just say this and that’.

A. It was a signal mercy that Isaiah was granted a life-transforming vision of the majesty of God (Isaiah 6:1). For the heavy-hearted prophet knew he would have to face a weak and decaying Judah. The glory and national pride of the nation faced imminent demise from which it would never fully recover.ⁱ

As the prophet kneels in prayer at the temple in Jerusalem, God graciously gives to him a life-changing vision of His glory. Such a vision of God’s majesty must have assured the prophet that Yahweh reigned in omnipotence from His heavenly throne. Worshipped by mighty angelic beings, God was seen as executing His moral government with perfect wisdom and power. What a comfort this must have been to the prophet who was witness to the apparent triumph of wickedness on earth.

Isaiah’s vision opened up the prophet’s understanding to the overpowering holiness of God. So great was the impact of God’s holiness upon Isaiah that subsequently it becomes a frequent theme in his message. The prophet loves to speak of “The Holy One of Israel.”ⁱⁱ This divine title is used twelve times in chapters 1-39 and fourteen times in chapters 40-66.ⁱⁱⁱ

B. Isaiah 6 is a record of the prophet’s vision, therefore it is not directly transferable in every detail to the believer’s prayer life. Needless to say, the prophet’s interaction with God’s throne room and the seraphim do not form as exact model to be reproduced in the prayer life of the saint. However. . . much of Isaiah 6:1-8 does contain elements common to godly prayer as outlined in the remainder of Scripture. These points will be examined in a series of prayer principles.

During his vision, Isaiah moves from reverent spectator (6:1-4) to confounded responder (6:5), to grateful recipient (6:6,7), to eager servant (6:8). Each of these spiritual postures exhibited by the prophet demonstrate the outworking of both God’s holiness recognized and God’s Person/character contemplated.ⁱᵛ The believer responds to all three of these aspects of God. In worship and prayer, all three chords are struck:

1) Omnipotence: God is majestic, overall, source of life, and perfect Creator (He made me and owns me), 2) Omniscience: God is holy Lawgiver and Judge, (He sees my heart’s contents). 3) Omnipresence: God is merciful, compassionate, covenant-keeping Redeemer (He is present with me by the Spirit of Christ).

I. Effectual prayer flows from a proper contemplation of God. In thinking biblically upon God, 3 ‘Chords’ are struck:

A. Chord # 1, when you pray, contemplate God’s perfection, especially His perfections as glorious Creator. It is not possible to worship God aright unless He is contemplated as He truly is. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). “[True] religion begins when we realize our dependence on the absolute, infinite being, the eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God.”ᵛ As the prophet Isaiah lifts his soul to God, three distinct notes make up the chord of his response to God’s attributes (Vos).ᵛⁱ

“This is the God who has taken me into covenant with Himself; He is the Creator, owner, Ruler, and sustainer of the universe!” The phrase, “The high and lofty One that inhabits eternity,” a phrase from Isaiah 57:15 encapsulating God’s transcendence (def.).

As finite creatures, we are to reflect upon this unfathomable subject of God’s transcendence. Though it is impossible for us to adequately think out the concept of God’s greatness (or take His measure), it is the first essential element in the dwelling upon our God. It was the first note struck in Isaiah’s vision. And it is the first step in stirring his soul to deep worship.ᵛⁱⁱ (EX. When I take a prayer walk, I will search out a bird, a flower, insect, cloud formation, tree, and use it as a springboard to contemplate the wisdom and might and goodness of God as my Creator.) We are the ‘thought of God’. He is owner of all. I am made of the same stuff as a hamster or a flower, dust!

Concerning God’s omniscient knowledge of the material our bodies are made of, the Psalmist remarks, “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance. . .” (Ps 139:16). Men are but dust made in His image, but He is the self-existent one that fills heaven and earth (1 Ki 8:27). In coming to God in prayer it is incumbent upon the believer to affirm the creature-Creator distinction. For we are not adequately humbled until that infinite gulf between flesh and Spirit and Creator and creature is reverently considered. “All flesh is grass” (Is 40:6-8; Ps 100:3). (EX. the earth wants to reclaim its dust, the very molecules that make up your temporal body, see Gen 3:19; Ps 90:1-12.)

