“When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59:19b)
A flood happens as a result of too much rain, rivers overflowing and many water levels rising beyond expectation. In this verse, it is a picture of sudden negative happenings, similar to what Job experienced, brought about particularly by Satan. In other examples, for instance, the experiences of Joseph, it is not directly caused by Satan but attributable to his ability to use people to inflict hardship on God’s people.
God is certainly aware that things happen to us like a flood, determined to drown us, overthrow our hopes and expectations, and destroy our best laid plans. But here is the promise: “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”
Here is the answer to the puzzle that life can bring to us. If you are faced with a problem and you know the solution to apply, then the problem is no longer a problem – it is an opportunity for you to move from “lower ground” to “higher ground”, from despair to hope, from hope to reality.
Are you going through a flood scenario? Then ask the Spirit of the LORD to lift a standard against it on your behalf. Until you ask the flood will persist and may well overthrow you. You ask: “What is the standard that I can expect in my situation?”
The word “standard” refers to the banner and the shield that knights in shiny armour often wear when they take the battle to their enemy. God’s standard, therefore, is everything that you need to resist the flood, to survive the flood and to be blessed despite the flood.
In other words, in the place of the word “standard”, God expects you to name the solution you require for solving your flood, surviving it and staying blessed despite it. You do this typically in conversation with God – heart-to-heart conversation with God which is called persistent praying; you PUSH (you Pray Until Something Happens).
Every flood requires a PUSH. If you are a child of God, you will realise that a baby does not get born naturally without contractions, or powerful pushing going through the muscles of the womb to push the baby out. There is pain, sometimes very intense pain but it is just for a season, the powerful pushing eventually results in the baby being born.
The same way when we are in a flood, we need to PUSH until we see the standard of God that we expect. Whilst going through the pain and discomfort of the situation, we need to sustain ourselves by believing in the expected end – victory, provision, protection, restoration, forgiveness – whatever it is that we strongly expect from God.
Don’t let the enemy discourage you. Don’t discourage yourself. As long as you are walking obediently and faithfully, you will soon discover that every PUSH results in something amazing. May the LORD God Almighty make a way for you today where there is no way; may God clear out the blockage. May God’s Holy Spirit lift up a standard for you above all that you can ask or think. Amen.
A flood happens as a result of too much rain, rivers overflowing and many water levels rising beyond expectation. In this verse, it is a picture of sudden negative happenings, similar to what Job experienced, brought about particularly by Satan. In other examples, for instance, the experiences of Joseph, it is not directly caused by Satan but attributable to his ability to use people to inflict hardship on God’s people.
God is certainly aware that things happen to us like a flood, determined to drown us, overthrow our hopes and expectations, and destroy our best laid plans. But here is the promise: “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”
Here is the answer to the puzzle that life can bring to us. If you are faced with a problem and you know the solution to apply, then the problem is no longer a problem – it is an opportunity for you to move from “lower ground” to “higher ground”, from despair to hope, from hope to reality.
Are you going through a flood scenario? Then ask the Spirit of the LORD to lift a standard against it on your behalf. Until you ask the flood will persist and may well overthrow you. You ask: “What is the standard that I can expect in my situation?”
The word “standard” refers to the banner and the shield that knights in shiny armour often wear when they take the battle to their enemy. God’s standard, therefore, is everything that you need to resist the flood, to survive the flood and to be blessed despite the flood.
In other words, in the place of the word “standard”, God expects you to name the solution you require for solving your flood, surviving it and staying blessed despite it. You do this typically in conversation with God – heart-to-heart conversation with God which is called persistent praying; you PUSH (you Pray Until Something Happens).
Every flood requires a PUSH. If you are a child of God, you will realise that a baby does not get born naturally without contractions, or powerful pushing going through the muscles of the womb to push the baby out. There is pain, sometimes very intense pain but it is just for a season, the powerful pushing eventually results in the baby being born.
The same way when we are in a flood, we need to PUSH until we see the standard of God that we expect. Whilst going through the pain and discomfort of the situation, we need to sustain ourselves by believing in the expected end – victory, provision, protection, restoration, forgiveness – whatever it is that we strongly expect from God.
Don’t let the enemy discourage you. Don’t discourage yourself. As long as you are walking obediently and faithfully, you will soon discover that every PUSH results in something amazing. May the LORD God Almighty make a way for you today where there is no way; may God clear out the blockage. May God’s Holy Spirit lift up a standard for you above all that you can ask or think. Amen.
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