For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
– Isaiah 55:10–11
Oh, what a testimony to the power and the purpose of God’s Word. Just get the imagery here; you picture rain or snow falling from heaven to the Earth. They don’t go straight back up, they bring water to the land that then sprouts and brings forth fruit, giving seed to the sower, bread to the eater. “So this is how my Word works,” God says. “My Word goes out from my mouth, and it doesn’t come right back to me. It doesn’t return to me empty. It accomplishes that which I purpose. May Word brings fruit and success. That’s the Word. It shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10–11 challenges us to be more than mere listeners of God’s Word.
And so I just want you to think about it. Practically, what does this mean? Well, one, doesn’t this lead us to pray that God’s Word in our hearts would bear this kind of fruit? That we wouldn’t just hear the Word and then forget about it, like James 1 talks about. That we would receive God’s Word in a way that it bears fruit in our lives on a daily basis, and then that we would respond to God’s Word, that it would lead to obedience and action in our lives; again, just like James 1 talks about.
Don’t merely listen to the Word, do what it says, so that there would be fruit just flowing from our actions as a result of God’s Word in our lives. That’s what he purposes it for. And then that we would spread God’s Word, that we would remember God’s Word is never intended to stop with us. It’s always intended to spread through us.
So just think about even this moment, you’re hearing God speaking, Isaiah 55:10–11, about the power of his Word. Well, who can you share the power of God’s Word with today? Who can you encourage with God’s Word? Who can you share God’s Word with who may not know Jesus? Just think about the opportunities for God’s Word to bear fruit in other people’s lives through you today and realize all of this is the purpose of God’s Word; for us to receive it, for it to bear fruit in our lives, through our lives and in the lives of other people as it spreads in the world, ultimately to all the world. That’s his purpose; his Word goes out, that it might be made known in all the world through us as his people.
Isaiah 55:10–11 encourages us to let God’s Word shape every aspect of our lives.
And so we pray, God, first and foremost, all glory be to your name for your Word. We praise you for revealing yourself to us, revealing life to us, for showing us how to experience full abundant life in your Word, for showing us who you are, who we are, how to view the world around us, who Jesus is, how much he loves us, to die and rise from the dead for us to have life in your Spirit today.
So God, we pray, help us to receive your Word. Help us to meditate on it day and night and to live according to what is in it, to do according to what is in it. God, help us to receive your Word and respond to your Word in a way that bears fruit in our lives in so many different ways, in our thinking and our desiring and our speaking and our acting.
This verse reminds us to pass God’s Word on to others.
Lord, we just pray that your Word would bear fruit in every facet of our lives and our relationships and our friendships and our family relationships and marriages and relationships with parents or kids and our teachers or coworkers or neighbors or employers or employees. God, help us. With total strangers, we pray that your Word would bear fruit through us to encourage others.
And God, we pray that you would help us to spread your Word today. God, help us to pass your Word on to others. Help us not to fill our conversations with just weather and news and sports, or whatever else. God, help us to fill our conversations today with your Word that’s accomplishing its purpose, your purpose for it through our mouths, through our texts, through our emails, through our posts. Lord, we pray that you would help us to be conduits for the accomplishment of your purposes in your Word today.
Prayer for the Unreached
God, we pray for this to spread to the ends of the Earth. God, for 7,000 people groups who have yet to be reached with your Word, God, please cause your Word to go forth. We know your purpose is for your Word to be known in all the world. God, please bless all those who are working on translation of your Word. And God, please raise up, send out more and more laborers into the harvest field who are taking that Word where it hasn’t gone. God, we pray all this directly according to your Word, which we love, in Isaiah 55:10–11. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, in the name of the Word made flesh. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
