Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the NUMA Church Podcast, wherever you are in the world. We're so glad you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly Father is as we all grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Actually, there's a few things the Lord's been just bringing back to me, you know, periodically over the last few weeks. In particular, some things that he began to speak to me about towards the end of last year and early this year, about 2025.
And on Friday evening, we were here in the worship. By the way, if you didn't make it, make sure you do next time, because it was great, and it was just a great time. And in the middle of it, the Lord just highlighted three things to me that he'd been saying to me about this year. And I.
I was sort of wondering what that was all about. And then yesterday morning, I got a message from Pastor Glenn saying, hey, would I preach today? And then at exactly the same time, I don't know how many of you know of David McCracken. He's an internationally recognized prophet and been a friend of ours for many years. And he had no idea that I was preaching or whatever, but he just sent me a message with a particular scripture in it, because as soon as Pastor Glenn mentioned it to me, I just went, holy Spirit, am I meant to be doing this or what? And immediately there was the three things from Friday night and the things the Lord's been saying to me, but also a scripture. And within two minutes, literally, I get this message from Dave McCracken saying, I don't know why I'm sharing this with you, but here's a scripture I just feel I should give you. And it was exactly the same scripture.
So I looked at that, and I thought, I think I must be meant to preach.
So I want to just share a simple message with you this morning that I've titled New Beginnings. I want to talk to you about New Beginnings. And in Ecclesiastes 3. 1, and we're very familiar with this passage, I'm sure it says to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. And it's God is a God of seasons. We see that in creation, don't we? We've got the four seasons and, you know, change, and those sort of things happen all the time. And it's a normal part of our personal life and, of course, of our corporate lives as we go through different seasons. And as a local church, we go through different seasons. And what we need to remind ourselves and recognize is that there is a purpose to those seasons. And there's a season. There is a reason for the different seasons that we pass through. And there is a purpose in the process involved in changing seasons. Because God's not just always about the destination. He's about the transition and the things. What are we going to learn? What do we need to adjust? How do I need to think all of those sort of things in response to God saying, here comes a new season. And of course, in the scripture and throughout the Scripture, we see that the word time has two definitions in Scripture. One is the word chronos, from which we get the word chronological, which is talking about just normal calendar, general passing of time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's all chronological time. But then it has in the New Testament the word kairos, and in the Old Testament the word earth. It means specific time in the passing of time. Generally, there are specific times for certain things to happen. And that's what that scripture is saying, the right moment, the window of opportunity. And when there's a window of opportunity, we need to know that that window is only open for a limited period of time. And so you have to get into that, take that opportunity before the window closes. And of course, the scriptures say that in the fullness of time Jesus was born, it means at exactly the right time. And Ecclesiastes 3, one reminds us that there are specific time slots allocated for certain things to occur. The other scripture, 1 Chronicles 12:32, says, the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, and they know what Israel ought to do. How many know. That's pretty significant, isn't it? And it's really two attributes that you and I actually need to be aware of, as we are led by Holy Spirit to be able to understand the times that we live in. How many know the times are changing all the time? They change it. And when you've been around as long as we have, you can look back over the 40, 50, 60 years and see the transition and you know, the time. The changes in our society over the last 20, 30, 40 years is ridiculous. If you go back, you know, society and things have changed and they're changing all the time. And there must be an ability not just to discern what's happening and what the times are, but to know what we should do. What's our response? Learning to discern, learning to hear Holy Spirit, learning to walk with that. And in Amos 3. 7, it says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. God speaks to us.
He has placed in the body people with, you know, prophetic gifts and those who are called to minister in the office of a prophet. But more than that, Scripture is also very clear that all of us are called and equipped to be a prophetic people to be led by Holy Spirit. Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice. If you're not hearing his voice, it's because you're not aligned with him. It's because there's not that space in your thinking and in the way you're going about life to give him time to actually talk. How many know? Wait on the Lord you know, and you'll renew your strength. It's not the five minutes that you give him as you're rushing out the door or after you get up before you go to work. No, no. It's about allocating time. How many know for any significant relationship, you got to allocate time. And I need to. I need to wait on him. I need to spend time in the Word so that he can speak to me. And we need to be like these sons of Iscar that had an understanding of the time and knew what to do. And I want to suggest to you that particularly in this age where darkness is increasing around the world, in the Western world, there's been a tremendous shift in the spiritual atmosphere and in the culture.
If you go back, all of the Western countries were founded on Judeo Christian values culture.
