"Behold, I do a new thing!"

It's been a while since my last post. I've wanted to post much sooner but I currently have double duty as I hold down the fort while my husband is in beautiful New Zealand. How I wish the kids and I were able to be there with him! It's been two and a half years since my last trip, way too long! There is a time and season for everything. That period of time between one season and the next can seem like forever sometimes! I believe that right now as a church corporately and also individually, we are in a season of transition. Dr. Mark Chironna once said,"Transition is a nowhere between two some wheres. It’s a long hallway between where you’ve been and where you are going. One door closes so you can walk in limbo, until you can get to the other door that leads to the manifestation”

The definition of transition is: a process or period of changing from one state or condition to another. Sounds scriptural to me! And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[a] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 2 Corinthians 3:18. Change is in the air! We can see it in the natural season we are in. The grass is turning green, new growth is popping out everywhere, spring flowers in bloom....I love this time of year! But even with the passing of winter (a cold, dark, season symbolic of death), there is a restlessness within me. While I've been able to shed the winter clothing, I am still longing for slightly warmer days when I can shed my coat and put on my flip flops. The days of summer!

Likewise, when we come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we know there is still so much more. I want to encourage you that whatever state you are in right now, whether you are walking strong in the Spirit or if you are barely holding on, or perhaps you stumbled across this blog and you don't know the Lord at all..whatever state you are in right now, there is so much more for you than what you have already experienced up to now.

Let's look at the word transition a bit deeper. Some of the synonyms of that word are: Change (we are changing or should be changing from glory to glory), Passage (pass by here...pass by where we are right now, no looking back but looking forward), move (out of this place or situation where I am currently at. Flowing in the Spirit, not getting stagnant), transformation, conversion. and Metamorphosis (from caterpillar w/ limitations to a butterfly that able to see from a higher perspective).

This is Merriam Webster's definition of transition: A passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another. See, we are in a transition right now but the problem is that we are too busy looking backwards to move forward. How many of you are longing for "the good ole days"? We want more of God in our lives. For one, spiritually that is incorrect. We already have all of God that we are ever going to get. He's not withholding from us. What we need is more revelation of Him. He is so big, so multifaceted, so multilayered, and so infinite, that we will never be able to comprehend all that He is. That is great news for us because with God there will always be new depths to discover and explore. We should never be bored in our relationship with Him, So,why are many of us tired and bored with life, thirsting for more? For one thing, we were created in such a way that because nothing else will satisfy. The other reason I believe is that many who have been believers for a long time tend to have a picture of what revival looks like. Often, that picture is representative of when we were first on fire for Him. That became our grid of expectation, if you will. I can remember a season in my own life of longing for what once was. That is where we have got it all wrong. The Lord doesn't want a repeat of the old thing. He's not into repeats! He is doing a new thing!

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19

Former things (ri'shown) first, in place, time or rank, ancestor, beginning, eldest, former, of old time. (Some o fus need to forget about our family history. We have a new

family in Christ! The word "New" in this passage of text (Hebrew word Chadash) means new--fresh, to be new, to rebuild, renew, repair. Remember (zakar) to mention, be mindful, recount, bring to remembrance, and think on. What we think on is important! We are not supposed to recount and dwell on the past but on what the Lord is doing right now. Look at this same passage in the Message translation: Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.

The desert biome is an ecosystem that forms due to the low level of rainfall it receives each year. Badlands are defined as extensive tracts of heavily eroded, uncultivable land with little vegetation. Barren, dry, and no fruit, no harvest; is that your life today? A road is defined as a long, narrow stretch with a smoothed or paved surface, made for traveling by motor vehicle, carriage, etc., between two or more points. A river is defined as a large natural flow of water that crosses an area of land and goes into an ocean, a lake, etc. So the Lord has provided a road, a way to get from one place (the desert your in) to another.

In the place

where there is no flow, no fruit, and no harvest, He is providing a flow that stretches out to the rest of humanity, which is what oceans speak of. He wants to take you from a place of isolation, dryness, and barrenness, to a place of refreshing; rich with life! What do you see when you look out over the ocean? One thing I notice is that it is seemingly endless!

