Something New Is Coming

I'm going to be sharing what I consider to be tonight a prophetic message, and I want to define that for you. When I say prophetic, I'm saying that something I feel strongly in my heart that the Lord has spoken to me, not just in the last week, but perhaps over a period of even years, something He's spoken to my heart about this day that we're now living in, about things that He's going to do in the future. It is something that has happened periodically in my life and ministry, and is happening to me again. I feel that the Lord is going to do something new. Something new is coming, and I want to define that tonight about what that looks like, to have something new coming our way. I also want to take a moment to thank Yale University for opening your doors to prayer, and for realizing that there are some needs that are so deep in the lives of young people that they can't be met just by education and opportunity, as much as I know that as a university you offer that in a wonderful and spectacular way to this young generation. But there is still inherently in every person a need to connect with God, and there are needs in every human heart that education can't meet, but God can meet. And I'm very, very thankful tonight. If there's anybody from Yale listening tonight, I'm very, very thankful that you care enough about the mental conditions and the spiritual life of your young people to allow prayer to come into the borders of your university. Congratulations to you, and I'm hoping the step that you have taken is going to set a trend for other colleges across the country. This generation needs to know God. This generation wants to know God. And I thank God that you're not afraid of that, and you've opened your gates, and you're going to allow prayer inside of those gates. And I do believe that because of it, God will bless you. In particular, President Salovey, thank you for opening your gates to allow Christian people from various church backgrounds and denominations to come in, who simply believe that God is and God rewards those who diligently seek Him, and come again. And we're going to be praying for issues that affect young people within your walls, issues such as fear of the future and such things like that. We're going to pray. We're going to pray that God meet them, God answer them, and I believe that you'll have a happier environment in the future as these needs are met in people's lives. So congratulations to you, and thank you so much for opening your doors. We look forward to seeing you in your campus again next week. Father, thank you, God, for your word tonight. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for opening the Scriptures. Thank you, God, for opening our hearts. Thank you, Lord. Your word tells us that you never do something without revealing it first to your servants who are seeking you. God, thank you, Lord, that you're about to do something. We heard it tonight in the pulpit, in the last days you'll pour out your Spirit on all flesh. In the last days, there'll be a people who believe that the walls of Jericho have to come down one more time. There'll be a last days people believing for a harvest that can only be attributed to the presence and the mercy of God. Lord, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the ability to seek you, for giving us the ability to share your word and to hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to the church at this time. We praise you, and we bless you in Jesus' name. Isaiah chapter 43, a very, very familiar passage of Scripture, dealing in great measure with the people of Israel, the nation of Israel, but also talking about the patterns of God. What does God do from time to time in a society? How does He send something new to another generation? Beginning at verse 16, Isaiah chapter 43, thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power, they shall lie down together, they shall not rise. They're extinguished. They're quenched like a wick. God says to the people of Israel, you remember the time that I was bringing you out of the wilderness captivity, 400 years of bondage. You remember how powerful your enemies were that were pursuing you and threatening to overtake you again. But just as somebody going to bed at night just reaches out and puts his fingers like this and snuffs out the wick of a candle, God says, that's what it took for my power to extinguish this army that was trying to pursue you and bring you back again into captivity. And so the people of Israel, as many of us here tonight, they had an amazing history. There's so many testimonies in this room tonight that I think we could probably share one and then sing that song again that Isaac just sang and share another one and sing that song and share another one and sing that song all over again. I think we'd be here until tomorrow morning. And the longer we go, the more we'd shout and the more we'd stomp and the more we'd clap. And it's wonderful what God did in the past. And I never negate that. I thank God for what he did in the past. But you see, I don't live there anymore. I live in the present. I live in the year 2023 in the month of April, and there are battles I've got to fight now. There are things I've got to go through. There are things that God wants to do in and through each one of our lives. And that's why in verse 18 he says, you remember your history and you remember my power, but do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. In other words, don't stay stuck in the past. That's what he was telling his people. It's wonderful. Don't forget your history, but don't stay stuck there. Behold, I will do a new thing and now it shall spring forth. And shall ye not know it? In other words, I'm about to do something new. And will you become familiar with it? Will you perceive it? Will you experience it? God says, I'm going to do something and I want you to be part of what I'm going to do. Will you know it? I'll even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people I have formed for myself and they shall declare my praise. God says, I'm going to do a new thing. Now, I want to define that. When God does something new, it most often is something he's done before and he just decides to do it again. That's the newness of what God's about to do. It's not something he hasn't thought of before. It's not something necessarily we haven't seen in the Scriptures. It has been done before and God says, I'm about to do it again. I want to give you