Today’s Readings:
Psalm 107
Psalm 50
Isaiah 60
15 Honor me by trusting in me in your day of trouble.
Psalm 50:15
Cry aloud to me, and I will be there to rescue you.
The Lord says,
Trusting and obeying is the way to the new. Trusting and obeying as you walk with Me will bring you out from this former season, out beyond the transition into the new. The new may look barren and desolate to your naked eyes, but there is an abundance of delight and beauty just beneath the surface.
Now the Lord said to Abram,
Genesis 12:1-4
“Go from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you into a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
4 So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
You must come to the place while it looks barren. You can’t linger in the transition until you see it blossom here and then come into the new place. No. The way to get here and the timing of getting here dictates that you must come when it looks barren. The fruitfulness and abundance will follow. Faith looks like stepping into the unknown like Abram did when he went to a place that he didn’t know. He didn’t know where he was going. He just knew he was following the voice and leading of the Lord, and he leaving the place that he was. This is a picture of where we are.
35 But he also can turn a barren wilderness into an oasis with water!
Psalm 107:35-38
He can make springs flow into desert lands
36 and turn them into fertile valleys so that cities spring up,
and he gives it all to those who are hungry.
37 They can plant their fields and vineyards there
and reap a bumper crop and gather a fruitful harvest.
38 God will bless them and cause them to multiply and prosper.
It’s time to pack up and leave this place. It’s time to move out into the wide open spacious place that I have prepared for you. I have planted an abundance of great things for you there. Though you cannot perceive them yet, trust My voice; trust My word; trust My leading.
“Rise up in splendor and be radiant, for your light has dawned,
Isaiah 60:1-3
and Yahweh’s glory now streams from you!
2 Look carefully! Darkness blankets the earth,
and thick gloom covers the nations,
but Yahweh arises upon you
and the brightness of his glory appears over you!
3 Nations will be attracted to your radiant light
and kings to the sunrise-glory of your new day.
It will seem crazy to move from this place of certainty and clear expectations to a place of vast openness and indiscernible future with the appearance of a great barren wilderness. But this is the place I have prepared for you. I have prepared it this way for several reasons. One is to test your faith, your ability and your willingness to hear and follow My voice though the new place is uncertain. The second is so you look to others and to yourself as a bit of a fool for a moment — except that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you heard Me. People will say, where are you going? There’s nothing there! And you will say, yes but this is where the Lord is leading Me, therefore that is where I must go. And the third is for great surprise. I Am doing this to bring great surprises and delights into your life that you couldn’t have imagined or hoped for. The surprises are also there because you may have sabotaged them if you knew they were there waiting for you, beneath the surface.
23 The life that pleases me is a life lived in the gratitude of grace,
Psalm 50:23
always choosing to walk with me in what is right.
This is the sacrifice I desire from you.
If you do this, more of my salvation will unfold for you.”
This is where we are going — to a place that looks desolate and barren, to a place where nothing is certain and no purposes are clearly defined yet. But once you move there and settle there and agree to be there come what may, I will cause this desert to bloom into a place of great wild abundance, a place of extreme delight and fruitfulness. And life will never be the same. So step forward in faith. Walk with Me into the unknown. Trust that I have beautiful treasures hidden there for you. Obey My voice. This new place and this new season will be filled with many unexpected delights. Let’s go.
How to Respond
- Spend time with the Lord.
- Ask for His direction and guidance for leaving the former season behind and walking bravely into the new.
- If you have already heard from the Lord about where you are to go or what you are to do, ask for confirmation.
- Test your faith. Step out in the direction He is calling you to go.
- Recount the faithfulness of the Lord often. It will bolster your faith to do what He calls you to next.
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