Oasis ReMAP Immanuel Series Week 1 – ANTICIPATE

Read – and re-read at a different pace

Meditate – and reflect: what is the Holy Spirit revealing?

Apply – what here is lifegiving for me? What requires change in me?

Pray – What here leads me to worship? Or to intercession? Where do I need God's grace and help?

DAY 1

Therefore the Lord Himself will give [all of] you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

Read and re-read – This Scripture promise was received about 700 years before the birth of Christ. Generally 'a sign' is fulfilled in a few years, not hundreds or thousands of years. The Early Church eagerly anticipated Jesus' final return – soon. As we now know, the timeframe is longer.

Meditate – Observe that the four titles of Isaiah 9:6 reveal four aspects of Immanuel:

– a 'counsellor' is someone who carries out a plan or action

– with divine power

– bringing the Father's compassion and protection

– exercising a style of rulership which brings wholeness and wellbeing to the whole of society.

Apply – This speaks to us of a much greater plan than we can readily comprehend, which requires the kind of eternal timescale we find hard to grasp.

Pray – For spiritual eyes to be able to see the bigger picture of what God is doing. Pray for the wisdom to prepare for it.

DAY 2

1-2 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,

you who lead Joseph like a flock.

You who sit enthroned between the cherubim,

shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.

Awaken your might;

come and save us.

3 Restore us, O God;

make your face shine on us,

that we may be saved.

4 How long, Lord God Almighty,

will your anger smoulder

against the prayers of your people?

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears;

you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.

6 You have made us an object of derision to our neighbours,

and our enemies mock us.

7 Restore us, God Almighty;

make your face shine on us,

that we may be saved.

Read, and take time to re-read – The original hearers heard this as a psalm of lament. It was probably written around 722 BC when the northern kingdom (Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh etc) was overrun. Joseph is an allusion to all tribes. Like all Scripture, it reaches into our time and beyond, and brings God's voice to speak into a Christian witness in our time that appears increasingly marginalised and challenging.

Meditate – The picture is that offences against God have caused God's anger and prayers to be blocked.

– It speaks of us being restored that we may be saved, v.3, v.7.

– Not all prayers please God, evidently, v.4.

– There is the sense that derision and being mocked, v.6, has been allowed by God.

– There is a prayer – and an expectation – of God coming to save us, vv.2-3.

– What is God's overall purpose, and mercy, and heart desire for all people?

Apply – What kind of prayers might make God angry? What is our sense of need, for God to come near and save?

What in church, and inter-church relationships, needs to change? Christians sometimes seem to prefer their empires, than working with one heart and mind to establish God's kingdom.

If we wonder why our 'big' prayers for revival have not brought change, perhaps we have to look at ourselves and what needs to change.

Pray – that the Holy Spirit will reveal where we have become too used to a slow spiritual pace, to question ourselves and to expect for more.

DAY 3

1-2 In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.

I trust in you;

do not let me be put to shame,

nor let my enemies triumph over me.

3 No one who hopes in You

will ever be put to shame,

but shame will come on those

who are treacherous without cause.

4 Show me Your ways, Lord,

teach me Your paths.

5 Guide me in Your truth and teach me,

for You are God my Saviour,

and my hope is in You all day long.

6 Remember, Lord, Your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to Your love remember me,

for You, Lord, are good.

8 Good and upright is the Lord;

therefore He instructs sinners in His ways.

9 He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them His way.

10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful

toward those who keep the demands of His covenant.

Read, and take time to re-read – The first in a group of nine psalms emphasising trust in Yahweh, celebrating His unfailing covenant love. The principles are timeless and speak to us in the same way today.

Meditate – The psalm repeats certain 'notes' with a lot of emphasis – trust, hope, God's way and God's goodness.

Whose reputation is at stake if we are put to shame (vv.2-3)?

What "paths" or "ways" vv.4, 8-10, are in view? What are different dimensions of "His way", v.9?

Apply – How does "God's way" suggest preparation needed in us?

Pray – for revelation of how we, people of flesh, can allow ourselves to be taught "His way", v.9.

DAY 4

1 "Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!" declares the Lord.

2 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend My people: "Because you have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done," declares the Lord. 3 "I myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.

4 I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing," declares the Lord. 5 "The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which He will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour [Yahweh Tsidqenu].

Read, and take time to re-read – The shepherds are the people's rulers. Following Josiah's good and godly reforms, there was a succession of short and damaging reigns (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Johoiachin) which were not God-fearing, ending with the last king of Judah whose name, Zedekiah, means 'The Lord is Righteous' – but he did not live up to his name. Hence the irony of "I will raise up for David a righteous branch", v.5.

Meditate – In what way is God gathering 'exiles' and bringing them back into a place of fruitfulness?

Apply – How does our knowing "the Lord my righteousness" change us? How does it release? How might it also constrain our attitudes and actions?

Pray – Lord Jesus, we welcome You as the Righteous branch and invite You to be Lord of Your church – in every aspect. Amen.

DAY 5

"The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will fulfil the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

"In those days and at that time

I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;

He will do what is just and right in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved

and Jerusalem will live in safety.

This is the name by which it [He] will be called:

The Lord Our Righteous Saviour [The Lord our Righteousness]."

Read, and take time to re-read these two Jeremiah passages. Here both the Saviour, and Jerusalem, representing the people of the Lord, will be called by this name.

Meditate – How has the Lord fulfilled the promise, Jer. 33:14? What part of the promise are we still awaiting to be fulfilled "in those days"?

Apply – What part of the promise can we appropriate now?

- What difference does this make to our understanding of who we are in Christ, and our standing in the heavenly courtroom in intercessory prayer?

- What holy attitude which is like spiritual armour do we put on, which is based on "The Lord my righteousness"?

Pray – Lord Jesus, you are Yahweh Tsidqenu, through whom I can come to the Father and know His deep, unconditional love for me. Deepen my revelation of this truthduring this preparation season, and show me fresh aspects of how I might live this out.

DAY 6

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Read and re-read — especially this short passage which is one of the most empowering in the Bible. The revelation that comes through Scripture is progressive. Jeremiah’s prophetic words are set in the context of the Old Covenant.

Meditate – Jesus and the "I am" sayings state a righteous action by Jesus, each with an impaction of His righteousness to us.

– The bread of life, John 6:35 and 51

– The light of the world, John 8:12

– The gate for the sheep, John 10:7 and 9

– The good shepherd, John 10:11 and 14

– The resurrection and the life, John 11:25

– The way, the truth and the life, John 14:6

– The vine, John 15:1 and 5.

In this progressive revelation, this point is the bridge between the end of the Old Covenant (pre-Resurrection) and the New Covenant instituted by Jesus on the cross but revealed by the Holy Spirit as a new kind of relationship.

The "righteousness given by faith" that in Christ Jesus "we might become the righteousness of God" is an immense, jaw-dropping truth. We need the Holy Spirit to coach us, as we try to grasp this! This is what we now see, which Jeremiah saw less clearly in giving his 400-years-before-Christ prophecies.

Apply – If we are seen by heaven as righteous before God because of our relationship with Jesus, what does that say about our prayer and worship influence in a dark world? What does that say about the confidence with which we not only pray supplication (asking) but also declare truth to the heavenlies?

Do we believe it? Do we act on it? Do we live it out? Plenty to reflect on in this preparation season.

Pray – Thank you, gracious Father, for the revelation of this great truth of who I am in Jesus that I already hold. "More, Lord" – help me to get it more fully, and live it more fruitfully. Thank You, Jesus, Amen.

DAY 7