Recently I was listening to a sermon online and the preacher made the comment that God is into new things, he challenged his hearers to check the word of God for themselves. as a result of this challenge I am writing this article.

Firstly notice that God delights in new songs of worship, our worship is meant to be fresh and new, down the ages as God’s spirit has moved new songs have come into existence, fresh blessing calls forth fresh songs of praise. In the Church of which I am an elder we have been blessed over the years by some who write new songs for usand this enriches our times of worship.

Sing to Yahweh a new song;
sing to Yahweh, all the earth.
2 Sing to Yahweh; bless his name.
Announce his salvation from day to day.  (Ps 96:1–2).

8 I am Yahweh; that is my name,

and I do not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to the idols.
9 Look! the former things have come,
and I declare new things.
I ⌊announce⌋ them to you before they sprout up.”

A Song of Praise to Yahweh

10 Sing a new song to Yahweh;
praise him from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea and that which fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants. (Is 42:8–10).

For look! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered,
and they shall not come to mind.
18 But rejoice and shout in exultation forever and ever over what I am about to create! (Is 65:17–18).

This next passage reminds us of the greatness of our god and at the same time it calls us to sing a new song.We are reminded that because of the Lord’s greatness he can announce new things before they come to pass, no wonder this inspires a new song.

Look, the days are coming,” ⌊declares⌋ Yahweh, “and I will ⌊make⌋ a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I ⌊made⌋ with their ancestors on the day of my grasping them by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” ⌊declares⌋ Yahweh. 33 “But this is the covenant that I will ⌊make⌋ with the house of Israel after those days,” ⌊declares⌋ Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people.  (Je 31:31–33).

But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to tens of thousands of angels, to the festal gathering 23 and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and ⌊to the sprinkled blood⌋ that speaks better than Abel’s does.  (Heb 12:22–24).

And in the same way the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. (Lk 22:20).

The Scripture constantly reminds us that our salvation is grounded in God’s new covenant with his people. It is because of the work of Christ upon the cross that we can know the blessing of salvation. We know this not as some outward mark but because the Holy spirit works within our hearts. The presence of the Holy spirit in our lives is a consequence of the new covenant. Salvation isgrace from first to last,when we meditate upon the Fathers love for us,Jesus dying for us and the Holy Spirit working within us this all is the fruit of the covenant.

 And he also told a parable to them: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and* puts it* on an old garment. Otherwise, he will have torn the new also, and the old will not match the patch that is from the new. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the wineskins, and it will be spilled and the wineskins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins. 39 And no one after* drinking old wine* wants new, because he says, ‘The old is just fine!’ ”(Lk 5:36–39).

Jesus taught that we need new wineskins so that the wine can mature, people often speak of the need for new wineskins without realizing that they have a purpose of allowing people to grow in their relationship with God.

 But now we have been released from the law, because we* have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not inoldness of the letter of the law. (Ro 7:6).

Another blessing that we receive as a consequence of Christ’s death is that we are able to walk in the newness of the Spirit, when we are full of the Spirit, he will do new things in us and for us. He will empower us to live in a way that pleases God.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 And all these things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as if* God were imploring you through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  (2 Co 5:17–20).

We need to realize that we are a new creation in Christ’ because of what he has done for us we can know that we are reconciled to God and knowing this we can be at peace within our own hearts. We will also want to share this gospel of reconciliation to others, wanting others to come to a knowledge of what Christ has done for them.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4       and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5       who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  (1 Pe 1:3–5).

Because of the mercy of God we have been born againand the result of this new birth is to give us a hope through the resurrection of Christ that we have an inheritance that will never perish. Because of God’s mercy we can be sure that we have inherited all things in Christ.

There are also areas where newness is impliedbut the word new is not used. Prayer is a good example of this, when we pray we are asking God to do new things. In the Lord’s prayer we pray “you kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” This is asking for new things big time but we are also taught to pray for our daily provisions. As we pray for the spread of the gospel we are praying that many will experience the new birth and grow in newness of life.

We are called to be filled with the Spirit at all times,

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19       speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, (Eph 5:18–19).

If we are to be full of the Spirit we will need to be continually receiving from him, D L Moody rightly said “we are leaky vessels” and leaky vessels need to be refilled constantly with new supplies.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit, in the teaching contained in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12-14, we find a very dynamic view of life in the church where each person is using his gifts for the benefit of the whole body. Healings for instance are always new blessing, as are words ofprophecy. Look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit some timeand you will see that God desires to be constantly doing new things for his people.

Obviously we need to test anything that is new and Paul gives clear instruction about how this should be done,

Do not quench the Spirit. 20    Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21    but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22       reject every kind of evil. (1 Th 5:19–22).

We are called to be open but to test everything by the Word of God, often in Christian circles we fall into one of two errors, the first is to embrace everything new without discerning whether it is from God or not. The second extreme is to reject everything that is new. The Scriptures teach us to be open but alert, when something new comes along we should neither automatically accept it or reject it but rather test it. If the Church had taken heed of these words there would be a lot less division in the body of Christ.

In conclusion lets us look to God to do new things in our day, the Scripture teaches clearly that God wants to do new things, so lets seek his face and expect him to do great things.