Facing a New Future

FACING A NEW FUTURE 

Facing the future is usually based on expecting things to keep on happening the same way that they have happened before. There is a consistent routine and we have a level of confidence and competence to manage that. If we have some worthwhile goal ahead, we can divert some extra energy away from some of the routine for that goal.
But there are times like the strange times we are now in when the routine gets out of routine so much that we don’t know what to expect any more. Something bigger than our personal routine has taken over our circumstances so that it is difficult to make things happen that we did quite normally before. 
We have to know how to face a new future.

In normal times if something disruptive happens just to us personally, we seek help from those we can trust and we are grateful when help is given. We can have faith in God and look to the Lord for wisdom and guidance about how to see the challenge through so that we can recover and get our life back on track. 
But when something disruptive happens to everyone at the same time it is a different matter. A global pandemic is currently happening to everybody at once and there is no single answer we can get for ourselves to solve all the problems by simply asking someone to sort it out for us. There are thousands of different opinions and thousands of different reasons for them.
We find that we no longer have the personal freedom to just sort out our own situation because something bigger than our personal set of circumstances has been disrupted. 
God alone has the answer for each one of us personally to find the way forward, and he has allowed this circumstance to happen for a reason – and notwithstanding all that, our praying for one another never fails. 
But the fact remains;

We are living at a time when we are each personally facing a new future. 
We are living at a time when the World is facing a new future.

This current time we are living in is marked by certain realities;
A time of affliction and suffering has plunged our world into a weakened state.
A spiritual attack from Satan is provoking reaction and confusion and division in peoples’ hearts.  
An uncertainty and a sense of hopelessness is in the air regarding the future. 
And in all this God’s people are being challenged to hear from him regarding how to face this new future.

There have been times in history where the World has entered a new era, a new eon (Grk. Aion – age). 
These times are significant for God’s people because they are primarily about what he wants to do through his people.

The birth of Jesus began a new eon (or age) for humanity. It was an appointed time of God in history. 
His death on the cross was also an appointed time of God for humanity, just as was his resurrection, and just as was his ascension into heaven, and just as was his sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

Any appointed time of God in history is called a Kairos time, as opposed to chronos time which in simple terms has the meaning of ‘clock time’. Kairos time defines a time for God’s appointed purpose on the Earth.
There would have been many Kairos times in your life when you knew that God was doing something unique for you or speaking something special to you.
I believe we are in one of those unique times at the moment – 

In this kairos time of God we are being shown how to come through an intense time of testing of our faith into a new future of hope and promise, while the whole World is in a weakened state.
When God chooses HIS times to take us into a new future, Satan chooses that time to intensify his spiritual attack upon God’s people to stop us moving forward. Satan uses the times of our weakness to attack us in our weakened state and to try and get us to give up on God or deny him or reject him. 

But Satan gets it wrong. 

Satan gets it wrong even when it seems he has gained a victory. 
God knows that Satan’s pride and deception makes him think he can target our weaknesses to stop God’s purpose from happening in our lives. But God uses Satan’s strategy of attacking our weaknesses as an opportunity to turn our human weakness into his strength.
Paul writes that when he was being buffeted by Satan in the times of his own weakness. He learned to find God’s strength and turn it into victory. (2Corinthians 12:8).

JESUS FACES THE FUTURE FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

Jesus went through the most grueling experience in his life and was at his physically weakest point after being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and fasting for forty days and nights (a ‘number forty’ experience – a time of trial and testing – Moses and Elijah and Jesus all fasted for forty days and Israel went through forty years of testing in the wilderness).
Jesus battled against the prince of darkness in a series of tormenting temptations as in, asking him why he didn’t just turn stones into bread and not go hungry, and why not prove his claim of being the Son of God by leaping off a cliff and letting the angels save him. Jesus won a mighty victory for himself and for all of us against this onslaught of Satan, who in the Bible is called ‘the god of this world’. This false god finally took Jesus onto the top of a high mountain and arrogantly offered him the rule over all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for Jesus falling down and worshipping him. His pride and deception had blinded Satan to the fact that Jesus was the heir of all the kingdoms in Heaven and Earth from before the beginning of time. Jesus dismissed the false god and put him in his place.

Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministering to him. 

Jesus then quietly rested from his ordeal on that mountain top and received comfort from the angels. Not only was he now set to begin his ministry of three and a half years of overcoming the darkness in the kingdoms of this world, but he was about to begin establishing the Kingdom of Heaven in the hearts of mankind, from that time on and into eternity. 
And after he was rested he moved his mind from that forty days of trial and affliction and he turned to face the future.
The Bible tells us that as he set off to walk the journey home to his family in Galilee he came across the poor and the sick by the side of the road, as people were healed of blindness and infirmity and other diseases. His Father was unfolding his future before him step by step along the way.

