Shalom all! Over the past two months, I have been walking into new places in my life that have caused me to really use my faith as I have felt like I’ve have stepped into unchartered waters. For a while now, I have been hearing the scripture found in Isaiah 43:18, 19, “ Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old……Behold, I will do a new thing; do you not recognize it….?” God wasn’t kidding when He said He would do a NEW THING! I believe that this word is not just for me, but also for the people of God. Within His glorious plan for the church, God has been preparing, moving, and shifting His people into position to claim their promises for the Kingdom and for their personal lives.

As I have been walking into these new places thru faith, I can see how some of us can miss the blessing and call of God on our lives. In June of this year, I taught on a message that stemmed from Numbers 11 in which Israel complained their way out of their inheritance. Complaining was a continual symptom of a root cause which was unbelief and without faith, we cannot please God. (Hebrews 3:19; 11:6) While God did many supernatural works and proved Himself to be their God, they still resorted back to an Egypt mentality that they could not escape. Their thinking was distorted as they felt that life was better in Egypt. They even cried out to Moses about returning there. They were so steeped in their old way of thinking, they had a challenging time coming out from what was familiar and comfortable to them.  They were not willing to get uncomfortable, trust God, and make a shift into the new place that contained their inheritance.

What we have to understand is that in order for us to make a shift to the new place, the shift must first take place in our minds. In the NIV version, Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” See, many of us have a  learned pattern of how we think. We get this from our environment, our associations and if we don’t renew our minds with the Bible or the mind of God, we can allow patterns or mindsets to form our way of processing our thoughts. Unfortunately, when we have a wrong mindset, this can actually limit God from manifesting His promises to us.

The Pharisees were so steeped in their traditions, they had a hard time receiving their promised Messiah because He didn’t come in the way or the form that they imagined and judged him according to the flesh (John 8:15). He stood right in from of them and they couldn’t even recognize Him. Jesus was even limited from doing any miracles in his own hometown because the people couldn’t get past that he was a carpenter’s son. This was due to their unbelief just like Israel. (Matthew 13:53-38)

When God does something new, it will cause us to go beyond our limited thinking, imagination, and abilities and when this happens, we are promoted from the old place into the reality of the new thing. The Bible says His ways and thoughts are higher (Isaiah 55:8) and if we don’t receive His pattern or mindset for us, we will miss it. Let me give a brief example on how we can miss the new thing:

Many single people have stood and believed God for their perfect mate to manifest. In prayer, we tell the Lord what we desire in a mate and give him a list. And while there is nothing wrong with expressing our hopes and desires, do we ever stop to think to ask God to show us about our mate and our kingdom purpose as husband and wife? Do we ask Him to show us His perfect mate for us so we can pray effectively for them? When we ask God for His pattern, His mindset for us in a mate, or anything else we are believing for, He will begin to reveal and uncover to us the plans or blueprints as He leads us how to pray more effectively through what is shown to us. It’s like when Jesus taught us how to pray, “On earth as it is in Heaven.” What is He saying here; let it be PATTERNED after the blueprint in Heaven. God is a God of pattern. Just as He gave Noah the pattern for the ark, Moses the pattern for the tabernacle, and gave Paul the pattern on evangelizing, “To the Jew first, and also the Gentile,” so it is given to us to follow after the same PATTERN as they practiced.

Again, nothing wrong with having a list of desires, but sometimes because we have been so steeped into an old PATTERN of thinking and old ways of doing and be-ing, these desires in actuality can be at a lower level from the place that God wants to bring us into. He wants to bring us up higher so we can receive His best. And when we stay in the old pattern of thinking, it is challenging to recognize the blessing when God brings it before us. See I have come to recognize God as a God of the “upgrade.” He came to give us life and in abundance in every area of our life. But we have to willing to allow Him to remove from us the old familiar places. Some of these places were good godly places, but that was in the last season. It’s time for God to release to you your upgrade in your new season as He is a God of promotion! (Ps 75:6-8)

Jesus said no man puts new wine into old bottles otherwise it would burst, but new wine must be put into new bottles..but then He goes onto say that no man having drunk the old wine desires the new, for he says the old is better. (Luke 5:36-39) If we want to keep the old, God will allow it. But it’s unfortunate when we don’t allow Him to give to us what Jesus died for us to have.

God wants us to embrace the new because within the new thing is the blessing not just for us, but for us to be a blessing to the world. This was Abraham’s mandate (Genesis 12) and it has also been given to us as the children of Abraham, physically as Jews and spiritually as all believers in Christ. We are His conduits in this world, His ambassadors.

What has God promised you? Is it a mate, a promotion on your job, have you been believing for God to expand your ministry? Maybe God has put something in front of you that you’ve been believing for but you are not recognizing it because you are looking through a distorted lens from past hurts or a familiar place that you don’t want to leave because of the fear of rejection from family and friends.

Some of you could be praying and feeling like you are at your wit’s end and you feel like giving up because the Lord is not moving fast enough for you or maybe He is not doing it the way you envisioned. You want the new but for some reason, it’s a struggle coming out of the old place. I encourage you to seek Him, to ask Him if you have limited Him and yourself in any way.  I believe He will show you when you seek Him with all of your heart. When there is a willingness on our part, then we give the way for God to come in and grace us to enter into the new place!

Through the above scripture in Isaiah, we know that He is a God that does not move or think as man does. Why is it so important to know this? Because God wants to move in unprecedented ways through us, He is a God that makes all things new and our natural minds cannot even begin to comprehend His movement unless we are in His presence seeking Him and getting to know Him and His ways. He will move you out of the “norm” which will look like you are going against the flow of people and opinions. His course of action or path for you will look different than another’s path. And what happens is when we don’t discern His movement and not allow ourselves to operate from the high place where we are seated (Ephesians 1), seeing and perceiving thru His lens, we will then miss it. Make sense?

Let’s not limit or confine Him or ourselves to a box but let’s position ourselves to seek the Lord so that He may show us the hidden things. (Jer 33:3). There are treasures that are in hidden in the darkness that God wants to give to us (Is 45:3). But again we must seek Him for it. And what this says to God is I am ready to come out from the old ways or patterns of thinking and be-ing. I am ready to put away the old to enter into the new thing.

I have a great desire and passion to see the people of God move into their place. Nobody is saying its easy, and yes it will stretch and challenge you, but God needs you to be stretched in order to make room for the new thing He wants to do in your life.

Till next time, be blessed and shalom aleichem (peace be upon you)!