Hope Is The Witness
Written by Jarred Rushing
(7 minutes)
Jesus is always waiting in the places where our ashes tell us to go and hide. And if we can open up our hearts to be embraced by our Bridegroom King, the great exchange can take place. Beauty for ashes. Joy for mourning. Praise for heaviness. It doesn't require any earning or striving on our part. It only requires an openness to accept, receive, and embrace what Christ is desiring to bring into our life. And it's His love that produces that tenderness of heart. The consuming fire of Yahweh's love melts our defenses. It truly comes down to letting Him do what only He can do. Our part is to rest and be loved.
And what does it look like when this great exchange has taken place? What happens after you receive a crown of beauty in place of ashes? What's different?
Let's look again at Isaiah 61 and John 4 to see the fruit of this great exchange.
To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a headdress instead of ashes,
The oil of rejoicing instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of Yahweh,
that He may show forth His beautiful glory.
Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places;
They will raise up the former desolations;
And they will make new the ruined cities,
The desolations from generation to generation.
(Isaiah 61:3-4)
Let's read this same scripture in The Passion Translation:
To strengthen those crushed by despair who mourn in Zion--
to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes,
the oil of bliss instead of tears,
and the mantle of joyous praise
instead of the spirit of heaviness.
Because of this, they will be known as
Mighty Oaks of Righteousness,
planted by Yahweh as a living display of his glory.
They will restore ruins from long ago
and rebuild what was long devastated.
They will renew ruined cities
and desolations of past generations.
(Isaiah 61:3-4)
What does it look like when the great exchange has taken place?
What will it produce in us once our ashes are traded for beauty?
Hope.
Hope is the witness.
As long as we're holding onto our ashes we will have a dim, ever-worsening view of the days ahead. But once the great exchange has taken place and our ashes have been removed, we inherit a very different perspective. Our ashes paint the picture that everything is getting worse, that the world is in ruins, and our only hope is to escape this God-forbidden place and people. We've let our ashes define so much in our life. Our hopelessness has formed and shaped so many of our opinions. And hopelessness has definitely shaped some of our theology, especially our theology of the end-times.
Let me show you how this happened. The man that shaped our end-times perspective the most had a deep-seated belief that "the church was in ruins" and that there was literally no hope left. He was disillusioned by the religious and political spirit inside of the church of his day and couldn't see any redeeming glimmer on the horizon. (Let's note: the leaven of the religious and political spirit inside of the church produce hopelessness in the Bride to this day.) After walking through is his own personal tragedy, he fell into deep despair and in his bedridden state the theology of a raptured church was born. You see, the greatest form of despair is to think that only death will deliver you from the pain you're experiencing. The second greatest form of despair is to think that only a rapture will deliver you from the pain you're experiencing. This is all we can see through the ashes that have dimmed our perspective. But our hearts were not designed to find hope in an escape plan. Our hearts were designed to find hope in the restoration of all things. You can see this in Isaiah 61. When hope sets in you don't see ruins as a witness that we're leaving soon, you see ruins as an invitation for Yahweh to plant you and produce the most glorious makeover the world has ever seen. Look at it again:
Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places;
They will raise up the former desolations;
And they will make new the ruined cities,
The desolations from generation to generation.
(Isaiah 61:4)
The great exchange changes how you see the future. Our ashes tell us it has to get worse. The crown of beauty we receive from Abba, the very mind of Christ, tells us it has to get better.
The Samaritan woman made the great exchange. She encountered the perfect love of Yeshua and it removed all fear from her heart. Let's see what the fruit of her encounter was:
The woman said, "This is all so confusing, but I do know that the Anointed One is coming--the true Messiah. And when he comes, he will tell us everything we need to know." [Notice the ashy theology. "When Jesus comes back, it'll all be better."]
Jesus said to her, "You don't have to wait any longer, the Anointed One is here speaking with you--I am the One you're looking for."
At that moment the disciples returned and were stunned to see Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman. Yet none of them dared to ask him why or what they were discussing. All at once, the woman dropped her water jar and ran off to her village and told everyone, "Come and meet a man at the well who told me everything I've ever done! He could be the Anointed One we've been waiting for." Hearing this, the people came streaming out of the village to go see Jesus. (John 4:27-30)
Beauty for ashes. The great exchange.
What did it produce in the Samaritan woman?
Hope.
Her ashes had her bound in a place of hopelessness, despair and shame. But when she encountered the perfect love of God and let Jesus embrace her, everything changed. My favorite words in this verse are, "All at once." That's how powerful the great exchange is. All at once, we have hope where there was only hopelessness. All at once, we have a new perspective. This is what real metanoia looks like, real repentance. Abba's love changing our mind.
Two beautiful things that happened because of the great exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman:
1. She instantly inherited wholeness and freedom. The witness of this lies in her RUNNING to the very people that she was HIDING from moments ago. Other translations add that she specifically went to the men of the town. The very source of her shame became the place she was running to in order to bring the hope and restoration she had just received.
2. She went from having a hopeless view of her future to becoming the instrument of restoring hope to an entire city. Before the great exchange, her posture was that of biding her time. After her ashes were removed, her posture was that of being an active participant in the restoration of all things.
Hope is the witness of receiving beauty for ashes. Hope is restored to your inner world and then it begins to reform and reshape your perspective of what Abba is doing around you. Shame in you produces the hopelessness of seeing anything change. Christ in you produces the hope of glory!
When you think about the future, what do you see? How do you feel about the future? How do you feel about your future? The answer to these questions may reveal if you've really received beauty for your ashes.
Remember, you can't hold hope and hopelessness at the same time.
Hopelessness speaks to the presence of ashes.
Hope speaks to the presence of receiving the mind of Christ.
Bring these questions and your honest perspective into your walk with Abba today. And allow His voice to speak into these areas the same way that the Samaritan woman let Him speak into hers. You are safe in His arms! Let His love replace your ashes with beauty. How will you know that it's happened? Hope will be the witness. And that hope won't have you avoiding the ruins, the brokenness in the world, or the things that brought you shame in the past. Hope will have you being attracted to those ruins. Hope will have you running into the areas that brought you shame.
You see, religion tells you to avoid the problems and call yourself "Free indeed!"
Abba's love restores you to such a degree of wholeness and freedom that you can actually carry restoration into the problems religion told you to avoid. Because you carry something different now. You're carrying a beautiful crown of authority and power to reproduce the freedom and wholeness that you have received from the Christ, your Bridegroom King.
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Worship: "You Restore Everything" by Rick Pino & Abbie Gamboa
Honor: Give to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
