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The Bible begins it's narrative in Genesis chapter 1 in an account that is familiar, even if some Christians don't really believe it. The Bible declares that that God created the heavens and the earth in six literal 24 days. It wasn't 6,000 years, or six eras of evolutional history. God needs no help from your explanations, and conventional logic states that if God is Almighty and powerful enough to create this world and universe in the first place, then He is big enough to create it any way that He chose! And the simply truth of the matter is that there was not a "big bang" or years to evolution to create this planet and it's surrounding universe, but He spoke it into existence in six simple days. I would go as far as to say that if you don't believe the first chapter of the Bible is literal then you don't believe any of the rest of it either! Since no human being was there when it all began, any theory on creation requires faith, and to believe in a man-made theory means that you have more faith in what some scientists would say than the word of the One who was actually there, God! I'll choose to believe in God, because He always ends up being smarter than humans!

In taking the story of creation as it is delivered in the Bible, we find that Day One of Creation sees God create a universe and an earth, something out of nothing. He also creates light and divides it from the darkness in equal amounts calling them Day and Night. The earth was created covered with water. On Day Two of Creation, God creates an atmosphere around the earth by dividing the waters and placing a "vapor canopy" around the earth to create a perfect environment for life. It would be this canopy of water surrounding the earth that would collapse and "rain" for the first time to help bring on the Flood of Noah's time. On Day Three, we find God moving on and God gathered the waters together on earth into Oceans and then caused dry ground to appear. When this world started out, the land units were all together and the seas were all together, and the present splitting of the continents were a result of the Flood in Noah's time as well. God then caused the vegetation: grasses, fruit trees, and herbs to grow upon the land. On Day Four, we find God creating the stars, one of which He placed close to earth to warm it and that we would call it the "sun." He also placed an asteroid moving in perfect orbit of the earth that would reflect the sun's light in the night time that we call the "moon." Notice God created the plants on the earth the day before He created the sun which proves to us that these were not eras of thousands of years, but literal 24 days, because the plants would have died if they had existed thousands of years before the sun was created! On Day Five, God filled the seas and oceans with creatures abundantly and also created birds to fly through the skies above the land. And then it was the Sixth Day that God created the land creatures, the animals and bugs and such and then He ended that day of creation by creating man, the only creation not spoken into existence, but that was molded by the hands of God and who was formed out of the dust of the ground and who received his life from the breath of God's Spirit!

And so we come to the first verse of Chapter 2 of Genesis which says that the heavens and earth were finished, and then we have recorded a most remarkable thing, that perhaps you have never thought about. Verse 2 of this chapter says that on the seventh day, "God rested from all His work." Maybe this is so familiar to you that you don't realize how remarkable a statement that is! The God who created the universe which spans to infinite lengths and created our solar system and all of the life that you see on earth with just a spoken command, took a day and "rested." Why would God rest?

It was not because of weariness from Creation, because God is a Spirit and does not get tired. God needs no vacations. Do you remember the story of Elijah's show down on Mt. Carmel with the prophets of Baal, where they both built and altar and agreed that whomever's God answered with fire was the true God? The prophets of Baal went first and the scriptures say that after they had spent all morning in fruitless praise, that Elijah begin to have a little fun:

"Perhaps, your god is not answering you because he is kicked back in an easy chair, reading the paper" is basically what Elijah was saying. And yet, even in his mockery, the point that he was trying to get across was clear: "the real God always hears the cry of His children." "The real God does not need to meditate or get to busy that He is unaware of what is happening on earth." "The real God doesn't sleep and need a rest."

Man needs rest. We are a spirit being trapped inside a mortal, fragile shell. And we need a rest from physical and mental labor one day out of seven. Perhaps that is one reason why God rested here, as an example to the man that He had created that one day of rest in seven was needed. Before the French Revolution a few hundred years ago, the state of France decided to change the work week from being based on seven to being based upon ten. The weeks would be longer and there would be fewer months. The work week would be for nine straight days and then they would have one day, the tenth, off. They went so far as to rename all ten days and completely revamp the calendar. It didn't work, because after a few months, people began to get sick. They discovered the hard way that man's body is wired to needing a rest from physical labor every seventh day.

