Enlarging your Tent — Fred Tomlinson

Isaiah’s Prophetic Message of Restoration

I'm going to read three verses from the book of Isaiah. If you want to follow with me, then you could turn to chapter 54 of Isaiah. I'm reading from verse one. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travel with child.

For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes.

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Amen, I'll leave the reading there. There's obviously much more in this chapter.

But I'm just getting myself organized here a bit. The prophetic message here, for that's what it is, certainly, as you know very well, Isaiah being one of the great prophets of the Old Testament period.

But the message, essentially, was given to the returning captives after 70 painful and shame-filled years of exile in Babylon. And they were there, of course, as the result of God's judgment upon them.

And the message, which is being given by God through the prophet, is a word intended to bring great encouragement to them and to address the fact that there is to be a restoration. There's to be a restoration of joy and a restoration of honor and so on.

Now, my prayer this morning is that God may provide, from this passage, a message that is relevant to you and to me today in our time. Our circumstance is quite entirely different from those of the original hearers of this prophecy.

The Barren Woman and the Enlarged Tent

As you will have noticed in the verses I read, there's reference to two distinctly different metaphors that are used to convey the message. One is the infertile woman whose shame is inescapable. She is completely unable to change that fact in her life.

But God, but God, don't you love those words? But God is about to act and turn the situation around and before the prophecy is finished, there's reference to singing. In fact, we already read one reference to that in the verse there.

And then there's another metaphor, which is very obvious, you saw it immediately as we got to the second verse there. And the reference is to a tent. And the purpose of the word, the prophetic word, was to prepare the hearts of the people to anticipate and be ready for the freedom and the full life which lies ahead for them.

There's no doubt in my mind that at this time and in the times of the various aspects of prophetic statement along these lines that are here in this section of the scriptures, surely the minds of so many of them, perhaps all of them, would return back to the oath that God made to Abraham, the father of the faithful.

Do you remember the words there? And surely blessing I will bless thee. This is the word of the Lord. Surely blessing I will bless thee. Well, in my translation, if you like, when I start blessing you, I will truly bless you.

And multiplying, I will multiply thee. And I believe that we can claim that same prophecy and that promise today. And for any authority to do that, well, I would quickly turn my attention to Galatians in chapter three in verse 14.

We won't do that now. But this is the kind of way that God is wanting to speak to you and to me today. His heart toward us is engaged. His heart is full of love. Love divine, all loves excelling. Joy of heaven to earth come down.

He's come down in the person of his son and provided redemption for us. There's a sense in which I could say he's come down today in the person of the Holy Spirit. He's come down right here where I sit, right there where you are today as you listen to me.

He's here there. God, the Holy Spirit is here and his heart is engaged with each one of us. And his intention is to speak to us, to speak his word, his rhema word, his faith quickening word, his life imparting word to us to inspire our hearts, to impact our lives and perhaps to give us direction and specific encouragement dependent on just what's going on in each of our lives and so on.

And this is all very, very wonderful. I want to focus in particular in this address to the tent metaphor that he's using in this prophecy. One of the truly big ideas that is woven into the entire scriptures that we have is that God's normal is beyond anything that you or I can imagine ourselves.

God’s Power Beyond What We Can Imagine

I'm thinking of Paul's words as he writes to the Ephesian church in chapter three is a wonderful verse 20 that pins this fact to your life and to mine where the apostle writes, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.

When Paul writes there and uses the words in our translation anyway, exceeding abundantly, he's able to do exceeding abundantly. He's using a word that is difficult to be translated into our language.

It's basically communicating the idea that God is able to do beyond and over and exceedingly above. It's an extravagant word. Some translations have put the word super abundant. It's God that is dealing with us.

It's God who is speaking to us and there are no limits to his abilities to communicate love and blessing into our lives and his plan for you and for me today is to accomplish such a work in each one of our lives that his holy presence and his glory may be revealed within you.

Within me and moreover to cause his glory to be revealed through you and through me to others. Isn't that, that's an amazing thing. This is the God of glory, the God of heaven. The one who is this love that exceeds all human loves and so much more, this extravagant God, extravagant in his heart toward us, extravagant in his desire to bless each and every one of us.

