New Things Do I Declare

We are living in a time when it is very important for us to be alert spiritually. God is moving in a way we haven’t been accustomed to previously. So we need sharp perception and discernment. Otherwise, we could miss a tremendous move of God. Now is the time for God’s people to look up, for He is opening up a higher level of spirit. He is preparing a new realm (John 14:3), and the Body of Christ must now learn to function on that realm.

Have you noticed that God is not as active on the level we’ve been on? Our mode of worship and service to God is not as effective as it has been. It is because the Lord has moved to another level. So we must move up also. The Lord is saying, “Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter” (Revelation 4:1). Upon hearing His voice the apostle John “was immediately in the spirit, and beheld a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne” (Revelation 4:2). The Lord wants us to come up higher. He is inviting us to His throne, the place of authority. There we will receive a new revelation of the Lord and authority to function as sons of God.

Isaiah 42:8-10 I am the Lord: that is My name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10 Sing unto the Lord a new song…

The former things have come to pass. Now God is declaring new things. Are you ready for new things from God? Some people are satisfied with “the old time religion.” It’s good enough for them. Not for me! I’m hungry for something new from God. The former things have come to pass and are drying up. Abundant life is now found in the new things God is declaring. Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). We have had life in the Lord; now He is opening the door to abundant life. Which do you prefer, a trickle or a downpour of the Spirit? Isaiah says there is a “way” and a “highway” (Isaiah 35:8). Let’s take the “high way.” God is declaring something new! The former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare.

Sing unto the Lord a new song. The Lord is now requiring a higher level of worship. We are to sing unto the Lord a new song. God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24. Worship in the past has been mostly on a soulish level. We must learn to worship Him in spirit. The apostle Paul said, “God…whom I serve with my spirit” (Romans 1:9). Our worship will be a new song when it comes from the depths of our inner being. Our very life emanations should become a new song unto the Lord.

Isaiah 43:18-19,21 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
21 This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise.

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. This is not speaking of bad things or sins you have committed. This is speaking of the things that your walk with God has consisted of in the past. Your prayer life, your worship, the way you've served God now has to change. That level is drying up. God is doing a new thing! What you’ve done in the past will no longer work as it once did.

Our attitude now should be like Paul’s. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. Philippians 3:7-8. If we are going to move into the next level where the Lord is now functioning, it is necessary for us to abandon the level we are now on. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. Hebrews 10:9.

We must understand that what God is doing now is not a revival. He is not interested in reviving the old. It is passing away. He is bringing forth something new. He is creating a new heaven and a new earth. For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Isaiah 65:17. A revival is an effort to pump life into something that is fading away. God is purposely drying up the present level to bring forth a new level in Him. It is a new level of His Kingdom coming forth. God is establishing a new and greater relationship with His people.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? It’s now! God is not going to move! He already is! If we expect Him to move on the level we’ve walked on in the past, we will miss what God is doing. We must move up to the realm where God is speaking and moving. In other words, we do not bring God down to where we are. We move up to where He is. He has prepared a place for us (John 14:2-3). Let’s enter in.

Then the Lord asked, “Shall you not know it?” Many will not know it. There are no outward signs to confirm it (Luke 17:20). Only those who “have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 2:11) will be aware of this next level of ministry. They will be the overcomers spoken of in Revelation chapters two and three.

The Kingdom of God does not come in its fulness all at once. It comes in levels or stages. It is like a new day coming forth, a little at a time. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18. It is a spiritual coming of the King within us (II Thessalonians 1:10). He is establishing His Kingdom within us (Luke 17:21). Since it is a spiritual coming, there will be no outward signs; the natural realm will not confirm what God is doing. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Luke 17:20.

Now the question the Lord asked was: Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye no know it? The fact is, many Christians will not know it. They do not all have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches. Spiritual perception and revelation is essential. Only those with a heart to abandon the old and to embrace the new will be able to experience it. Those who cling to the old will not see it. Old wineskins are not flexible enough to receive the new wine of the Kingdom (Matthew 9:17). Those who begin to walk away from the old, but look back with a love for it in their hearts, like Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:26), will not be able to make the transition either.

The majority of Christians are never aware of the next move of God when it comes. It is quite easy to get locked-in to the present level, and not even want to change. Most churches are not moving in any more now than they were fifty or a hundred years ago. In fact, many are not even moving in as much as they were then.

We tend to only hear on our present level. How can we hear what God is speaking on the next higher plane? God creates the hearing ear (Proverbs 20:12). It is with the spirit, or heart, that man hears what God is speaking. So the state of the heart determines whether we hear the Word of the Lord, or not. And our hunger and thirst for the Lord determines the state of our hearts.

John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received Him not.

A visitation of the Lord is taking place right now. But how many of us are receiving Him? Peter spoke of the attitude of many Christians in this day. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming (parousia – presence)? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. II Peter 3:3-4.

The Jews, particularly the religious leaders, were so locked-in to their old religious concepts and traditions, that they could not accept Jesus when He came. He did not fit the mold they made for the Messiah. When Jesus came on the scene, He was so different from their preconceived ideas of the Christ, that they rejected Him. Could that happen again? The presence of the Lord Jesus is now being manifested on a new level. And the revelation of Him will be so different from the old religious traditions and concepts, that many Christians will reject Him.