But in the 1890s, there was a scientist, I can't recall his name, but he made this statement came out, it was echoed around the world that there's no such thing as God. We scientists know how things really work and what they are, and God's a load of rubbish. And that began to affect people. And when you come through to the 1950s and 60s and from around about that time, there was a huge shift in things that happened in the Western world. We took the Bible out of schools, we stopped praying in schools, we did all those sorts of things. And there was a shift. How many know if you get God out of the road, the enemy comes, darkness increases. Read your Bible. In the last days, darkness will increase. But here's the point. It also is very clear that the glory of God on the church will increase. How many know the light becomes more evident, evident in the midst of darkness. And it's a day of God, not just restoring the church to what it was before in the book of Acts, but actually it's been his intention from the beginning that the Church. At the close of this day of grace, at the end of this age, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. There will be a manifestation of the presence and power of God greater than there ever has been. And so you and I are called to discern the times, understand the times, and know how to respond and to really be leaning into God and all of that kind of thing.
One of my favorite scriptures, and some of you would have heard me speak about this before, is found in Psalm 84, verse 5 through 7. And it's blessed. When you read in the Psalms, the word blessed, it actually means, or another translation of it, means to be envied.
To be envied is the man whose strength is in you. The word strength there means trust or confidence, that kind of thing. To be envied is the person who puts their trust and confidence in God.
But notice this statement. Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
That's a critical element.
Heart is set on pilgrimage.
And as they pass through the valley of Baca, the Valley of Weeping, when they go through the tough times, they make it a spring. And the rain also covers it with pools. And they go from strength to strength. And each one appears before God and Zion. So it's saying that if you have trust in God, you're confident in him, and you really have set your heart to do the journey. Even when you go through the tough times, I want you to notice it doesn't say God makes it a spring. It says you make it a spring because of the favor of God on your life, that you're able to go through the tough times and go from strength to strength. We have to learn how to ask God what he wants to teach us in the tough times. What do I need to learn out of this? And it says, everyone appears before God in Zion. In other words, they achieve their objectives, they achieve the fulfillment of their life. And it's the special blessing on those who have set their heart pilgrimage.
They draw grace and strength for the journey. They're going into new things. They're stepping out of their comfort zone. They leave the past and the known to embrace things that are unknown and that they've not yet experienced. How many know that's a challenge of life?
We always like what we like. We like what we like around about us. We like it this way and not that way. One of the things I've seen over the years, you know, is people that move town or they get in a situation where they're looking for a church, and they say they Go around looking at churches, they oh, I like this. I didn't like that. I like that pastor. I don't like that one. I like this. How many know you're to be led by the spirit, not by your desires, your opinions, your perspectives.
And in fact, when Dariel and I many moons ago moved back into the city of Auckland and I was in the corporate world at that stage, I'd just been appointed the national sales manager for a big manufacturing company and moved back to our head office in Auckland and we rented a home and we were going to go to a church that we knew some distance away from where we were, where home was. We knew the pastor, we knew the move of God in the place. And we've been filled with the spirit just a few years and been in revival conferences and the things at the end of the charismatic renewal, charismatic conferences and so on. And so we were looking for that. But when we got into the house, we discovered, because we were AOG back then, and we discovered there was an AOG church quite close to where we were living. And we thought, oh, well, on Sunday we better check this one out before we drive the distance to the other church.
So we go to this church on Sunday morning and we've got young kids and we pull up and I look at it and it's a dump. It's a whole building, daggy looking building.
We go inside and you know, the building was horrible. They've got a grand piano there to lead the worship and the piano's out of tune and Dariel is a pianist from way back and classical pianist and all of that sort of thing, and the whole thing was horrible.
But here's what happened. When we pulled up outside, I kind of looked at him and oh, gosh, a bit of a dump. Oh, we better go, we go and check it out. As I walked across the door, literally as I walked into the building, the Lord said to me, stay here. It was clear as anything. And I'm thinking, this is the last place I want my kids growing up. It's the last place I want to be. And Dariel wasn't keen at all, I gotta tell you. And we were just kind of going, what the heck. Little did we know, 18 months later, I was going to be asked to take over the pastor's role. We got rid of that building pretty quickly, bought a couple of properties around it, built a new 500 seat church and, you know, just crazy in the middle of the 70s and God just blessed us. It just took off. It was just amazing. But if it had been me and my opinion or our opinion. No, I'm not going there. I don't like that. No, no. We be led by the Spirit of God and do what he wants us to do. Whatever that looks like.