It's his intention to work within us by his power and accomplish things that we could never accomplish. My mind has gone back to the infertile woman that we found in the first verse. He's able to do something that is humanly, physically impossible to transform people like you and people like me on the inside of our beings and in the very core of who we are.

This has got nothing to do with me trying to engage in some kind of behavioral alteration or modification. This is God actually transforming us and causing us to become, as Paul will put it, new creations, to be recreated inwardly by the power of God.

Nothing less than this is to become a Christian and nothing less than this is what God is intent upon achieving in each one of our lives. But in order for this to take place, your tent needs to be expanded.

This is not to make a bigger place for you or for me, to exalt you or me, but it is for this express purpose that there may be an increase of room within our lives, within the tent of my life, within the tent of your life, increase of room for him, not for you, not for me, not for my personality or yours, not for my glory or yours, but for his.

This is the intent of God. This is the story. I find it all over the Bible. It's woven all through scriptures and through many different situations and circumstances and particular words. This is the heart of God.

God is for you. He's for me. No matter what's going on in your life at this point in time, God is for you. What a wonderful message to be able to share. But you know, it's right at this point with this refreshed sense of God's grace and God's desire to do something wonderful in our lives that so many seductive voices and so many deceptive voices sort of kick in if you will, with the intent of bringing confusion, with the intent of bringing discouragement to us.

Do you know what I'm talking about? As a result of giving place to these kinds of seductive lies, for that's what they are, that produces confusion and discouragement, as a result of taking that and there's an expression I've used many times, when you take the bait, rest assured, you are already in the trap.

The bait is in the trap. The bait is there to seduce you, to draw you into that place, which in the context in which I'm speaking is a context of severe danger. It's a seduction to bring us into this sphere of the powers of darkness, the anti-Christ influences and anti-Christ spirits, which are diametrically opposed to this great heart of God, which is out to bless us.

There are these powers seeking to steal from us, to rob us of this great unspeakable, indescribable benefit and as a result of that, so many people, because they're giving place to this, they're being tantalized, they're responding in some degree or other to the bait, starting to believe the lie that they get stuck.

Spiritual Stagnation and the Difference Between Activity and Progress

It's interesting, I was just looking on my computer yesterday and I was just reflecting, I'm able to sort of trace words back that I have used or spoken on over many years now and I was interested to see just how many times I've used the word stuck, spiritually stuck over all these years of sharing.

I'm sure I've done that because of what I've known in my own life and what I've been able to see in the lives of so many people over the years where they've somehow that they've stalled at a certain point and they're stuck there and what each and every one of us need to be very clear on is this, that activity is not a synonym for progress.

Activity even in the things of the ministry do not in and of themselves mean that we're experiencing true spiritual progress or true spiritual enlargement. You know, it's like the exercise treadmill. There can be an awful lot of activity and a lot of sweating, but unless you, although you may think you're accomplishing a lot while you're there and that's another story for someone else to tell on another occasion, but unless you step off the treadmill, you're going nowhere really in spite of all the activity.

You know, you can use a whole tank of gas or petrol if you prefer in your car driving around a roundabout. You can go round and round and round until eventually your car stalls because you've used the whole tank of gas up.

I'm sure none of us would even dream of doing it, but you can do that, but as long as you ride the circle, you're going nowhere. You know, there's much religious activity and the flesh can be very impressive, but there's much activity.

You know, even in our personal lives, we can be doing the things that somehow we've been told to do. We're regularly getting up in the morning early to read our devotionals or we're being faithful in tithing to our church or whatever it is, attending the meetings, but you can do all of those things and so much more without really allowing room for the Holy Spirit to work in your life and that's what we're talking about this morning.

We need to be expanded to make room for God and for God to work. You know, over the years, I've sat in different leaders' meetings and elders' meetings and I've watched on occasion, even as I'm saying this, I'm thinking of one in particular, which I'm not gonna describe in any more detail except to say that I remember I was with a group of leaders who were not from the stream of ministry that I represented and what struck me as I sat there was here are a group of intelligent men, clever men, sincere men, but all they're doing here is just brainstorming to come up with a plan or a scheme for what they were talking about and so on.

