Have you ever tried to change something?  Let’s hop out of the “music box” for a moment… anything!  Have you ever tried to change anything?  Unless by some Balaam-esque miracle an inanimate object is reading this post… the answer has to be YES.  We’ve all embarked on the process of change in one way or another.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this principle, perhaps because my life embodies the definition in literally every sense at the moment… I want to share some thoughts I believe the Holy Spirit is stitching into my fabric at present:  First, I want to create a perimeter for my comments…

Isaiah 43:19 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.” (NIV)  We LOVE that, don’t we?  A NEW thing!!!  Who doesn’t want something new?  A new car.  A new house.  A new gadget.  New shoes.  New clothes… We All like NEW!  However, there is a prerequisite to the new… in verse 18, God speaks through Isaiah and says:  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”  And that’s where some of us… well, maybe not you but that’s where I often get stuck!  Forget the past?  Well, ok, Lord, “Yes!  I will, to the best of my ability, forget the bad things that happened in the past…”  Wait, was there a qualifier there?  Did He say just forget the bad things?

See, I am getting my mind ready to move into a new house with my family and as creative as I like to think I am… this house is so much better than where we are now, that thinking about changing things has left me with a slight mental block.  So, I have been scouring interior design blogs to come up with creative schemes to make this house our Home.  Now, I know I said “new,” but in reality it’s only new to us… as it was built in 1905 and has been completely renovated, though that is not the point.  Here’s the point: In the process of going through numerous before and after pictures on several blogs and seeing things, in all honesty, on many accounts, I may have actually kept the “before” until I saw the “after,” I have come to acknowledge that in order to receive the New Thing it is essential to let go of the old… whether or not it was good!

If you’ve been at this long enough with Jesus, you’ve seen some “good things!”  Some Wonderful things!  I remember amazing seasons of healing miracles growing up…  I had the privilege of coming up right at the end of the Jesus movement in the ‘70’s and then spending my childhood during the “Word” years…  Word of Faith.  Word of Healing. Word of Knowledge. Word!  I saw my tenacious Mother throw up in a McDonald’s cup leaning over the steering wheel of our 1970 Volvo station wagon driving to yet ANOTHER R.W. Shambach tent revival, only to see her drive home in perfect health having been touched by the power of God.  I went to church once with a severely sprained ankle and went home completely healed.  I woke up once with a fever of 104 and chicken pocks covering my body from head to toe, was dragged into the car by my tenacious Mother, driven to the church, anointed by the elders, completely healed and then went home, got ready for school and got on the bus!  I have seen God raise a dead person to life in an elevator being carried out by paramedics… There are “good things” in my memory bank.  I have also seen hypocrisy, abuse, anger, strife, jealousy, betrayal, and crookedness – yes, ALL in the church!  There have also been “bad things.”

But, I believe that God is shaking EVERY-thing in this season, so that the old can fall off… yes the good and the bad, to make way for His NEW thing… the New thing that will usher in the MAIN thing… that being the coming of our Lord Jesus!  Another thing I read in one of those design blogs was that the space from the before pic to the after pic is usually a little longer and a little messier than the observer might think.  “Sometimes progress is ugggggllllly!”  That was what one blogger said in describing the gap between photos… Isn’t that the case?  Before we can improve, we often have to dismantle.  What has the Holy Spirit prompted you to dismantle that you are clinging to like a life raft?  What is that thing that He gave you for one season that He’s asking you to lay down for this season?  Is it a method? A mindset? A way of doing things?  Hey, this is a NEW season!  And for this season the infinitely Creative One has a new method, a new mindset and a new way of doing things!

I can almost see God standing in the midst of the progress, in the midst of the mess in verse 19, can’t you? “See!  I AM doing a new thing!  Even NOW… Do you not perceive it???”  Ha!  Isn’t that how it is?  We’re dismantling, sanding, refinishing, etc … And it’s new, it’s being made over, it’s coming back to life, but perhaps in the moment it looks like chaos.  I think, just like it was at the first creation when the Spirit of God hovered over the chaos and then spoke… So it is in every creative season… so often it looks like chaos, but I want you to quiet down the disturbance and bend your ear ever so close, for the Spirit of the Lord is hovering over the chaos… and in this New Season… He says:  “I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand…” Isaiah 51:16 Speak!  Yes, you Speak!!!  Speak His WORD!!! And Sing!  Psalm 40:3 says:  “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.” Let Him impregnate you with His Song! (Forgive me men.  Spiritually speaking, you understand!)

Let Him birth the New in you today… Don’t lead with old methods… Don’t try to worship with old passion… Don’t settle for better… Go for His BEST!  Behold, He is doing a NEW thing… Even NOW it springs forth…