As I mentioned earlier this week, last weekend was the celebration of Rosh Hashanah – a new year. The Jewish holidays are set up so that the New Year is followed a week later by the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur – a day of repentance and holiness. Whether you as a Christian choose to participate in these Jewish remembrances, entering into a new thing with a cleansed and forgiven spirit certainly makes sense. Hear these words from a pastor in the Jewish-Christian tradition:
“Are you ready to go through the doors God has opened for you in the new year? It is time to shake off the old, go through the gates, and enter the new at Rosh Hashanah!
Time to Go Through the Gates
“For many of us, the last few seasons have been a time of pruning, shifting, confusion, and even sadness or anger. Yet, even within it, God has brought about change for the better by taking what the enemy meant for evil and turning it for good. God is opening doors of opportunity to us. It is our choice to go through the gates.
“Though we encounter challenging and unpleasant seasons, God gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the work He does in and through us during tough times produces a harvest of righteousness and peace when we allow ourselves to be trained by it…
The Doors Are Open
“In this new season, God is opening doors. And we are given a choice to fear and stay on the side we are already on or take a step of faith and move through the gates.
“It is time to shake off the old and go through the gates this Rosh Hashanah. It is time to shake off the old and accept that God wants us to step out of our comfort zone and into His complete comfort and strength. He is giving us a new playbook, one specifically designed for the times we live in and will encounter in the days and years to come.
- “Pass through, pass through the gates, and go from old to new. Prepare a new path for the people. Build! Build up a highway for them to come to me! Remove every hindrance and unfurl a banner for the nations!—Isaiah 62:10 (TPT)
Accept the Change
“Shake off the old to make room for the new. After a shaking, things do not remain the same. This can be emotional. The new thing God is doing can shake up your soul. It can feel like you are off balance, but there is a purpose to it–so that things start to fall into place.
“We have all been through an emotional earthquake, a shaking, at some point. For those of us who have leaned on God, the magnitude is lessened, but we have still experienced the highs and lows of it.
What to Do in the Shaking? See It as an Opportunity for Alignment.
“When a high-magnitude earthquake ends, a lot of things need to happen. First, there are the major things like turning off gas to broken lines, sealing off buildings in danger of collapse, putting out fires, etc., in order to prevent further damage. While emotionally, this can be a time of shock, everyone with the skills, ability, and in certain cases, permission must lay the foundation of the area’s new future.
“Spiritually this is where we take care of the major issues. And in this hour, choosing to see the shaking as an opportunity aligns with God because He has something abundant to share with you.
- “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…”—Ephesians 3:20
“It is time for us to pass through the open doors and be rooted and grounded in love, encountering the width, length, depth, and height of the Father’s heart, and be filled with the fullness of Him.
“It is time that we accept change–in our lives and God’s house.
“It is time to move through the gates, seeing God’s open doors before us! His Church, His Bride, His places of worship let us come together in unity and authority and build up the highways and lift up a banner for Him.
“The Lord is proclaiming, “Surely your salvation is coming!” The doors have been opened, we are passing through the gates, and the Redeemed of the Lord are being called out, sought out.
“Don’t lose heart because God is doing a new thing in you. His Spirit, which dwells in you, will give you the strength to accomplish all He has planned for you in these new opportunities He will bring you. So shake off the old, and anticipate the new!“*
God,
Thank you that when you want us to experience the “new wine” you work with us to get us ready for it. Thank you for the ways you are calling us to repentance and gently urging us to surrender to your Way, Truth and Life. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness when we come to you with humble hearts to ask forgiveness. Thank you for the future with hope you have for us. We pray today that you will accept our prayers of confession, remove our hearts of stone, and give us new hearts for you alone. Create within us the “new wine” of your Spirit so we can be ready to pass through the new doors you have for our lives. Help us to allow you to shake all that can be shaken – that needs to be shaken – so we are aligned precisely with who you need us to be. We ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17 NIV)
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV)
*www.curtlandry.com/shake-off-the-old/