YOU CHOOSE!

Isaiah 43:18,19

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

For the last year at least, every early morning a spritely red-vented bul-bul sits on a tree across my bedroom and calls. I recognize the call and many times I have lifted my eyes to the branches above to see the fellow merrily chirping his morning song springing from branch to branch.  My parrot takes over with his squawks and whistles and soon the crows join in this cacophony of sounds. I enjoy it!

So I recently bought an antique mariner’s telescope made in England in the 1920s. To my surprise the images I can see are quite sharp as the lenses inside are still good and functioning. Just yesterday I spotted this bul-bul and watched the fellow to my heart’s content through my telescope.

How we wish we could peek into the coming year like that! What can we actually see?

The world and all its systems are failing miserably. Science and technology cannot look at God’s face anymore and has taken its own way to self-destruction. Politicians worldwide cannot keep their promises and they are desperately covering their past commitments by false rhetoric and crazy claims. Law and order have slipped beyond repair. Economics of nations is failing to keep up. Mankind has lost her morals and gone berserk in a tailspin that she can never recover from. Where are we going?

But…the prophet Isaiah, speaking to Israel, says…Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. When God spoke, this is what He was actually saying…although your past deliverance out of Egypt was in itself a most splendid work, which you ought always to remember and consider; yet this new work of your deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus, and those blessings which shall follow upon it will be nothing to compare! And there is still more to come…I am sending the Messiah who will truly save you!

Wow! So what does this mean to us today? What is this new thing!

First, compare this. ‘Remember ye not the former things’. The old deliverance will be as nothing compared with the new. Israel when they came out of Egypt were a stiff-necked and rebellious people, given to murmuring, licentiousness, and idolatry. But Israel, returning from Babylon, will be completely different…they will no more crave after idols, but will have God’s Law ‘put in their inward parts’ (Jer 32:33), and will ‘show forth God’s praise’ (Isaiah 43:21).

For us today this simply means that we are walking in a time that will transcend everything we have ever seen in the past. Do you believe this! Yes! I do! The Church is entering her heritage at last. We are indeed possessing our possessions! That which God has ordained for us is really going to take place in the coming year.

I’m not just talking about wealth and land and such. I’m saying prophetically that every faculty of our lives will see restoration and fulfillment.

This IS the new thing happening to the Church and within the Church worldwide. Remember the world outside is slipping into deep darkness but you and I are walking in God’s timing and towards the Kingdom’s completion in every way.

Therefore the prophet Isaiah says that it shall ‘spring forth’. This speaks about the speed at which God has begun to do His will on the earth. While as yet there is no sign of these appearing; here to the lively imagination of the prophet they are already seen ‘germinating’ and that too with the hurried speed of the Kingdom.

This is indeed a way in the wilderness—just as Israel in the wilderness, between the Red Sea and Canaan, was guided, and supplied with water by God Himself; this new move of God’s deliverance shall be determined with manifestations of God’s power and love, eclipsing the old and the past.

Then we have a responsibility. How do we need to live in these days? What we need to be doing in these days? What are our choices and priorities these days? Are we going to copy what Israel did in the wilderness out of Egypt, or are we going to embrace this new move of God and walk in it with joy. Behold, it springs up already as we read this!

So in closing…the children of Israel had failed God miserably, every time He blessed them with good things…

He gave them the Temple – they gave Him back idol worship.

He gave them the truth – they lived and proclaimed a lie.

He gave them His Commands – they lived like they were just suggestions.

He gave them wealth and blessings – they used it to abuse the poor.

He gave them Himself – they gave Him nothing except rejection.

Look at the Church today! Are we regressing back to our old ways or do we believe what the prophets are proclaiming?

Get God’s telescope and peek into the coming seasons! And then…

You choose!