“And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me” (Isaiah 6:7,8).
TEXT — Isaiah 6:1-8
Message
Rev. R. S. Jones was a missionary with many years of Christian service in Brazil. In 1936, he returned to the United States of America on vacation due to ill health, never to return to his beloved mission field. At the Southern Baptist Convention that year, B. B. McKinney, a songwriter, visited and asked him about his plans. Jones replied with tears, “I don’t know, but wherever He leads, I’ll go.” This expression led to the birth of the gospel song of consecration, “Wherever He leads, I’ll go.” God needs more Joneses today who are surrendered, sanctified and ready for service.
In our text, Isaiah had an encounter with the almighty God and then, he discovered his depravity. Before this encounter, he had preached and called people to repentance, prophesied of Christ’s Kingdom and forewarned the people of the terrible day of the Lord. Despite his years of preaching experience, he understood that all would be lost without holiness. He came out of self-deceit, and his self-realization led him to spiritual actualization and renewed commission.
From Isaiah’s experience, we see that the call to conversion and consecration must precede the call to commission: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
Isaiah responded promptly to God’s call to service: “who shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me.” So must every purged and sanctified saint respond to the call of God because, without purifying and sanctification experience, all will be lost.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