Jesus showed us what to do.   
He stood against the deceptive affronts of Satan in his time of weakened strength and he overcame Satan through speaking God’s Word of truth concerning himself.  
He then sat and rested and became refreshed.
He walked away from that season of trial and faced the new future that awaited him.
The future presented itself to him, as he walked step by step along the way.

JOSHUA FACES A NEW FUTURE FOR GOD’S PEOPLE
Joshua was also a man who had a ‘number forty’ experience His was not forty days but a long hard trial of endurance in Israel’s journey out of Egypt that took forty years – a generation. Joshua kept faith throughout those forty years under Moses and when Moses died God gave Joshua the leadership of the Nation of Israel. 

When Joshua came to the Jordan River he ordered the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant into the water and just as Joshua had witnessed the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea under Moses, the waters miraculously divided so that all of Israel could pass over and finally enter into the promised Land. Just as the Ark represented the presence of God for Israel, so Jesus is the presence of God for us. 

Joshua 3:1 And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
They were facing a new future and the wilderness was behind them. The promise of God for their lives was now before them. A ‘number forty’ experience is not just a time of the testing of our faith, it is the time of preparation for the facing of a new future. It is the same for us today, as we are also in a number forty experience of trial and testing and    need to heed the words of Joshua to Israel when he told them to follow the Ark, the presence of God ‘that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.’

It is important to know that the devil did not set up the forty days of wilderness testing for Jesus. The Bible tells us that the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tested – it was God’s doing. But Satan used that time of Jesus being pushed to the limits of endurance to try to break his spirit, and Satan failed. It was the same for Israel going through the forty years of testing in the wilderness – that was God’s doing, and Satan tried to prevent them entering the promised land, but a new generation under Joshua brought them into a new future of promise for their lives.
It is the same with us – going through a global pandemic and being pushed to the limits of endurance. It is like a ‘number forty’ experience of trial and testing, and of promise! And God has allowed that and Satan jumps at the opportunity to break our spirit. But our struggle is more than just for survival. We are overcoming through a renewing of our strength into a new future in the will of God for our lives, and the future may present itself to us in unexpected ways as we walk forward step by step trusting in God. 

Jesus did not complain once throughout his forty-day experience of his trials in the wilderness, but Israel did not stop complaining for the entire forty years of their trials, because of their unbelief. 
If we want to overcome in our time of trial and face a new future that God has for us, we need to know how to manage our emotional reactions to the new and unfamiliar disruptions that are happening to us – different to how our life usually unfolds. Being exposed to emotionally charged comments and opinions by opportunistic politicians, TV commentators, and the media (especially social media), can cause us to attach negative emotions of anxiety or disappointment or resentment to our thoughts on the matter. 
And while there is certainly a place for strong emotions to motivate creative and constructive activity, those negative and unhelpful emotions can rob us of our peace and throw us back into the Israel wilderness experience of unbelief. I find that when this happens to me I have to get my mind on God straightaway, because those negative emotions disappear in the presence of faith. 
We can live amongst the commotion and find peace, because like Jesus in his number forty experience, we have the Holy Spirit with us and the Word of God in us and we can be assured that he is at work on our behalf to guide us each step of the way.

We can be confident that we will hear God’s voice clearly amidst the many voices and personal opinions that seem to shout over and contradict one another in these days. 
Observe the things that come across your path directly – maybe small things or maybe big things - and ask God what you should do or think regarding that thing. It may be more important than you think, as different as it may seem from past practice – why is this interruption or intrusion happening at the moment? And as we pause at that time and still our hearts and give that moment and what is happening, to God, it could be that God will do something in our lives he has not done before. He presents a new future to us as he did with Jesus.
And if that way that looks good for us to walk in seems to get blocked, we can ask God to part the waters in front of us while we keep our eyes upon him, as he goes before us. 
As Joshua said to the people ‘you have not passed this way before’.

Thankyou Lord, for leading us into a new future of victory, out of the times of trial and into the times of faith in Jesus name – Amen.

MEDITATIONS

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31)

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. (Isaiah 43:2)

Do not be afraid for I am your shield and your everlasting reward (Genesis 15:1)

It is no longer I that live but it is Christ who is living in me (Galatians 2:20)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)

I am with you always even till the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)

Be anxious for nothing but in everything let your prayers and requests be made known to God; and you will receive the peace of God (Philippians 4:4)

Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9)

Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid – My peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you (John 14:27)

All things are working together for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28)

I know the thoughts I have towards you for good and not for evil – to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11)

My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name  (Exodus 33:14)

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23)

I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)

You will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you (Isaiah 26:3)

My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness (2Corinthians 12:9).

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard · Nor has it entered into the heart of man · The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (1Corinthans 2:9)