“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).
God wants to do new things in our lives. He wants to make a way where there is no way. Whenever God does something, it is supernatural, because God is supernatural. God can do what people cannot do. He can make rivers in a desert and cause a road to appear in the middle of a wilderness.
To see these supernatural things, we need vision from the Holy Spirit.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18).
Vision is the ability to see things the way God sees things. Having a vision is vital to the Christian life. When we have a vision, we can see things that others cannot see, because we are looking by the Holy Spirit.
Vision enables us to go into the future successfully. What we see is what what we can walk into. Vision gives light and dispels darkness.
In order to move forward into the future that God has for us, we need to forget some things from the past. Paul knew that to move forward in his spiritual life, he had to forget things from his past. Forgetting these things is the one thing that Paul did.
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13).
Sometimes we are hindered spiritually because we are holding on too tightly to the past. Maybe we did wrong things in the past, and we keep thinking about our sins. Or maybe other people hurt us, and we keep thinking about those hurts. Or maybe we wish we were living in the past because we think the past is better than today. The past keeps coming up in our minds, and it becomes a weight around our present reality. This weight can hinder us spiritually from moving forward.
God doesn’t want us living in the past. He wants us living in the present, and looking forward with hope to the future.
We made mistakes in the past. But those mistakes don’t define who we are. When we look back and realize we have sinned, we need to confess our sins. Then God will forgive us our sins and throw them into the sea. God has forgiven us, and now we are forgiven. We can move forward confidently into the future, without the weight of sin around our necks.
God defines who we are. We are not defined by our past failures. We are children of God. We need to renew our minds with the word of God so that we see ourselves as God sees us.
We need to forgive others. Don’t hold a grudge. Stop thinking so much about what people did to you. Forgive them. Release them. As you forgive them, you will let go of hatred, bitterness, and desire for revenge. You will be healed from hurt. God helps us forgive, because he forgave us, and he is the great Savior of the world.
We need to anoint our eyes with eye-salve (Rev. 3:18), so we can see things clearly. Jesus will anoint our eyes with the Holy Spirit and give us clarity.
Having a vision is connected to keeping the law. When we keep the word of God, we get a vision because we can hear from God. As we obey God, we walk along the road he has for us, and our vision is maintained. When we disobey God, our vision darkens and we cannot see the way ahead. Disobedience causes us to wander in the wilderness where there is no road.
God’s word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path (Psalm 119:105). When we keep the word of God, we can see clearly. We stay on the highway of holiness that goes toward Mount Zion.
God wants his people to move forward into the plans that he has for them. He has a vision for his people, and he wants us to see that vision and move ahead. Let us forget the things from the past that hold us back. Let us move forward confidently with God into the things he has for us in the future. When God turns a desert into water, and when he makes a highway in the wilderness, we want to see these miracles. We will see them as we follow the Holy Spirit and keep the word of God.
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