We can be so busy, so engaged in what seems to be so right and yet, ironically, at the same time, we're not giving room for God, for Him and that's serious. You know, there's another deception that people get caught up with as well and it's common, all too common and that is to confuse information with life.

Scripture, Information, and Spiritual Life

Activity is not a synonym for progress. Information is not a synonym for life. We're grateful to God more than we can even express and even with all of our limitations, we know this much, that we are completely indebted to God for the information that He has provided and made available to us and I'm thinking of this book that I'm looking at here for the scriptures themselves.

Some of us may be newcomers to the scriptures and I'm certainly encouraging you to read them. It was a wise elderly man who spoke to me many, many years ago and I don't know how many times I've quoted this because I felt it was needed to be quoted but I remember him saying to me, we had just a few moments together.

It was a fleeting connection and I had the distinct impression this senior man wanted to say something to me as a young man and just starting out in the ministry that would be meaningful and helpful but it had to be succinct and brief and he said, Fred, really get to know the Lord and soak yourself in this book.

That's some of the best advice we can receive and pass on and so please don't go away, any one of you, thinking that in any way I'm diminishing the significance and the importance and indeed the necessity of the scriptures.

We thank God over and over for the privilege of having them and being able to read them and study them and for the Holy Spirit to speak through them and quicken the words on the printed page and make them life to us and so we understand that.

The gospel itself, there are the words or the information of the gospel which is contained here of course in the scriptures. We need that, we need to understand it more and more. We need to be able to communicate that and that's part of what I'm seeking to do with the Lord's help even as I'm talking to you but as Peter pointed out a little earlier in this session, the issue really is life and the fact is if we confuse information with life, then we will come to the conclusion inevitably that if we increase the amount of information that we expose ourselves to and that we begin to understand in our mind, then that's what it's all about.

Well, it's not and I frequently have quoted that word of Jesus when he said to those that were gathered with him on this occasion, he said, you search the scriptures because in them, you think you have eternal life and yet he went on to say, but you won't come to me that you might have life and he was emphasizing this very distinction that is on my mind as I'm talking to you.

You know, you can have an impressive knowledge of the Bible and yet be a captive of uncleanness in your heart. Think about it, you know, you can, for example, you can have all of your end time, excuse me, I probably shouldn't put it this way but this is how it's coming to me, you can have all of your end time ducks in a nice neat row and yet be spiritually dead inwardly.

Many years ago, Watchman Nee, who many of you will have heard of and read, no doubt, he was actually visiting England and on this occasion, a colleague that he was his host on this particular Sunday morning or as they would call it then and rightly so, Lord's Day morning, they went to visit a particular assembly, the kind of assembly I come from as a matter of fact.

I said come from, note. And as the two men left that meeting and were walking together, the host said to Watchman Nee, well, what did you think of it, Watchman? And his response was this, they have much light but little life and that's the issue that we need to recognise and distinguish clearly.

We need the information insofar as it comes from God and is quickened to our hearts by the Holy Spirit but the scriptures are given to us in order to bring us to the place where we actually receive inwardly the life of the Spirit of God.

You know, Helen Keller on one occasion apparently was asked, what do you think could be worse than being blind? And quick as a flash, I read, she responded by saying, having light but no vision which kind of leads me to think of another snare, another lie, another deception and that is the fact that deception itself has a sort of self-cloaking factor.

Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Somehow deception itself, the way it is put together, I don't know how else to describe this, has a faculty about it which conceals its own identity. So as we take the bait and we sort of move in that direction we simply become blinded to the fact that this is deception that I'm listening to.

This is a lie I'm listening to you and there are so many precious souls, truly there are and I've met many of them and had the privilege of talking to many over the years that are bound by these kinds of lies, these kinds of deceptions.

I mean, for example, here's one I've heard so many times that people are believing the fact that they will never be any different. This is who I am, this is my lot, this is the way I'm put together, this is what I'm experiencing and it's been like this for decades some people will say.