B. Chord # 2, when you pray think upon God’s holiness or moral majesty. God’s moral glory is the ground of His being. His holiness is synonymous with His divinity “[God’s] glory (cabod-weight, importance, honor), is His manifested holiness”ᵛⁱⁱⁱ

God’s holiness is revealed in the exercise of every single attribute. In every action, in everything He decrees, in every contact with His creatures whether mercy or judgment, His holiness is manifested. “The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds” (Ps 145:17). (EX. When I seek to strike this chord in my meditation and prayer, I think of God’s commandments, His perfect moral law. That the Ten Commandments are not merely a collection of ‘thou shalt nots’ that form a moral boundary, but constitute the very safeguard of perfect love to God and to neighbor.)

His commandments are the expression of His righteous nature. There is an infinite moral gulf between creature and Creator. Moral majesty is innately His, by contrast even the most holy creature has only a derived or created holiness.ⁱˣ The angels who called out “holy, holy, holy,” were sinless creatures yet they covered their faces and feet. (6:2-3). There is an infinite moral gulf between creature and Creator.

Jonathan Edwards brings out the effect of contemplating God’s holiness. The quaking temple filling with smoke (6:4); that is reminiscent of the manifestation God made of Himself on Mt. Sinai (See Heb 12:18-21). The congregation was deeply affected; they trembled in terror, and not in awe and admiration. As Warfield observes, “It is pre-eminently the holiness of God that constitutes the terror of the Lord. Sinful man cannot be incited to holy activity by the sight of holiness; it begets no longing in his heart but to hide himself away from it.”ˣ

Edwards states that only redeemed men see the beauty of God’s moral perfection. The first glimpse of God’s moral glory shining into the heart produces an effect that nothing can withstand. Natural men may be greatly affected by God’s greatness, but it is only saints and angels that see the beauty of God’s holiness.ˣⁱ He who sees the beauty of God’s holiness must necessarily see the hatefulness and evil of sin.ˣⁱⁱ (See Ps 27:4).

So often believers make a habit of beginning their prayers without any acknowledgement of who God is. Where such a spirit of haste and unpreparedness exist, there is often little incentive for worship and confession of sin. This tendency can be overcome by using Scripture as a primer for prayer. The Word will warm our hearts and quicken us to the true knowledge of God.ˣⁱⁱⁱ Reading a Psalm or other passage of Scripture before you pray can still and compose your heart to be God-centered, and not merely focused on your needs.

C. Chord # 3, when you pray, consciously surrender yourself to God’s redemptive mercy. God’s constraining love and compassion are seen in His promise to send Messiah (Isaiah 53). God’s incarnate son would span not only the Creator-creature gulf but also the infinite moral gulf between God and sinner. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Is 53:6). (See also Isaiah 9:6). Through the redemption found in Christ the sinner becomes acceptable to God and is thereby enabled to delight in the beauty of God’s holiness. (See Rev 4:1-8). (“The cross makes us beautiful to a holy God and the cross makes a holy God beautiful to us.”)

Once Isaiah condemned himself at the sight of God’s holiness (6:5), God’s redeeming grace hastened to meet his need. The red-hot coal applied to Isaiah’s lips (6:6-7) originated at the altar of blood sacrifice according to Leviticus 16:12).ˣⁱᵛ Therefore, that burning coal symbolized the total significance of the altar from which it came. That is, the penalty of his sin had been covered by the bloody death of a substitute (Lev 1:3, 4; 4:20, 26, 35).

The blessedness of redemption received is contained in the marvelous truth that God actually proposes to share His holiness with us. For, speaking of the great goal of divine discipline in the life of a believer, the author of Hebrews states: “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness” (Heb 12:10). And He does so that He might bring His redeemed as close in proximity to His moral majesty as a finite creature can possibly be. Never did divine holiness appear more beautiful than in the redemption accomplished through Messiah’s death (Charnock).ˣᵛ

God draws back the veil and exhibits His holiness to His children. In so doing He incites them to be holy also, holding His own holiness as the standard which they must strive to attain. “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY” (1 Pe 1:14-16). (Note: meet the Holy One, an ‘echo’ of holiness in every true believer.) Like the split rock from which Moses viewed the ‘back parts’ of God’s glory, the believer is hidden safely in Christ (Ex 33:17-23). Encompassed in Him, He is our observatory from whom we gaze upon the glory of God’s holiness. By exhibiting His holiness to us in redemption, it is a pledge that His children shall certainly attain to itˣᵛⁱ. Remarkable! God is known savingly by what He has done with the believer’s sin, and how He has given to us His own holiness as a gift.

