New things

P 2849 Watch carefully for the new.

/ DVH

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT.

Did you ever wonder what on earth God was doing in, and through your life …OR maybe even wonder IF He is doing anything at all? Well, that’s where this verse comes into its own. When God does something new, WE don’t always recognise it.

When Jesus was born as a baby and walked around Israel for 33+ years people had no idea what God was doing now! Even though they had had prophecies to say that new things were coming, they were still stuck in the rules and regulations of the past. The key to this verse is in the first line. “Stop dwelling on the past…” !!! When our eyes are filled with things that have happened before, we cannot see what He is doing today … in front of us.

The Lord exhorts us to not even remember those former things. That’s hard. Especially if the things we can see today seem quite minor in comparison to the things we once saw! The point is we cannot identify the NEW if we are looking through the OLD glasses of the past! We need to spend our time looking for what He is doing today — now, at our house, in our churches, in the Body of Christ worldwide. It won’t be the same as the things He has done before. He’s a creative God – He makes new things out of old ones, and I am not talking about recycling!

Seeing the new things our God is doing creates hope, but looking for the old ways can usher in despair. Move on … I don’t care how old you are, move on. Ask Him – if you already have a ministry – “how can I keep in step with what You are doing now, today?” God’s kingdom does not operate the way this world operates. In His world, older people are as important as the young. Even if you don’t have a recognised ministry, ask Him to highlight the things that you are doing that are from Him. We can’t see stuff sometimes because we have a preconceived idea of what spiritual things are supposed to look like. We are blinded by previous spiritual encounters.

Even when I read the bible, He keeps showing me new things from a book I have been carefully reading for over 50 years! It blows my mind daily. I’m reading the same words, but now they are saying something different to me. I can still see the old but the new things are like a giant flashing sign – almost blinding me with their brilliance. I must have said 4000 times last year “why did I not see this before?” BTW, in case you are thinking, “lucky you” – insight is part of our inheritance. It is not peculiar to a few people. It is God waving at us … saying… “Yoo-hoo, right here!”

Maybe you have been chasing the Lord and His wonders all your spiritual life – well, right now it is time to get new running shoes on, and start training again. In the Christian life, none of us arrive at some predesignated spot. There is no place where our ministry is perfect and we know we’ve been perfected in love. We simply keep pressing on while we can! The sign of a true believer is someone who falls down often and gets up again … one more time. 

Here’s a lovely testimony about something that has blown us away. We are rejoicing, even though we don’t know what comes next. One of our very elderly family members had an enormous heart attack followed by a horrendous fall. However he opened his eyes when people came and prayed for him around his hospital bed, and then he raised his hands when they sang his favourite hymns. The heart attack/fall should have taken his life. Even the staff at the hospital told the family, be prepared for the worst. Now he is also breathing a little on his own.

Who would bother to give a 93 year old, who has loved Jesus all his life, more time? Our God would. Why? I dunno. All I know is that it is a precedent, so we’ve made up our minds not to give up on anyone, no matter how old they are!  All because yesterday, this sweet old saint raised his old hands to Jesus, one more time again in this life, and he praised God. Maybe he is more there than here, we don’t know. The outcome does not matter, in the body or out of it, this dear precious old man is with the Lord. 

Our God keeps on doing brand new things, if we don’t take the time to see and celebrate them, we will find that regret over the loss of old things we have previously loved, will grab at us and pull us down. Watch carefully for the new. Bye. 👋

“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, …” Habakkuk 2:1a

P 2568 The day between.

/ DVH

At 4.30am this morning the Lord woke me up with these words. THE TOMB. And then He said this: There is a space between the cross and the resurrection – it is called the tomb. That tomb is the place between something that has happened to you, that will test your faith … and the ANSWER. The tomb is a place of HEAVENLY SILENCE.” Saturday is the day of helplessness, hopelessness, and all seems lost!

There is no hope in that place. Hope has died. There is no faith there either. Inside the tomb, there is nothing alive at all. Decay happens in the tomb. To get out we must be resurrected!! It is the place where the pain of betrayal washes over us. Can it be the King of all Glory has betrayed our faith? At the same time, all seems lost for everybody on the outside too, while the person inside it is locked in – gone. Hopelessly grieved over. The worst bit is you are not actually dead – you just wish you were! Life is standing still for you – you are held hostage to something you cannot control.

Remember Mary and Martha? Lazarus was three days dead. They told Jesus when He finally came – ‘you can’t get him out of there, he will smell!’  Everybody knows that dead is dead. But not to Jesus – dead is not dead to Him. Dead is merely a possibility for God, His heavenly Father to be glorified. Dead is the place where we will learn to let everything go, and rest. Nothing else is important when we enter the tomb of waiting, and that huge stone closes the gap behind us. Arguments, money, pettiness, dreams, visions, prophecies, all disappear. The question becomes – is there going to be a resurrection? It is a place where new things will open to you – if you will stay dead until He comes to you.

Lastly, there is no light in the tomb. It is not like the pretty pictures streaming with light we see on Easter Sunday. It is deathly dark and quiet. Nobody can babysit you in there – they can’t reach you anymore! You pray and your prayers seem to disappear in front of your eyes. You’ve asked others to pray and … nothing happened. Easter SATURDAY is a reality in a real faith test. It is a place where the things we thought mattered, are gone. New homes, new cars, new jobs, vanish in the reality of the tomb – the place where there is no time, because time squashes the life out of you.

That tomb is the place of ultimate surrender! Job knew it. “Even though He slay me yet will I trust Him.” Lazarus even died waiting for Jesus to come! Paul learnt it as he walked with the Lord. There is no life without Christ. Everything else we grasp at is just an illusion. A child’s story told to calm and soothe us. The tomb is the ultimate NO! The place where prayers and passion seem wasted. Let me tell you this: FOR HIS LIFE TO COME, THERE HAS TO BE A REAL TOMB – A REAL DEATH. Not a ‘nearly dead’ but all dead. Like it was for Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This is the place where we will learn to let go… even though we are secretly hoping He’s going to do something! And even if it seems like Jesus lied … we decide to trust Him with our last ounce of strength. It is a place where HE MATTERS MORE THAN THE ANSWER. That place is where whether prayers are answered or not, it no longer matters. What we think matters is just so much dust on the floor in comparison to losing Him.

It is a yielded, surrendered and still place. Jesus Himself found that place in the garden of Gethsemane after praying in agony three times. He found peace in the place of acceptance. “Then He *came to the disciples and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let’s go; behold, the one who is betraying Me is near!”Matthew 26:45-46. Please note, everyone else in His support team fell asleep – people will let you down when you are stuck in the tomb.

That tomb becomes the place where you no longer care if your answer is yes or no … all that matters is finding Him. And you die to self waiting for Him to come. That place between Friday and Sunday is temporary – whether the answer is yes or no – He will come. Even though the tomb is fastened tightly shut … …Jesus will always come for you.  No stone can hold you in! He died to prove it. 👋