The New Thing
A few weeks ago, the Lord said this to me about the August meeting “it’s not about the past, it’s not even about the present, it’s about the future. I am looking for a remnant who will look with the eyes of faith at “what is to come” and, by “calling those things that be not as though they were”, become a conduit through which I can bring My plans, hidden in eternity, into the earth today.”
A few days later I was in a worship time with some friends and afterwards we were sharing what God had been revealing. My pastor, Rick, mentioned a familiar passage from Isaiah.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
“I heard the Lord say,” Rick continued, “if you don’t let go of the old processes, the old ways of thinking, you will be unable to embrace the new. Many of the Jews were looking for Messiah, but when Jesus came, they were not able to embrace him because they were still holding onto old ways, old ideas of how things were going to be.”
The following week, I was sharing this verse with some friends of mine, when suddenly I had a vision. I saw one of my prayer diaries, filled with handwriting, opened to the last page. As I watched, the writing began to disappear, from the bottom of the last page to the top, through to the next page. Then the pages of the book began flipping backwards, faster and faster, and as they did, I could see that each page was being erased. And I heard a voice saying “Clean slate! Clean slate! Clean slate!”
I think that what Rick heard and what I saw is a part of the process the Lord wants to take us on over these hundred days. The word of the Lord to us in this season is that the door is open, from Revelation 4:1
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. (Revelation 4:1)
Through that open door is the future – the things that are to come. But for us to even be able to see/perceive the new, first we have to forget the “former things”. Now this can be a struggle for a number of reasons. Maybe we have had bad experiences and wounds in the past that are still framing the way we see God and ourselves today. Or maybe we’ve lost hope and we aren’t sure if anything really can or will change. Or maybe it’s the opposite - we’ve had some great experiences and we finally feel like we’ve found a comfortable rhythm in our walk with God and we don’t want to “upset the apple cart” with something new. Human beings are by nature creatures of habit and we find comfort and safety when things are predictable and controllable.
But in this time of transition, God wants to shake all those things that are holding us or that we are holding onto so He can bring us to the place where we find our safety, our identity, our hope and our security in Him and Him alone. He wants us to be able to anchor our lives on the truth of His unchanging nature (faithful, true, loving, just, merciful, powerful etc ) so that nothing else holds us and we are free to venture with Him into the unknown and help birth the “new thing” He desires to establish in His kingdom on the earth today.
All God is looking for from us is a willing heart. If you are willing just pray this simple prayer, “Yes, God, I want to forget the former things, I don’t want to dwell in the past. Teach me how to close the old doors of the past season so that You can open the new doors in my life.”
Heather Clark has a worship song called Come In. As we listen and worship to this together, let it be a corporate declaration to the Lord that we are part of that remnant willing to journey with Him into the “new thing” today!
Love
Steph
On behalf of the Awaken Team
Come In - Heather Clark (click link to listen – a window will open in your internet browser. To download the mp3 simply right click on the browser and select “save source as”)
Come in, come in King of Glory
Come in come In, we welcome You this day
I have come to greet the King
I have come to give myself in total abandonment
I’ve come to lay down all that holds me back from You
I’ve come to lay down all that holds You back from me
