NEWNESS IN FAITH : 2023
At the beginning of a new year it is customary for us to think of this as a time of new beginnings, a time for new resolutions. But the truth is that with God anytime is a time for a new beginning.
John 10:10 “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Our God has come to give life and hope. We need to believe in this new beginning .
In the year 2021, we felt God saying Do not fear, assured of God’s Protection, Establishing God’s community, and was asking us to change our mindset. It was just the time when the world was just coming out of Covid.
In the year 2022 God gave us this word. That he will rebuild, restore and renew. We saw God rebuilding and giving us a structure to operate . God restoring things back like FC and we saw renewal in all our ministries were each ministries went for a camp and not to forget , the growth and blessings/ breakthroughs each family (Rebuild, Renew & Restore) received in this year.
Till date whatever promise we received as church, everything was fulfilled. That is the excitement and passion to bring the word for us for the year 2023.
And while waiting on God for the year 2023, we felt the word NEW. Are you Looking for new things to happen this year? which God wants us to see. God is going to do new things (Things not like the past, but something new, extraordinary , supernatural) but for that we need to have the eyes of faith.
Below is the verse which is God’s promise for us in the year 2023 for Our Families, Our Church, Our City and as individual.
So Before we read those verses. Let us look at the context . It will understand little bit of background.
Because the people of Jerusalem sinned, God allowed Babylonia to destroy their city and to take them into exile as slaves. It is now five decades later (50 Years), near the end of the exile. Most of the exiled people have been born in captivity in Babylonia. During this period, they have done a good deal of soul-searching. During these decades, the exiles have experienced a crisis of faith. Is God not powerful? Has God abandoned them?
Chapters 40-55, the portion of the book of Isaiah that deals with the end of the Babylonian exile. It begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
The fulfilment of this promise came through Cyrus II of Persia, “the one from the east” (41:2), who defeated Babylonia in 539 B.C. Not only will Cyrus allow the exiles to return to their homeland, but he will also provide financial assistance to allow them to rebuild (Ezra 1:2-4).
Let us read the verse and we will see what God has kept for Our Families, Our Church, Our City in 2023.
Isaiah 43: 18-19
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 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.
Trust God in Faith for Victories in 2023:
In verse 18a God is saying “Forget the former things;
In Isaiah 43:16-17
16 This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
17 who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
Having just alluded so vividly to the Exodus (vv. 16-17), it seems odd that the Lord would now say, “Don’t remember the former things.” It seems contradictory to recount former things in one breath and then, in the next breath, to ask people not to remember them. However, it would appear that the prophet is calling the people to put their past behind them and to focus their attention on the present and the future.
I always say to people, always remember your past . don’t forget it but Although there is a time and place to recollect past events, we don’t stay there. Don’t expect past victories to help us now.
In Judges 6:13
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Gideon asks this question to the angel of the Lord.
The past is a great place to learn from but it’s a terrible place to live in (We used to tell our parents, when we they used to share their stories that things have changed) . Some of us hang on to our baggage (unresolved issues, failures and negativity) for too long. Learn from them and let them go! If we live in the past, we will never embrace the future God has in store for us.
So put the past victories behind and focus your attention on the present and the future.
So God wants us to change our attitude, and trust him in faith not to rely on vast victories / breakthroughs but have faith this year that those victories or more than that we will experience this year as well. Amen
Leave Behind your past failures in 2023:
In verse 18a God is saying, do not dwell on the past.
Many times, our past failures can rule over us, it can define us, it can condemn us. It may Say you are a failure but God is saying this to you in 2023 “You are in Christ, a new creation in 2023”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, He gives us the answer, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
So Leave behind your past failures in faith in 2023
So how are we going to not to rely on past victories and leave our failures behind in 2023.
God is going to do NEW things in 2023:
In verse 19a God is saying , See, I am doing a new thing!
In Hebrew the word for “new thing” is chadash. It refers to something that has never happened before or something that has not existed before.
I think one of the greatest lies we can believe is, “It’s too late!” At some point in our lives, we all feel like we’ve missed our chance or messed up an important opportunity. We can even be tempted to believe that we’ve disqualified ourselves from having a great future—that our best days are behind us.
If this is you—if you feel like you’ve missed your chance or like your opportunity to have a great life has passed you by—I want you to know something today: With God on your side, it’s never too late.
While God Himself never changes, He is a God of change—He is always doing a new thing and working behind the scenes in our lives to bring about new beginnings. Where we see failure, God sees potential for something new. The minute we stumble and come apart, God is already planning our comeback.
So God’s promise of NEW thing for our Families, Church , City & Community.
Something which never happened before, It would put it forward that this Year would a year of supernatural. God will work very differently.
God is making a way where there is no way in 2023
Verse 19b I am making a way in the wilderness. In 2023, when we will be in a place or situation like wilderness, God will make a way for us. That is his promise.
God is making streams in the wasteland in 2023
We all face dry seasons. Seasons where we feel everything around us is hard and lifeless. Everything may look dry but God promises in 2023 that he will bring Streams where there is dry and parched in our life. He is going to give life to it.
The Way God wants us to respond for the NEW thing in 2023:
Allow God to work in Us: New heart, and a New spirit
Ezekiel 36:26
6 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
It will be a time for pruning and shaping. Allow God to work don’t harden your hearts. He is offering a new heart and new spirit in 2023.
Develop a Relationship with God: Receive New Mercies:
Lamentations 3:22-23
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
His mercies are new every morning. And God wants us this year to develop a relationship with him. He wants us to come to him everyday, spend quality time with him. Receive his Love, his mercies , he is a faithful God.
New Life: Walk in Newness
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
We walk in the newness of life in Christ, we are no longer weighed down by guilt of sin or burdens of this world. God is offering a New life this year. We need to walk , move on like a new creation.
Cross:
The verse we looked at was fulfilled in the life of Israelites,
The fulfilment of this promise came through Cyrus II of Persia, “the one from the east” (41:2), who defeated Babylonia in 539 B.C. Not only will Cyrus allow the exiles to return to their homeland, but he will also provide financial assistance to allow them to rebuild (Ezra 1:2-4).
Can you beat that , someone whom you don’t know releases you from slavery and makes you return to the place where you belong to . Not only that he gives financial assistance.
Similarly when we look at the Cross, we know Christ paid it all and he brought a new life for us. A life full of hope.
When the word NEW came for us this year, also the word Faith came across
Isaiah 43:19a
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
It’s like God is saying , I am doing a new thing. Don’t you realize it?
One thing which stops us to know / see the new things is Our lack of faith. And this Year God wants us to overcome that in our life, family, church, community etc. To see NEW things we need to have Faith this year 2023.
We are so much engrossed with our setbacks, we fail to see the new things which God is making.
God has a fresh start for us in 2023. Let’s anticipate Him doing something great. When we do, He promises to remove all obstacles of coming to Him. Whatever may be holding us back – wrong thinking, past mistakes, failed relationships – Jesus Christ has already died for them. We are no longer under their control. Jesus is our way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. He will transform our desert into fields of blessings and our wasteland into gardens of abundance!
Let us therefore join God’s great and new things in 2023 while we put Christ first in our time, our finances, and our relationships. Our primary resolution this year is to Believe God for something new in Faith!
Virjil Selvan is Pastoring the Renewed Hope Community. The Renewed Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that Renewed Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Karanjade, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel, Church in Karanjade because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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