Transitions

After what seems like an eternity, I am finally sitting down to write again. Not that there has been any lack of material to write about. It's just that sometimes life necessitates that we focus more of our attention on living it than writing about it. Such has been this season for me.

So much of what I see happening around me right now involves transition. It seems that since the last few months of 2009 until now, not a week goes by without someone I know engaging in a change of some kind - new jobs, new homes, new cities, new engagements, new pregnancies. It is no coincidence that the word all of these things have in common is the word "new."

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Isaiah 43:19 

This verse says two things to me:

1. God is fully engaged in an ongoing creative and restorative work in our lives.
2. If we aren't paying attention, we might miss it.

It is so easy to get so intertwined in the stuff of life that we lose sight of who He is, who we are, and why are here.

He is the God of the Universe, the Creator of all that is, the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. We are His children, growing up to be His friends, and maturing to become His Bride. We are here simply to know Him and to make Him known to all nations. Oh, and by the way - all nations starts right outside our own front door.

It's the "Do you not perceive it?" part of this verse that grips my heart and causes my gaze to be lifted from the things I clutter my life with to look up into His eyes. It is like He is saying, "Hello? Did you hear anything I just said? Weren't you even paying attention?"

There is a re-positioning happening all around us. God is maneuvering His people into the places and positions we must be in for this next chapter in human history. There is movement in the heavenlies, just as there is movement in the earth. The very foundations of the earth are literally shifting and shaking, causing great destruction on the surface. Minor and major earthquakes are in the news almost daily.

We would be foolish to not recognize this as a physical manifestation of what is also happening in the spirit realm.There is restructuring and movement in the deep spiritual places that will cause great disturbances on the surface of life as we have known it. There are surface issues that need to be shaken apart and broken loose so that true deliverance, restoration and freedom can come.

The questions we must ask ourselves are these:

• Do we perceive it? Are we paying close enough attention to recognize what God is doing?
• Are going to resist the change, go along grudgingly, or fully embrace the new thing He is doing?

"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 desert
       and streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:18-19