Streams in the desert

P 3479 Fix your eyes.

/ 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. This is one of those keys we need to pay attention to, because the past should not affect our future. When Jesus made a way when there seemed to be no way, He died to give us His power to overcome those things that can trip us up or weigh us down.

I have been caught up in eddies from the past — those  things that go round and round and get nowhere. We can’t afford to define ourselves by stuff like that. It will grab hold of here and now, and destructively head toward the future! We need to remember that God does new things all the time. Just because something was fruitful last time, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Relationships are moving things, to last they need to grow, change, continue to become new and fresh.

The Lord wants a relationship, not a system. He gave us a system. That system, the Ten Commandments, only failed because we weren’t up to our end. Thank GOD our God is a God of generosity, grace and mercy! There is nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, they are all about Loving God and loving others! That’s why Jesus said what He said in Matthew 22:38&39. “Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Jesus adds, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” It’s a synopsis, not just a new commandment!

Transformation flourishes when we read what He says and live it out, day by day. God made it easy to obey Him, because He took punishment and fear out of the way. Now we do not need to wade through desperate times alone, the Lord has already provided the most wonderful Person we will ever need — the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. Living this life, with His help ushers in the kingdom of God, right here where we are. And remember Jesus died to change our past – even if it was only yesterday, ten years ago, or ten seconds ago! 

The past will hold us down if we keep clinging to its ways. We must lay aside those things that go after our peace and freedom so we can love others from a pure heart — and keep walking on. Some of us might end up limping. That’s not a bad thing! Jacob encountered God’s Kingdom and he limped after it happened. That limp reminded him of his encounter with heaven. It’s our chosen participation in the kingdom of God among us that will transform this world around us. Thousands of wonderful people have made all sorts of incredible efforts, and sacrificed everything, to change whatever is going on where they live – they left the past behind, and followed Jesus.

However, if the Spirit of God Himself is not doing it, whatever we do cannot last or produce fruit. Only God Himself does the things that last. In the Western World we like to think that God is on our side. But the reality is … the Lord wants to know …. ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’  ‘Unless the Lord builds the house we are labouring in vain.’ (Psalm 127) Father God cares about what is in our hearts. He wants our hearts perfect toward Him and each other. (2 Chronicles 16:9; John 13:35.) That means we keep short accounts with Him and other people.

We simply can’t afford to let our past, affect our future, no matter how awful that past may be. My advice about former sorrows, is this — prop open the door to the past, clean out everything in that cupboard of guilt, pain, shame, revenge and hate, and deal with it bit by bit, including exercising reconciliation, forgiveness and repentance, then close the door! Write: do not enter! … on it. And give the key to the Holy Spirit. Walk away. Go out from that place and live your new life in Jesus. Do not be tormented by the things you can’t fix, give them to God and leave them there.

I urge all of us to start seeing faith as a commodity stored in heaven and when we prayerfully use it to live, we are bringing that faith into this life. There is a portion we have each been given, and as we give it to Him and start using it, I believe our faith grows, incrementally. “… faith comes from listening to this Good News ….” Faith comes from reading the book and doing what it says, because doing what it says takes FAITH. 

So today, I want to urge you to put the past behind you. Getting rid of any past sins we have done, as well as the ones against us … lines us up with heaven. We are so blessed, the Kingdom of God is a storehouse of every Grace we will ever need on this earth. We simply access it, using our faith, and we must discontinue using it to greedily grab the things we know that can’t last.

Let’s study the bible to find out what He says about this day – today. As we comfort ourselves with the fact that we can rely upon the Lord to hand us the right tool at the right time. The sad thing is, the past is our enemy’s favourite tool of distraction – he drags our eyes off the Lord and distracts them with the things that have hurt us. Instead, let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and ask ourselves, what is the Lord doing today? Bye. 👋.

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