I read somewhere about a plant that did shift work, conducting a study on it's workers that volunteered for extra labor. They put everybody on a six day cycle with one day off, and then offered "overtime" pay to those who wanted to work an occasional seventh day. What they found was amazing. Those who worked on their rest days, would get "burnt out" or sick and would later miss work because of their sickness the exact number of days that they had skipped resting. In other words, if one man chose to work three straight weeks and work on two of the rest days, then he would get sick and would usually miss work for two days. Your body was created on a cycle of needing rest every seventh day!

Human beings also need rest from repeated activity. If you do the same thing, or hear the same thing, or are in the same situation every day continually, eventually it begins to wear on you. At Youth Camp a few years back, they had a "Youth Camp track" of about 8 songs that played continually on the Camp speakers over and over and over. It was fun the first say 38 times I heard it, but by about the third day, I was going nuts. And by the end of the week-long camp, I never wanted to hear those songs again. We had planned to do one of those songs as a praise song here, but after that camp we have never actually sang it!

If your neighbor gets in a bind and needs to borrow your lawn mower, chances are that you don't mind. You might not even mind if he borrows it the next time because he is saving money for a new one of his own. But if every time the grass in his yard gets high, he comes over and wants to use your lawnmower and he does time after time and it becomes the routine of repeated activity, then it will begin to wear on you and aggravate you and you will have to pray so that you don't go "off on him." And probably -- if you've got the guts -- you will tell him to go get his own lawnmower or a good pair of scissors!

Human beings need a rest from similar activity. Variety is the spice in our life. My wife laughs at me because I have so many interests. I enjoy model trains, chess, book collecting, coin collecting, Rubik's style twisty puzzles, golf, history, Bible study, gourmet cooking, and lately I've been reading about astronomy and the stars and such. Every week I spend a little time doing something radically different. I hate ruts. Because when you get in a rut in doing the same old things, then you lose your focus and life. Every time I cut the grass, I start in a different place. I sometimes take different routes, "just because." I buy soft drinks in 8-9 different flavors, so I'm not drinking the same thing. Here lately, I've been trying out new cheeses from all over the world. So, I'm weird, but I understand a principle and that is we need variety in our life. The same repeated motion in our life gets old quick. Nothing causes us to lose our passion and our "spunk" like just doing the "same ol' same ol'."

It's also true in the Spirit. Despite serving a good God and a powerful God, we can get in a rut living for Him. We get in a routine of coming to church -- at least some of us do! We get used to the pastor's teaching and preaching. We get used to the style songs that we sing. We get used to the congregation that we have around us. It's funny, but true. All it takes is a new song that surprises us. Or a sermon that preaches something that we've never thought about before. Or decorations to suddenly appear in the men's bathroom. Or the preacher decided to rearrange the platform. Or a new family to start coming to church, and all of a sudden we change the way that we pray, worship, and think about a service. The answer for our monotony was not a vacation from church, but we needed something to "be different." We needed something to change. Change is good in the sense that it causes us to be on our toes! It gives us a rest from the blandness of routine!

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That's all good and great, but it still hasn't thoroughly answered our query: "why did God rest?" It wasn't because He was tired. I don't think it was entirely because of an example to us, even though there is some truth in that. The answer to that question is found in the first verse of Genesis chapter two. Before the scriptures said that "God rested" we find that it records that the heavens and earth "were finished." In other words, God rested because Creation was done. There was no new thing that needed to be performed. God rested from labor simply because there was no more things to do on the "to do list." The earth was finished. The heavens were finished, therefore God had no need that required His creative force in action. There was nothing that needed the power of His Word to change! So, at this time at least, God rested!

