Out With the Old, In With the New

Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”

Exodus 6:1-9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”  2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them. 4 I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. 6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you into the land which I swore[g] to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’ ” 9 So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

The opportunity of a lifetime must  be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity. 

When God gives you a promise, He has a plan.

There could be a possible:

1. Physical destination  

2. Psychological (mind), 

3. Emotional (feelings) 

4. Spiritual destination

God know you well. He created you, and He knows how to get you where you need to be.

When you’re moving from old to new, you will be challenged in each of the above areas. 

The enemy will sense the shift and will attempt to derail you in the process. 

1. He wants to keep you in the place God is trying to move you from and keep you from the place that God is trying to bring you to.

2. The enemy will mess with your mind

3. There will be emotional attacks 

4. There will be spiritual battles

Exodus 16:1-5 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

The temptation is to remember the good spots of the past and want to return to the familiar and comfortable. 

God was taking the Israelites to a new land, a land of promise and as soon as it got hard they wanted to go back to what was familiar. 

If there is no test, there will be no testimony 

Unless you go through things that challenges your current place you most likely will not be aware of or motivated toward something new 

(Passing through a funnel)

If you choose to take a new path you may not necessarily  garner the solid support those around you.  Be careful that your process does not become derailed by trying to fulfill the expectations of those around you. 

During change and transition you will face the unfamiliar and it will expose strengths and weaknesses that you may not know you had. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” —

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

We live by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7

Right in the middle of doing what God has directed you to do what you had planned in your mind totally explodes and God shows you what He actually had in mind.  

They wandered in the wilderness in part because the congregation of Israel did not enter in to the promise. They were content to “just follow the leader”.  They saw the “wonder” of the promise but did not anticipate that the path to the promise was a season/tool designed to help them to become all that God had destined them to become. 

Do you want to be a big part of something small, or a small part of something big?