Part One
MOURNING
Kevin Martin – 11/12/2002
Waste Places
1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” 4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Isaiah 61:1-4
See how marvelously Isaiah prophesies restoration. All that mourn will be comforted. The Amplified says God will grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion.
Consolation is not like getting second prize in a contest. It is, rather, the Lord coming alongside you in the deep pain of a grievous loss to console you in His love and abiding presence. And because it is God doing this, it is not empty and powerless in its effect. In fact, because it is God granting consolation – joy is restored. Beauty replaces ashes, joy replaces mourning and praise replaces heaviness.
Notice that verse 3 brings us to righteousness and glory to God. God’s people were going through destruction. The reason for all the destruction was the gross sin of the people. There was rampant unrighteousness. To restore joy, God must establish righteousness. Joy without righteousness is a fleeting thing that vanishes. It is the pleasure of sin for a season and its fruit is death – destruction.
But when righteousness is established, then comes comfort and joy. And the waste places are rebuilt.
Isaiah 51:1-4 is an earlier declaration of this promise. In this passage God promises to establish His righteousness and to bring salvation to His people. In verse 3, He again states that He will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places.
What are “waste places?”
“Waste places” are places where once was good fruit (or the potential of good fruit) and pleasant constructions. There were once things to enjoy and a certain security. But then all that became vulnerable to the enemy. God spoke to correct us. Because correction was not made, the enemy had a way to come in and take every good thing and destroy what remained.
“Waste places” are places within us where destruction has come because of unrighteousness. Once there was joy, yet now there is nothing good to rejoice in. The fruitful field has become a wilderness and the garden is full of weeds and thorns. Any fruit perishes or gives only temporary relief.
Verse 3 also declares that God’s comfort comes to Zion. Zion is the name used that includes all believers of any generation. Believers are those God has given His righteousness to. God is saying, “I want to restore you to righteousness in the salvation I have given you. I want to comfort your waste places, make your wilderness like Eden and your desert like the garden of the Lord. Let Me give you joy and melody in your heart.”
Those who mourn in Zion are prime candidates to receive these things from the Lord.
Comfort does not come simply because it is needed. Comfort is given to those who mourn.
“. . . to comfort all who mourn” Isaiah 61:2
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4
8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]. 9 [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins]. 10 Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant] James 4:8-10
When you draw near to God for comfort, He will lead you to see how the enemy was given the right to bring destruction. He shows you your darkness and the sin that opened the door to Satan. Satan desires to sift us as wheat because he believes he can find unrighteousness, which will give him the right to steal, kill and destroy.
The mourning described in James is a grieving over our disloyalty to God and our sins of disobedience and rebellion. James prescribed the remedy of real repentant sorrow and humility before God so that God can forgive us, place His robe of righteousness upon us and lift us up to a seat of honor; for blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Now let me unveil this thing for you.
In several places God declares in His word that those who mourn will be comforted. As you read in James 4, mourning is a process of grieving a loss with tears and other obvious expressions of sadness due to the pain of a significant loss. If you mourn, you will be comforted. If you do not mourn, your comfort will not come.
To be comforted you must give yourself to the suffering of mourning: crying through the pain of your loss, remembering the good things about the one lost and the bad things too, and fully letting them go.
Some people cannot let go of the person, thing or capacity (ability) that is lost. They do not believe they will ever know such joy again, for their eyes are not fixed on God Who is our joy, their eyes are fixed on this object of joy: the person, thing or capacity now lost.
Some people cannot let go because their anger is unresolved. This person hurt them and they never forgave the offense. They were still waiting, still demanding payment for the wrong suffered and now the anger intensifies because this person was not made to apologize or suffer in the way the offended person was hoping.
Neither group of people will give themselves to mourn so neither can be comforted. Yet this process of mourning to be comforted is important, for it is the process of healing. Some of our losses that we are to mourn are less obvious to us. There are many things we lose that we are to mourn:
- body parts
- businesses
- capabilities
- careers
- childhood
- close relationships
- eras
- family life
- freedom
- innocence
- peace
- properties
- opportunities
- righteousness
- singleness
- special pets
- virginity
In James 4, there is mourning for the loss of righteousness. Either sin has occurred, or something that was not known to be sin is now being uncovered as sin. God says there is a process of mourning we go through of acknowledging sin and grieving the loss of righteousness. There must be an acceptance of our wickedness in humility. We give up the illusions of self-sufficiency. We acknowledge our need of God in every situation and at every level of performance. Then He lifts us up.
There are two classes of things we mourn. There is the loss we feel because of sin. And there is loss we experience whether personal sin is involved or not. If you live long enough, you will experience the loss of a loved one, when that person dies or moves away.
In either case, the answer is to mourn the loss. If you will face the pain of the event that resulted in loss, you will be comforted.
In Isaiah 61:1-4 God declares through the prophet that He will comfort all who mourn. Verse 3 in the Amplified reads, “To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion – to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit – that they may be called oaks of righteousness ..