Fast forward to the book of Isaiah. Our text in Isaiah chapter 62 is a continuation of the familiar passage of chapter 61. It's famous because it was the passage of scripture used by Jesus when He went to Nazareth and revealed Himself as the Messiah to His hometown. But we forget that the first use of this scripture was Isaiah speaking about himself. In the first few verses of this chapter, Isaiah said:

This is a good scripture and a familiar one! Isaiah recognized that there was an anointing from God upon him to preach the Word of God and to "bind up the brokenhearted" and to "proclaim liberty to those who were captive!" The Spirit's anointing was and still is to comfort those in mourning, to help someone trade the ashes of sorrow for the beauty of Godliness. To exchange the spirit of heaviness for a spirit of praise! The Spirit of God still does that! We still need the anointing of the Lord in this place. I am preaching to you with that same anointing and you don't have to leave here unchanged or the same way you came. Not because of me. Not because of the name on the sign, but because it is His Spirit that is here! And with God NOTHING shall be impossible!

But when you move on to the first verses of chapter 62, Isaiah is still talking about himself and the anointing of God upon his life. In the first two verses which we read as our text, he said:

Isa 62:1-2 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

For God's sake, I will not be silent! And for God's purpose, I will not rest! I will not rest until the righteousness of God shines forth bright in this world and the salvation becomes "as a lamp that burneth." What Isaiah was saying was that maybe it sounds a little crazy, but I live for one thing and one thing only. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. There is this attitude and this cause upon me. And God has created me for this purpose, and I will not grow weary nor bored with it. I will not give in to the needing of rest from the routine. I will not grow "weary in well doing." I will not allow this thing to become old. I will not just dispassionately go through the routine of religion.

And Isaiah said: I'm not going to stop preaching. I'm not going to stop praying. I'm not going to stop believing. I'm not going to stop walking. I'm not going to stop praising until: Until What? Until I see the righteousness of God shining from my life brightly. Until my salvation is burning brightly within my soul as a lamp burneth. Until the Gentiles -- those who are around me unsaved and untouched -- can't help but see the work of God in my life. I'm not going to stop until ... Until "all kings" see the glory of God and what God can do with an ordinary man and how He can bless in ways that money and power can't buy. And I'm not going to stop until like Jacob, I have been given a new name out of the mouth of God! In other words, I will not stop praising and believing and trusting and walking until I have been completely changed by God Almighty from what I was into a new creature! The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to perform this! Isaiah said "I'm going to refuse to be ordinary!" "I'm going to give my life for the Lord, and even if I haven't seen the complete change yet, I will not grow weary in routine, and I'll continue to be faithful and I'll continue to believe in Him and allow His Words and ways to govern my life! And I'll do it until: until I see Him working through me and around me in a mighty way!"

We need somebody to get this revelation today! We need someone to realize that it is your responsibility to keep the flame burning in your life! It is your responsibility to keep the lamp of salvation burning brightly! It is your responsibility to be faithful until... But the way that you are going to do it is to allow the Spirit of God to come upon you once again. You need a fresh anointing. You need a fresh Spirit.

To those of you who have never been baptized in the name of Jesus and received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues before, this is why you need to "taste and see that the Lord is good." You need His Spirit living within you. You need to receive the Holy Ghost. You need to let it come upon you and change you and empower you to live righteously. Without the Holy Ghost, trying to live for God will seem like a drudgery.

If coming to church and Bible study and praising and letting God work on you seems as a drudgery, then I'm here to tell you that you are not walking after the leading and guiding of the Spirit of God. If you are bored with religion and the things of God are not exciting and as a fire burning within you, then you are trying to do religion without the Spirit of God as the focal point! It is "like as fire" and it wants to sit upon each of us! Walking after your flesh will never enable you to live as you should according to God's Word. And people who hate coming to church or church going is not a priority are walking according to their flesh and not according to God's Spirit. But somebody needs to get the attitude that Isaiah got. He said "I will not grow weary and I will not rest." I'm going to keep being faithful because I've made up in my mind that I am going to see the promises come true in my life!