It is God’s redemptive grace we must appeal to in prayer as we pursue holiness. “Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). For His love, compassion and initiative in sending Christ is the warranty of all future grace promised to the saint. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). (See the promise of endless ‘installments’ of grace in Romans 8 and Ephesians 2.) (EX. In striking this chord of self-surrender to the gospel in your meditation and prayer, there is a concerted effort to ‘preach the gospel to yourself’—namely that your status, favor and sonship with God are a gospel reality in Christ, by union with Him.) Gospel comfort, hope, peace and joy flood the soul when you make this chord a priority in your prayer. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). The contemplation of redemption produces overflowing gratitude and thanksgiving in the child of God. “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” (Col 2:6-7). (See also Colossians 1:12-14, 3:17). This attitude of thanksgiving is to fill all of our prayers.

He covers us with His own righteousness, He intercedes for us advocating for us, is patient with us, loves us, washes us, takes delight in us, pleads His own merits on our behalf. This ought to shed light on why we pray in Jesus Name. We pray in Jesus name because this is the pattern of prayer that He has given to us in John 16:23-28. 1) We pray in His name because by Him we have bold and confident access to God, we come before the Father by the merits of Christ and not our own merits. 2) We pray in His name because we long to have our desires conformed to His purposes (“I will build My church”). 3) We pray in His name that our requests might be for His glory and not ours.

III. Principles of Prayer that reflect Posture of Heart. We ‘bend the knees’ of our hearts in submission to who God is.

A. The contemplation of God’s holiness may produce a devastating awareness of personal sin. Isaiah’s response to the sight of God’s holiness was personal devastation and self-condemnation. He pronounced woes upon himself (6:5). The prophet’s conscience was burdened by the sight of God’s holiness. A fresh awareness of the gulf between God, who is essentially holy, and the creature of whom God requires holiness, but does not possess holiness, produces a devastating crisis. Exposure of our sin before the searching omniscient gaze of our holy Creator produces a sense of shameful nakedness. Who can have a standing before this God? “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:16b-17).

Knowledge of divine holiness brought trauma with it. For no man begins to assess his own moral deformity until he is presented with God’s moral majesty.ˣᵛⁱⁱ “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:12-13).

Isaiah’s sense of personal unholiness terminated upon his organs of speech, the lips (6:5). After beholding God’s holiness, he assesses himself a moral wreck who deserves to be swept from God’s universe along with all other things that are corrupt and impure. His mouth is unfit to join in the angelic song.ˣᵛⁱⁱⁱ

Beholding God’s holiness ought to be accompanied by an attitude of penitence which invites God’s examination of us. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps 139:23-24). Our natural desire is to shield ourselves from a sense of judgment and moral failure. The whole bent of our nature is to lower God’s standard of righteousness to a humanly achievable level (lest we be embarrassed, shamed, shocked, horrified, devalued). We don’t naturally seek to be searched by God.

But, beholding God’s holiness is an aspect of worship that is accompanied by a willingness to be smitten by the sight of God and searched by Him. Such a view of God devastates our craving for personal merit, busts to pieces our excuses, and withers our self-righteous contamination of duty. It casts us upon God alone for all our standing before Him. At the height of Paul’s statement of surrender to Christ, he reiterates that Christ is his standing before God: “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil 3:9). Confession of sin assumes this posture of contrition: “Lord when I have committed this sin (these sins), I have not been treating you as Holy.”

God calls us to a posture of heart wherein we abandon our twig lean-to of dead works in which we have sought refuge. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14).

Do you see the glorious blessing here of a blood-cleansed conscience? But, this is only possible if we are willing to be devastated by the sight of our sinfulness. That is how God drives us from our faulty hiding places that He might hide us in Himself alone. As Calvin remarks concerning such poverty of spirit, “It is necessary that the godly should be affected in this manner, when the Lord gives tokens of his presence, that they may be brought low and utterly confounded.”ˣⁱˣ This is all unto one great purpose, true communion with God through the gospel.

