With today’s posting we start a series designed to reveal what we can expect as the people of God when He calls the past “the former thing” and the present the New Thing.
In the book of Zechariah, we gain wonderful insight into what Father’s “former thing” vs Father’s New Thing involves and what the results are going to look like. We will see what occurs when Father finishes what He has been doing and starts something new for His people.
We, who are the family of God, are now experiencing a time of fulfilment of promises Father has made to us in the past about this season of Spiritual Elegance.
□ When doing a New Thing Father is always motivated by His Heart.
Zechariah 8:1“Again the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; With great fervor I am zealous for her.” NKJV
□ As your Father, He is driven by a deep, heart-stirred determination to act on our behalf with holy zeal and fervor in order for us to experience the outcome of His New Thing.
□ It is often our confusion and shame which work to disqualify us in our own thinking from receiving and engaging in the zeal-driven New Thing that He is presenting us with.
□ Father always prophetically discloses what He is going to do.
Zechariah 8:3 “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the Lord of hosts, The Holy Mountain.” 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘old men and old women shall again sit In the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. 5 The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.” NKJV
□ Driven by My Father-heart’s desire, I will visibly live with you again; “…I will return…”
□ There had previously been a time when His presence had left the temple in Jerusalem, and no one in the city had even noticed!
□ Because My presence will be with you again, where you live will gain a new reputation. “…you will be known as the city of truth…” (rather than your original name, city of peace).
□ In our culture, most of us learned early in life that lies protect us better than truth. In this New Thing, Father is establishing that His presence is accompanied by the supremacy of His truth. Jesus even declared “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...” John 14:6 NKJV
□ Because of My presence returning, life will come back to the place where you dwell.
□ Jerusalem, as a broken largely abandoned place is a stark reminder of what God’s judgment does and what happens when suddenly a New Thing dawns; life and vitality is restored to the city.
□ “old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age”.
□ Fathers New Thing immediately extended life, restored joy, renewed innocence, and reestablished generational life.
□ Father’s New Thing includes every one of us, alter the life of every one of us, and cause every one of us to experience life differently than ever before.
□ “old men, old women, boys and girls”
Has anything caught your attention or stirred your interest in what I’ve written? Many of us have an extremely hard time believing that Father even likes us much less that He is overwhelmingly in love with us from the very core of His being.
Continuing in Zechariah 8. If this is your first time reading my post, check out my previous posts at www.imfglobal.org
□ When Father is doing a New Thing, He engages with His people about how to view what He is doing.
Zechariah 8: 6 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, Will it also be marvelous in My eyes?’ Says the Lord of hosts." NKJV
□ Father is looking for a people who will delight in what delights Him and thus become eager participants in His New Thing.
□ This New Thing is a larger issue than it appears to be. As challenging as life is today, we know how to live with this life, and we don’t know how to live in the New Thing.
□ If we have only known how to live in poverty and defeat, how do we live in prosperity and victory?
Father Has a Purpose For Doing A New Thing!
□ The focus of gathering His people (family) is so He can engage more closely with them.
Zechariah 8: 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; 8 I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.” NKJV
□ Father’s zeal for the New Thing includes restoring His people’s identity and repositioning them to experience the promises He had previously made them.
□ Father’s yearning in the New Thing is to free His people from their places of bondage and restore them to the place of promise.
□ As their Father, He will again provide safety to His people in the place of His blessing and presence!
□ After having spent our lifetime attempting to fit into the expectations of the culture we live in, we know well the ways of unrighteousness which makes it difficult to live in the place of Father’s presence and blessing.
□ In a New Thing season, what we have known from our past experiences doesn’t serve us well because we learned in that environment only how to survive while now He has promised to release us to truly live!
□ As our Father, He will restore our identity, dignity, and destiny as His people.
□ “They shall be My people And I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.”
□ He will ensure that truth and righteousness will be what rules the day with His family.
□ With a society motivated by rebellion, unrighteousness, and lies surrounding the people of God, Father will provide for His family truth and righteousness to serve their identity and sustains their way of life.
