Christians often have this idea that things around us should not change. Some of us feel that everything should always stay the same. We feel that way about church, about the service, and about many of the things that we do. God may not change. Jesus Christ may not change—He is the same yesterday, today, and forever—but that does not mean that God is not in a process of changing us.

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Show Notes:

God wants to bring change into our lives, and He is going to bring change into our lives. When He does, many times it is not something that we were hoping He would do. We may not want the circumstances that surround us to change. But God is going to bring change because He is trying to make a change within our hearts and spirits. And to do that, God often has to bring change into the external circumstances of our lives.

When God does bring change, many times it happens so quickly that we are not ready for it. Would we choose the change? Most of the time, probably not. But we must contend with it. Can we open our hearts and our minds to receive and accept what God is getting ready to do in our lives?

Many times, the change God brings looks to us like “a roadway into the wilderness.” But when God has fulfilled what He wants for us in the old level He had us on, He declares a new thing. He brings outward changes and shifts in our circumstances to affect the internal changes in our hearts and our minds and our spirits that He is looking for.

Key Verses:

• Hebrews 13:8. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
• Isaiah 43:18–19. “Behold, I will do something new.”
• Isaiah 42:8–9. “Now I declare new things; before they spring forth.”
• Isaiah 48:3–8. “Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”
• Genesis 12:1–4. “So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him.”
• Hebrews 11:8–12, 17–19. “Abraham, when he was called, obeyed.”
• Exodus 13:3. “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt.”
• Joshua 5:12–15. “Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down.”
• John 20:19–21. “Jesus came and stood in their midst.”
• Luke 19:11. “That the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.”
• Acts 1:3–8. “It is not for you to know times or epochs.”
• Acts 10:10–17. “Peter was greatly perplexed in mind.”
• Acts 10:26–29. “Stand up; I too am just a man.”
• Acts 15:6–11. “Giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us.”
• Acts 10:44. “The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening.”
• Isaiah 55:6–9. “So are My ways higher than your ways.”
• Romans 11:32–36. “How unsearchable are His judgments!”
• Hebrews 12:25. “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.”
• Jeremiah 29:10–11. “For I know the plans that I have for you.”

Quotes:

• “God moves quickly, and He cuts the time short in righteousness, so part of the difficulty we have in dealing with these transitions is that they come upon us so quickly. But God says the former things have come to pass.”
• “When God does a new thing, we find ourselves having to be wholly dependent upon Him—and that is what He is looking for!”
• “Your obedience puts you on the Lord’s side; your disobedience makes you His adversary.”

Takeaways:

1. Our human tendency is to get conditioned to—and therefore stuck—in our ways.
2. Our conditioned thinking becomes a cage of limitations that stops us from thinking God’s thoughts.
3. The Lord must shake up our lives and circumstances to force us to think outside the box and bring us in to the mind of Christ.
4. The Kingdom of God is coming, but we cannot enter into it if we are caged in our old ways and our old ways of thinking.

Prayer:

“Father, bring us into the mind of Christ. Let our thoughts be Your thoughts.

Let us leave our ways to walk in Your ways. Deliver us from the limitations

that have imprisoned us, blinding us from seeing your plans and Your will

for our lives. Let us clearly perceive your will and the path into Your Kingdom.

Amen.”