As I'm saying this I'm thinking of a meeting where I was speaking a good long time ago in Northern Ontario in a small little church and the pastor was an elderly man, quite a lot older than I was then and I spoke in that meeting about the fact that God wants to make us clean inwardly and wash us and make us inwardly pure and as I went back to my seat next to the elder or the pastor who was leading the meeting but before he got up to take over from me, he just quickly whispered in my ear, he said, can I talk to you after the meeting?

I have a real problem with uncleanness. This was an elderly man, pastor in the church and he confessed to me that he was bound inwardly. There's such a need for so many people to have the power of the bondage to be broken.

They need the spell, the spell that darkness puts upon the minds and into the lives of men and women to be broken. I love that word of scripture that says, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

Praise God. The truth, the word of truth communicated by the spirit of God in that what we refer to often as that reimer fashion. In other words, when God quickens the word and applies it very particularly into your heart and you just know God has spoken to you at that moment, there is power within that word to break the spell.

If someone's coming to talk to us about these things, of course, we'll pray for them and come against the powers of darkness and break bondages. But it's the truth that brings true freedom. Amen. You know, the children of Israel, as they were wandering in the wilderness and there's a whole backstory to that that I'm not discussing, but they'd been just tramping around in the wilderness.

Breaking Cycles of Bondage Through God’s Word

God had them in a holding pattern as you remember until that generation would die. I do believe I spoke on this a week or so ago. But the fact is at a particular point, the word of God, this is what I'm talking about, the word of truth, the word of God came and he said this.

He said, you have circled this mountain long enough. Go northward. In other words, it was God's word informing them that the time had come for them to be liberated from that bondage, from that cycle, from that roundabout, if you will, from that treadmill and God was saying, it's time to move away.

Maybe that's exactly what God is saying to some people who are listening to me just now. It may be the very word that you need to hear. Amen. You know, if you come like a child, I'm thinking of the child Samuel.

You remember that story. And in humility and openness to God and honesty before God and say, Lord, speak. One of the hymn writers took that phrase and put it into a hymn and I've often quoted some of it, but it goes like this.

Speak, Lord, in the stillness while I wait on Thee, hushed my heart to listen in expectancy. You know, while I was thinking about this very point yesterday as I sat here, a vivid picture came to my mind.

You'll think it very strange, but I can't help that. The picture that came to my mind was this, that there was a huge crisis that had occurred on a multi-laned motorway, as we would call it in England, or a multi-laned highway, a huge crisis.

And so much was happening everywhere as the result of what had just happened. And no one knew just which way to proceed or what to do. There was just chaos there. And then, of course, there was the traffic buildup, which was happening quickly, which created another crisis.

And of itself, when just at the right moment, it seemed, there was a particular police car and all of his lights lit up. Perhaps you know why I would think of a story like this. But his lights lit up and he weaves his way with his lights flashing through the traffic and he gets to the front and then he turns something on.

I don't know if they have this in your part of the world, but he turns on the sign that it lights up in the back window of his vehicle, brightly. And there's two words on it, follow me, follow me, follow me, and they're flashing there as he proceeds.

And he's inviting, in fact, he's ordering the traffic to follow him. He's going to lead them through and out of this chaos, which is happening on the road that no one would know what to do, where to go, how to do it of themselves.

You know, that's exactly what we need the Holy Spirit to be able to say to each one of us. I want to believe that he's saying that to you today with his crimson sign flashing, follow me, follow me, follow me, with all, in spite of the lies, the deceptions and all the voices and all the past history that seems to support the lies and make sense of them, God is speaking through that.

And he's saying, ignore all of that. I love you, follow me, amen. The word in this section of scripture that I read, was stretch the curtains of your tent. I'm not trying to say that the word really translates this way.

Stretching Faith and Making Room for God

I'm simply telling you what I read when I read those words. Stretch the curtains. It's as though I hear God saying, whatever you do, Fred, don't be too careful. And that's a danger, especially as you get older, you become more and more careful.

When you know that, I'm not saying this is true for me, I don't know what's going on. But if you've got reason to believe that your bones are not in very good shape now at this stage, when you go down the concrete steps, you're gonna hold onto the rail as you go.