Religiosity has a way of rejecting anything of God in the present. It is okay to talk about Jesus the Nazarene who walked the shores of Galilee, or to speak of a futuristic coming of the Lord. But keep Him out of the present. That’s the way the Jews were. The Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. John 9:22. It was all right to preach the Messiah, but keep Him in the past or the future. That is the way many churches are today. They have to keep a present revelation of the Lord out. If the presence of the Lord comes in, then they lose their little kingdoms. Well, that’s exactly what is going to happen. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming on the scene, and judgment is going to begin at the house of the Lord (I Peter 4:17). The Christian world will be the first to come under the judgments of God. He, and He alone, is going to be the Lord over His Church.

John 14:2-3 In My Father’s house are many mansions (Greek: mone, dwelling places, or abiding places), if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

First, let’s deal with the mansions. There are no mansions up in space. Besides that, God is Spirit (John 4:24), and there certainly aren’t any mansions in the spirit realm. The Greek word translated “mansions” is mone, and literally means “dwelling places.” It is found in only one other place in the New Testament, and that is verse 23 of this same chapter. There it is translated “abode.” If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23.

We do know, however, that there are many dwelling places, or levels of spirit, in the spirit realm. That becomes quite obvious when we notice the various levels of spiritual growth among the members of the Body of Christ. Every Christian is not on the same level of spiritual growth.

I think every Christian that has experienced spiritual growth can attest to the usual process in which it happens. When we break through to a new level, we find that many of the ways in which we function in our relationship to the Lord have changed. Not only that, but our concepts and awareness of the Lord change, too. We receive a greater revelation of Him, and He relates to us differently. The same principle is true in the natural. Parents relate to their two-year-old child one way, but when he becomes a teenager they relate to him differently. Many things that the two-year-old once did to get a response from his parents don’t work anymore. And it is that way with spiritual growth. The Lord, in many respects, becomes new to us, and many things we once did, which received blessings, just don’t work anymore.

Because we tend to settle on a particular level, the Lord will often withdraw and not meet us in the way He has in the past. He moves ahead and prepares the next level for us. In the meantime, we wonder where the Lord is, and why the things we do don’t seem to work anymore. Then we begin asking, “Where are you, Lord?” And He says, “I’m up here. Come on up; it’s time for you to learn to function on a new realm.” So for awhile we’re learning to walk with the Lord all over again, so to speak.

Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again (that is, “I will reveal Myself to you again, but it will be on a new level and a new way.”), and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” It is time for the Body of Christ to move up to the next level. It is transition time! He says, “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare…Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.” So if your walk with God seems to be drying up, and He hasn’t been meeting you as He had in the past, it is because He wants you to move to the next level. It is as He told Israel, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn ye northward” (Deuteronomy 2:3). The Lord goes and He comes. He leaves the old level of spirit we’ve lived on and reveals Himself on the next level.

John 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.

His saying, “I go away, and come again unto you,” in the Greek is literally, “I go and come to you.” Level after level this procedure takes place. We walk with Him on a certain level for a time, and then He leaves. We move up to the next level, and walk with Him there for a season, and He goes again. What is He doing? Where is He leading us? “I go to the Father, for My Father is greater than I.” He is leading us to the Father. It is His way of bringing us into sonship.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.

Once again, we want to look at the original language. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away.” The literal Greek reads, “I the Truth tell you, it is profitable to you that I should go.” When the Lord departs from us, it is for our own benefit. If He continued to be a nursemaid to us, we would continue to be babies.

John 16:16 A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.

Here Jesus says it again. He will not be seen on the present plane of spirit again. His manifestation will now be on the next level. Those who move up to the next level, though, will see him again, and in a greater way. He is leading us to the Father realm.

Now in bringing this message to a close there are several questions to be answered. (1) Who are the ones making these transitions? (2) Why is He leading us to the Father? (3) What is the Father realm, and what is the purpose God has in mind for all this?

We need to understand that the changes are not merely growth patterns for individuals. The Lord is dealing with the Body of Christ. It is a collective move “from glory to glory” (II Corinthians 3:18). Now when we speak of the Body of Christ, we are not referring to all Christians. For example, Fundamentalists for the most part are not interested in moving to new levels in God. They are satisfied to remain on the level where they have always been. The same is true for most Pentecostals and Charismatics. They are satisfied where they are. In fact, one of the main characteristics of denominationalism is sameness. They don’t change; they always remain the same.

There is a remnant within Christianity, though, who are hungering after God. And they are the ones whom the Lord is dealing with and leading into the Father realm. They are the sheep who hear his voice, “Come up hither” (Revelation 4:1), and they follow Him (John 10:4). The functioning Body of Christ is a remnant within Christianity. Jesus is their Head, their Lord, and He is leading them to the Father realm for a purpose.

The Father realm speaks of a new relationship. It is the relationship of Father and son. The Body of Christ is becoming a sonship company. They are entering a new relationship with God. Now, one does not become a son just by becoming a Christian. Becoming a son means becoming one with the Father, sharing in His authority. The Body of Christ is becoming a mature son, one with the Father. It will function in the authority of God, just as we saw Jesus doing in the Gospels.

Now why all these transitions just to go to heaven? The purpose of it is not to give us entrance to heaven in the way most Christians have thought about it. The Body of Christ is going to become the dwelling place of God. The Lord is creating His holy temple. Therefore ye…are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22. And when this temple is completed, a voice out of heaven will say, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

God is declaring new things. He is opening up a new realm for those who are hungry for more. Can you hear His voice saying, “Come up hither” (Revelation 4:1)? Or, are you satisfied where you are? Many Christians don’t even know that the Lord has left their realm. They are, like the Laodiceans, so caught up in religious activity they do not miss the presence of the Lord. Forsake the old realm as fast as you can! Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? This people (those who are following the Lord from glory to glory) have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise. Isaiah 43:18-19,21.

Copyright © 2003 by Henry DuBose

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