an example of this in the book of Acts chapter 4, verses 27 to 31. For truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servant that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now, the disciples in Acts chapter 4, even though they had this incredible experience in Acts chapter 2 where they were together in a prayer meeting, the presence of God's Holy Spirit invaded that room. Every one of them were given supernatural abilities to proclaim the mysteries of God, the promises of God, the things that God was about to do in languages they had never learned, languages that were understandable by people from all the nations that were there at that time, but they themselves had never learned those languages. And what an incredible day that was when they saw three thousand people bend their knee to God, and every one of them having been in an upper room like cowering down as it is from the moment they were now living in. They're living in a bloodthirsty society that had just killed their Savior. The culture of that time was in no mood for Jesus Christ nor his followers. And they were in a prayer meeting, oh God, I don't know what they're praying, but if you were there, I know what you'd be praying, oh God, oh God, I'm toast if you don't come and step out of this. The crowd is in no mood for us. They've just crucified Christ and there's this bloodlust still in the culture. They don't want his people abounding. They don't want the message of his redemption. But they stepped out and with this empowerment of God were able to do things that cannot be done with any amount of human ingenuity or strength. And thousands bent their knee to Christ. Now we're just in Acts chapter 4. It's just a short time forward, and there's a new opposition has arose. Peter and John have seen God's hand reach out and heal a man who was lame at the door of the temple. They're called in. They're threatened to be beaten. They're threatened to be imprisoned, everything else that goes with it. And they go back to another prayer meeting, and they realized even though they had just experienced this Pentecostal outpouring that yesterday's touch is still available for today's challenges. If they knew it then, how much should we know it now? How did we get so smart that we don't need the power of the Holy Spirit anymore in the church that we think it was just an argument we're going to win the day, when they knew they couldn't win the day without a fresh empowerment of God for the challenges they were facing on those days? Now there'll always be some who resist the thought that God is willing to do a new thing in our time. In the book of Luke chapter 5, beginning at verse 36, Jesus spoke a parable to them. He said, no one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one, otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. No one puts a new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved, and no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says the old is better. And you always find that when God wants to do something new, that there'll always be a people who don't mind something new as long as it fits into an old system, an old way of thinking, and old experiences. It has to look like it did 30 years ago, or it can't be God. They found their comfort, they found their identity in an old system, and suddenly God comes and says, I want to do something new. It's not new, it's old, but I want to do the old thing new again. And there's always this resistance. Whenever there's been a revival, just study revivals throughout history, whenever there's been a revival, it's not the sinner that resists it, it's the religion of the day that resists it. Isn't that odd? It's a religion that has found its comfort, it's found its identity in its repetitive powerlessness, may I call it that. It's found its identity in coming in and singing the same old hymns, and standing up at the same time, sitting down at the same time, listening to Pastor Drone give his message, doesn't really challenge anybody's heart, they don't want to get too emotional, and out the door they go, and then suddenly somebody says, hey, I've been praying, and God's saying that he's going to visit us with his Holy Spirit, and suddenly there's a resistance, comes from those who should know. Isaiah, the prophet said in Isaiah chapter 53, he said, Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? In other words, God, you've told me you're going to do something, you've shown me you're going to do something new, but who believes it? Who's going to find the strength that you're willing to give the people? In other words, who will see the strength that's being shown through the arm of God? For he will grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. We despised him and did not esteem him. Who has believed our report? Isaiah had been in the presence of God. He understood something about God's redemption. He was given this panoramic view as it is of all the work that God was intending to do in the earth up to, if you read it, and including the new heaven and the new earth. And yet when he came down with the report of where he had been and what he had seen, think about Isaiah chapter 6 where he's at the actual altar of God and sees the holiness of God and starts to hear the voice of God and is sent down to the people with a message from heaven about something that God has determined to do. But because it doesn't fit the perspective of what God's presence should look like, maybe Isaiah describes it this way, there's nothing about this incredible plan of God that is desirable to a religious people. It's amazing. And Isaiah comes back incredulously and says, God, who has believed our report? I've been preaching this. I've been telling them that you're coming. You're going to do a new thing. They had their system of religion in that day. They had their sacrifices. They had their incantations, their chants, their cleansings, their rituals, all of those things, the high and holy feasts, all of it. But suddenly, God decides to do a new thing. He decides to bring redemption in a way that they were not familiar with, and the people despise it because it doesn't look like what they think God visiting them should look like. And they, as Jesus said about the wineskins, they taste, they have at least an opportunity to taste this newness of God, but they say, no, the old is better. I like the old better. I don't want the new way that God is choosing to do things. I like the old better. I remember