For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. Isaiah 55:12.
For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. Psalm 27:5-6.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Let go of evil. Take hold of the good. Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. There is no peace for the wicked. Thoughts of offense, anger, bitterness, resentment—these all steal your peace.
How do you get out of the prison of evil thoughts against others and yourself? Too many of you see people as burdens rather than blessings in your life. How do you overcome the negative emotions and the offense of what they did to your life?
You find the answer in Isaiah 55:12, but you need to read the parts that lead up to the result also. Here is the way to get out of the prison of evil thoughts against yourself and others: “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace.” Isaiah 55:12. Happy the people who know the joyful shout, they walk in My Light. How did I bring the captives out of Egypt? “And He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful shout.” Psalm 105:43. It is time to stop sobbing and start shouting. A cheerful heart does good like a medicine. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. Psalm 126:5.
Joyful shouting puts your soul in the secret place, in My tabernacle, and there you find joy in My presence. “For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.” Psalm 27:5-6. You suddenly find yourself a new person who is happy to serve and considers it a privilege that I have honored you to entrust you with the care of another to shepherd them to salvation, to encourage them into the person they were meant to be. Caregiving is difficult but if you are serving Me as Jesus did, you can share His joy. Wrap your life in Me and you become bullet proof in the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith, and do not forget the helmet of salvation. Retreat into My house and drink of the river of delights in our secret refuge of the garden of your heart.
Learn from Psalm 118: “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.” Psalm 118:14-18. “This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24. “Oh let those who fear the LORD say, “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” From my distress I called upon the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me in a large place. The LORD is for me; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:4-6.
No matter how confined and trapped you feel, you are not. With Me you are in a large and spacious place of freedom. Do your work unto Me, for I am the one you serve.
It all has to do with your mindset. You can set it on yourself or you can set it on Me. In My presence there is fullness of joy. You will not always find it with yourself. You need to tap into My thoughts. Jesus came not to be served but to serve, to give His life as a ransom. And He did it with love and with joy for what lay before Him. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:3.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:4-6.
“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Hebrews 12:7-11. “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:12-13.
“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” Hebrews 12:14-15.
I am your strength and song. If you are sowing in tears, it is time to stop if you want to reap, for you can only reap with shouts of joy. When someone presses you into service one mile, go two miles. And sing. “And the ransomed of the LORD will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:11.
But now let us go back to Isaiah 55 and consider the lines leading up to your answer of how to come out of evil thoughts. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace.” Isaiah 55:6-12.
Do you see how to come out with joy and be led forth with peace? Forsake those tormenting thoughts of anger, offense, bitterness, and resentment and start speaking higher things, start speaking what you want to see in your life, not what you don’t want to see. Stop just commenting on the way things are and start speaking the way things ought to be from My Word. Start speaking a heart change and a physical healing in those that now are burdensome to you. Do not protest but invest to turn around your situation. And the same is true about how you talk about and to yourself. Start blessing yourself instead of cursing yourself.
And start talking deliverance. I never let you be tried beyond your strength but offer you a way out. Watch for the good things that come each day and do not just let them pass by. Catch them with a joyful shout.
And it is good to look up and smile at Me so your face will never be ashamed.
I love you. You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace. I lead you with joyful singing. Join in. It makes all the difference. As your praise so shall your strength be.