Laurie Hopkins

As we find ourselves a few weeks into the New Year it is a good time to remind ourselves of the “new things” coming.  

This is about the time the resolutions start to fall off, the newness of the year grows old and everything starts to feel like the “same ole, same ole”. 

But the Word of God speaks about God doing a new thing. 

A new thing that will spring forth, a suddenly thing!  

Roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, an unusual thing!  

Something that will bring His people to declare His praise – an awe inspiring thing! 

Are you ready for a new thing?  

New things require some preparation; a setting aside of old ways of thinking and doing and an openness to a new way of thinking and doing.  

Are you ready for a new thing?  

Cast of the former things, don’t wallow in the things of old, begin looking forward for the sudden, unusual and awe inspiring thing that the Lord has for you!

The Lord could have spoken to those dry bones and commanded them to live and then to breathe, 

but instead, 

He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to those dry bones.  

There is power in the words given to us by the Lord.  

We have the authority to speak to the dry bones in our lives and to speak to the dry bones in the lives around us. 

The word for prophesy is naba’ which is translated, in the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon as: 

to cause to bubble up, hence to pour forth word abundantly, as is done by those who speak with ardour or divine emotion of mind. 

I love this definition.  

To cause to bubble up, speaking with divine emotion of mind! 

When the Lord puts a word within you, 

let it bubble up and go forth and 

do it with excitement and expectation.  

And watch those dry bones live and breathe and rise up and become a mighty army.

There is grace in the wilderness.  

We often only see the challenges in the wilderness; the dry barren land, the thirst and the isolation.  But there is also grace in the wilderness – 

a place of rest and quiet where one can hear the Voice of the Lord, where one can check out from the people and the noises around them, 

where one can stop pressing forward and just allow time to move slowly and sometimes to stand still. There is a rest in the wilderness that is unusual and which we don’t always understand – 

a rest that comes when we realize that we can no longer push against what is out of our control, 

a rest that comes when we lean in, rather than push back. 

And after the wilderness, comes the rebuilding.  

There is a time of breaking down in the wilderness.  

A shedding of those things that are not useful or necessary.  

And with the shedding comes the opportunity to build again.  

We are loved by the Lord with an everlasting love – 

a love that promises to rebuild and to return to us our joy – 

the joy that comes forth in dancing.  

Are you in the wilderness?  

Accept the grace, lean in and rest.  

Are you in the process of shedding?  

Let it go!  

Are you coming out of the wilderness?  

Prepare to rebuild.  

And above all, remember, that in the midst, 

regardless what your midst looks like,

there is a God that loves you with an everlasting love!