A New Thing
Do You See What I See?
You know there used to be a day when the holidays were separate celebrations we could enjoy, and be fully present in. We could have Thanksgiving, and then there would be some days before we celebrated Christmas. Maybe between Christmas and New Year we would be confused about the calendar for a couple of weeks, but we eventually stumbled into the new year, with core memories of family time in celebration of gratitude and love before returning to our normally scheduled programming.
NOT ANY MORE…
Before people even store their Halloween costumes, the “Grateful, Thankful, Blessed” merchandise appears in stores. Before people even put away the Thanksgiving leftovers, Grandma is getting run over by a reindeer, and Lexus is putting bows on cars in every other television commercial, as if the average person is buying their special someone a Lexus. Then, believe it or not, a couple of days after Christmas, your local store will have Valentine’s on display. Not to mention the media blitz of the “New Year Resolutions.” The promise of a “New Year—New You” is a multi-billion dollar industry in this nation.
According to some historians, the New Year Resolution dates back to “2000 B.C., when Babylonians celebrated the new year with a 12-day springtime festival called Akitu. They marked the arrival of the farming season by crowning a new king, thanking deities for a bountiful harvest and, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, resolving to return neighbors’ borrowed agricultural equipment.”[i]
This begs the questions:
With the manipulative speed of culture as we walk the treadmill of scheduled obligations, focused on the next thing, can we even comprehend when God is doing a new thing?
Is our commitment to tradition for comfort’s sake a good thing? Are we lazy? Afraid of change? Unwilling to be challenged in the whys? Or are we just staunch believers in the old reliable saying, “That’s how we’ve always done it.”
The answer to the above questions is: No! No! Maybe. Maybe. Probably. Possibly.
The last verses of Isaiah 42 — The Lord Yahweh is chastising Israel with a sort of desperation for them to turn their attention to Him. He calls them deaf and blind because of their idolatry (worshipping what and how they desire) and then begins a chapter titled “Israel’s Only Savior,” chapter 43. In verse 19, the Lord Yahweh declares through His prophet, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” This one verse contains our lesson for the Kingdom of God as we move into 2026. This verse contains the character and glory of God and the challenge to each of us who call ourselves believers, or more importantly, disciples. It is worthy of deep reflection.
BEHOLD!
This word does not have an exclamation mark behind it in the scripture; that is my doing, and for good reason. In the original language, it is almost a command to “look!” We see this word used to point toward something, newly introduced or recognized. It is a type of hinge word, where we recognize that what once was, must now bow to what is going to be. It is the cyclical creation of the Kingdom of God. In the verse directly before this one, the Lord Yahweh says through His prophet, “Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old…”
The Spirit of the Lord still summons us to “Behold!” The question is, are we like Israel? Can we see God is moving? Do we hear His voice? Are we just so comfortable in our distracted busyness that the tasks we deem priority drown out the call of heaven? Do we even realize how captivated we are by what is behind leaving us unable to BEHOLD what is ahead?
DOING A NEW THING
The beginning is actually, “Behold… I…” The Lord is pointing the finger at himself. Sometimes the problem with a “new thing” is that it becomes the focus. A new car, a new job, a new baby come with tangible excitement and energy. However, this verse tells us it is not the new thing that is the focus, but the One Who Is Doing It! What is He creating, what new thing is He establishing in His Kingdom, what is He building? In order to answer those questions, we must focus our eyes and fine-tune our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying, that we may take part and advance with Him in real time.
The words “New Thing” are interesting. Words like restore, rejuvenate, and renewal connect to them. The celebration of the biblical calendar and the cycles of life God created connects with it. We were designed to flow with the cyclical movement of heaven, which promise life and renewal, but we easily get lost in the timelines of our own desires.
The book of Ezekiel also prophesies the words “New Thing” about the coming Holy Spirit, who will live inside every believer. “…I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…”(Ezekiel 11:19 ESV) The relationship with Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s job on earth is to advance the Kingdom and the disciples of the King. That is US! As disciples of Christ and bearers of His image, we should be the receptors of the frequency of God’s “new thing” and be able to broadcast it throughout the earth. We need to learn to turn that dial and filter out the static and noise, so that we may hear…Him!
SPRINGS FORTH
These words are deceiving to our English understanding. “Springs Forth” brings to mind something jumping up in front of you, something immediate, and sudden. While that description holds some truth, there is more to comprehend. The visual should really be words like “to sprout” and “to grow.” These bring to mind a tender shoot coming out of the ground.
As farmers who raise corn, there is an annual exercise of planting, and waiting for the “corn to come up.” Farmers have worked the ground and, hopefully, had sufficient moisture, and when they place the seed in the ground at the right depth it can germinate, roots to go down deep, as the corn plant “springs forth” to rise above the soil line.
You can drive by a field of planted corn and if you have eyes to see - you can look down the rows of corn and see the line of green shoots breaking though as it reaches for the sun on its journey toward maturity. {That visual will preach!} The Lord begins a new thing just the same, we just need eyes to see.
DO YOU PERCEIVE?
