BEHOLD: A NEW THING
Study Text: Isaiah 43: 18 – 19
Introduction:
- This promise came from God to the children of Israel at a bleak period of their history.
- They are in captivity, they have lost everything they thought they would keep forever, and they were home sick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.
- We can also stand on the promises of God today for a glorious new beginning and the new thing in our lives.
- The reliability of any promise depend on the personality that gives the promise, his capability, his integrity and his generosity.
- When we examine God based on these qualities, we can see that His words and promises are very reliable, and we will receive the blessings if we can wait on Him and wait for Him.
- We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:
1. Repositioning for the New Things
2. Revelation of the New Things
3. Revolution by the New Things
1. Repositioning for the New Things
- The 1st step to embracing the new thing that God wants to do in your life is to change your focus: quit looking behind and start looking ahead.
- Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. If you are continually looking behind you cannot see where you are going.
- Paul shared with us this great secret of success in life and ministry. Phil 3: 12 – 15.
- You consider your past to help you and not to hurt you.
- If you are ever going to move on to new things in Christ you must learn that:
i. You Cannot Depend Upon Past Victories To Sustain You
- The children of Israel had many victories in their past:
1. Leaving Egypt
2. Conquering the Land of Canaan
3. Fighting of prospective conquerors
4. Survived a split in their country
- But now they are in captivity. All their previous victories were doing nothing to set them free. They needed a new work, a new miracle, a new victory.
- The question isn’t what has God done –the question must be:
What is God doing in your life right now? Or What is it that you want Him to do in your life right now?
ii. You Cannot Allow Your Past Failures to Possess You
- The children of Israel had failed God miserably. Every time He blessed them with good things, they returned to Him evil things:
1. God gave them the Temple - they gave Him idol worship
2. God gave them truth - they lived and proclaimed a lie
3. God gave them His commands - they lived like they were suggestions.
4. God gave them wealth - they used it to abuse the poor
5. God gave them Himself - they gave Him nothing except rejection.
- The children of Israel did not deserve to receive anything from God. Yet He still loved them and He earnestly wanted to help them change.
- Notice God’s Message: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!
- God was not condemning them for their past, they could do nothing to change it. Instead God was holding out the hand of hope. He is in effect saying: Forget about your past -- I am giving you an opportunity to start over. Isaiah 55:7
iii. You Cannot Live on Yesterday’s Faith
- The children of Israel had experienced great spiritual blessings throughout their history. From the first Passover, to the crossing of the Red Sea, to the conquering of the Land of Canaan, to the building of the temple, the children of Israel had seen the hand of God at work in and through their lives.
- Yet their faith in what God had done was doing nothing to deliver them from their present situation. Their old faith was not sufficient enough to deliver them from their present problems.
- They needed new faith, a new vision for what God could do. They needed a new portion of the faith that had brought to pass all the victories from before. Psalm 85:6-8a
- Reposition yourself to what God wants to do in your life now, by taking the following actions:
1. Genuine repentance over all known and unknown sins
2. Turn away from our wicked ways, and turn to God in righteousness
3. Forget your ugly past, in anticipation of the glorious new thing God wants to do for you.
4. You position yourself by calling on the Living God
- God has promised to do a new thing. Do you wish God would work as He did in days of old? Are you ready for a new beginning? Are you ready for God to do a new thing in your life?
2. Revelation of the New Things
- The 2nd step to embracing the new thing that God wants to do in your life is to clarify your focus
Receive the revelation of the glorious new thing God is set to do in your life.
- You must develop a faith that can see the invisible. Like Moses saw the Egyptians perish, David say Goliath’s head cut off, and the three Hebrew men saw their God delivering them.
- God says: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland
- What do you see when you view your life? Do you see possibilities or problems? Notice what God said: I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
- The children of Israel had a choice. They could view their past and the problems of their present, or they could focus upon what God wanted to do in their lives.
- In order to discover what God wants for you:
i. You Must First See Yourself as God Sees You
- The children of Israel felt as though they were getting just what they deserved because of the way they had lived. Some even believed that God would never have anything more to do with them. But they were wrong.
- You may feel like your past has made your life a wasteland but in God, your life can become a stream of life. Romans 8:1
ii. You Must See Your Possibilities as God Sees Them: I am making a way in the desert.