□ Again, there will be a clear distinction between who is righteous and unrighteous. (Mal 3:18)
□ His people of righteousness and truth will live surrounded by narcissists and libertines.
Observations from Zechariah 8 continue today. If this is your first time reading my post, check out my previous posts at www.imfglobal.org
□ Father’s New Thing will position us as His family, so we have greater access to heaven's provision of the things He has promised to us.
Zechariah 8: 10 For before these days there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast; There was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in; for I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor.11 But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ says the Lord of hosts. NKJV
□ For His daughters and sons, this is a time of “promise fulfillment”!
□ The fulfilment of the promises that He has made to the righteous are emerging right out of a season where achievement, progress, and accomplishments are no longer happening within the culture. ”…there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast…”
□ His promises of peace are finding expression even though peace is no longer valued or even pursued with neighbors or nations. “…There was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in…”
□ The culture of this world is currently engaged and affected by a life expression that prevents an environment of peace from ever developing.
□ His promises of victory are celebrated by the righteous even while at the same time the unrighteous are unable to celebrate victory. ”…For I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor.”
□ Division, desperation, and disputes are the natural expression of the culture. Relationships experiencing disorder and mayhem rule the day.
□ Father God declares “Into” the chaos of this environment. “But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days…” In order to fulfill His promises, His people will enter a new season and the ways that they have known and experienced will forever be known as “the former days!”
□ To fulfill the promises, Father had previously made to them, everything is going to change.
Zechariah 8:12 For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew—I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these. 13 And it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong. NKJV
□ What efforts you put into "planting" will now prosper.
□ What has not been productive will become productive.
□ The soil you have worked so hard will now multiply a return.
□ Nature will be favorable to you.
□ As Father’s family we should expectantly watch for all of this to become our new reality.
□ The culture which sought to marginalize and viewed us as a threat to be eliminated will now seek us as a means of blessing to them in the center of their own failing system of life.
□ Because of the prophetic access we have to Father’s heart, there is no need to fear or to pull back from taking possession of the promises Father is fulfilling.
Is there something about Spiritual Elegance that is stirring inside you?
Keep watching for the next post as I continue to reveal the nature of Spiritual Elegances. You are welcome to message me at any time to further our conversation.
I am continuing in Zechariah 8 from last time. If this is your first time reading my post, check out my previous posts at www.imfglobal.org.
HOW DOES FATHER EXPECT HIS FAMILY TO RESPOND TO HIS "New Thing"?
Zechariah 8:9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Let your hands be strong, you who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke in the day the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built." NKJV
□ Father has a desire for and has made provision for His people to live in reliance on:
□ That which He has already revealed to them.
□ The discernment they have developed from the truth they received.
□ “Hands” represent how we engage and interact with the world around us.
□ Each of us are to make our “hands” “how we engage and interact with the world around us” strong through our reliance on the promises and discernment received from the prophets who have already spoken to us. The only thing Father wants us to bring from the past into the "New Thing" are the prophetic words, promises, visions, and dreams we have already received.
□ The prophetic word emerges from the prophet having placed his ear on Father’s chest through the Holy Spirit. From that position, “the prophets ear placed on Father’s heart”, they receive the desires and purposes of Father for His people.
□ The prophetic word serves those who desire to live “UNTO” Father’s plans and purposes but have not known the way to go until it is prophetically revealed to them as the desire of Father’s heart.
□ Prophets understand from the perspective of Father’s heart and are able to offer truth that is vital to someone who wants to move forward but is struggling to comprehend, visualize, or gain the direction for how to move forward.
□ The gift of the prophetic provides context and reveals the way to go for those desiring to go.
□ Revealing of prophetic truth is progressive. “…who spoke in the day the foundation was laid…”
□ Zachariah spoke these words to people who were not alive and had never witnessed the construction, the worship, the presence, or seen the destruction of the temple yet what was prophesied at the beginning ”…the day the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built.” now served as the foundation of the word spoken to them. And equally applies to the prophetic words we receive.