People who never see the promises of God come true in their life and who claim that God is unfaithful, were never really faithful to Him. Let me say that again. If you feel that God has been unfaithful to you and never all of what He has promised to you, then you have really pinpointed the problem in your life which is your own unfaithfulness. What it means is that you have grown "weary in well doing." You have allowed the things of God to become routine and even boring, because you have consistently yielded to the Spirit of God. Without the Spirit moving and working in your life and in complete control, the Bible is boring and is dull. Church is dull and boring without the Spirit of God involved. Praise is pointless without God's Spirit moving within us and around us. "For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Corinthians 3:6b)! If church is boring to you and is not the highlight of your week, then you are not walking after the things of the Spirit. It is dull and routine because you have ceased to be sensitive to the work of God in your life. You have ceased growing forward. You have ceased yielding to the Spirit and allowing it to govern your life. But Isaiah said "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me... therefore I will not rest. I will not stop until!" Somebody needs to get the revelation that the key to staying faithful and the key to "keeping on" is to allow the Spirit to be center stage and first place in your life. "With the Spirit's help and anointing I can keep going and not stop and not rest until I see the promises and glory of God shining forth in my life!"

Well, preacher, I just can't seem to change. I just can't seem to live after this new nature of God. There are some things that I just do, and I'm going to do them my way, and I don't care what the Bible says, or what you say, I can't change them, I've tried, and I guess this is just the way that I am. In other words, you need God to give you a new name. You need God to do as He did with Jacob and take a deceiver and turn him into Israel through changing his nature. But you see, Jacob was only changed when he had a spiritual encounter with God. And he walked away from that encounter affected and driven, walking according to that encounter. When you say "I can't change" what you are saying is "I'm no longer walking according to the Spirit." "I'm no longer allowing the Spirit of God to have free reign." Because surely the Spirit of God that created this universe and that changed such a man as Jacob, is also able to change you! But get this:

The problem is that you are not letting the Spirit of God work anymore in your life. You are saying that the Creative work of God that was changing you and reshaping you and forming new things is finished in your life. You've allowed God to work some in your life and change some things, but now you have reached a place where you have declared "it's the sixth day in my life." Creation is over as far as you are concerned and you are saying "I won't let God deal with that." or "I won't let God touch that." The real issue is not that you can't change, but that you don't want to change, so you have ceased letting God change you and form you and make you more perfect. God is resting. His creative force is at rest. But not because He's tired, and not because He needs a vacation but because you have decided that you are finished and are going as far as you will go in His righteousness. But remember when you decide that you aren't willing to change anymore and allow His creative hand to work in your life, then to God you are saying "I'm perfect the way that I am." And so God is resting because you will not allow Him to reshape or continue to work on your life!

But I'm here to preach to you that God needs no rest! You aren't perfect, and so it's not time for God to be resting in our lives, but it's time for God to be moving! It's time to allow God to work on us as He desires! He's getting us ready for heaven! Therefore, God whatever You want to do to me: change me! Here's all of me! I don't want You resting in my life! There's too much of me that needs You for You to be resting!

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Isaiah didn't stop there. In verse six of our text, he goes on to say:

Isaiah was trying to get others with the same attitude and convictions about being faithful to God as he and then he gives the other people instructions. "ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest!" And then there's that little "big" word again: "till." Isaiah was wanting God to establish Jerusalem as a center of worship again. He was wanting for God to return Jerusalem to it's former glory as the center of His glory on earth. They had a purpose which they were driven by and so Isaiah commanded them: don't keep silent and don't give God any chance to rest! In other words, keep continually coming to God with our needs! Don't stop, "till!" Till what? Till God does what we want Him to do!