- God is able to transform the desert areas of your life into fields of blessing and abundance. God can take a dried up useless life and transform it into a life of purpose and grace.
- We don’t need to understand Him, or know how He will do it, we only need to believe Him and hope for His manifestations.
- Why will God do a new thing
1. God will always do a new thing to show forth His glory
- If you are desperate to give God the glory, you are already ripe for a new thing
2. It is to give His children joyful miracles in order to draw them closer
- It is only the year that is running to an end, God’s power, glory, mercies and presence is not running to an end. It is still alive and active
3. So that you can be a wonder to many. Psalm 105:27, Psalm 135:9
- He wants the unbeliever to see His glory in your life, and through you, they will seek the Lord.
4. To cancel every loss that you have suffered; then, you will begin to have multiple restoration.
- The new thing supersedes the old and nullify whatever is contrary to you in the past.
5. To demonstrate His faithfulness to His children
- He will bless His children, to make them know that He is enough for them in every situation.
6. To show His supremacy. 1 Kings 18
- God is bigger and greater than other gods, He will always do something new to demonstrate this
7. To set His people free. Psalm 18:50
- He came for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil in our lives, so that we can be free.
- Certain things in our lives will hinder the new things that God wants to do for us:
1. Laziness
- Laziness can prevent us in taking certain necessary steps towards receiving the new thing God wants to do for us.
2. Foundational battles
– It can slow down the manifestation of newness in one’s life, so we need to pray for the destruction of yokes.
3. Living an UNBROKEN life
- God is not blessing you to become proud, but to show forth His glory
4. When you have not been baptize in the Holy Ghost
- You cannot use common sense in the things of the Kingdom, you can only use Holy Ghost sense, we also needs His empowerment to belie3ve and receive the new thing God will be doing in our lives.
5. Living in unrighteousness
- Sin will hinder and cancel out what God wants to do, so we must repent from our sins and pursue after righteousness at all times.
3. Revolution by the New Things
- When God says to His children He will do a new thing, it means you will move to a level of freedom you have never known before.
- It also means that God is about to surprise your enemies beyond recovery. The Lord is starting a new thing in your life, family, business, and ministry. Are you prepared for it?
- The Lord has promised to do a new thing. The new thing God is about to do in your life shall not be delayed. He will make rivers in your desert. When a man gets promoted to a new level, everything becomes new.
- However, a new thing can mean different things to different people. You need to hold unto God’s word and promises for a new thing that you desire in every area of your life.
- God had already set into motion the events and people who would lead Israel out of captivity and back into the land of blessing. But it was still up to them to decide if they wanted what God was offering.
- If they refused God’s plan, if they refused to follow where God was leading, then they would be doomed to remain in their captivity.
- God has already set into motion a new direction and a new purpose for your life: will you follow Him? Psalms 95:7- 8.
- There are Principles to follow in embracing the new thing God is doing:
i. Don’t evaluate what God is about to do by what He did in the past. Do not remember the former things.
- God, who had brought Israel out of Egypt and had destroyed the Egyptian army, was promising to do an even greater thing
- God is saying that glory of the former things cannot compare with the glory of the new thing that is coming
ii. Don’t live in condemnation over past sins and mistakes. Do not consider the things of old
- Stop living under the condemnation of past mistakes and failures. Stop evaluating your future by what you experienced in the past
- Instead of living under the weight of the past, we must call upon Him, pray to Him, seek Him, and search for Him with all of our heart.
iii. Believe in the God of a new beginning. Behold, I will do a new thing
- This new thing is a work of revival and restoration of His people. Our end will be greater than our beginning
iv. Expect God to begin NOW. Now it shall spring forth
God is saying: See, I have already begun, reach out with great expectation to receive the new thing and you will not be disappointed.
v. Lift your vision. Shall you not know it?
- Vision and dreams are the language of the Holy Spirit that shows you the end of a thing before it has even begun
vi. Follow the Lord. I will even make a roadway in the wilderness
- God will guide us as we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit which is confirmed by His tangible and manifest presence
vii. Embrace the work of the Holy Spirit. And rivers in your desert. John 7:37-39
