Don't Look Back

Welcome to the season that everyone is now referring to as the "new normal."  There are some who have accepted this and embraced learning new avenues of connecting and growing.  Others have made changes to continue doing what they have always done, just thru a new avenue and then there are others who have found that it is time to do something completely new in this new time.  This afternoon an email and a conversation brought my mind to Matthew 9:14-17 in which Jesus explains the need for a proper patch on a garment as well as a new wine skin for the new wine.  

Right now there are those who have embraced the Church leaving the building and those who feel a desperate need to hold onto the old ways, and biding their time until it goes back to "normal."  Do we really want to go back and be okay leaving behind all that we have learned in this time?  I am not saying that we shouldn't return to the building.  On the contrary, I believe that we cannot go back with the same mindsets and habits.  We have changed. God has not changed, but our relationship with God has. (I pray this is your truth as well)  There has been shaking and awakening going on and we cannot expect nor should we desire to go back into the same routines as we had before.  Many have realigned, gone deeper, found that they want more than the more they knew before.  We are looking for a new wineskin for our fresh wine.

In Isaiah 43 and 44 God told His people not to look back, that He was doing a new thing.  (also noted that they would not call out to Him, proclaiming His praises even then)  He said that He would pour His Spirit out and bless their descendants.  I am leaning into this passage and digging a bit deeper.  We have so many new opportunities to lean into the refreshing rain and gain new perspectives, new Words, new directives.  We have an opportunity to do something unique for our city, for our area, and leave out the man made plans.  We can stop looking back at how things have worked in the past and we can just allow ourselves to be brought together to worship and proclaim His praises.  We can find new ways to bring prayer into every corner of our city, not recycling other's ideas and plans, but leaning into a fresh Word from God who has a specific call on our prophetic city, different than the purposes He has for others.  

We don't need programs.  We don't need scripted meetings.  We need room for God to speak a fresh Word into a room of praying people.  We need a lot less of us and even more of Him.  We need to fill a room with His praises and acknowledge who He truly is.  We are building His legacy after all, not our own.  There is an opportunity in front of us to lean in and to implement a space, inviting God to come and commune with us.  He is anxiously awaiting the invitation. 

My heart sees churches all over my city, meeting together openly, each taking a different day, filling a space with worship and prayer.  Doors to churches open to anyone who is able to come.  The unity of The Church transforming the community.  My heart sees the war being waged in the heavenlies  through the worship, prayer, and unity of The Church.  There was a shift just over a year ago and the atmosphere has changed.  There is a heavy weight in the air, there is a war far greater than I ever expected that seems to be growing in size and momentum, just out of sight.  But I am not afraid.  I am not dismayed.  My God is not surprised, He is the Creator and the Author.  There is a heaviness, but His glory has more weight than that of the atmosphere.  There is also a floating Hope that is the reality of WHO He is and the list of promises He given us.  

My prayer is that this picture, this new wine would find a new wine skin to be filled into.  That not just the dream that God has placed into my heart, but that all of the dreams being birthed would find a proper housing.  I pray that we would be looking for the fresh rains and not looking to go back to our pasts.  God told the Israelites over and over to remember, but the key is WHAT should be remembered.  We are to remember God, the testimony of all He has done, not what man has done.  I pray this is a time for new beginnings, new depths with God.  That we would take this time to build God's legacy and dig deeper into "New Thing" He is doing today.