CLOUD AND SMOKE

Rev.4:1 – For seven women will take hold of one man on that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our disgrace!”

This is where revival begins, its how it began for Isaiah himself. Remember what he said at his calling? “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” Isaiah saw the Lord and the Spirit of revelation fell on him. In today’s verse there is one of those strangely unusual Old Testament verses that have more than one meaning. At first glance we see Israel in a time of desperation when much of the male population is gone. In Isaiah’s day it would have been especially hard for a woman to survive on her own, a man was necessary. But there is something else even more urgent in these words. Isaiah is about to describe the outpouring on the church in the last days. He says there will be a cloud with fire covering the gatherings of God’s people in the last days. In order for that to happen the daughters of Zion (the church) will have to be desperate for Jesus, the one man that really makes a difference. Here is how Brian Simmons describes this verse.

“This chapter should be viewed as a continuation of ch. 3 regarding the women of Zion. The women of Zion can also be a metaphor for the churches. There is coming a day when the church will become so destitute of answers that she will turn to one man, the Lord Jesus, and take hold of him. We have taken hold of the world, and we have taken hold of clever ideas, but the “seven women” (seven churches of Rev. 2 and 3) are about to lay hold of their Beloved. The church will long for him, that he would feed us his bread and we would wear his garments. We will want to be called by his great name. The shadow of his beauty will remove our disgrace.”

So maybe its time for the American church to take hold of Jesus. Like the woman in the gospels with the hemorrhage, we must grab the hem of His cloak. We need the power that is surging from Him to fill our churches. We need the cloud and the smoke.