It doesn't stop there! Our God is so great, so wonderful, and so infinite that He wants to do even greater things! This scripture in Isaiah is old covenant. We've been given an even greater thing, a new covenant! The new doesn't replace the old. It completes the old! Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5:17, a scripture many of us are very familiar with: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! Check out the Message translation: This goes beyond repairing what was. What we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! I had to look up the word burgeons. I thought perhaps it was a misprint or something. I had never seen this word before. Burgeon is a verb and it means to begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish. Wow!

I looked out my window and a couple days ago all of the trees were bare. Even yesterday I could easily see beyond the trees, quite a distance into the woods but this morning as I look out my window, after all the spring rain we've had this week, everything looks so much different. It's not longer bare but lush and green. I can't see through the woods anymore because of the new foliage that has rapidly grown! Yesterday I look out and it's bare, even though I can see signs of new life. Today I look out and that new life is flourishing! It's amazing how much can change in a day. I believe this is a prophetic picture of the time and season we are in as a church!

Back to revival, what we want to see in our own lives and in the church as a corporate body. Let's break down 2 Corinthians a bit more! Are you sure you can handle it? Are you ready for your mind to be expanded? If you can truly grasp this it will blow your mind! In 2 Corinthians 5:17,

that word "new" in the Greek (original translation) is the word Kainos. Kainos doesn't mean "new" as in a replacement for the old. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about Christ coming to change Adam into another newer Adam of the same human nature. In modern language: you are so much more than a smartphone upgrade! Jesus did not come to create a newer replacement for the old fallen man. He came to destroy and end the old man and begin a brand new species of "Kainos" design. In the Strongs Bible Dictionary "Kainos" means: a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of. If this doesn't change things for us enough check out what "unprecedented" means: Without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled. Suddenly those "good old days" don't sound so good anymore!! They pale in comparison to what God is about to do and wants to do through me and through you!

The world has never seen anything like you! Even Adam before the fall can't compare to who you are becoming! It is indeed a mystery! Are you brave enough to explore this new territory, this new understanding? The Vines Bible Dictionary defines "Kainos" as new as to form or quality, of different nature from what is contrasted as old. This all goes way beyond the typical Sunday morning salvation message of a ticket to heaven! You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 AMPC. "Kainos is seeded by the DNA of God. It is an entirely new creation. It goes way beyond what existed before. In this new creation life, your nationality makes no difference, or your ethnicity, education, or economic status-they matter nothing. For it is Christ that means everything as he lives in every one of us. Colossians 3:11. The exact life of Christ is now repeated in us. We are being co-revealed in the same bliss; we are joined in oneness with him, just as his life reveals you, your life reveals Him. Colossians 3:4.

See, we can't go looking to the past for a model or pattern of what is to come. We need to throw away that grid completely because God has given us a new grid. He has made you and is doing in you a new thing, completely unheard of, unprecedented, unexampled, unparalleled, uncommon, and unknown. We walk in it simply by child-like faith!

We need to learn to imagine

like a child! God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20 MSG

Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself, a pure gift. He got us out of the mess were'e in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-26 MSG.

In Christ! By faith! Do you dare imagine something so great, so big, so uncommon that it is unheard of? See, the world doesn't care about our beliefs or our "religion". We life in a culture of shock and awe right now. The world is always looking for the next big thing and I can't think of anyone or anything bigger than God. The days of old time religion are over. The days of longing for the past are over. God wants to shock and awe the world and He is going to do it through you! You are a new creation and He is going to do a new thing in the earth to get the attention of a shock and awe generation! We are in a place of transition from the familiar to the unfamiliar! Sometimes that hallway seems very long! It's scary because we don't have control. We don't know fully what is behind that next door. We don't know what to expect except for the unexpected, but we do know that God will not fail or disappoint! It's a great adventure! Let's explore the unknown together!

Let me leave you with this last scripture to chew on! Your past does not define you. Your experiences, you belief system, what others have said of you, what you have said of you...none of that defines you and me. God made me alive together with Christ. How can any human effort improve on this? The terms co-crucified and co-alive defines me now. Christ in me and I in him! Galatians 2:19-20.

Christ defines you know! He is the pattern, He is the model! A God, coming to earth to live as one of us....see, when He died on the cross, He canceled your debt and if that wasn't enough....when He rose again He broke the mold. He broke the pattern. Having defeated even death itself, (not just defeated, He broke the power of death) He gave us a brand new grid! Nothing is impossible to him who believes!! Selah!