OTHER TEACHINGS
A NEW THING
As I posted our prayer focus for the last month of the year at the beginning of the month of December 2013, the Lord prompted me to pray for the ability to be still and to wait on Him, little did I know at the time that He wanted me to be still and wait, and not to write anything for the entire month of December, until the time of waiting was over.
As I prepared to write again this last day of the year so
that I can publish new things for the month of January 2014, the Scripture that the Lord gave to me, showed me that this new year the Lord will be doing something new and that we are to prepare ourselves for this new thing.
I am not sure yet what kind of change this new year is going to bring, but for some reason I feel that this new year will be called a year of wonders. As always the Lord deals with us both in the personal level as well as in the corporal level, and is too early yet to know whether this year of wonders has only a personal application or whether it will be a year of wonders for the church as a whole.
So, this lesson will deal with how to be prepared for the new thing that the Lord will be doing this new year of 2014.
Isaiah 43:1 “...Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.”
A new thing means change and change into something that is new always strikes a cord of fear within us, for we naturally fear that which we do not know.
But to overcome the fear which naturally flows out of uncertainty, we need to understand that it is the Lord who is the One that is bringing in the change, and since we belong to Him, for He has redeemed us, that should remove the uncertainty of what this new thing will bring to us, for whatever it is we know that it is part of His plan for our lives.
Notice how the Lord makes it very personal, for He tells us that He has called us by our name, it cannot get any more personal than that, and then He adds that we belong to Him.
We need to keep this reality fresh in our minds throughout the year no matter what happens, and by doing so we will not give into the temptation to fear, for the spirit of fear always works against our faith.
Isaiah 43:21 “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”
And no matter what happens we will be able to praise Him, for according to His promises, we know that all things always work together for the good of those who love Him and who know that they are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
It is within our nature to wonder what this new thing might be, but we can only speculate as we read between the lines of Scripture.
Isaiah 43:18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.”
But whatever it is, we know that it will be radical, for it will eclipse the former order of things, and it will cause us not to even consider the things of old as an alternative way of thinking, so we know that whatever it is it will change life as we know it.
Habakkuk 1:5 “Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you.”
So what could happen, that it will be so radical, that it would change the long standing traditions of human thinking? What kind of event could change the very foundations and understandings of human knowledge?
Isaiah 29:14 “Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
The above Scripture gives as a tremendous insight into what that life altering event might be and information about some of its workings.
The first thing that we notice is that the work that the Lord is going to do that is going to change life as we know it, He has already done in the past, for He says that He will again do a marvelous work among this people, and then He adds: A marvelous work and a wonder.
So that if we ask this question: What kind of work did the Lord do in the past that radically changed the lives of all the earth’s inhabitants?
The flood of Noah’s day stands out all by itself, for it affected every human and radically changed the very nature of earth’s nature itself.
Matthew 24:37 “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
So that we have not only a precedent, but we also have an event that we can associate with the new thing that the Lord will be doing, for whatever it is that the Lord will be doing, it will be a sign that precedes His return to the earth.
Matthew 24:29-30 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
Jesus gives us insight as to what the things that will radically change the human paradigm of the cosmos entails.
There are three heavens mentioned in the history of the creation: first there is the heaven above, also known as the third heaven and Paradise, the seat of God’s rule over the universe. Then there is the second heaven, also known as the waters, below and the underworld, where all the fallen angels reside. Then there is the first heaven, also called the firmament, which has at its center planet earth, the habitation of the human race.
If we read carefully what Jesus said, the stars will fall from heaven, singular, is because Revelation tells us that the stars represent angels, Revelation 1:20 “...The seven stars are the angels…” In Matthew’s case they represent the fallen angels which are thrown out of the second heaven to the earth. Then Jesus adds that the powers of the heavens, plural, will be shaken, which now includes the visible heaven that encompasses the earth, which is also called the firmament and heaven.
And that is where the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, singular, when The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and it is what causes all of the tribes of the earth to mourn as they see Jesus coming to the earth riding on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
How will the human race respond to the infusion of wicked non-human creatures upon our earthly plane?
If that is not a new thing, then I do not know what is.
What was that you said? You do not believe that something like that will ever happen here on the earth?
Revelation 9:1-6 “Then the fifth angel sounded: and I saw a star (angel) fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit (the under world). And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.”
I do believe that the rapture would have already taken place by the time that the bottomless pit is opened, but the sign of the Son of Man is something that we will witness from our earthly perch before the rapture takes place, so that we need to ask ourselves, can our faith stand the revelation of such awesome and fearful wonders?
Matthew 24:31 “And He will send His angels (after the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven) with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Keep looking up!