That is a loaded question, and the way you answer it depends on your perception. Tricky! To word perceive contains all these elements:
ACKNOWLEGEMENT ~ COMPREHENSION ~ CONCERN ~ DISCIPLINE ~ RELATIONSHIP EXPERIENCE ~ INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP ~ KNOW ~ LEARN ~ UNDERSTAND ~ RECOGNIZE ~ REGARD ~ TAKE NOTICE ~ KNOW VERY WELL ~ WELL AWARE
To perceive we must comprehend God’s Spirit moving in our life and the world that we live. That is done by and intimate friendship laced with discipline and learning to recognize Him. To humble ourselves and life long learners of the way He moves in us and in our lives. We have to choose to notice Him and choose to walk AWARE of Him always in ALL Ways.
It is a communication of sensual experience with the Spirit of God. It is not mental ascension of scripture memorization – it is a life lived as a parable of lessons. Each moment encountered is an invitation to perceive Him better. An invitation that is too often ignored.
Do you perceive?
I WILL MAKE A WAY
We are told that “Gods’ ways are not our ways,”(Isaiah 55:8b ESV) yet we often go out of our way to do it our own way. Wow! No Way! Seriously. When the move of God is new, there is no framework for humanity to map it out. It is new. He has the map, we are but his subjects here in the earth waiting for instructions on our part in the grand establishment.
We cannot be presumptuous and think we know what to do. I think He likes this part because if you and I are going to take part in this movement of the Kingdom, then we have no choice but to press in closer to Him. Seek Him, desire Him more, become a more intimate friend.
Much like that cornstalk that has broken through, it must now reach toward the sun in faith that all that is needed will be provided. He has a way, and it is far superior to anything we can dream or imagine.
IN THE WILDERNESS
The word wilderness is “midbar” which means ‘mouth.’ It is rooted in the word, “dabar,” which means to ‘speak, declare, direct.’ Both of these words are directly linked to the words that come out of our mouths. Do we even spend time stewarding the seeds that we plant when we complain, gossip, murmur and whine?
Genesis 1 tells us that we were created in His image and when He creates he does it by speaking. So guess what, believer, every word that comes out of your mouth has the potential to plant a seed. What are you planting? And furthermore, what harvest are you after? In your planting are you extending your wilderness stay? Or are you declaring the living word that leads to the promised land?
When Israel murmured and complained in their wilderness about the promised land that God promised them it resulted in an entire generational delay before He would take them in, 40 years more they waited.
We are not called to parrot the world, to be a mimic of the generations before us, or a slave to the traditions around us. We are called to steward the words of heaven and the promises of God. To seek wisdom and revelation on what God wants from us now and then walk in obedience on the journey sets before us. He knows the way…we are to follow.
RIVERS IN THE DESERT
This is a different visual than a road in the wilderness, a river in the desert. My parents have a home in Arizona and in the desert regions when the rains come it is either a few drops that barely make a dent in the heat or it is a flood. For our purposes of understanding this final part of this verse the flood visual is the most accurate, however not entirely comforting. A flood means danger, panic, fear and maybe loss. Sometimes when God is doing something new it feels exactly like this. Why I wonder? Maybe because we are so comfortable in the desert of our life, the He has to make us uncomfortable.
Years ago there was a Christian group called FFH, they had a song called Move or Move Me. It was popular at a time when I was serving in a denominational church and I could feel that God was calling me to something else, but I could not put my finger on which way to go. Every time that I would get into my car, this song would be playing. The lyrics included the phrase,
Lord move in a way that I’ve never seen before;
Cause there’s a mountain in the way and a lock on the door;
I’m drifting away, waves are crashing on the shore;
So Lord Move or Move Me!
Pretty soon I knew that this song was the manifestation of the prayer that I needed to pray, Lord: move or move me! Spring up the flood in my desert, and boy did He. What a tumultuous ride that experience was. Looking back on it all these years later it was the first E-Ticket ride I experienced with the Lord. Ups and Downs. Fear and Panic. Loss, yes, but so much gain. It was the beginning of growth, my breaking through the soil line, my reaching for the SON with faith that all I needed will be provided.
It was the first (not the only, there have been some doozies since) but it taught me how to see, how to hear, how to perceive. He makes ways through wilderness; He invites you to dive in when the water is clear over your head and you cannot possibly swim in the current. You have to learn to breathe Holy Spirit while you’re underwater.
He invites you to lose yourself in Him and free Him in you.
So, in this first month of 2026, what “New Thing” is God calling you to? What “New Thing” is He doing in you? What wilderness have you been delayed in because of the confession of your mouth? What desert in your life needs the flood of Holy Spirit?
Do You Perceive it? I Hope You Do!
Happy New Year
Oh, and for the sake of Babylon, please return your neighbors agricultural equipment.
Blessings,
Kammy
[i] https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5649767/new-years-resolutions-history
Speaking of New Things…I was asked to do an interview with a group in Denver called Pray Until Saturation Happens or P.U.S.H. for short. What a great group. Here is that interview!