Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! Isaiah 64:1-2
When Isaiah asks God to “come down and make your name known,” he is asking for God to come down and make His power known.
We may believe that God is able to bring us into heaven when we die, but, at the same time, we sometimes fail to believe that God can give us victory over our habitual sins—our pride, laziness, lack of discipline, lust, or greed. We find a way of living with our sins and we say, “That’s just the way I am,” and over time we lose hope.
But when Isaiah prays, “Come down and make your name known; come like fire that kindles brushwood and causes water to boil,” he is asking God to make His power known in a way that changes us. Isaiah knew from his own experience that when a person really encounters the God of the Bible, that person’s life is set on a different track forever.
Paul prayed for Christians to know God’s power like that: “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you… and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20).
Where could you ask God to make His power known in your life?