A New Thing

“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”. –Isaiah 43:19

Words have power. The Bible even says that words have the power of life and death. For this reason, we should be careful about what we say about our lives. Not just our lives, but our community as well. In my brief time in Tyrrell County, I have heard the phrase, “This is a dying community” too many times.

It is not uncommon for people to say that “there is nothing here”. Now, part of the problem is, who are we listening to? But that’s another article for another day. The point is, people to say things like this, and those words do have power. If words have power, I chose to put my faith in the words of the Living God.

A few months ago, God gave me Isaiah 43:19 as a promise for our community. God says that He is doing a new thing! This new thing consists of two parts. One, He promises that in our community, He is making “a way in the wilderness.” Granted, I have heard what the community has, and what cannot be done in the community but I also have heard the voices of HOPE.

I have also listened to the dreamers. I have heard the passion in the ideas of the visionaries. I have been taken back by people in our community who have the audacity to use the words, “What if?” To each dream, to every idea, there are those who say it can’t be done, not here, not in Tyrrell County, no way.

God says the He is making a way in the wilderness. Some may perceive this as a wilderness where nothing happens, no one goes to, and no one leaves. God is going to make a way, a road. A place where people will want to go to, and where people will want to stay and help make it the amazing place God is making it into.

The second thing God says that He is going to do is make “streams in the wasteland.” Imagine that, in a place that others have called a wasteland, there will be “streams”. People have called this community impoverished, with little or no resources. I disagree. Our resources are plentiful if we would just tap into them. God sees this and sometime soon, streams will gush in this place that some have called a “wasteland.”

Before God tells us about this new thing He is getting ready to do, He says this to us.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” –Isaiah 43:18

If we are going to partner with God as He does this new thing, we have to let go of the ways of the past. “The way we’ve always done it” was great, for then. But that was then, this is now. And what got us there won’t get us to where we’re going. Words have power. God is doing a “new thing” in our community. Join me in joining Him by declaring this promise over our community, starting with your own life. Does God need to do a “New Thing” in you?