B. God meets the humble and contrite. Such a posture of humility and contrition of heart is vital in prayer, for God has promised to manifest His presence to those who come to Him in a lowly and penitent spirit. “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Is 57:15). Isaiah entered the dark tunnel of personal devastation over his sin. God met him there, revived his spirit and lifted him to a place of awe and joy. God graciously brought His servant out the other side of that dark tunnel.

Our responsibility is to see that the heart postures of humility, contrition and fear of God are formed in us. “Thus, says the LORD, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? ‘For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the LORD. ‘But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Is 66:1-2).

God has chosen the conditions of humility and contrition to prepare a man or woman to receive the presence of God in his soul. These conditions have no merit in themselves. They merely constitute the godly response to the loftiness, holiness, eternal glory, grace, and divinity of God.ˣˣ

The devastation that the natural man assiduously shuns, the spiritual man is willing to experience. The godly are willing in their contrition to feel ruined, devastated and undone over their sin. They welcome deep conviction of sin knowing that God delights in drawing near the contrite and in reviving their spirits. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps 147:3).

Theologian David Wells issues this timely warning: there is trauma in retaining the Scriptural, theocentric God of grandeur. The radical reconstruction of self by God’s revealed doctrine is needed or the knowledge of the Holy One will not sink in. The cost of retaining the knowledge of God is ongoing repentance.ˣˣⁱ

It’s ironic that those who seek to be constantly happy by avoiding lowliness and contrition should find that true joy is unattainable (low level depression, misery, joylessness). By contrast, the contrite believer proves as Isaiah did that God is able to melt dread into love and to bring reverence, awe and adoration out of devastation (Is 6:6-8). (EX. A recent Bible verse I posted on Facebook; 1 Tim 1:19, regarding a clear conscience elicited some ‘noise’. One post by a professed believer inferred that striving for a consistently a clear conscience was not really realistic, or achievable, or even something that the believer should seek to maintain.) Note what Scripture says of those who cover sin; they will not prosper, but those who confess and forsake their sin will prosper. Our efforts at self-protection go to many ends to insulate us from the exposure of our sin. But, the believer’s sin must have conscious contact with God in order to truly confess it.

III. When you pray effectually, you will be fitted for service to God

A. Confession and cleansing of sin is preparation for willing

service to God .

Through confession and cleansing of sin, Isaiah was equipped for praise, for intercessory prayer and for the proclamation of God’s Word. His immediate response to divine forgiveness was seen in his eagerness to be of service to God (6:8). (EX. my ‘exchanged life’ prayer on love-less-ness.)

There is an unspeakable sense of peace and joy when a man or woman’s conscious life (and conscience) is rightly adjusted to the nature, the claims and the purposes of God (Vos).ˣˣⁱⁱ This is the essence of prayer—to adjust the believer to the character and will of God so that he or she walks with God.

Isaiah’s overflowing gratitude made him willing to serve God from the heart. Isaiah 6 illustrates why so few are willing to serve God. They lack the conviction of sin. This lack precludes both confession of sin and service to God. “Only when a man or woman has been convicted of sin and has understood that the Redeemer has borne the guilt of his sin is he willing and ready joyfully to serve God” (E. J. Young).ˣˣⁱⁱⁱ

A. W. Tozer makes a similar observation, “[Fruitfulness results from] the plowed life . . . that has, in the act of repentance thrown down the (self) protecting fences and sent the plow of confession into the soul.”ˣˣⁱᵛ Isaiah’s willing response to God in prayer is no doubt a grateful reaction to God’s forgiving grace. The phrase “who will go for us . . .” (6:8) makes it clear that the prophet is accepting not a single opportunity to serve but the challenge of a commitment to service.ˣˣᵛ

The watchful believer knows what obstacles stand in the way of confession. “Both Satan and our prideful nature fight against any kind of admission to wrongdoing. . . . If you don’t confess your sins, you will become hardened.” (Note Hebrews 3, sin is filled not only with self-deception, but with a host of soul-hardening excuses for its existence.) Confession of sin is the only path to fruitful service and to joy and liberty in the Lord.ˣˣᵛⁱ “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (Prov 28:13).