Now I'm not talking about praying your selfish will until you get it. I've known people to pray for something so much that finally God let them have their desire even though it turned out to be a disaster. I can take you to visit with one man in San Antonio that prayed and prayed and prayed for a high-paying job to open up in a particular city that he wanted to move to. He was persistent and it was his will to go there. God finally gave it to him and when he got there he couldn't find a church where the Spirit moved freely, his job ended up being more stressful than he had at first thought, he couldn't find a decent place to live, his kids hated the schools, his wife couldn't find a job or friends, and his marriage started falling apart, and finally he came back to San Antonio where God had wanted him to begin with and his marriage came back together and his six year old son got baptized a few months ago when I was preaching at Bro. Wallace's church and was moved on by the Spirit for the first time. We don't need people persistently bombarding people with their selfish desires and their will. That's not what I'm talking about.

But we do need people to get some heavenly visions of what God wants to do and to make it your cause and your purpose and to not let God rest until you see it happen!

In our other text, Jesus told the familiar story of the unjust judge and the widow woman. In the story, the judge is not a Godly man at all and not even fair. But he was the only one who had the authority to make right a situation in the widow's life that was a "thorn in her flesh." She was bugged by an enemy and this judge was her only hope. She went to him and he wouldn't give her what she needed. She went back again, but he didn't relent. But this little woman didn't stop. With the persistence that usually accompanies the female race and perhaps spurred on because of her desperate situation, she returned again, and again, and again. Even though she didn't get what she wanted at first, she kept at it. I'll bet it got to where the judge dreaded the knock on his door that he knew was coming. And finally, after day and day and day of knocking and asking; knocking and asking, the judge finally said "she's driving me crazy." "I don't give a rip about God, or about men's influences, but this lady in her persistence is going to drive me nuts if I don't do something, therefore I'll give her what she needs and wants, just for my sanity's sake."

And then Jesus made an interesting statement:

Hear what the unjust judge saith! In other words, understand the truth in his words and shall not God answer and respond to His own people whom He does care about which "cry day and night unto him!"? Jesus goes on to say He will do so "speedily." This tells me that God wants to bless us. He wants to use His creative power in our lives, but if He seems to be "at rest" in our lives and we fill as if we have not seen what we have asked for, then that tells me that one of the following scenarios is at work. Either we are:

1. We are not praying at all

2. Praying for things that are selfish in nature and not the will of God.

3. We are not persistent in our prayers.

The third is the one I think happens most of all. We cry out to God for Him to change something in our lives, and He begins to answer it but there may not be a noticeable change immediately, and so we give up and get tired of praying the same old thing with no seeming results. And the problem is that because of our growing weary in asking the same thing, we eventually just give in and learn to live in our situation instead of still trusting God to bring us out! We learn to live in our dilemmas, our hurts, and our heartaches, and sin rather than trusting God to deliver us. The problem is that we get used to God being at rest in our lives, and so we do not "cry day and night unto Him!"

And so the true issue is a lack of faith. You cannot separate "faith" from "faithfulness." And the heart of the matter in many of our lives is that we are not sick and tired enough of our situation to get cry out to God to move in our life! God is looking for someone to get the revelation of Isaiah that says "I will not be comfortable in my situation." "I will not learn to cope." I want deliverance and God is able to do it. Therefore I will not be silent. I will give Him no rest! I will not let Him have a day that goes by that He does not hear my cry. That is what moves God. That is what God is waiting for. He is waiting for someone that will refuse to believe that the situation cannot change, and be persistent in petitioning Him! The reason that God waits sometimes to answer our prayers is that He wants to see if we really sincerely want Him to work! He wants to see if it was just a request born out of emotion and yet we're really willing to live in our mess and emptiness, or if it is more than just the feelings of a day, but that we are determined and desperate and that we will not be silent and we will not be deterred and we will not grow weary in asking the same thing, but that it's so important to us that we will not give Him rest day and night, but that we will continually cry unto Him!

When Israel cried out to Him from the bondage of Egypt, He answered and heard their cry! God ceased to rest, and brought them out with signs and wonders and the supernatural. Your situation is not helpless! You don't have to live the way that you have always lived. You don't have to just be what you are. That is a lie from the pits of hell. We serve a mighty God who is Almighty. He can change and fix and fill and heal! He needs no rest, so put Him to work in your life! Allow Him to get involved in your life today!