Isaiah 54 is a passage about spiritual breakthrough. I am giving it now as something to read, but later this week I will post some comments about it, and I hope you will too. I feel three crucial parts of this passage are:

1) Praise

2) Healing

3) Growth (rapid and sustainable, not flash- a tree that bears fruit, not a tomato plant)

The dreams I posted yesterday represent breakthrough-the dreams about a football player running and making an extreme change in direction to completely avoid his opposition. That is not a rise in morale for a week because of a change of environment like a conference. This breakthrough means true healing. Jeremiah 6, one of the passages I quote interpreting a dream called “Corrupt Leadership…,” speaks of this healing. Jeremiah speaks God’s words saying he holds it against the priests “that you heal my people slightlty.” In other words, God deeply desires true, sustainable permanent healing.

What does that mean? It means we do not carry the burden of anger, fear, shame, sorrow, helplessness or hopelessness for more than a very short season when it is appropriate to feel and let pass. Anything else is a broken heart. Only God can heal a broken heart. So we let him. I feel also we fail in Praise. I do not praise God as a superficial religious practice. If we can praise God, even WITH a broken heart, we are probably ready to be healed. Then when we jettison the baggage, become permanently empowered, and can breakout into true growth. Even when things seem more difficult, even especially then, do I praise God-for what is coming and for who He always has been and is.

Like the growth of a hardwood tree that bears nuts, hundreds of pounds of rich nutritious food, sometimes healing of a heart takes time. Yet the time gives a structure that does not need support: there is inner strength that makes it stand alone like a tree planted by a river!

BB