B. Ongoing contemplations of God’s majesty equip a man or woman for

worship and service. The transforming power of God’s majesty is impressed upon the soul by meditation and prayer. Meditation on the Word of God and the action of prayer are twins. They function together. It is evident from Isaiah’s preaching that the vision of God’s majesty was an enduring theme in his meditations. “Thus, says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it” (Is 42:5). (See also, Isaiah 26:7-13; 40:12-21; 43:1-21). Vos notes just how fully Isaiah was consumed with the majesty of God.

What else but the great thought of God supernaturally introduced into the soul of this man produced that untold wealth of spiritual power which even the world hostile as it is to divine truth, cannot help honoring when it puts him with the most illustrious examples of religious genius in all ages?ˣˣᵛⁱⁱ

Isaiah’s devotional life was exemplary, for “his mind was filled to overflowing with the thought of God. Isaiah’s warm spiritual glow so uniformly present in all his preaching was kindled at the altar-fire and kept forever burning in his soul by this vision of the divine glory” (Vos).ˣˣᵛⁱⁱⁱ The things of true religion take hold of men’s souls only to the degree that they engage the affections (reaching into and taking hold of our desires). What controlling desires shape your choices, your sacrifices, your discipline, your goal-setting? The God Isaiah contemplated was the God Isaiah loved.

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations (Is 61:10-11).

The message he preached of God’s infinite majesty, holiness, wisdom, goodness and mercy was addressed to the affections.ˣˣⁱˣ Isaiah spoke nothing concerning God that he did not personally experience and desire. He presents his readers and listeners with the divine vantage point. The book of Isaiah, like no other, raises the reader to behold the majesty of God. The prophet’s timeless message has the profound ability to inspire awe of God. As Isaiah’s vision proves, his message first took hold of his own soul and transformed it, that the prophet might become a fit proclaimer of divine majesty.

Beholding the glory of God works to change the believer into greater conformity to the character of God (2 Cor 3:18). “When God and His glory are made our end, we shall find a silent likeness pass in upon us; the beauty of God will by degrees enter upon our souls (Charnock).”ˣˣˣ What greater way is there to honor God than by prayerfully studying Him that we might learn to imitate Him. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:1-2).

We have seen that the true believer contemplates God’s Person as an indispensable dimension of prayer: 1) Omnipotence: He made me and all things and rules over all. 2) Omniscience: He is the Holy One who sees my heart and life. 3) Omnipresence: He has brought me to Himself and is with me by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. For, this is the God to whom we pray and with whom we commune.

Endnotes:

i Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, p. 235
ii H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Isaiah, p. 130
iii E. J. Young, p. 244
iv James Rosscup, Biblical Exposition of Prayer, syllabus p. 26 and More Helps p. 48
v Geerhardus Vos, “Our Holy and Glorious God,” Grace and Glory, p. 268
vi Vos, pp. 264-265
vii Vos, p. 265
viii Keil and Delitzsch, p. 192
ix Vos, p. 269
x B. B. Warfield, Faith and Life, p. 445
xi Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, pp. 190-191
xii Edwards, p. 200
xiii Rosscup, Exposition of Prayer Syllabus, p. 26
xiv Keil and Delitzsch, p. 197
xv Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, vol. 2, p. 135
xvi B. B. Warfield, pp. 442-446
xvii Charnock, vol. 2, p. 185
xviii John D. W. Watts, “Isaiah,” Word Biblical Commentary, p. 74-75
xix John Calvin, “Isaiah” Calvin’s Commentaries, p. 198
xx Vos, p. 262
xxi David Wells, God in the Wasteland, p. 115
xxii Vos, p. 264
xxiii E. J. Young, p. 252, 254
xxiv A. W. Tozer, Paths to Power, p. 33
xxv Geoffrey Grogan, “Isaiah,” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank G. Gaebelein, gen. ed., p. 57
xxvi John MacArthur Jr., Alone with God, p. 103
xxvii Vos, pp. 273-274
xxviii Vos, p. 260
xxix Edwards, p. 30
xxx Charnock, vol. 2, 206