Every year I ask the Lord for a verse for the year, one that He would like to speak to me through.  So the Lord gave me Isaiah 43:18-19 two years in a row!

‘Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
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.

The first year I was delighted, but didn’t get it.  When it came the second year, I was annoyed and then I finally understood.  The first year I lived with my circumstances, trusting God for the “new” thing that was coming: the end of pain, the end of sadness, the end of stuck-ed-ness, an abundance in my wilderness.  A new life of purpose, and happiness and joy.

Been there?  Waiting for the new?

But in the second year,  I eventually asked: Why does the Lord ask me if I perceive it?

It is a rhetorical question the commentary said.  Rhetorical questions are used to question an audience’s beliefs, confront opposing views, or expose flaws in an argument without expecting a literal reply.

I am doing a new thing, do you perceive it?

Honestly not in that first year.  But in the second year, with some help from commentaries, I understood.

  1. First, I was to look past the physical realities of my life, and activate my spiritual eyes, or spiritual insight.  Even thought the Israelites were captive in Babylon, the seeds for their liberation were already planted.  What God was asking me, was do I have faith/ spiritual insight to see in my circumstances that the shift has already begun?  Was I able to see spiritually that God was working, answering prayer even though it could not be seen in my physical realm.  It will require a spiritual discernment from me, to activate my faith and not my sight. (2 Cor 5:7; Hebrews 11:1).
  2. Then I was to overcome nostalgia and blindness in the present.  He says to “forget the former things.”  For the people in Babylon it was natural to look back at previous miracles, previous liberations from oppression, like the story in Exodus.  The tendency is to expect the same to happen, to look for repeated patterns.  But it results in a blindness to what God is doing in the present when we expect the same as before.  We become blind to how God is moving in our present life, a new unexpected work of God. (2 Cor 5:17) God wanted me to look for the new way God was working in my life and not to live on old experiences, old revelations, old testimony.
  3. God makes an emphatic declaration of certainty – the new thing will be so obvious that we will not be possible to not see it, it will force its way into our perception.  God is asking me to anticipate the reality so confidently that I begin to experience it ahead of time, in other words: having an assurance of what we don’t’ see. (Hebrews 11:1)  Our behavior needs to change, our emotions change and we deal with our doubts proactively so that God doing a new thing becomes a certainty in my heart and mind.
  4. The ultimate new thing that God does is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to perceive it is to experience it.  The Babylonians were looking forward to it, we have the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit brings with Him refreshment, the live-giving presence of the Holy Spirit inside a previously barren soul, a wasteland. I have the Holy Spirit God said to me, do I perceive Him?Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ (John 7:38) 

    For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; “he will lead them to springs of living water.” “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”’(Revelation7:17)

  5.  In the context of chapter 43, the Israelites were wearied and grieved God with their spiritual lethargy (their blindness and their stubbornness).  This was a call to break them out of that spiritual lethargy. They had become insensitive to the Holy Spirit by their fear, their loss, their trauma and were missing the subtle movements of God.  (Ephesians 4:30, Isaiah 63:10)  I was indifferent to what the Holy Spirit was doing and saying in my life and this grieved God.  I had to repent.  I needed to allow the Holy Spirit to renew my mind (Rom 12:2), shift my affections from myself, my idols and back to Jesus.  Stop relying on my own strength, but call on the Holy Spirit and make my heart sensitive to God’s Devine timing in everything.
  6. I was to walk in step with the Holy Spirit, to yield to His control and direction as I moved through the wilderness.  With this reliance on Him I would find a way through my wilderness and experience His refreshment in the wasteland.  The Spirit has already cleared a way in the wilderness, He has already made provision in the wasteland, it is time to walk in step with Him.

This verse holds a promise of a new thing, but you and I already have the new thing.  The Holy Spirit was given to us by Jesus:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)

It is not a new thing I was waiting for in the first year, it is a new life in step with the Holy Spirit as I discovered.

Lord thank you for the Word that guides us with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Lord Jesus thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to live in me and guide me and teach me the path that I should walk.  Thank you for the streams of living water I am experiencing as I walk in step with the Holy Spirit, listen to his guidance and care.  Please forgive me my spiritual lethargy, my stubbornness, my hard heart.  Guide me in your ways into the abundance You have for me.