Those who mourn in Zion will be called alongside Father God by the Spirit and there be consoled and comforted for their loss until joy returns.
Instead of the head being covered in sackcloth and ashes of mourning, a diadem of beauty will be placed on the head. The forehead will shine with the joy that emanates from within, instead of grief. Praise for God will cover the person and righteousness will be established within where sin had been.
You see joy, peace and righteousness can be lost to us in many ways. God is ready to comfort us for our loss if we will come to Him and mourn our loss. If we will not face the pain of the event, or the pain of our loss, with the Lord, then we are not truly comforted. The pain remains.
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Genesis 37:34-35
Jacob refused to be comforted. Over 10 years later Jacob was still grieving the loss of Joseph and unable to trust God with his youngest son’s life. If we refuse to face the pain of our loss and will not let God speak to our hearts, then we will not be comforted, nor will we be able to trust God in similar circumstances in the future. Even if wild beasts had really killed Joseph, God would have restored joy in righteousness to Jacob. His faith could have been productive all through the years.
Jacob had lived by deception for most of his life. Now he was suffering needlessly because of his other sons’ treachery and deception. He was reaping what he had sown in unrighteousness. If he had come to God to be comforted in his grief, God would have dealt with the root of deception and brought him in full repentance to righteousness before Him. God’s kingdom truths would be established in Jacob and we know from Romans 14:17 that Gods kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Once truth and light had replaced the darkness of deception in the core of Jacob’s heart, then righteousness within Jacob would naturally lead to peace and peace would restore joy in the Holy Ghost.
God is promising to each of us that no matter why we are suffering loss – if we will come to Him and mourn fully — He will console and comfort our hearts and restore peace and joy. If we will not mourn in righteousness, then He cannot comfort us.
Do You Understand?
Let me make sure you understand what it means to mourn. Matthew 5:4 asserts plainly, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” If you will mourn, you will be comforted.
Mourning involves coming to terms with your loss. It is not complete until your grief has been fully entered into and expressed. If you delay your work of grieving, then you extend your period of mourning.
To grieve fully is to completely examine your loss. How will the loss of this person, thing or capacity affect your life? What plans, what comforts, what dreams, what expectations can never be realized now? What promises are left unfulfilled? What issues are left unresolved? Did the loss occur in a peaceful way, an unexpected way or a traumatic way? For grief to be complete, all the issues of grief and anger and fear must be faced and resolved.
Any issues that are not resolved become foundation for the enemy to build a stronghold upon. That issue has not been fully mourned and so comfort has not been received. God will comfort if we will mourn. We must go back to the unresolved issue and finish mourning over it.
Distinguish between mourning and rehashing the event to chum it up and spew out bitterness. The bitterness is there because the pain was not comforted and the heart has judged someone. The heart believes that comfort will never come. So defense of the painful memory is the only reaction the person can allow.
Mourning can only be entered into because our heart has begun to accept the possibility that comfort can come. We set aside bitterness and release judgments hoping to be comforted.
If we let God be involved in the grieving process, He will help us to mourn. Again, mourning means grieving. Grieving means coming to terms with our loss. Coming to terms includes letting go, forgiving, releasing judgments, repenting of ungodly vows and covenants that we made to protect ourselves – until all the pain, fear and wrong patterns of thinking are cleaned up and removed.
Basically, God is removing the emotional barbs and splinters from a person’s soul. To mourn is a biblical process that God uses to clean up our souls of things that can cause infections in our thinking and feeling processes and lead us not to trust God. Once we have mourned and foreign objects have all been identified and removed, comfort is able to fill the places where the foreign objects had been.
Every foreign object is allowed by us to remain because of deception. In fact, the object is a deception; a painful deception that takes on shape and form. The shape is of barbs and splinters. The form is of anger, bitterness, judgment, fear and strategies of self-defense.
Mourning is the application of biblical processes to remove these deceptions and to make one ready to receive comfort.
Comfort comes from God. It comes directly from the Father or through the body of Christ. Either way the Holy Spirit is the agent in our spirits enabling us to receive the comfort and pass it along to our souls. The end result of comfort is that the heart is no longer controlled by pain, fear or wrong thinking and there is faith in God the Father as the One I can go to whenever I need comfort.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3
Our Heavenly Father is the God of all comfort. In His comfort is healing for every kind of mourning. He is our consolation and encouragement. If we will mourn, He will comfort.
In ministry comfort comes from the Spirit of God, from Jesus our Savior and from God the Father comforting the hearts of His children.
But it also must come through us as we minister comfort in love. The person needs storge’ love – tender touch, loving eyes and encouraging tones of voice. The body of Christ must touch the heart of the person through real personal physical contact until the heart is convinced that they are loveable. God the Father loved the world through His Son. Now He loves us to health in our souls, restoring us through comfort by the body of Christ (the church).
In Part 2 we will look in depth at God’s ministry to our souls in times of painful grief to restore us to the joy and peace of life. It’s a process that goes deep and prepares us to live in complete confidence of His loving presence in every situation of life. God is good.