That's reasonable enough. But you know, spiritually, as we get older, we become brittle in another sense, and we become careful, too careful. And it's as though we're not careful enough. It's as though God is saying, I feel He's saying it to me.

I'm sure He may be saying it to you. Don't be so careful, don't be too careful, or you will limit me in what I am seeking to accomplish in your life. But I hear God saying, but I must have more of you.

Stretch out the curtains of your tent. Be prepared to be enlarged in your heart, to be changed, to think differently, to act differently, to believe differently, to anticipate Him moving differently. Amen.

You know, perhaps at that point, we say, well, how do we do that? How do we stretch the curtains? What does this mean, really? Well, the first thing I need to say, of course, this is a metaphor that is being used here, it's not a blueprint.

One of my sons is currently building a house, not for himself, but he has a blueprint which gives him precise details for every single aspect of the construction. This word here is a metaphor, it's a figure of speech, which is not literally applicable.

Of course, because I don't live in a tent that I can stretch. So the concept of stretching needs to be understood. I'd like to suggest to you that when God says, stretch, or stretch the curtains of your tent, He knows, keep this clear in your mind, my dear brother and sister, He knows that you have no ability to initiate anything.

That can be a challenge to us, because some of us are so clever. In fact, I think, I dare say that most, if not all of us are too clever for our own good, actually. We know too much for our own good. We're too careful for our own good.

But God knows that I have no ability, and you have no ability to do anything in this realm. So how do I make room then? What can this mean? Well, let me tell you, we make room for God by yielding ourselves to God.

That's what we do. It's not by effort that I make room for Him, it's by response. It's the way I respond to Him as He speaks. And this, I think, is a fact that needs to be really, it's really important, it really needs to be understood.

Paul will say on one occasion that we're to be increased with the increase of God. Well, that's exactly what it is. Any spiritual, truly spiritual increase that brings honour and glory to God will be just that.

It will be of God. The increase will be of God. We have no ability to produce spiritual maturity. We don't have that ability. I do the surrendering, He does the transforming. We can do many, many things, but only He can produce godliness in a man and in a woman.

You know, in life, circumstances happen. Even as you listen to me here, the group that are listening to me, we've all got our particular circumstances or issues that are all part and parcel of the fabric of our lives and the journey that we're on, and so on.

Things to do with health, perhaps health challenges or family crises of one sort or another, so on and so on. But, you know, let's keep in mind this, that not one of us can add one scintilla that will make any of us more Christ-like.

There's nothing that I can do. The issue is Christ in me. It's all of Him. It's not me trying to be like Him. This is the mistake that we make. You know, some years ago, the logo that was around and stuck on cars in one place or another, for people who would be supportive of it, of course, that was, what would Jesus do?

Well, the issue is not what would Jesus do in this situation. It's becoming more fully surrendered to Him. Jesus said, concerning the teacher within, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all things. I remember listening to a man years ago who sort of made a point.

It was a hyperbole, but it was a good point. He said, you don't know how to close the door until the Lord shows you how to do it. He's making a good point. Jesus said, He, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things.

The Spirit within, we must be quiet enough, like the child Samuel I mentioned, where we place ourselves in humility and brokenness before Him, confessing the truth of His own word, that without Him, I can do nothing.

And allow Him to speak and lead us. In the Old Testament, we read that it's not by might and it's not by power, but it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. Do you see this? It's true Christian living is all of Him.

It is His life by His Spirit being present and abiding within me. And it's all of Him. I can do nothing without Him. I can't add anything to it. He is always the initiator. He's always the power. And you know, there's a classic verse of scripture.

God’s Power in Affliction and the Inward Renewal of the Believer

I'm gonna read this to you. I'm reading from 2 Corinthians and chapter four. Sorry, I wonder why I couldn't find it. I was in 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter four. And I read in verse 16 from the Old King James translation.

For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal ways of glory.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. You know, it's wonderful.

I'd like to spend a lot more time than I can here on this scripture because it's so important. He's talking about the circumstances of our lives, which he refers to as lice affliction. They don't always feel like lice affliction.

