Monday, February 25, 2013
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Not long ago I was at a conference in a beautiful mountain setting. We had our work all spread out across the tables we were working on. The tables became messier and messier as the day went on. You know how those meetings go. And, after several hours of our, shall we say hot air, the room was ready for some ventilation. So a couple of fellows went over and opened the windows real wide, and oh did that felt good. And then, a big mountain breeze came up and blew through the room. Some people thought the wind was just what we needed. But some of our work started to blow around, and some thought it was suddenly too cool. One man got up and loudly slammed those windows shut! It seems as if there are always those who want to shut the window when the wind is starting to blow.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Slamming the Window On a Refreshing Wind."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 43, and beginning at verse 18. God says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Now, it seems like what God is saying here is, "Don't get stuck in the past. Don't get stuck in the way God has 'always done it'." He says, "Don't dwell on the past; forget those former things. I've got a whole new thing I want to do. I've started doing it. Can't you see it?" He often has this new thing He wants to do because He's very creative. He doesn't stay inside our boxes we build for Him. He seldom repeats himself. The problem is that we are what I call "rutnicks". We get into a rut and we stay there.
I heard about a road in Northern Canada once. It's actually kind of where the roads run out and there's a big sign there that says, "Choose your rut carefully; you will be in it for the next 50 miles." Well, that's pretty much like we are. We get in this rut, and we stay in it for at least 50 miles. We're "rutnicks".
We get into a way of thinking that God is always going to work. We get into a status quo and we hang onto it for dear life. The problem is that the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing through, trying to rearrange things and refresh things. We get a wind of change and we get up and shut the window. Maybe God's trying to do a new thing in your life and you're still trying to hang on to the status quo. At one time that status quo was God's new thing. But now He's got something different. He's got greater plans for you now. It might be a little risky, but it's so much bigger, so much better.
I know that God is trying to stir His people right now for revival, but we've got Him in our denominational boxes, our theological boxes: He's always going to sound like this. We've got methodological boxes: He's always going to operate like this. He's going to operate within these boundaries. I think God wants to explode into our lives as believers in powerful ways that we've never dreamed of or we've never experienced. In worship He wants to do a new thing. In your family He wants to do it a new way. In our witness He wants to wake us up to the lost. In supernatural results He wants to deliver something new instead of the best that man can think up with a little assist from God. He wants to take us into a new significance of our life, as our life becomes more eternalized as we become involved in His rescue mission on earth. He's saying, "I don't want you to just sit around and be a receiver. I want you to be a giver. I'm doing a new thing."
Be open to that new wind of the Holy Spirit. "Forget the old things" He says, "and open up to the streams that He wants to make in the desert. Is the Spirit trying to blow through your life, your church, your organization with a bold, new breeze? Well, don't slam the window!