We Have Not Passed This Way Before

We have not passed this way before.

As Joshua encouraged the people (Joshua 3:4,5) that they were getting ready to walk a new road, he was preparing them to experience new things and he was preparing their minds to think new thoughts. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment had suffered at the hands of many physicians but then, with transformed mind, believed if she touched Jesus’ garment she would be made whole.

I sense a change - a new season - that has no relation to the old season in regard to allowing our lack of success in former seasons to control our thinking anymore. In this new season, we cannot allow the failures of the past to influence our faith. In order to love the Lord with all our minds we must allow Him to transform our thinking.

For example, we have heard of and even experienced great moves of God in the past that have ended - sometimes with grinding halts. This can cause us to think that the present movements of God will be the same. We need to stop this kind of thinking. A transformed mind must choose to believe that God has come for habitation instead of just a visitation. I’m thinking if God doesn’t stay with us this time in a mighty tangible way, we are doomed. This kind of desperation transforms our thinking to believe that God is not letting go this time. Habitation is the heart of God too.

Another example: if someone has asked for prayer for healing several times without any results, they need to come with a clean slate as if this is the first time of being ministered to for this particular need. This allows us to die to the disappointment of the past and allows new faith to arise. Bill Johnson speaks of this in his teachings on healing at Bethel Church, in Redding, CA. When someone comes to him for prayer or ministry he wants them to come without retaining thoughts of past attempts that may have seemed unsuccessful.

And… most of us have asked Father for things that we think we have not received. Because of this we often hesitate to ask again with much boldness or confidence. Let us return to the way Jesus told us to ask, when He said, “If a son ask for bread will his father give him a stone? So much more the Heavenly Father knows how to give good gifts to those who ask…” We need to let go of the memory of times we think Father didn’t come through for us and ask anew with childlike trust and faith.

And what about deliverance? I remember when I was a young minister praying for community drunks and they were completely set free - no AA programs or rehabs were needed for these people. Have we made programs into crutches that weaken our faith, forgetting that God does still completely set people free from addiction? The lie that we will always be an alcoholic or addict must be discarded from our thinking. With such low success rates in these programs, do we not need to look to ‘higher power?'

We have crossed the sea and we have crossed the river. Like the children of Israel after crossing the Red Sea, we have been baptized to walk in new power (I Cor. 10:2). Likewise, when the new generation crossed the Jordan River, they inherited fields they had not planted. Let us enter this new season of Provision: health, food, water, clothing, shoes that don’t wear out. We are a fearful people - nations will stand in awe of us - the Applachian people. The Presence... His Presence... The Glory….. His Glory…. will be over, around and in us here in these mountains. We are a people of ‘The Presence.’ As Miriam, we will dance - we will worship.

He will send abundance. Like Jesus turned the water to wine and there they sat with what is equivalent today to over 900 bottles of wine, He will take us into the house of wine… the house of intoxication. Like the feeding of the multitudes, like the widow and her oil vessels in Elisha’s day, when she shut herself up in her home and the oil never ran out, we will shut ourselves up with God and the oil will never run out. Like the days of Jehoshaphat, we will stand still and see the provision of the Lord. Elijah’s cloud is bringing a downpour - mudding up the roads. Isaac’s hundredfold is with those who stay in the land. Others are coming to the land - an is exodus coming in. We will find the coins to pay the taxes in the mouth of the fish. Just as Israel didn’t have to plant crops the first year in the promised land, this is going to be easy. This may be the easiest thing we have ever done.

So forget the failed attempts and look at things as if it’s the first attempt. Go forward into the new season because you have never passed this way before.