Living Stream Ministry

VI. EMPOWERING AND STRENGTHENING
THOSE WHO WAIT ON HIM

The fifth aspect of the glad tidings in Isaiah 40 is that Jehovah the Savior empowers and strengthens those who wait on Him (vv. 29-31). We experience this when we prophesy, when we speak for the Lord. When we prophesy, we are empowered and strengthened.

The Lord gives power to the faint, and to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength (v. 29). In Ephesians 6:10 Paul said, "Be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength." He also declared, "I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me" (Phil. 4:13). Christ is the empowering One, so we who wait on Him will not faint or become weary. In Christ as the empowering One, we will mount up with wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:30 and 31 say, "Although youths will faint and become weary, / And young men shall collapse exhausted; / Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; / They will mount up with wings like eagles; / They will run and will not faint; / They will walk and will not become weary." This is the Old Testament way of describing those who trust in Jesus. The New Testament expresses this in Ephesians 6:10 and Philippians 4:13. Paul also says in Philippians 4:12, "I have learned the secret." He learned the secret of sufficiency in Christ, so he did not faint or become weary. At the end of his life, in 2 Timothy 4:7, he declared, "I have finished the course."

Isaiah 40 presents a marvelous picture of the all-inclusive Christ as Jehovah the Savior. Through His living and abiding word, we have been regenerated. We have been fed by Him to know Him as the Holy One, the eternal God, Jehovah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He is unlimited, unsearchable, incomparable, and high. We human beings are as a drop of water and specks of dust. We are nothing and even less than nothing, vanity, emptiness. When we know Christ in this way, we are qualified to wait on Him. We are nothing, and He is everything. Therefore, we do not have any trust in ourselves. We put our trust in Him and wait on Him. He then gives us the eagles’ wings to mount up, so that we can run the course of the Christian life without fainting or becoming weary. This is the very Christ presented to us in Isaiah 40.

(Life-Study of Isaiah, Chapter 44, by Witness Lee)