Behold I do a new thing
We are coming out of an extremely difficult season. God knows many are experiencing great weakness, spiritual dryness and exhaustion on many levels. He is bringing rivers to the desert. For those who have been in this dry place, God is making a road right to your door. He is bringing the refreshment you need. He knows what you need. We don’t need what someone else thinks we need. Only God knows what is going to breathe life into your very being. He knows how to bring you life again. That’s exactly what He is going to do.
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19 NLT
A Word for 5783
At the onset of the current Hebraic year, I shared two scriptures the Lord impressed on me that apply to the Hebraic year 5783. In prior blogs, I focused on 1 Peter 5:10. Today I want to zone in on Isaiah 43:19.
“Do not call to mind the former things, Or consider things of the past. “Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 NASB
THIS IS A TIME OF HEALING AND RESTORATION
We are midway through the second quarter of the Hebraic year. Today is 16th of Sh’vat, 5783. March 23rd shift into the third quarter as we enter the month of Nisan. In the meantime, God is sending supernatural empowerment to restore, secure, strengthen and establish His people. During this quarter of the year, we are in a time when God is securing us in a new way. God is imparting the power needed to get a leg up and become strengthened again. The past season has left many exhausted and depleted. The God of all Grace is sending help.
We are not being restored to where we were. We are being restored to forward in a new way.
This may mean disconnecting so we can be connected in a new way. If we are willing to make the necessary changes we will experience a new strength coming in. However, for those unwilling to let go of the way things were done in the past, you will not experience the breath of the Spirit you experienced in the past. God is doing a new thing.
Recently, the Lord took me through something that He used as a living experience to drive this truth home to me. Here’s what happened.
After being away for almost three years, I reconnected with an old friend. This was someone with whom I worked with very closely in a prior season. It was great to just be able to spend time with old friends. We spent the day together going from one Christian gathering to another. In the past, these gatherings had been a place of incredible spiritual refreshment, incredible healing and a great source of strengthening for me. yet, this time something was very different. The longer I sat in the environment, the weaker I felt. By the end of the day, I felt drained and sick. When I woke up the next morning I struggled to catch my breath. It was as if I just couldn’t get a full breath. No matter how much rest I got, I still felt exhausted. I chalked it up to fatigue and figured it would pass. It didn’t. I just couldn’t seem to shake it.
After a couple of months of struggling with this, I was more than frustrated. I had been praying about it but wasn’t getting any insight, much less relief. Then one day that changed. While on my face before the Lord intent on seeking healing and relief God showed me something that came as a surprise. He said He wanted me to see past the surface.
He opened my eyes to a religious structure which had slowly and subtly over the years wrapped itself around these groups that had once flowed freely with the Spirit. These gatherings had once been a well of healing and restoration to others. But over the years, the enmeshing entanglements of a religious spirit crept in choking out the breath/wind of the Spirit. I want to make clear that what I God was showing me was spiritual bondage that had enslaved His people. This wasn’t about their behavior or attitudes. It was bondage, religious slavery that had taken His people captive.
God spoke to me through this experience. He said, “If you are looking to former things to bring the wind of the Spirit you will be greatly disappointed. I am doing a new thing. You cannot rely on former things even if those things were a source of spiritual refreshment in the past. Every group, gathering and individual which looks to former things will experience a loss of breath. The breath of My Spirit is not coming the way it did in the past. I am doing something new. Look to the new. Don’t think that you know what to do because you know what worked in the past. What you did in the past won’t work now. It will leave you weak and breathless. I am not doing the former thing. I am doing something new. Follow me, seek me for the new thing and you will experience the new breath, the refreshing wind of the Spirit.”
HE IS DOING SOMETHING NEW. FORGET THE FORMER THINGS. Don’t look to the things you’ve looked to in the past, even if those things were good things. GOD IS DOING SOMETHING NEW. HE IS GOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Different is Different
Different means not the same. It’s not going to be the same as it was in the prior season. But what does that mean in practical terms? Simply put, we can’t rely on the things we’ve relied on before. I can’t count on getting my spiritual needs met through the same means they were met in the prior season. If I want to get my spiritual needs met, I have to seek God to find the new source. He will reveal the new source. It is going to look entirely different than it looked in the past.
If we insist on going back to old wells expecting to get the water we got in the past, we will not only NOT find water, we are going to find that we are dryer than ever.
God’s desire for us is to come to Him. He has all the healing, refreshment and renewal we need. His intention is to bring healing and restoration. He has a new source of healing and restoration for us in this new season. He has sources we know not of. We have never been this way before. God will reveal the source as we seek Him for the new thing He is doing.
I pray that the Lord give you eyes to see the new source, ears to hear His voice, courage to follow His lead and an increase in your measure of faith to enter the new place God has for you.
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