The only thing Father wants us to bring from the past into the “New Thing” are the prophetic words, promises, visions, and dreams we have already received.
Keep watching for next post as I continue to reveal the nature of Spiritual Elegances from Zechariah 8. You are welcome to message me at any time to further our conversation.
Today, I am continuing in Zechariah 8. If this is your first time reading my post, check out my previous posts at www.imfglobal.org.
□ Father desires us to, and has made provision for, us to experience a completely different way of relating to one another than we have previously known.
Zechariah 8:14 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ says the Lord of hosts,‘ and I would not relent, 15 so again, in these days I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear. 16 These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace; 17 Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; And do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ Says the Lord.” NKJV
□ Here is how you live and thrive in this new reality that He, as your Father, is establishing for you.
□ Trust in His nature and character. “I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah...”
□ He is saying that with the same fervor and tenacity which He had been punishing his people, He is now going to do good to His people. (former thing vs New Thing.)
□ Speak truth to each other. “Speak each man the truth to his neighbor…”
□ Father is saying as my people, you too need to treat those around you in a new way.
□ Make decisions that empower truth, justice, and peace. “Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;”
□ God is saying that as my people, you need to view others around you in the same way He does with the goal being truth, justice, and peace becoming the primary expression of the culture.
□ How do truth, justice, and peace work in this season of Spiritual Elegance?
□ Empowering Truth: Seeing and discerning through Father’s eyes and heart as you decide your beliefs about someone and as you consider your actions towards them.
□ Truth in this context would prevent me from acting toward someone else using my view or opinion as the deciding factor.
□ Empowering Justice: Offer a way to each person through which they can recover their God-gifted identity and experience their Father’s established destiny.
□ Justice in this context would cause me to give greater weight to the person’s identity and destiny rather than simple reacting to their actions or behavior.
□ Empowering Peace: Work to reveal each person’s pathway to union and relationship with Father and commit me to being their cheerleader, encourager, and beacon of hope.
□ Because peace is only found in God, working to restore someone’s union and relationship with God is the only way you can truly act as a peacemaker.
□ Do not let the former ways guide your relationships any longer with others in this season of Father doing a New Thing.
□ It is dangerous to desire, hold on to, or chase after false promises in this season of Spiritual Elegance as Father is changing everything He is doing. As the New Thing unfolds, the enemy is “shopping” on Father’s “scrap heap of former things”! So, when we insist on the former things we are left working in tandem with Father’s opposition!
I’m stirred by what truth, justice, and peace are like as expressions of Spiritual Elegance.
Keep watching for future posts or message me and hopefully we can start a conversation.
If this is your first time reading my post, check out my previous posts at www.imfglobal.org.
□ The question is how does father expect his family to respond to His New Thing? The answer is to accept that He is going to change everything you have known.
Zechariah 8:18 “Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, 19 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, The fast of the fifth, The fast of the seventh, And the fast of the tenth, Shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts For the house of Judah. Therefore, love, truth, and peace.” NKJV
□ Each of the four Jewish fasts were established to commemorate a disaster that happened to Israel when something considered sacred was destroyed that attacked the foundation of their security, identity, or prosperity.
□ Each fast was a solemn occasion commemorating a significant loss to the people of God in which the appropriate response was to grieve, lament, and mourn.
□ The fast of the fourth month commemorated the day when a breach was made in the walls of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.
□ The fast of the fifth month commemorated the day the Jerusalem temple burned to the ground.
□ The fast of the seventh month commemorated the death of Gedaliah whose leadership represented hope to the remnant of Israel that had remained in the land.
□ The fast of the tenth month commemorated the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem which ended with the complete destruction of city.
□ Each of these fasts of sorrow and defeat are to become in this season of the New Thing, cheerful feasts of joy and gladness for the people of God.
□ God is ordering fundamental change to their significant religious practices (fasting to feasting). God’s people had long identified with these religious expressions which are now becoming irrelevant because He is doing a New Thing.