Isaiah 44. You know these verses, verse 18 through 19. This is the verses that Dave McCracken sent me.
Do not remember the former things.
You know, one of the things, as you grow older, you've got a lot more to process.
And if you don't change, you become a dinosaur and irrelevant.
You're no longer relevant to society because society's changed and you're still looking back. How many know we talk about the good old things.
We've had a lot of good old things, but we've had a lot of bad old things, too.
But we remember the good ones, but not the bad ones.
And then it says, goes on to say, don't even consider the things of old. In other words, don't think about it. Don't let your mental focus be on those things.
Because everything's changing all the time. And if we're going to be relevant and able to be used significantly in the purposes of God, we have to embrace change. Because notice what the Lord says. Behold, I will do a new thing. He doesn't say, there may be something. I said, I will do a new thing. I'm going to do a new thing. And it's going to spring forth. And can you see it? Some of your translations say, this one says, shall you not know it? In other words, if you're thinking about the past, you're not even going to be seeing what God's doing. You won't even pick it up. You'll be so caught up with what you like and where it's going and all the things you used to. And God's wanting to do something new, and he's actually doing it. He's, I will do something new. But because your focus is in the past and you're dreaming about what you're dreaming and all the things that you like and everything else, you're not even going to see it. How many know what I'm talking about this morning?
But look at this. He said, I will even make a road in the wilderness.
How many of you have been through wilderness times?
You know, the children of Israel, they leave Egypt to go to the Promised Land, and they're in the wilderness, and they came to the promised Land, and it didn't look like they wanted it, they didn't like it. So they rejected what God said to them. And they ended up living in the wilderness for 40 years. Do you know why they were in the wilderness for 40 years? Cause they wouldn't learn the lessons. They were moaning about everything, complaining about everything. They weren't trusting God. They weren't following him with what he said. They were moaning about the leadership. They moaned about the word of God. They moaned about everything. And so they're wandering in the wilderness. But God says, no, no, don't forget about the past. I'm going to do a new thing. Listen to me. And I will even make a road for you in the wilderness. How do you know he's a waymaker? You might be in the wilderness in life, and we all go through wilderness times, but there's lessons to learn in the wilderness that you can't learn anywhere else.
And he says, rivers in the desert.
You ever gone through dry times, barren times, times when things aren't working? He says, no, no, I'll come and I'll make a river there if you'll lean into me. I love the way the new living translation puts a scratch. This passage. It starts off by saying, but forget all that. Forget all that. It's nothing compared to what I'm going to do, for I'm about to do something new. See, I've already begun. Do you not see it? That's the way the new living translation puts it. And it's such a critical area of life, the way to do life. These verses here, couple of verses, and the verses we looked at in the psalm a moment ago about having a heart, committed to traveling and journey and do the journey are so important for us.
Number of years ago, I trained as a professional coach to coach mainly Christian business people and pastors and things like that. I'd been coaching a long time, but I decided to upgrade.
And so I did that. And one of the things that happens when you start doing that, there's a lot of research about what happens in society and what happens in different things. And one of the things about research that I was exposed to. Any organization, you can think church, you can think business, you can think sports club, you can think anything, any organization of people. If it's initially well established, with clear objectives and good leadership, it'll progress for a period of time, but it won't continue to develop and grow without embracing the new seasons and changes, and particularly for the church that God has for his body. And at some point the church will plateau, it'll go into decline. And the only way that can be averted is for that church to Be born again, to embrace a new beginning in the purposes of God. It's true. If you know anything about businesses, big organizations, you know they can start off and do good, but they've got to change because society's changing, the world's changing, things are changing. And so they've got to embrace new things. And there's a great passage of Scripture at the beginning of Joshua, chapter one. And of course, Moses is dead. And God says to Joshua, and it says in Joshua 1, verse 1, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of nun Moses seed saying, moses, my servant is dead. Now, how many know? He knew that that wasn't news. He knew that Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I've given them, the children of Israel, and every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I've given you, as I said to Moses. Now, the point is this, that God was appointing Joshua to be the leader in the place of Moses.
And if you follow through the first three or four chapters, you'll see how he restructured things and organized things and all of that sort of thing.
But. And you know, he promised to be with Joshua like he was with Moses. And no man will be able to stand in front of you and all of those kind of things. But I want you to notice what he says is that you have to walk into it before it's yours. You've got to step into it. And that is talking about aligning ourselves with the new thing that God is wanting to bring about and processing it in the spirit before we ever possess it in the natural. That's why prayer and fasting is such a critical element of our life, catching hold of what God wants to do. And see, prayer and fasting is not about trying to twist God's arm to do what he doesn't want to do. It's about aligning ourselves, denying our flesh and our own desires, and aligning ourselves with him so that we might be anointed and have increased insight and understanding of how we move into the new season that God has for us.
