God is about to do a new thing!

Church WAKE UP! God is going into that which He is doing new with those who will follow, and those who won’t will get left behind

Source: PInterest

The first Sunday Service of 2019 one of the members of our Church brought a scripture which I believe was straight from the Throne Room of God, and which I claimed as the scripture of the year for our Fellowship. The scripture was Isaiah 43:18-19 ‘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 wilderness and streams in the wasteland’. The first Sunday Service of each year is always a ‘Thanksgiving Service’ in which we give glory to God for getting us through the previous year and for all the blessings we have received throughout the previous year. We then offer back to Him all the responsibilities/jobs/ministries etc., He has entrusted to us, and we ask Him to bless us as we seek to carry out these responsibilities in the way He would have us do them, all to the Glory of His Name. During the Thanksgiving Service God led us to get a box and place it at the foot of the cross and each person symbolically went to the box and put all of their baggage into it, to leave it there and then walk away. I felt this was significant because so many of us collect baggage on our way through life, with all the hurts, traditions, misunderstandings etc. not just from our upbringing but sometimes from the Church, being affected by other people carrying their own baggage, and this so often gets in the way of us being free to hear what God is telling us to do. Once we’d all done this I put the top back on the box and after the meeting I disposed of it. 

The problem is that we often pick up some of the baggage again that we’d previously put down. We need to constantly ask the Holy Spirit to convict us when we do this and repent of it and give it back to God. The Israelites were good at picking up their old baggage, and we’re no better. An example of this was when God brought them out of their slavery to Pharaoh and Egypt, and instead of praising God for freeing them they just moaned to Moses. Exodus 17:1-3 ‘The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, travelling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarrelled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ Moses replied, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?’ But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’ Having just witnessed all of the plagues God had put on the Egyptians and experienced the way in which He had taken them out of the misery of slavery, blessing them with all the Egyptians gold, silver and clothing, you’d have thought they’d have realised that God would supply all their needs. Instead, they pick up their old baggage and want to go back in to slavery (their comfort zone). Oh, how often we want to go back there, it’s so much easier staying in our comfort zone instead of stepping out in faith into something new that God has for us.

Source: Christian Faith Art Journaling and Bible Study

Our trouble is that we often don’t want to forget the former things, we want to dwell on the past, especially if they were good times, but God is about to do a new thing. It’s about to spring up and He is making a way in the wilderness and streams in wasteland. The question is ‘Do we perceive it and are we ready for it?’ Do we want to go into the Promised Land with God in 2019 or are we desperate to go back into the familiarity of the bondage and baggage of self-pity? Do we think; ‘woe is me and it was so much better when I was in my comfort zone, let me go back there?’ Church, WAKE UP! God is going into that which He is doing new with those who will follow, and those who won’t will get left behind. The choice is simple, surrender to God and His will or you could be one of those who in the last days will fall away from the faith and be led astray and deceived by false prophets. You will eventually find that your love for God and others has grown cold. Scary thought, but look at what Jesus said about those in the last days, (a time which I believe we’re now in). Matthew 24:10-14 ‘At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’. Also; Matthew 24:23-25 ‘at that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you in advance’. I would encourage you to read the whole of Matthew 24.

I believe God is calling men and women of faith to stand up and be counted, those who are prepared to put off self and put on the garments of righteousness, faith and obedience and stand firm on the Gospel of truth, not willing to water it down or bow to the pressures of this demonic self-indulgent world that we live in. Is that you? If it is, then may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; and may He turn His face towards you and give you peace.

Let me leave you with a final scripture which I hope will encourage you; 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 ‘ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’.

Child of God, be blessed.

Author: Pastor Kevin Hunt

May God bless and enrich your life
  
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