1/10/2026

Day 10
Isaiah’s Response

Isaiah 6:1–8 (NLT)

“Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’”

Isaiah’s surrender did not begin with enthusiasm—it began with encounter. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord “sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple” (Isaiah 6:1). The vision was overwhelming: seraphim crying out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” The doorposts shook, the Temple filled with smoke, and Isaiah stood undone before the holiness of God. This was not a gentle worship moment; it was a collision with divine reality.

Isaiah’s first response was not, “Send me,” but “It’s all over! I am doomed” (Isaiah 6:5). A true vision of God’s holiness always produces an awareness of our own unholiness. When confronted with the purity of God, Isaiah saw himself clearly: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Holiness exposes what familiarity with religion often hides. We cannot offer ourselves to God rightly until we first acknowledge what in us is polluted.

Isaiah’s confession was specific—and that matters. He named his “unclean lips,” the very instrument God intended to use for prophetic proclamation. Before Isaiah could speak for God, his mouth had to be purified. A seraph took a burning coal from the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips, declaring, “Your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven” (Isaiah 6:7). The cleansing came from the altar—symbolizing sacrifice, atonement, and grace. Conviction without cleansing leads to despair, but cleansing births confidence rooted not in self, but in God’s mercy (Psalm 51:10–12).

This divine order cannot be skipped: revelation, conviction, cleansing, then commission. Surrender without conviction is shallow and sentimental. Conviction without cleansing is crushing. But when God cleanses what He convicts, the heart becomes ready for obedience. As Hebrews 9:14 declares, “The blood of Christ… will purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Cleansed hearts are commissioned hearts.

Only after Isaiah was purified does the question come: “Whom should I send?” God does not coerce—He invites. He seeks willing vessels, not reluctant servants. Isaiah does not ask for details. He does not request clarification, security, or assurance of success. He simply responds, “Here I am. Send me.” This is surrender in its purest form—availability before understanding, obedience before explanation.

Isaiah would later learn that his assignment involved preaching to people who would not listen, seeing little visible fruit, and laboring through rejection (Isaiah 6:9–13). Yet he surrendered before knowing the cost. This is the essence of faith: “We live by believing and not by seeing” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

The Hebrew word Isaiah uses—hineni (“Here I am”)—appears throughout Scripture at moments of irreversible surrender. Abraham spoke it when God tested him (Genesis 22:1). Moses said it before the burning bush (Exodus 3:4). Samuel answered with it in the night (1 Samuel 3:10). Mary echoed it when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38). Hineni is the language of a heart fully yielded.

God is still asking, “Who will go for us?” The question is not rhetorical. The mission field may be your home, your workplace, your city, or a place you never planned to go. The location matters far less than the surrender. Have you seen God’s holiness clearly enough to abandon self-reliance? Have you received His cleansing deeply enough to trust His grace? And can you say—without conditions or escape routes—“Here I am. Send me,” even before you know where “there” is?

“Surrender begins where excuses end and availability answers before understanding.”