personally, in a prophetic sense, we were sent years ago into Jamaica, into inner city Kingston, where there had been a hundred thousand people unemployed in this inner city part of Kingston, Jamaica, and the whole area was controlled by six drug gangs, and there was zero employment in the area. It was laced with violence, and the best that the government could do is plow down a 30-acre rectangular field, and they called it no man's land. And the rule was created that no man is allowed to cross that land to the other side because the other side was controlled by another gang, and if you attempted to cross that field, you were shot by somebody from the other side. Extreme violence in this area. By the time we got there 30 years later, there were over 800 recorded murders on that particular field, and they told us there were a lot more murders than that, but 800 of them had been recorded. The Lord had put something in our hearts in going there. It was a leading of the Holy Spirit. I remember we gathered pastors from a Kingston area and other areas throughout Jamaica, and I had a meeting with the pastors and told them there's going to be a spiritual awakening here. God had spoken it to my heart. There's going to be a spiritual awakening here. Thousands of people are going to come to Christ. The spirit of violence in this area is going to be broken. I foresaw, God had spoken to me, I foresaw brand new condominiums built on the right side, on the right side of that field as you faced it from the platform, and spoke it to them and told them. And I said, there's going to be a lot of converts that are going to have to be discipled here, and you're going to have to be prepared to receive them and to disciple them and to teach them. And I remember the numbers of pastors that got up in that first meeting and just simply walked out. They walked out. They said, this guy is a looney tune. You know, we've been here longer than you have, buddy, and nobody goes into that area. It's so violent that you have to be crazy to go into that area. But you see, they spent a lot of time prophesying, but when the Word of God actually came, they couldn't receive it. They resisted it. They walked away. And God came, and God did a miracle, and the spirit of violence was broken, and it came supernaturally, and there were 14,000 people on that field the last night. Over 2,000 gave their lives to Jesus Christ, and it was an absolute miracle, an absolute miracle that was done there. But so many people walked out because God was doing something new, and He was going to do it in a way in which they were not familiar with. And it was sad to see it, and especially after when the television cameras came in, and they called it the Trenchtown Miracle because they didn't think this was even a salvageable area. But God visited the area. Unemployment turned to employment, and on that killing field, there's now a church and a playground and brand-new condominiums built on the right side of the brand-new, stem to stern on the right side, brand-new houses that the Holy Spirit had spoken to my heart about that He was going to do. And it was so sad to see. I saw an interview somebody sent me of one of the pastors who actually walked out of the meeting after the victory, and the cameras came in. He stood up and said, we've been praying, and we were with this, and we were, you know, it was hard to watch that. But I don't care who takes the glory as long as Christ's heart is satisfied, as long as God does what He's going to do. I remember going into Nigeria where there was a civil war, and we brought the pastors together, and God had given us a very unusual instruction. Usually services in that part of the world, they go on forever. And everybody that gets up, whether they're even telling the people to move their chairs back, gives a half-hour sermon. Everybody who touches the microphone just goes on forever. And the Lord spoke to our hearts and said, in this particular outreach, which was an attempt to stop a civil war between really radical Islam and nominal Christianity, a lot of people had died in the civil war. 6,000 was the count that we were given had died in this particular war, and this was the first public gathering after quite a long season of being in curfew. And the Lord spoke to us and gave us a pattern and said, nobody is to touch the microphone. Nobody, including myself. Nobody. No announcements, no offering, no speeches, no nothing. We're going to worship for 45 minutes. For the next 45 minutes, the word of God is going to be spoken. An opportunity to receive Christ is going to be given, and then we'll invite the people back for the next night. Same thing happened. The pastors unfortunately boycotted the meetings. Half a million people showed up, but I think there was maybe one or two or three pastors on the platform. They literally boycotted it because God was not going to do things the way they had become familiar with doing them. And yet, a civil war was brought to an end. The governor of Plateau State, Nigeria, came to Christ because of the presence of God that came down in these meetings. And an absolute miracle happened that still brought a peace that still exists, as far as I understand, even to this day. Isaiah chapter 43 says it this way, and this was our opening Scripture, and we're going to go back and finish with our opening Scripture. Don't think about the former things or consider the things of old. Don't be restricted or bound by the way that God has done things in the past. I will do a new thing, and now it shall spring forth, and shall you not know it? I'll make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. I'm speaking prophetically tonight to people who are online, and you live in a wilderness. You don't see a way out. You don't see a way forward. Your life is dry. There's no moisture of life in you at all. There's very little, if any, sense of God in your heart. And God says, for you, I'm going to make a road to find your way to me. I'm going to make a river for you to find drink along the way. The beasts of the field will honor me, and jackals and ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. God says, I'm going to so bless you on your journey of coming back to me that things around you are going to be blessed because of it. I'm going to show you favor. I'm going to do a new thing. It's not that I haven't done it before, but I'm going to do it again in this generation. I'm calling you out of the wilderness. I'm calling you. I'm calling