Last summer I was working at a Bible camp and the first week of the summer is always when we have our mass staff training week. As everyone is getting to know one another, we take the opportunity to let everyone tell their stories of how God has changed their lives and of how He is continuing to work in their lives. This is one of my favorite memories from each of the summers I worked their because the spiritual healing that takes place is absolutely incredible. As we rallied around each other, shared with each other and prayed for each other we always formed unique bonds and lasting friendships.

This particular summer, there was an overwhelming feeling among the majority of the staff that they had somehow failed God throughout the school year and were undeserving to be his witnesses at camp during the summer. It was as if they believed there was some requirement of good behavior and God would not use you unless you met it. They had lost focus on God’s grace and forgiveness and instead began once again trying to earn their right to have a relationship with Him.

Seeing them in this state absolutely broke my heart and as I was reading my bible the morning after this realization, God directed me to Isaiah chapter 6 and gave me a message for them:

Isaiah’s Commission

 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:
       “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
       the whole earth is full of his glory.”

 ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

 ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

 ⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
      And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

This passage, known often as “Isaiah’s Commission”, describes and incredible encounter between Isaiah and the very presence of God. He is standing in the temple when all of sudden he is overwhelmed by a vision of God’s incredible power and brought face to face with God’s holiness. This  experience brings him to the beautiful realization of how lowly, how evil and how “unclean” he is when compared to God.

I too have had this beautiful realization at a few different points in my life. It is the realization that you once thought more highly of yourself that you ought but now you see the reality of it. It is the point where you no longer have any excuses and you express regret for who you have been.

It is a sorrowful experience but it does not end here. No, God takes this and makes it a turning point in your life and in your heart. See that He does not leave Isaiah on the ground writhing in the agony of his wickedness but instead He sends His angels to sterilize Isaiah’s lips with a coal. God makes him clean; He does not require Isaiah to clean himself and He makes us clean as well through this beautiful realization.

The next part is the part our staff really needed to hear. You’ll notice that right after He purifies Isaiah, He extends an open invitation to go and minister for Him and Isaiah accepts it.

God does not have a long list of things we need to do or not do in order to be ministers anymore. He shows us who we are, He cleans us and then He calls us. None of us are worthy to serve Him but He makes us ready and uses us anyway. It truly is a beautiful thing.