Isaiah 43:18-19 “Do not remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold. I will do a new thing , now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”
Ho! God is on the move. He is always working beyond what we can see and understand. Do not try and understand our wonderful Creator, for His word declares His thoughts and ways are much higher than ours, (Isaiah 55: 8-9). Our part is to exercise faith in who He is, and learn to trust Him with every detail of our lives.
In Matthew 4 we read the record of the temptation of Jesus by the devil. Jesus declared: “…...It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (verse 4). When seeking direction in life, we are all in need of a PROCEEDING word from the Lord. God’s proceeding word when embraced is creative and life giving. The danger is that as time passes we can become very comfortable in a word from the past and unwilling to move on when God gives new direction. A time will come when the proceeding word has become a proceeded…..(dead) word, and the Lord is wanting to bring new direction. “Behold, I will do a new thing….”
Numbers 21 is the record of the children of Israel becoming discouraged and complaining against God and Moses, bringing sin in the camp. The Lord was much displeased and sent fiery serpents among them. Many were bitten and died. The people repented of their sin of speaking against God and Moses and requested Moses to pray for them. In response, the Lord told Moses to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole. Any that looked on the pole after being bitten by the serpents, would live. This was a proceeding word from God for that time that saved many.
Time passes on. During the rule of King Hezekiah years later, God instructs him to remove the high places, groves and graven images from the land. Here we also read he is instructed to break in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had been instructed to make, as the people had turned it into an idol to burn incense to! ( 2 Kings 18:4). Here we see the danger of clinging to a proceeded word from the past when it is time to receive fresh instruction and move on from the old ways. “Behold, I will do a new thing”
Everything in the Spirit life is new growth and fresh, never stale in our journey with the Lord. Because our flesh life does not like to be challenged, we can cling on to our old comfort zones, living on a past word, when God wants to challenge and change us, and move us on. Our comfort zones can become strongholds of resistance to the Lord resulting in stagnation – no new growth develops here, just bad smells! There is a glorious, onward journey in the Spirit awaiting us in our inheritance.
God has invested much of His treasure in our lives, just as He did with Moses. Moses was a man called of God to lead His people out of Egypt to journey to the Promised Land. Moses faithfully fulfilled his call, although, as we all do, making some mistakes during the journey. Just as Joshua had to take the baton from Moses and take the people forward into the Promised Land, we also, must leave the old and be ready to move forward to embrace the freshness of God’s proceeding word. A proceeding word can challenge the comfort of my flesh life. It is meant to! If I want to move on in God, I am obligated to yield……”nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done, Lord”.
God is wanting to get our attention to show us something new. How does He do that? Let us keep ourselves open to challenge. When God wanted to get Moses’ attention, He made a burning bush appear, but the fire did not consume it. Moses went to inspect the phenomenon and the rest is history. After conversing with God on that holy ground, he surrendered all his arguments and obeyed the call of God on his life.
A brother was observing the constellation of the Square of Pegasus in the night sky this week. The square that is visable is only a part of the great constellation, but not all of it. Consider this: the visible things that God causes us to see in our lives have purpose. For example, the burning bush got Moses’ attention. God’s purpose was not to teach him about burning bushes, but to get him to turn aside from his agenda and speak to him regarding the rest of his life. So too, God wants to show us things, but He has to get our attention first. He has a plan for each of our lives and only He, sees the whole picture.
Let us pray that the Lord will enable us to be discerning and open to hear His proceeding word to us, and respond to challenge as He presents it, releasing the things of the past we have clung to, and embracing the new.
The words to the following song, given by the Lord to Beulah Ratcliffe, are so apt here:
“Learning to let You lead, putting all trust in You,
Deeper into Your arms, surrounded by You,
The things that I held so tight made my security,
Give me the strength I need to simply let go.
I want to be out of my depths in Your love, feeling Your arms so strong around me,
Out of my depths in Your love, out of my depths in You”……
Simply……let go!
Photo by Werner Sevenster on Unsplash
