Staying in God’s Presence: Being Made New

Isaiah 54:13–17 (NKJV)
“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an [a]instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Today, almost everybody wants to see or experience change. In their attempts to change, some try reading “how to” books. And others look online and follow influencers whom they feel are successful, and they attempt to imitate them, but many are not able to achieve the changes that they desire, often finding themselves in far worse situations and conditions than they were in the beginning of their search.

People may try different changes in their diets, their wardrobes, their hairstyles, their locations, their jobs, their friends and associates, and churches. Some even come to the Lord and tell Him who or what they want to be, not asking His desire or purpose, or what He wishes for what they desire.

Many of these are not unbelievers. Instead, they are born-again believers, and some are occasional church attendants, and many have never made the commitment to be discipled, because they did not want to be disciplined and instructed. They want God and their life, their way.

Others became church members, readily attend church services, and then live as if they don’t even know God.

Luke 8:11–14 (NKJV)
“11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”

We, sons and daughters of God, have been taught by biblical teachers and our pastors, and with our personal relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior, that being made new in Jesus is a process.

Today, many people care about how others look or appear. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the condition of our hearts. In our carnal, worldly minds, we may think that we have made it. We got a good job, money in the bank, buying things, big house, right neighborhood. We believe that we have got it made.

Luke 12:16–20 (NKJV)
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’”

You see, having these things may be good, but they may not be God’s plan and purpose for you, for us, here and now.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

God has a plan and a purpose for each and every one of us. Hallelujah. And as we see Jesus as Lord and Savior, our lives no longer belong to us, but have been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, bought with a price. No longer our will, but Your will be done.

When we surrender our will to Him, we begin the process of becoming more like Him. We must die to self, that we can live for Him. This process can be very challenging, because the old man does not die willingly or completely. He never dies completely. We must always keep him under. He is always looking for a way back to the controls.

Jesus reminds us that it is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. The Christian life is simple: surrender to Christ and die to self and live for Christ.

We must grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ our Savior. The way this begins is through fasting and prayer, reading and studying the Word.

Matthew 11:28–30 (NKJV)
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Spending time in God’s presence, learning, trusting, and depending on Him by faith, we will be renewed daily in His presence. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He desires us to be a reflection of His grace in the world, because many don’t hear, and some have not even heard Him. Yes, in this modern world of internet and satellite phones and all these different things, there are some in the world who have yet not heard of Him.

God is in control of everything, but He will never violate our will. He makes all things new to those who are His, for His yoke is easy and His burdens are light. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Those who spend time with Him, He will transform. In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Isaiah 40:28–31 (NKJV)
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

It is in the waiting that He can strengthen and equip us to do the work that He has called us to do. We must walk in the fullness. If you are in Christ, He makes all things new. The old has passed away.

God values the deep and the unseen, and looks for inner growth. He looks to see us growing. A baby is born, and if you nurse them, they have full soft bellies, and they grow. But if we’re not growing—if He’s feeding us, if we’re not growing—we have a problem. We need to go back to our first works. We need to go back and spend more time in His presence and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us, to lead us, and guide us.

Ephesians 3:14–21 (NKJV)
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

As Paul reminded us that we are the children of God with blessings, discipline, and obedience, God will rebuild and set us up. No weapon formed against us will prosper. He has given us the full armor of God so that we will see and recognize the tricks, trials, and schemes of our enemy.

So wherever we are, we are to be a reflection of Christ. He has given us this charge:

Mark 16:15–18 (NKJV)
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

He is not depending upon our strength or our ability, because our ability will fail every single time, no matter how hard we try. If we do it in our own strength, we’re going to fail. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.

Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV)
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.

Ephesians 4:11–13 (NKJV)
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

While we wait on Him, spending quality time in His presence, we are renewed, we are empowered, and equipped for the work of the ministry, for our assignment that has been given us.

The Lord has given us a mandate to exalt Jesus, equip His people, and expand His Kingdom. He has prepared, equipped, and raised up various deacons, ministers, reverends, pastors, and lay leaders to fulfill the commission. So we have no excuse not to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ.

We are to be Christ’s hands extended to our community, our city, nation, and the world through the ministries that He has established, forming teams that go, assess what can be done, pray and bless people, and encourage. There were seasons when the church could not go on mission trips for many years due to the pandemic—but the time is coming back for us to get out and do the work of the ministry.

God has given us everything that we need to accomplish His plan and purpose as we walk in the fullness of Christ with His Holy Spirit. The enemy wants to keep his power, but Christ has set us free. Amen.

Father help us, Lord, to know that we are not the same and have been made new by Your Spirit. Help us to live in newness, to walk by faith and not by sight, to remember to put on the whole armor of God every day, and to shine bright on the inside and the outside, and bring glory, honor, and praise to Christ. We say this in Jesus’ name. Amen.