you who are addicted. I'm calling you who are afflicted. I'm calling you who are suicidal. You who don't see a way forward. You who don't think that your life is ever going to amount to anything. You who don't see a reason to live. You who are discouraged, despairing, depressed, captivated in your mind, captivated in your body. God says, I'm calling you because you are the new thing that I'm going to do. I'm going to draw you out of the wilderness. I'm going to make a straight path for you to come to me and find me in the fullness of power and life that I have for you. And I'm going to give you living water to drink along the way. And I'm going to bless you to the point where it's going to fall upon your children. Even, even your dog is going to be blessed in your house because you're going to be more kind to the animals around you. I'm going to so bless you that everything you touch and everywhere you go, the blessing of God is going to follow you because I'm about to do a new thing. So I want you to forget about what's in the past. I want you to stop living in the past. I want you to stop grieving over the past, whatever that past is. I want you to stop thinking about how happy you were when you were a child because I'm going to make you happy again. I'm going to bring you out and you're going to have a joy that's deeper than anything you've ever known in your lifetime. I'm doing this out of my kindness. It's not earned. It's not deserved by any person, anywhere, any life, but I'm doing it for one reason. He says, I have formed you for myself and you will declare my praise. I formed you God says in the womb of your mother. I don't know how you were conceived, but it was no accident. I allowed you to be born. I created you in my image and I'm going to draw you back to myself. I have formed you for myself and your mouth is going to utter praise to me for what I've done for you. Behold, God says, I do a new thing. I do a new thing. And shall you know it? Isaiah says, will you know it? Will you perceive it? Will you become familiar with it? Will it just be for somebody else in some other time, in some other place? Or will you get up and start moving towards the voice of God? Will you start moving towards your creator? Moving toward the one who died on the cross for you and paid the price for your sin so you can be forgiven? Jesus Christ said, I came to give you life and I came to give it to you more abundantly. I came to forgive you of your sin. I came to bring you back into a living relationship with God and give you a full reason to live life while you're on the earth. I'm going to carry you in your struggles. I'm going to comfort you in your sorrow. I'm going to give you giftings that you don't know and you could never have in your own strength. I'm going to do for you what I've done of old and I'm going to do it all over again. We're living in a marvelous day. There's going to be a harvest, folks, that's going to stagger us in this day. This end time harvest before Christ comes. This end time outpouring of the mercy of God. This wonderful outpouring of the spirit of God in the last days on your sons and daughters and you're young and you're old and you're rich and you're poor and you're educated, you're uneducated. Whosoever will may come. I can see it in my mind. I can hear the footsteps already coming down the road. Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 5. The writer says, Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? Who is this coming out of this dry place? Who is this coming out of this place of hopeless? The devil says, I thought I had you all sewn up. Thought you were mine forever, but suddenly I see you coming out of the wilderness and you're leaning upon Christ as you come out. Who is this? The scripture asks. And somebody tonight, I just know in my heart out there is just saying, it's me. Hallelujah. It's me. Why don't you do that right now at home? Why don't you just stand up and say, it's me. It's me the Bible is talking about. I'm coming out of the wilderness. I'm coming out of this dry place. I'm coming out of this prison. I'm coming out of this hopeless place. I'm coming out of this blindness. I'm coming home to God. I'm coming home to God. It's me who's going to praise Him. It's me who's going to lift my voice and shout into the heavens. Only God could have done this. It's me. It's me that Christ came for. It's me that Christ is calling. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. It's me because God is doing a new thing. I put it this way. He's doing an old thing in a new person. Hallelujah. He's doing what he's always done. It's the work of God. It's what he does in the earth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. So tonight at home, those that are listening, don't resist anymore. You don't have to figure it out. You don't have to go and search within and find the strength. You can't do this and don't even try. Just get up and just move towards the one who loves you. Move towards the one who can, who will give you what you need for your future. Pray this simple prayer with me. Everyone who's online tonight and those that are here in the sanctuary, because you're coming home. You're coming home. Just don't try to figure it out. Just come home. Just get up and come home. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for paying the price for my wrong that I have done and for forgiving me. Thank you God that I can come to you and you offer me hope and a future and forever in heaven with you. I don't want to resist this. I don't want to lean on something old. I want what you have for me, Lord. And so here I come. I open my heart to you and I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life and be my Lord and be my Savior. From this day forward, you are my God. You have the rights to my life and I invite you to take me where I need to go. God, I thank you. You won't turn away from my cry. I am the new thing that you're doing. Say it again. Say it again. I am the new thing that you are doing, God. I am the new thing. I am the new thing that you are doing in the earth and my voice will praise you and my life will glorify you and you will infuse me with strength that only you can and give me the power over my enemies that you always have and you always will. Oh God, oh God, oh God. This is awesome. This is incredible. I am the new thing that you are doing. The same old thing you've always done in a new person. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.