□ Their religious practices were built around remembering and reliving the consequences of the past sins of their nation, while God is declaring a New Thing. God’s New Thing is not about the past but establishes that which will again lead them to their destiny.
□ They were now to be celebrating the reality that God can and does redeem anything and uses it for His glory! Their fasts were about commemorating their failures which kept them locked into identifying with their sins and rebellion rather than their promised destiny.
□ Often to the degree that we build our identity on our defeats, we aren’t looking for redemption. Because, to experience redemption would mean the loss of everything that we are currently using to justify our life, the choices we are making, and the ways and things we use to survive.
□ Could Father be declaring to us that our significant and long held religious practices may no longer be valid or consistent with this season of Spiritual Elegance? In our religious expressions, are we too continuing to focus on our past sins and the travesties we’ve experienced?
Are the losses and failures of your life defining you? What has your enemy destroyed that you have been unable to achieve victory from? The answer to these questions has everything to do with Father’s New Thing.
As you will see in next post, Father’s New Thing ends in victory at a level and dimension that has until now been unimaginable to us.
In what condition is my faith when it comes to believing that disasters can be redeemed to victories?
□ Because He is God, when He does a New Thing, it will bring a10-fold return to us.
Zac. 8:20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, And seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.” 22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the Lord.’ 23 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” NKJV
□ The world all around us will see the New Thing Father/God is doing for us as He releases, like He did for Israel, the provision required to fulfill the promises He has made to us.
□ There will be a very systematic response from people around us. “…Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, And seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.”
□ There will be an orchestrated response to what God is doing in this “New Thing” of being so good to the righteous.
□ People from many places who have never been interested in what God is doing will come seeking the Lord.
□ People will come to find out why Spiritual Elegant people are being prospered and blessed.
□ People who don’t even know one another will begin to invite others to go with them and they will come.
□ Even people from strong nations will come seeking to find out why the righteous are suddenly being prospered and blessed while they continue living with wars, poverty, and failed systems.
□ What the unrighteous will witnessed happening to the people of Spiritual Elegance suddenly goes from experiencing:
Zec 8:12“…no wages for man nor any hire for beast…, no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in…, set all men, everyone, against his neighbor. “ NKJV
□ To experiencing:
Zec 8:12 “For the seed shall be prosperous, The vine shall give its fruit, The ground shall give her increase, And the heavens shall give their dew.” KJV
The response of the nations for Father’s plan for Spiritual Elegance is astonishing especially in the culminating scene that is coming in our next post.
This is the final post in our series on Zachariah 8 which will illustrates what Father does when He does a New Thing.
Zac. 8:20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, And seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.” 22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the Lord.’ 23 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” NKJV
□ The outcome of Father’s New Thing was evangelism on steroids! The promised outcome of this season of Father’s New Thing awaits fulfillment in our time and is mystifying the people around us. People who do not even know God are observing that extraordinary changes are coming to our lives, our marriages, our families, and our culture.
Mal 3:17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. NKJV
□ Just as He did for the people in Zachariah 8, we have become Father’s treasured possession. He is in the midst of restoring fathers to their children and children to their fathers through revealing His Father’s spirit and has also begun to shower Bridal affection on us.
□ People who do not even know God are observing the extraordinary things that are happening to us. They are going to begin to search us out because they want to know:
□ Why are you prospering, and we aren’t
□ Why are you living with internalized peace, and we are not?
□ Why is what you are going out and doing succeeding and what we are doing is not?
□ Why does your presence change the environment around us and ours does not?
□ Why are your failures not held against you and our failures seem to define us?
□ Why are your harvests plentiful and ours are not?
□ Without even knowing or understanding what Father is doing, the unrighteous desire to connect to us and to become a party to what is giving the righteous success and blessing so they can participate in it too. (That’s why I'm calling it “evangelism on steroids”.)
“…In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
Are you zealous to be a part of Father’s New Thing? That is the question each of us must answer. Our answer to this question will set the course for the rest of our life, legacy, and destiny.
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