And you'll notice here that it was a new season, a new leader for a new season.
And actually, if you look at it, it was a new style of leadership, because Joshua's style of leadership was entirely different from Moses. Moses was effective. He was a great leader for that season. But now it's a new season. God appoints a new leader. And often it's not about a new leader, but it's a new style of leadership. So people, even in leadership have to learn to change their style of leadership in order to embrace the new season and outwork it. And so things have to change and adjust in all of our lives. And there are three things a new season always involves. Number one is recommissioning.
There's a recommissioning, it's reestablishing the focus on the purpose.
What do we exist for?
What is our mission? And it's rebirthing what is often, and in this case with Moses and Joshua, it's rebirthing the original purpose and making it relevant to the day they lived in. You know, it's about being contemporary, being real, being effective, being in touch with it. And in this situation, it was a new generation with a different people, but the same purpose. And Moses and Joshua, you know, both leading into the same vision, the same mission, the same purpose. But when Moses died, there was a recommissioning God saying to Joshua, no, no, you lead the people now into the land of promise. And as I said, if you read the first three or four chapters of the book of Joshua, you see how Joshua refocused the people, recommissioned them and all of that sort of thing. And so it's recommissioning. And then out of that number two, realigning. People have to be realigned with the purpose, making the ministry, the mission, the vision, relevant to this generation, being relevant to our world today, the marketplace, the society, whatever it may be. How many know how? Being in church is important, but it's actually more important what we do when we walk out the doors, into the community, wherever we are. Because it's about you and I carrying the kingdom, wherever we are, into the marketplace, into wherever we are, the presence and power of God. So there's a change of season brings a recommissioning focus on the vision. What are we actually here for? A realignment and then a reassigning, often for people and resources towards the mission, developing a strategy, putting a plan in place that'll move us forward, forward to fulfill the purpose and complete our mission. And in the process of moving into a new season, it's critical to know that things obviously have got to change. And part of that is recognizing that people as individuals go through different seasons in their personal life and ministry. And part of the realigning and reassigning that needs to take place is the recognition that maybe some people role needs to change because they've changed And God's doing something different with them. And so we've got to be open to those kind of things. You know, one of the things I used to. When we were pastoring in Melbourne, I used to talk to the church a lot about sports teams, because, as you know, football's a big deal in Melbourne. And, you know, one of the things about being on a sports team, the team on the field is only part of the team.
There's a whole lot of team sitting on the bench, and the coach and the captain determine who is on the field and who's sitting on the bench. And if you are in the team, if you're in a cricket team and you're a batsman and you're not striking the ball quite as good as you used to, they'll take you out of the team that's playing in the game and put you on the bench and say, you need to practice a bit more there before you get back in the team. And in church life, we need to understand that culture, because so often, if people are moved from this position and that, we go, oh, what did they do wrong? What happened? No, sometimes you need to pull back, read a book, study a bit more, get on top of something. Because we need to be able to embrace change without feeling like, you know, something's gone wrong and we become unhealthy. So many churches are unhealthy because of those things. We can't embrace the flexibility of it. And we all go through different seasons, different circumstances in life. And that's why when we used to always have a major review of everybody that was in a position of leadership every year, we'd sit down, not dump them, but we'd. We, you know, have reviews and things like that and get them to think about, okay, what do you want to keep doing this next year? What's going on in your life?
What did you learn this year that makes you better at what you're doing than what you were doing last year? And how are you prepared for the next year? Because how many know God's intention is to go on that we get stronger, brighter, more of his glory, more of his presence, more of his power, a more accurate flow. We. We need to be flowing in the gifts of Holy Spirit more and more and more. The anointing. Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, gifts of, you know, prophetic insight. Come on, somebody. That's the grace of God in your life and my life that we need to pursue. It says, earnestly desire, spiritual gifts. It's all part of the process of doing the journey with God.
And so at the end of last year, the beginning of this year, The Lord said three things to me about 20, 25.
Number one, it's a year of new beginnings.
