Hey Bro John:
I asked Amy to send me what she had on The New Past to try to jog my memory on the timeline of when the Lord showed it to me. Still not sure exact date, but after I read what you wrote here in this blog, no matter when it came from the Lord, what you wrote in this blog is WONDERFUL! I think it would benefit us all to read this again and take it into our hearts. It surely blessed me all over again! Jesus is serious about giving us a New Past and all the blessings that come with it!
You really covered some wonderful things in this blog! It is rich with wisdom!
So glad I got to read this again. Thank you Amy for finding and sending this today.
Sandy 🙂
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The New Past
John Clark, Sr.
7/18/2001
The “new past” that Jesus offers everyone who trusts in him is what Paul referred to in 2 Cor. 5: “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold ALL THINGS are become new.” If we have the faith to believe it, one of the “all things” that become new in Christ is our “old past”, that is, our history before Jesus took us in.
The “new past” is also what Paul referred to in Romans 11, where he told the Gentile believers that they had been “grafted” into the olive tree of Israel by the power of God. Now, when we are grafted into the olive tree of faith, the history of that olive tree becomes ours. That olive tree’s sap is our sap; its root is our root, and its future is our future. This “new past” which becomes ours includes the testimony of Abel, Job, and Noah, of Abraham and David, of Daniel, Jeremiah, and the prophets, and the righteous, wise men and women of all time. Our past includes the testimonies of Paul and of John and of Peter. It includes (praise God!) The testimony of the Lord Jesus “who witnessed as good profession before Pilate”. The men and women of faith are our ancestors now, if we are in Christ, and he is our elder brother.
The phrase “new past” confuses the unbelieving because the “new past” is in faith, and faith is foreign to them. It confuses the rebellious because the “new past” is in obedience, and they do not obey the will of God. The message of a “new past” troubles the trouble-makers in the Church because they new past is in peace, and peace irritates those who irritate God. What does it mean that “old things are passed away”, if our old habits, our old complaints, and our old sins still cling to us, confusing and discouraging us? Are they passed away or are they not.
Some years ago, as Sister Sandy was in the midst of a sad visit with her elderly, unbelieving mother, the Lord spoke to her and said, “You are not a product of that union any more”. We who are in Christ “are not debtors to the flesh”. That is, we do not owe our existence to the human beings who produced our physical bodies. God had our names written in His Book of Life before the world was created; He had claims on us before our natural parents were even born. In Christ, we are no longer a product of that physical union of two human bodies; we are the product of the will and Word of God. It was His choice alone, not theirs, that we are here. If our natural parents had tried to prevent our birth, the stones themselves would have brought us forth! We are the offspring of a race of men created by the power and love of God, beginning with “the new man Adam” who was nailed to a tree in ancient Judah.
There is no unbelief in our “new past” because the new past includes only men and women of faith. There is no confusion in our new past because the new past includes only men and women with the knowledge of God. There is no grumbling and ill will in our “new past” because that past includes men and women who trusted God and loved people. The testimonies of the upright become our history when our history itself becomes new. When our father becomes Abraham, then our history includes leaving Babylonia behind! When our high priest becomes Christ, then our new history includes the Levitical priesthood that foreshadowed his work. In Christ, OUR FOREFATHERS built an ark out of gopher wood and waited for the rain, OUR FOREFATHERS crossed the Red Sea in faith, looking toward the Land of Promise, our forefathers trembled before God at the base of Mount Sinai, our forefathers willingly brought gold and silver to David for the building of God’s temple, our forefathers waited for the Promise of God in an upper room in Jerusalem, and our forefathers proclaimed the truth of Jesus to the ancient Roman world.
In Christ, they were also our forefathers who were despised by men, who wandered about with no shelter, who were stoned, who were imprisoned and persecuted. And for those in Christ, it was our “everlasting father” who was crucified for the sins of the world.
This is what the “new past” means. In Christ, there is nothing that we fear because our forefathers were fearless, and holy courage is all that runs in our veins. There is nothing that can discourage us because in the blood of our new family runs nothing but faith that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” There is no sin of the old past that can drag us back into darkness because in our veins runs a holiness that terrifies Satan himself. We cannot be overcome with confusion because the knowledge of God infuses our spirits. No weapon formed against us can prosper. All things are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. There is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God because the love of God created and fills both our history and us. God created our new past for us, had that new past written down, and encourages us to read it every now and then.
Do you doubt God? You’re living in the old past. Do you hold a grudge against a brother or a sister? You’re trying to resurrect the old man. Do you fear the future? You are believing a lie, as if the old past still has any power over you. Are you not free to praise the God of the whole earth? You are digging into God’s garbage can to eat the rotten food of your old carnal nature.
Our forefathers “danced with all their might” before the Lord. Our forefathers drove away the armies of the enemies of the Lord who exalted themselves against the saints of God. It is beneath the dignity of our new past to remain in the quiet, smelly death chamber of Christianity. That abomination is NOT a part of our new past in Christ. And for that reason, the holy Ghost is pleading with the children of God to “come our of her my people!” Our old past is in bondage. Our new past is “free indeed” because the Son has made us that way!