This time in between Christmas and New Year, daws me in to a time of reflecting on the year just gone, and praying and planning for the year ahead. This year maybe more so than other years, I am mindful that we are in a new season. Although this year has been ‘unprecedented’ with the onslaught of bushfires around our country and then the Corona Virus and lockdown, I get the sense that there is a degree of expectation in prophetic circles of God moving and of something new about to happen. But what could that look like and what is God capable of?
Isaiah 43:10 – 13, 18 – 19. (TPT)
Yahweh says, “You are my witnesses, my chosen servants. I chose you in order that you would know me intimately, believe me always, and fully understand that I am the only God. There was no god before me,and there will be no other god after me. I, only I, am Yahweh, and there is no Saviour-God but me. I am the only one who revealed this to you. I saved you, foretold the future, and brought it to pass. It was not some foreign god who did this! You are my witnesses that I am God,” declares Yahweh. “From the very beginning, I am the only God! No one can be snatched from my hand. When I choose to act, who can reverse it?”
“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.
In this Isaiah verse, God is reminding the Israelites of who He is and how he has delivered them in the past. They are obviously looking elsewhere for help and comfort as there is a fair bit of repetition here (I didn’t include a number of the verses). This something that is often used in the bible to highlight things that are important. God is also reminding them that there is more to come and suggesting that he will do something new.
I love how the Old Testament in the bible holds ideas and imagery of the New Testament and things to come. Even the whole Exodus story introduces us to the idea of the Passover lamb; the idea of a sacrifice made so that we might live, and the deliverance of God’s people into the promised land; from slavery and poverty into freedom, rest, provision, and abundance. But it isn’t a passive thing – the people had to walk it out over a whole generation. This picture is also exactly what Jesus has given us, so we can be assured on multiple levels, even today, that both these stories are true to who God is and how he moves in world and engages with His people. We, today, are still his witnesses and his chosen people. This picture of deliverance and guidance that Moses walked out is also what Isaiah is prophesying about – streams in the desert and a way in the wilderness, but in a new way!!
The past:
I am reading a book at the moment about the history of ‘the bible’ in Australia. I also have a book on my shelf that talks about the revival history of Melbourne. I didn’t realise we even had a revival history but apparently, we do! The past can provide lessons that we can learn from on what is important, how we can navigate current issues and even what we can expect in the future. A good example of this is the Spanish flu, that has pointed the way to how we should respond to the Corona Virus. It hit us so quickly….
What is revival anyway? And will it happen again? What purpose does it serve? What is going on around us at the moment? Lots…. I am still looking for answers to these questions.
The present context:
We need to be sensitive to the context that we live in. The ideas, values, needs and culture of the place in which we find ourselves. I lived in the States for 3 years fairly recently and I was surprised at how different they are to us as Aussies, in their ideas about life and ways in which they operate. Beauty seemed to be a more highly regarded attribute for women than it is here (at least in the circles I was operating in), and I was surprised at the number of people that I was around who were living hand to mouth with no savings at all. Christianity had a completely different flavour and seemed to be more widely accepted as the norm in society than it is here in Australia. Also no one dried their clothes outside on the clothesline. Even if it was 40 degrees / stinking hot, the dryer was used. I started one year by putting up my little portable clothesline outside between two trees, but after a week or two, it was easier to join the masses in using the dryer. To me it seemed wasteful, but there it is the norm.
We need to be aware of what is going on around us. To be flexible and ready to respond – possibly in new ways. If God is doing something new in our midst, would I recognise it? Would I see it or would I judge it and walk away? Jesus came and was rejected my many, and put to death on the cross by the judgement of the masses. He died at their hands and in some ways he died at my hand. And yet he forgives us and makes a way to the father.
The future:
I love prophecy, and I love God’s Kairos word for us here today. That one word can change everything, I was in South Africa when I received my first prophetic word back in 1999. I had just come back from a home group meeting and I walked into the pastor’s house where I was staying and started to complain of a headache / migraine. The people who were meeting in the living room were enjoying some prophetic time and God’s presence turned up. Or maybe they were enjoying God’s presence and the prophetic gifting turned up! Either way a short word / single sentence was spoken to me as I was standing just inside the front door and then the Spirit hit me. It was new to me and unexpected. From memory, I went from headache mode to a stupid grin on my face. I don’t think I slept all that well that night, and from that day on reading the bible was just like reading a completely different book. It was suddenly engaging. Everything changed, and I knew I had to move churches in the season following – even though I had no idea where to go, and no one really understood why I left. How do you explain that?
And so we find ourselves in the space between 2020 and 2021. A new beginning and a fresh start. We hold hope for a better tomorrow, but we are all still cautious about this wretched virus, and it will be seemingly sometime yet, before it is under control. Just in the last 24 hours in the US alone, there were around 3,500 deaths. Thankfully there are only a small number of cases here in Australia.
Revelation 21: 1 – 7
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I
will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Even if we can’t fully understand this verse, this is the heart of God. It fits with who He is. It is in the story of the Israelite’s exodus from slavery in Egypt and entry into the promised land, it is in the story of Jesus – God incarnate, the Bread of life, and the sacrificial lamb who dwelled among us, died on a cross and then rose again. It is in the story of the early church and it is in the story of our church today in 2020. And it is in the story of 2021 – which is just around the corner.
Praise be to God.
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