“He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).

Do you need a lift in your heart or in your emotions today? If you’re like me, you wake up some mornings with the weight of the world on your shoulders; and then there are those days that you get up full of strength and life. In the Scripture above, we see that Isaiah also knew that we all get exhausted or worn out from time to time.

I remember as a child running on the football field at school. The coach of our physical education class would run us until we would fall over in exhaustion. We would have to stop and rest for a moment, catch our breath, and regain some strength in order to finish the course. Our coach would push us beyond our limits so that we would learn how to run with endurance. Even though we discovered that there was more to our own strength than we first realized, at the end of the class, we were still worn out.

Runners can do well for a while, but then they start looking for their “second wind”—a boost of energy that their body releases that allows many runners to finish strong. When God created man in Genesis 2, we were a soul(ish) being (not spiritual). Simply stated, man was created with a soul, but did not possess the Spirit of God, only the breath of God. You might think that this is strange, considering man was created in the image and likeness of God and He is Spirit (John 4:24). So why did He create us with a soul that did not contain the Spirit of God?

The answer is found in the Garden of Eden. The tree of Life was in the garden, but man didn’t choose that tree. Yet, we read in Genesis 3, that had they eaten of that tree, they would have had eternal life; but because they sinned, God kept fallen man from eating from the tree of Life (after they had sinned) so that man could be redeemed from the fall—otherwise man would have had to live forever in that fallen state. Adam didn’t wait on God to fulfill all that He had spoken over him and Eve; he tried to be “god” in his own strength. And as a result, we all have sinned and “fallen” short of the glory of God.

The Lord instructed Isaiah to write that those who wait on, or place their hope in the Lord will receive supernatural strength. Hebrews 10 tells us that we have need of patience after we have done the will of God in order that we might receive the promise of God. So, we are to be obedient in God’s will, and then we must wait for the fulfillment of the promises of God. He will arrive on the scene with Dunamis power and energize our hearts with His strength and life. This passage is more than a truth; it’s also a prophecy concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or “The Promise” from the Father that Jesus spoke about in John.

He told His disciples to wait on the promise of the Father in Jerusalem after His Passion. For ten days, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples were in the upper room praying and waiting. While they were praying, there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind. When the Spirit of God filled the room where they were assembled in unity, each believer was baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. The 120 that remained in the room had successfully waited until the Promise was released upon them by the Father.

On that day, those 120 people experienced the life of God’s Spirit fill their hearts. They had tasted and seen the goodness and faithfulness of God. Even though we live on this side of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is the fulfillment of Isaiah and Jesus’ prophecies, we still must learn how to wait on the leading of the Holy Spirit. As you face the mountains in your life today, turn your attention to the Father, and He will give your heart the lift that you need to soar high above them. Jesus told His disciples that they would know their season of power and deliverance, because the Holy Spirit would fill them with power from on high. Place your hope in the Lord today and know that He will lift you high above your mountains as you wait patiently upon Him.

—submitted by Asa Dockery, US