Perceive It

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19

So often when it comes to stepping out, I expect that God will use me in the way that He always has. He will move in the way the I have seen Him move in the past. So often I hold on the former things and God is saying “Let go. I have something new I want to do.” He wants me to perceive what He is about to do, and move in faith with where He is taking me.

So often He has to move us out of the religious mindset that keeps Him in a box. If we will not perceive what He is wanting to do, and be willing to move in faith, we will continue to go around the same mountains. The Israelites were used to being slaves, they had the mentality of a slave. They left and despite seeing God move in a mighty way in their deliverance from Egypt, when they made it to the promise land to scout it out, their mentality had not changed. They could not perceive what God wanted to do for them. They still perceived themselves as slaves, people who would again be slaves to the giants of the land. Only Caleb and Joshua perceived that God wanted to do something new, they had a God sized vision of what He could do.

Instead, they perceived themselves as grasshoppers and fled the prose God had for them. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years never perceiving what they had given up by not taking God at His word. It is easy for me to see that God kept His end of the promise and condemnt the Israelites for their foty years in the wilderness because they did not just believe and perceive what God wanted to do3.

Yet in my own life, I know that God has stayed with me for many trips around the mountain because He is waiting for me to perceive that He is wanting to do something new. He is waiting for it to spring forth, but I am standing with the full weight of my own view, holding on to the things of the past, not allowing it to come forth. I turn my own eleven day journey to the promised land into a forty year track while God tries to get me to perceive things from His viewpoint.

I realize that God speaks to everyone kind of in their own way. He knows what it takes to get our attention, and really God wants our attention. He does not want to be a fair-weather God, He wants to be our North Star, our constant. For me I know God is wanting me to turn my attention back to Him when I start getting repeat messages. When I first started pressing in to God, I thought man, why do all these preachers all focus on the same message as I flipped through the channels? I finally realized God was trying to get through to me by any means necessary. Now I look for those repeats and try to focus in in what God is speaking to me, what I need to learn in the moment.

Today I perceive that God wants to do something new. That He is asking me to step out, in ways I have not done before. This morning it started with Psalms 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

This passage was in two of my morning devotions, and one has been going through the book of Matthew so it defiantly got my attention. I know that I have a tendency to want to figure things out one my own, but it was just a gentle reminder that I need help from the Lord. He made me, and He is the own who has set the path before me. I never thought a year ago I would be where I am now, but God is faithful and He is wanting to do something new in and through me if I will just get out of His way. His peace was with me a yaer ago when He took me through deep waters, He is with me now when I am standing on the other side praising HIm for His faithfulness.

Then there was another repeat: The lyrics from Oceans by Hillsong United:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

I know He is calling from the deep. He wants to lead me out of the box that I have created for Him and me. He wants me to walk where I am trusting fully on Him and not on my own skills and abilities (Which I fully acknowledge He has given me). He wants me to step deeper into the things of the Kingdom and stop playing it safe on the shallow end. I need need to look to Him, to His presence to strengthen my faith as I step out into the next season of my journey with Him. I need to perceive that He is about to do something new, and let it spring forth from the wellspring of my soul and into the deep waters He is calling me to.

This post is part of a 28 days series on Stepping Out inspired by the #Write28Days Blogging Challenge by Anita Ojeda. Thank you for taking this journey with me!