THERE IS ALWAYS MORE WITH JESUS
Enlarge the place of your tent,
And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;
Do not spare;
Lengthen your cords,
And strengthen your stakes.
For you shall expand to the right and to the left
Isaiah 54v1-3
One of the things I learnt early in my ministry is that there is always more with Jesus. There’s always more to learn, more to receive, more to experience, more to give and more work to do.
The prophet Isaiah promises God’s people growth and increase and shows them the way to prepare for that. The prophet uses the idea of a tent to illustrate what we need to do in order to accommodate that increase, and he ends with a promise of what will happen as we do that.
“Enlarge the place of your tent”
The point of a tent is that it is always ready to move on. As believers we do not have “a continuing city” here “but we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13v14), even our bodies are described as tents (2 Corinthians 5v1-2) because spiritually we are on a journey and we should be constantly moving forward towards our goal - which is heaven itself, working to take as many new disciples as possible with us. This new year it’s time for us to move on, with Jesus - and for Jesus!
An authentic Bedouin tent is made of strips of course cloth made of camel hair, sewn together. So it was relatively easy to extend the tent as often as needed. The prophecy calls God’s people to enlarge the tent to make way for growth and increase.
“Stretch your tent curtains”
A Bedouin tent has external and internal curtains. The outer curtains are stretched over poles fixed into the ground and these curtains provide shade from the sun by day and warmth by night, making the tent a place of shelter and rest. The first thing we need in ministry is to be people who are friendly – welcoming, winsome, kind, approachable and hospitable…
The internal curtains are made of colourful materials as rich and ornate as the owners could afford, making the tent into a comfortable home for family and place of welcome and hospitality for guests, which Bedouins are renowned for – and we should be too! By adding more curtains, the tent is enlarged and it covers more ground in the process. We can consciously seek to cover a greater area in our ministries, looking for ways of reaching out to more people - this is going to stretch us too – so let’s be prepared for that!
“Do not spare”
The Lord speaking through Isaiah is saying – “don’t hold back, there’s more to do, more to experience, more to achieve, throw yourself into this!”
“Lengthen your cords”
The curtains are stretched and attached to ropes that are fixed to the ground. The bigger the tent, the longer and stronger the ropes need to be. If they are not long enough, the tent will collapse in a desert windstorm. In our ministries, whatever our gifts and calling are, we need to reach out further than ever in order to reach more people for the Kingdom, but at the same time we need to make sure we can weather the storms if they come…
“Strengthen your stakes”
The other important element in making a strong tent is to have strong stakes that are set deep into the ground. As the tent is enlarged, so more stakes are needed and the stronger they need to be, because as more curtains are added the weight is increased. This requires hard work – and at the same time we need to be deeply anchored in Jesus and in God’s Word in order to be effective in ministry.
​
​
​
“For you will spread out to the right and the left”
The promise here is that if we make way for growth there will be increase, God’s Kingdom will spread and grow in us and through us, if we are obedient. There is always more with Jesus!