Number two, a year of major changes. And number three, as a consequence, it would be an exceptional year, a year of new beginnings. And, you know, one of the crazy things that happened, the Lord started to talk to me about something just at the beginning of the year, and it was just crazy compared to what I was thinking. And I'm wrestling with this whole thing and going, God, I don't want to be involved in that or do that. And the Lord's saying to me, I said to you about new beginnings. It's a day of new beginnings and major changes. How many know? Often God can take you, you know, somewhere you don't expect to go. He can involve you in things that, you know. It's just a bit hard to kind of work through, how did I get here? What's this about?
But it's about having a heart committed to doing the journey and trusting God and leaning into him. It was a heart set on pilgrimage. Regardless of what that looks like, there will be times when you will go through the wilderness. You will be times, According to Psalm 23, when he will lead you into a dark valley. Not the devil.
No, he's actually. Because he wants to renew your soul, he's saying, I'll lead you into a dark valley. What's that? Well, so that you can learn some things, so that you can grow, so that you can mature, so that you can develop a greater focus of faith and trust and confidence in him and all of those kind of things.
Dry, barren desert experiences, but still focused on God with thanksgiving and everything.
Now Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, in everything, give thanks. How many know there are things that you don't give thanks for, but in the midst of it, you can give thanks. Thanks that he's still God, he's still in control. You're still redeemed, he's still forgiven, you're still a child of God. And with the understanding that all things work together for good. To them that love God and are called according to his purpose, it means if I continue to love him and walk in his purpose, I'm going to learn things through the tough times and all the rest of it, and it's going to work together for my good and for the good of his purposes in my life.
You know, it's like Paul and Silas praising God at midnight in the prison and they activate an earthquake and all of that. Breakthrough.
Have you ever stopped to think that Paul was in prison for years?
And through that time, he wrote most of the New Testament epistles, epistles that are full of, you know, living in peace, living in joy, living at Thanksgiving, trusting God, all of that. And he's writing it all while he's in prison, knowing that they're going to execute him. They're wanting to execute him. But his focus isn't on prison. His focus is on the Lord.
He knows that. Even, you know, when I die, you know, people talk about getting older and older. And I've often said to people, well, longevity is a great thing, but you have to have health with longevity.
So you need to believe for that.
I've seen people that have struggled for the last, you know, 15, 20 years with all sorts of health issues.
And I've often said to myself, I think if I got that, I'd say, God, time for me to go home. I'm getting out of here.
Go and be with Jesus, you know, because when you die, it's like a kid in a family.
When our kids were little, we were living in New Zealand, and one period of time, we were in the center of the north island on the southern side. It was pretty cold.
And so in the wintertime, the fire going in the lounge and the kids would be there. Sometimes they'd just go to sleep on the floor or on the couch, pick them up, take them to their room. They'd wake up in their bed.
That's what happens with you. When I. When we die, we go to sleep here, and the Lord just takes us to another room, and you wake up there in the place prepared for you. Come on, somebody. It's awesome.
So in the middle of all the stuff, stand with me this morning.
I want you just to reach out to the Lord, lean into him.
What is it that you need to let go of?
What from the past are you still holding onto, still focused on?
I just encourage you right now, just shift your focus.
Repent, lay it down at his feet. Give it to him.
What is the new beginning that God has for you?
Maybe there's some things that he's doing already that you've been sort of avoiding and not wanting to have a good look at.
Are we willing and willing to embrace and position ourselves to embrace major change and new things?
Because this is going to be an exceptional year. And I want to declare that over you, prophetically, in Jesus name, if you will, embrace the new things that God has for you. And if you will embrace the changes that that requires. This will be an exceptional year for you. An exceptional year. Hallelujah. And so, Father, I just thank you right now that in the midst of the. All the things that we're going through, different ones, Lord, I pray that you would make us sensitive to the new thing that you're doing, whatever that looks like, whatever it means to embrace the change. And Father, I pray you would help us to have a heart that really is genuinely committed to doing the journey.
I mean, is your heart. Have you really committed your heart to do the journey, or are you hanging on to what you like, the way you like it, what you prefer?
You see, the scripture is very clear that we have to die to ourselves. The flesh has to die.
Our desires, our preferences, all of those things.
No, no, they're not going to be redeemed. They are to be crucified.
There's no longer I that liveth, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live is not for myself, but it's for him, embracing whatever it is, moving forward in the purposes of God. There's gonna be an exceptional year. Hallelujah.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast. And we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of. Of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or us simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin, sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus, the Son of God who came, lived, died, and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right, and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with Him.
Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord. And we do that through a simple prayer.
Follow along with me. Dear Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at NUMA Church. Thanks for listening.