And he's saying how these things work for us. This is another one of Paul's statements, this super statement. It works for us a far more exceeding and eternal ways of glory. Just let me pause. I know I shouldn't be taking any more time on this, but let me just pause.

Just tell you, in my Sunday school days years ago, one of the teachers was saying, no, sometimes it helps to read scripture backwards. And you think, what in the world is he talking about? Well, this is one of them.

Just listen to the way Paul piles up word upon word upon word. Let me look at the 17th verse. The last word is glory. And then he says weight of glory. And then he says eternal weight of glory. And then we find exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Then again, more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And he goes a step further, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Now, do you see that? This is a huge statement. And what is Paul talking about?

He's talking about all of these things that would constitute this light affliction that we're experiencing and how they're working for us in this amazing, astonishing way. But then we must halt in our excitement and read the first words of the 18th verse where he says, while we look.

He's not saying that all these circumstances have any redemptive factor in them to produce spiritual increase and growth within us because they don't. Many people, all people go through these things and it doesn't produce godliness in them.

But Paul is saying that there is a quality that God is able to produce in us in the midst of these circumstances that we're passing through, who provided our heart is engaged with him and our eyes are on him to watch what he is seeking to reveal and produce and develop and build within our hearts while these things are happening and so on.

Amen. Because the issue is, you know, let me put it this way. In the final analysis, the measure of your spiritual life is not what you know. It's not how you understand all these complex things of end times and how they're all working out today and so on.

The measure of your spiritual life is not what you know. It's what you allow God to birth in you and through you that he might have all of the praise and all of the glory. You exist for this. I exist for this, that he may birth in me and through my life that which is uniquely and exclusively his to produce.

Amen. We're to be enlarged, we're to stretch the curtains and then here we find the prophetic statement saying, and the pegs, he's saying, they need to be driven down deeply. There's a phrase that comes twice in one chapter in Jeremiah chapter 49 and it's many years ago now since I spoke on that, but I remember it's just this phrase and there's a context for it, of course, but these two words are dwell deep.

In the context, they have to do with moving to a place of safety, dwelling deep, but somehow those words, they just cause a place where they've lodged in my memory because that's exactly what God is saying to us.

Driving Spiritual Stakes Deep

We must discover what it is to dwell deep. The man said, really get to know the Lord. We read the scriptures so the spirit of God can apply them inwardly so that he can change us inwardly and we need, as it were, to drive down these pegs of our tent deeply and that could be applied in a variety of ways, which I can't take time to do right now, but what I do know is that I live in a context where the culture, the so-called Christian culture is incredibly superficial.

You know, where people who profess to be the people of God spend hours being entertained by the world and in another way, where they gravitate to the prophetic expert who's able to provide his latest version of interpretation and so on, and yet at the same time, they live in narrow tents where the cords of the tent are just dangling freely and they're tied to stakes that just lie on the surface.

Do you see what I'm trying to say? Where everything is so incredibly superficial, we can know so much and yet be so incredibly superficial where our lives are scarcely any different from the people in the world that might even blaspheme the name of the Lord and be antichrist in their spirit.

And you know what? What's very sad is that so many people who live there who call themselves Christians, they consider that their experience is the normal Christian life. And I believe the word that God's put on my heart to declare is that it is not the normal Christian life.

It may be the average Christian life, but it is not normal, the normal Christian life. My beloved friends, whoever you may be, whoever you are today, let me tell you, God is seeking today for those who are ready to quit the superficial.

And I'm wondering whether in your hearts you could say to God something like this, Lord, I've heard your word today. I now reject the lies that I've been listening to and I here and now commit myself to you to begin your process of enlarging my tent.

I stretch my cords of faith. I drive down my stakes into the rock of your boundless love, amen. God will take you at your word. You know, your life, you don't need me to tell you this, but I will anyway, but your life on earth will last for a finite period.

It had a start, it will have a finish. And between the two, we encounter a variety of divinely designed opportunities. And your response and my response will determine the degree to which God's intent, God's desire, God's plan and purpose will be realized and enjoyed in each one of our lives.