"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 (NIV)
Another year has passed and another new year lies just ahead of us filled with promise and hope. Another chance to draw closer to God, to deepen our walk with Him, and to bring more people to the foot of
The key verses above can be a prophetic Word from God in our lives as we enter into 2013. Working backwards in the key verses we see that God provides a way in the desert and a stream in the wasteland. We can feel sometimes as if our walk has veered off the path God had for us. We often use the term desert experience to describe those darker periods in our lives when things are not so easy and God may not seem so close. It is easy to feel close to God on the mountaintop but in that desert we can lose our way so easily. 2012 was a desert for me and I can testify that even those are the times we need to draw closer to God - that is easier taught than caught. The nature of a desert is you lose your sense of perspective and direction. Every direction looks the same. One sand dune looks no different than another. Then the wind whips the sand up in your eyes, further confusing things. If that is how you feel today God is saying to you to hold on! He is making a way in that desert. He is the way out.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. -- Proverbs 3: 5-6 (NIV)
He will make your paths straight before you! He will make the way out of the desert your life has become! The next prophetic Word for you today is that He will also sustain you during the period of trials. He will make streams in the wasteland. A wasteland is an area that as the name would imply has wasted away. There is no life. Nothing grows. How often does our walk end up feeling like that? We might refer to it as a wilderness experience but there is simply a sense of waste. Time is going by and nothing is changing. It is a dead period in our walk where we desperately want what we used to have but don't know how to get there again. Our growth seemingly has stopped. If this writing finds you there today in a barren wasteland God is telling you to wait -- He will be making a stream for you. He will give you the sustenance you need to get out of where you are at. He will be your provider beloved. When the Israelites were walking in the wilderness He provided manna from heaven when they were hungry. When they were thirsty, He produced water from a rock! When they got tired of eating manna He provided quail! When Joseph was sold into slavery God prospered him in Potiphar's house. When he found himself in jail -- God prospered him there too! When Gideon faced an army of 120,000 with only 300 men who won? When no one could conquer the walls of
The year 2013 can be a year brimming with the promises of God in your life beloved. See? God is doing a new thing! But the key verses remind us that we can miss it! Do you not perceive it? How in the world can we miss a new thing of God? How can we miss the way out of the desert? How can we walk by the streams He has set up in the wasteland? Simple -- if we fail to believe it or if we fail to look for it. The key verse starts with the secret tying this prophetic Word together. We fail to see the new future God has for us when we insist on focusing on the former things of our past. You will not see the new thing if you keep looking at the old thing. This carries with it two warnings.
The first is we must forget our failures. So often we are bound to a past that Jesus already died for. We cling to the past and shackle ourselves to our failures. The Bible says we are a new creation in Christ but we still walk around with the old baggage Jesus says to leave at the foot of the cross. Peter could not have given the first sermon at Pentecost which saw 3000 people saved if he was still dwelling on his denials of Christ. Realize that it is the devil that wants us living in our past. As long as we are living in our past then we cannot see the future God has laid out before us. Even if we are past what occurred before salvation, we can still get bogged down in our failures after salvation. When Jesus said it is finished He was talking about everything. He died for all of our sins -- past, present and future. Repentance means turning away from sin, not perfection. God does not want us moping around wallowing in our mistakes. He wants us to bring them to Him so they can be crucified with Christ. Walking in the power of God means walking free of the things that used to weigh us down and not letting the enemy accuse us into the wasteland or lie us into the desert.
The second warning here is that we must forget our successes as well. Not that we blot them from memory but rather that we do not dwell upon them in any way other than boasting as a witness for Christ. Why? Because our successes can lead to pride, which is a deadly poison to believers. Here are the words of the Apostle Paul:
I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. -- Philippians 3: 12-14 (NLT)
If Paul had been satisfied with the successes of his first missionary journey then maybe he never makes his second. If he had been satisfied with the successes of the first two, then maybe he never undertakes the third. Satisfaction can easily become and enemy of progress. Complacency can easily lead to stagnation. That is how seemingly successful people in the church end up in the wasteland and the desert -- desperately trying to find a stream or the way out.
Wherever this writing finds you today -- God says He is doing a new thing! We just need to behold it. We need to be confident in His promises. We need to be looking for it with expectancy. We must look to Him to lead us out. We must look to Him alone to sustain us during our darkest moments. In order to do that, we must forget what is past and press on into the glorious New Year that He has for us! In Jesus name! Amen!
Reverend Anthony
