Purged To Be Sent

One of my favourite passages in the Bible is Isaiah chapter 6. In this chapter, Isaiah sees a vision of God seated on the throne, high and lifted up in all his glory and the seraphims flying around. Noticeably something amazing happens in verses 6-8 and I never noticed it up until recently. I realized that Isaiah responded to the Lord's question after his iniquity was taken away and his sin was purged, similar to or even consecration. In that small portion of scripture it has been revealed to us that God cannot use us if we are living in sin. Isaiah became very much conscious of the fact that he is a man of unclean lips and that he dwelt among such a people in the presence of God. He didn't act or think to ask the Lord to send him anywhere in the state that he was in before being purged. Sometimes we want to jump the gun or skip the purification process that leads to consecration and do the Lord's work. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with doing the Lord's work but when sin is present and you are conscious of same then the task seems almost impossible. Joshua and the armies of Israel could not prevail against Ai after defeating Jericho because there was sin in the camp. Imagine how it must have felt to know that the Lord has been with you through every battle and has promised you victory, but when faced with their rivals they had to flee because they were failing. So too at times when we are running our race and we are walking in obedience to the master everything is going great until we decide to fornicate or slander, or steal then try to do his work without repentance- the result would have been to no effect, first to the Father, and secondly to his people. It doesn't mean that we are perfect beings but what it means is that we should be ever so conscious to recognize when iniquity and sin are present in us so we can ask the Father to purge us and make us clean so that we can be vessels that he can use for his glory.