Isaiah 43: 18 remember ye not the former things neither consider the things of old behold I will do a new thing now shall it spring forth shall you not know it I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 48: 6 “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. 7 They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.
Now, I anticipate the fulfillment of promises, don’t you? God’s going to fulfill the prophecies, that’s true.
But God has a way of doing something a little bit above and beyond what’s been promised. I don’t know whether this fits into your theology or not, but whenever God does something, I think it’s a little bit more than what people expect.
Above and beyond.
Paul comes along and says, this was hidden from the ages past, what God was going to do. He always hides it.
Don’t ever think that God reveals plainly everything he plans to do in his word. You must search for it like buried treasure.
Whatever he says he’s going to do it, but he’s going to add a little bit more to it. That’s the way God does things.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think. A little bit more.
New things.
Well, what about the old things? Gods fulfilled it. What about all the prophecies he has spoken? Yes, he will fulfill them. But now he’s going to do something that you don’t even know what’s coming.
And you’ll never say, well, we knew it. Today it will spring forth. Today it will be created. God’s is creating things just for you.
What did he say about the wilderness? A path in the wilderness.
What did he say about the desert? Waters in the desert.
What’s God going to do for you? Oh, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.
I studied the New Testament pattern, studied it for years. You can say, I can see it coming, we’re going to have a restored church. We’re going to have apostles, prophets, elders, and deacons and so on, but there’s something more. We are going to take control of planet earth and loose all creation from futility.
You know, what God anticipates in this thing, I don’t think we really can see it.
Years ago, I never dreamed about the spiritual things that God was going to do, how the whole of the body of Christ would come together into unity.
I don’t think they fully understood everything God planned to do in the future in the New Testament church days, only what God revealed he was going to do in their day, they thought everything would be fulfilled in their day.
I don’t think back in the book of Acts that they anticipated that God was going to do more than restore all things.
This is more than restoration. God’s throwing things in extra that you never dreamed of.
We’ll I am going to just stand on what God promised me personally, he promised me $ 100 dollars so that I can pay my rent.
If he promised you $100 and he hands you a thousand, is he keeping his promise? You’ve got your $100, but you’ve got a lot more now, are you going to spend it on yourself of the advancement of the Kingdom?
I’m not going to draw the line and say we’ll I got what I want, that is all I am concerned about.
There’s something more that I can think about. My cup’s going to run over. What good thing are you going to do? What marvelous thing are you going to do?
We must learn to live with an anticipation that something is going to happen above, and beyond anything we could even dream of right now. Or do you think like that? Well, I don’t know. I kind of think things are going to get worse, things are going to be terrible. We are headed for the great tribulation. We have had 2,000 years of tribulation, how much more do you want?
That’s not the way to think. What good thing’s going to happen?
Today was great. Yesterday was marvelous. But tomorrow is going to blow your mind. Tomorrow’s going to overload the circuits.
What’s going to happen tomorrow? What’s God going to do? One thing about it, I know it must be that way because Jesus said, greater works than these shall you do.
Can you name one thing in your mind that you can think of that’s greater than what Jesus did?
Can you name anything that’s happened that’s bigger than Lazarus being raised from the dead? Can you think of anything right now that’s exceeded the works of Jesus Christ?
He said, Greater works than these shall you do. What kind of works will they be? I mean, how much can you do for the person you raise the dead? If he’s dead, he’s dead, if he is now alive, he’s alive. How can you exceed it?
Maybe you can line up a thousand people and raise them for the dead. A thousand dead, that would exceed it.
But I think Jesus’ is talking about the greatness, greater works, greater works. He’s talking about the quantity.
Can you name one? You can’t figure out what it is. It’s beyond description. You know that it’s going to come. Greater works, greater things, doing exploits. Can you picture it? Can you imagine? How about making disciples of a nation?
Behold, I will do a new thing. Now shall it spring forth. Shall you not know it? These verses belong to this time.
They belong to the restoration of Zion. This is the day that said, all right, new things do I declare. Now they’re created, and you never heard them before, don’t say, I knew it, but you didn’t.
Lord, what are you going to do for us next? Lord, we look to you. We don’t want to continually dwell upon our faults, but we want to continually dwell upon the good things that you’re going to do.
For once, we want to lift our head up out of the momentary problem of development and growth, of righteousness, and look out and catch a little glimpse and say, we can’t focus on it clearly, but we see those things coming.
Lord, help us with faith, with anticipation to believe for something better, something better in your own life, something better in your ministry, better in every way. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We claim it, we lay hold of it.