The Leadership of God

UV 1262/10,000 The Leadership of God
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

Isaiah 45 v 2


On a mountain trail, climbers’ and trekkers’ most vital need is a guide who knows the terrain and knows how to help them get through safely. In the climb to the top of Mount Everest, Tenzing Sherpa had a major role in contributing to the success of Edmund Hillary. When they reached the summit, both of them shared in the glory of being the first ever to conquer Mount Everest. Life is a lot like mountain climbing. It is difficult and challenging. It has its fair share of dangers, thrills as well as success and accomplishment. In this uni-verse, the Lord promises to go before us in this hazardous climb. The humility of God is seen in this that He is willing to be the guide, the herald and advance pilot of mere mortals, creatures of His hands. It also reflects the devotion, commitment and love of God to us. In all of life’s adventures, He is just ahead of us. He goes ahead to straighten the crooked places, to smoothen the rough paths, to elevate the low places and to bring down the high places. He will safely take us over mountains as well as valleys of the shadow of death. He goes ahead to remove the obstacles and barriers. The reference to brass gates are the things in this life that are an alloy of the spiritual and the temporal that block our way and constrict our growth towards the stature of Christ. The gates of brass lead on to an experience of more grace and victory. The reference to iron bars are a metaphor for the that restrict our freedom, our peace and the realization of our potential in Christ. The iron bars once removed will lead us to more peace and joy. His immense power will shatter the gates of brass and cut the iron bars that confine us and prevent us from advancing in our lives. He goes ahead to take us to the place He has prepared for us. Once we reach the summit, we must give all the glory and honour to the Lord.


When we are embarking on a journey or a new project, this is the specific or rhema verse to claim in faith and thanksgiving for all the crooked things that He has straightened in our lives this far. There are many crooked things to straighten in our character, our minds, our relationships, our words and our thoughts, in our workplaces and in the world at large. There are also many obstacles to our growth and progress in life. The Lord sees the invisible obstacles and barriers as well as those that are visible and known to us. We need to know and believe that He cares enough for each of us to understand our own unique situations in life and that He is wise enough and powerful enough to deal with these challenges.

This uni-verse also underlines the need for the leadership of God in our lives. No human leader can go ahead of us in every way and every situation but the Lord alone can go ahead of us and lead us. Every human leader has his own insecurities and fears to deal with, his own iron bars and brass gates to surmount and overcome. As we trust in His leadership and follow patiently and obediently, He will give us a clear vision. With the wings of prayer and the Word, we can fly over every obstacle and barrier. If the barriers and obstacles in our paths are so big and strong that we cannot bypass these, the Lord will destroy it with His mere breath. What He does not straighten or break, He will unlock. These are blessings that we have not yet received but remain blocked. In a recent time of prayer, the Lord promised to give three keys to unlock these blessings.

Prateep V Philip