Power Of New Beginnings

Power Of New Beginnings

Key Scripture:  “It is finished!”  John 19:30

Power Point:

     At the moment of His death, Jesus said, “It is finished!”  But it wasn’t.  It was only just beginning! Of course, what He meant was that that particular part of His ministry was finished. The best was yet to come.

     One of my very favorite passages of Scripture is Isaiah 64:4,5.  It says, “Oh that You would break open the heavens and come to earth.  (He did!  That part is finished!)  For from the beginning, no man has seen a God like our God, who acts on behalf of the one who is waiting for Him with joy and anticipation in their heart.”  He comes toward and approaches the one who is perfectly happy and at rest in Him and who never forgets His faithfulness." (Suzanne version).

     Beloved, is there something that needs to be finished in your life so that God can act on your behalf?  Is there something that needs to be dead and buried so that resurrection life can power up your life?  We love to hang on to the “old” don’t we; old attitudes, old thoughts, old patterns of behavior.

Yet God is always anxious to stir up the “new”.  He’s always got His eye on that place in the future He has set aside for you; that place where you are joyfully complete in Him and fully satisfied with His goodness.

       When Jesus said, “It is finished!”, He meant that from that point on those who accepted His “finished” work, would never be the same again.

When the women went to the Garden Tomb that day, Jesus was not there in the same form that they had known Him before.  He had risen from the dead.  He had risen above dead things and was a totally new creation, still a man but also God, unlimited in power and perspective. We have the same opportunity. We have the same calling.  To put behind the things that are “finished” in our lives and anticipate and live in the “new” place Jesus died to give us.

     If you think about it, when Mary begins to try to hug Jesus, He says, “Not yet!  I haven’t seen my Father.”  The thought occurred to me that Jesus came to the people He loved to let them know He was okay, even before He went to His Father. He wanted them to know that indeed, the old was finished, and a new way of living had begun. He says to Mary, “Go to my brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to MY Father and YOUR Father, and to MY God and YOUR God.”  Jesus had finished His job and because of Him, God could truly

become OUR God, up close and personal, without fear of retaliation or judgment, or the weight of sin.  We get to come to OUR Father because Jesus had done away with everything that separated us from Him.

  What is finished in your life today?  And what is still hanging on from the “old” that is keeping you from experiencing all the “new” God has for you?

What is missing from your experience of the fullness of God?  What is holding you back from experiencing heaven on earth?

    Why not ask Him to break open the heavens over your life and then begin to get really happy as you anticipate seeing that! 
Beloved, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

Power Thought:
What isn't finished tends to hang on.  Jesus made all things new!