Mike Parsons
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When the Old Stops Working
I think sometimes we need an end of something for the beginning of something else. That is when sometimes it feels like it is dark. This is not working anymore. Why is it not working? You feel that because actually what God is wanting is for you to move from one old way of doing something into something new. Often, if the old way of doing it keeps working, there is no incentive to embrace the new. So it can feel like, why is this not working, what is going on? Because God has something new that he wants you to embrace.
Therefore, it can feel like there is a gap, or it feels like what is going on, but actually God is at work in it so that you can find what is new rather than staying with the old. Often what people do, when they have been used to doing something a particular way and it seems it is not working, is they try harder and push it. They often do it in the flesh, with their own effort and their own strength. What they are not realising is that God does not want them to do it that way anymore, because he has something new for them. But they are not able to rest in the gap.
Rest in Transition
Some people really do not like quiet. There has to be noise, there has to be activity, something has to be going on. That is the problem with not being at rest, you need the activity. And if the activity is something God wants to change, you keep trying to do it because that is your comfort zone. When you are comfortable, it is familiar, but it becomes uncomfortable when things stop working and you have not yet discovered how the new works.
That was the transition out of the old covenant into the new. It did not just end. There was a 40-year period of transition where both were in place, and that caused quite a lot of confusion and difficulty. But it allowed people to come out of the old thing, which was fading away and becoming obsolete, as it says in Hebrews, and to embrace the new covenant, which was a completely different revelation and experience. Some never came out of the old. They tried to make the old work.
478. Decoding Revelation: The Transition from Old to New Covenant
Letting Go of the Old
Paul was one of them, trying to make the old work when Jesus was trying to show him a new way. It was not until he was on the Damascus road, in the light, that God revealed that Jesus was in him, and that revelation transformed his life. But he had to abandon the old way of doing it to embrace the new way. He could not keep going with law and works as opposed to grace. So his whole message became one of grace and the finished work of Jesus rather than law.
He had to explain to many people why this was not working anymore, and some were pressured into going back to a system, or even going to a system they had never had, by those who wanted to maintain the law of Moses alongside the grace of Jesus. But you cannot mix covenants. During that 40-year period there was a mixture of old and new, until eventually the old came to an end. Even today people are still trying to mix old and new, because that is what happens with a religious spirit. It wants you to operate in a way that is based in a system, but mixing systems just creates a mess.
You know, if you want hot water, you want hot water, if you want cold water, you want cold water, but warm water is not very pleasant to drink. It is a simple picture of not trying to keep the old going, but embracing the new. But it is not easy when you are in the gap, because it feels uncomfortable. It feels like something is not right, not feeling good anymore, but that is because God wants us to embrace something new.
Growth Requires Movement
There is always a beyond. In Ephesians 3 it says God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what you can ask or think. If you keep going with what was before, you will never go beyond into what is next. That is why it can feel uncomfortable, but you can still be at rest even when something does not work anymore or when things are changing and transitioning. It is not easy, because there are questions and feelings and a sense of uncertainty.
Ultimately, you cannot stay in a state of immaturity forever. We have to mature. It is like what happens when birds in a nest reach the point where they need to learn to fly. The mother pushes them out of the nest. They are encouraged out so that they will fly, because they will never fly if they stay in the nest.
I like watching the birds in the garden. We have bird feeders and tables, and the little birds chirp while the parents feed them for a while after they have left the nest. But eventually the parents stop feeding them. I have seen the adult birds sit on the bird table, encouraging the fledgling to come and eat, while the fledgling still opens its mouth expecting to be fed. But the parents do not do it anymore, because the food is right there. The young bird has to peck at it and eat it for itself rather than relying on the parent.
Moving Beyond the Gap
There is a sense of growth in this, and I think God orchestrates those periods where things are not working as well, or there is a gap, or it feels like you do not know where you are, so that we will not want to stay there. It may feel like a hole, as you described it, but it is actually part of the process of moving us forward into something new.
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