“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 ESV
God is moving. This week, let’s talk about how we can help God move if we are awake to see what is happening around us and obedient to His will for our lives.
Dear Heavenly Father – Thank you for guiding me and giving me these messages. Please open our eyes to see and our understanding to know what you are saying to each of us. Please continue to pour out your grace upon us, within us, and show it through us! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen
God is moving. Now is the time. He is doing a new thing!
I hear so many say God is ‘about to’… but did they miss that He has been doing the foundational work for a while? He is moving. He brought me back. I have watched Him knock down unstable foundations given to me with a form of Christianity that was muddied with false concepts in my youth. And as difficult as surrendering to the dismantling of my foundation was, I let God do what He is famous for because He rebuilt me strong and solid. I no longer have to fight to stand my ground, He took care of that with a solid foundation and now all I have to do is LOVE.
As much as He is doing a new thing – it is also the same old thing and the same old story we heard repeated over and over again, reflected in a multitude of Bible books.
Before we can explore the new thing God is doing, and before we can explore what might be hindering it and how we can help, we must understand GRACE. I pray you have a real experience with grace today as you read this.
Some say grace is the undeserved favor of God – we have explored grace so many times through the last 220 posts and I think you will agree, it is the undeserved favor as well as so much more. It is love and mercy. It is a broad understanding that we are sinners and yet we are children of God make whole through this amazing grace. Grace is the salvation message. Grace is the work of the cross and resurrection. When my faith fails me grace is what picks up the pieces and grace picks me up too and carries me the rest of the way. Grace is what draws us to seek God in the first place. Grace is what unlocks the door to heaven in the end, when it is time. Grace is what turns ‘believing in God’ into ‘believing God’.
Some say the theme of the New Testament is grace – as the Old Testament is law. As soon as the New Testament begins we are covered by the grace of God sending His son to be our sacrifice for our sins and we are no longer under the law. I fear that simplistic look at it (as if grace and law are diametrically oppositional) diminishes the largeness of grace. Simple put: Grace is not the opposite of Levitical Law.
Grace is the theme of the Old Testament as well as the New. Through grace God gave His chosen people the Levitical Law. The existence of the law was a demonstration of His grace. It was man under the law, which was given by grace from God (and now it is man under the grace of God). God removed a layer in order to have personal relationships with humans.
Let’s talk about the grace of the Old Testament –
In Sodom and Gomorrah, the notoriously evil cities, God sent angels in who gave warning to Lot and His family.
“12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.” Genesis 19:12-14 NIV
God is love, and in 1 Corinthians 13 we see that love is longsuffering and patient – therefore so is God. Knowing all the stories of the prophets, I am sure this was not the first and only warning to the people of these cities. But if it was, God had put it in Abraham’s heart to pray and intercede for the cities demonstrating His grace. I am sure God, who never changes (Hebrews 13:8), had waited and hoped they would repent and He would not have to destroy them. God is so longsuffering wishing that none shall perish (2 Peter 3:9). Obviously, we see they never turned from evil and we remember this as a story of God’s anger and judgment. Oh why is the grace forgotten?!
In our current time, God has warned the world – not just one nation – that His wrath is coming. We have read the book and know the signs of the time and hopefully you are looking up, our redemption draws near!! Are you like Lot? God said leave and you leave, albeit the angel had to take him by the hand and lead him out, but he obeyed. Are you like Lots sons-in-law? Are you taking these warnings from God as a joke? Clicking like on too many internet memes created by the enemy to lull Christian to sleep? The sons-in-law were given the same warning as Lot and made a very different decision. I gave myself a moment to think about it. That final warning was a matter of life or death and we never know when God says to obey if it is a matter of life or death (either my own or someone else’s). Makes you realize how important it is that God can count on us for immediate obedience.
Have you ever noticed the grace of God before His wrath throughout the entire Bible? God always gives everyone fair warning. And then, when the wrath falls, so does an abundance of grace fall upon those who are saved from it.
Same theme with Noah. Same theme with Jonah (first Jonah had some Godly discipline and correcting) and Jonah was sent to warn the people of Nineveh (who did turn to God and were, through Grace, spared from the wrath!! Over and over – how many times did His people turn to idols and not stay on track with God?! And each time there was a prophet to warn them – and grace upon grace upon grace!! Grace through the wilderness and grace in the promise land. Grace when a baby Jesus was born and grace continued when they rejected and killed the Messiah and only begotten son of God. Grace over and over continuing through today.
God is moving and He is moving in grace. He has begun the work and He will finish the work. And our response to grace helps form the outcome. He is working even when we do not see, or understand, or even believe. The time is now. So, today we pray for understanding of grace, for fullness of grace, for a real and powerful experience with Grace – that we will not miss what God is doing.
He wants a real relationship with each of us and he wants that relationship to grow. And He wants it now! Because He is doing a new thing!
If you don’t already, and today you would like to have a relationship with a God who can communicate with you and be part of your life (and protect you) – one who is full of mighty power and tender love, then please know that I have put the “A, B, C’s of Salvation” in my introduction. Please click here to follow the link.**
Thank you for reading ~ Grace be with you
Be healthy and blessed ~ I love you and love one another
Watch and Pray ~ Seek God & keep your eyes on Jesus!
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!
If Not For Grace 