Practise something new

I was with a small group of Salvationists a few months ago as we were praying for The Salvation Army and seeking God’s will and desire for us as a movement, now and into the future.

As I prayed, a passage of Scripture came to me, but with a unique Salvation Army bent from John 15:17-21:

Salvation Army, do you love me?

You know we do, Lord!

Then feed my sheep.

Salvation Army, do you love me?

You know we do, Lord.

Then take care of my sheep.

Salvation Army, do you love me?

You know we do, Lord!

Then feed my sheep.

At the end of this prayer, I was very clearly led by God to pray the words practise something new.

I consider myself to be fairly sensitive to the Spirit, not bound up in traditions or constrained to what others may expect of me or God. But practise something new means exactly that. Something new.

In my spiritual gifting of spoken word, I usually seek the Holy Spirit’s prompts when facilitating a group to write and share responses as a spiritual practice. So, what does practise something new look like in that space?

The following week after this word, I was asked to preach at a friend’s corps, but as I prayed about it, God clearly told me not to preach but to do spoken word. As I sat with Commissioner Miriam Gluyas in the front row, waiting to hear from God about the prompt, the words practise something new came again. I asked, “What does that mean?” and I saw a picture of children at the front of the platform.

God said, “Read my Word, do spoken word, and have the children lead the exercise.”

I had never done this before and didn’t know what it would look like, except to do exactly what God said. I read the Scripture Matthew 5:43-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

I then shared a story from my childhood, about running home crying about a bully in my class named Clifford (although as to the bullying, I may not have been completely blameless). My mother told me to write Clifford’s name on a piece of paper and put it above my bed to pray for him. I was so annoyed! At first, I prayed through clenched teeth, “God bless CLIFFord.” But as the days went on, the prayers softened, and eventually, I was able to pray for Clifford as if he were a friend.

I invited the children to the front. With pens and paper, each child was asked to answer a question by drawing or writing. I then invited the corps to listen closely to their responses, because the adults were to form a poem based on exactly what the children said!

I asked one little boy what he had drawn, and he explained, “It’s God with a ball.” Then he rolled himself into a ball and rolled off the stage! A prophetic friend I later shared this with said, “Of course! I see it! God holds the whole universe. God loves us, God plays with us, God is in everything, and God is in us. In that moment, that little boy was the universe, and God, and the ball, all together as one.”

It may be easy to dismiss at first the moves of God as we see them as ‘childish’ or ‘cute’ or even weird! But as she shared her insight, I marvelled at how this small child already knew the playful, all-encompassing mind of his God.

Another child said that the rain they had drawn represented God. How so, I asked? Because rain is everywhere and so is God! 

All 10 children shared, and each had something unique and new to deliver about our Lord. I was much humbled by their anointed words.

After church, the corps officer told me the Scripture I had read out that day was the very passage for kids’ church that morning! The children were all then sharing about their own ‘Cliffords’, and loving their enemies into friends.

Around the same time, I began preparing for a prayer night, and I heard God say to get pearl necklace beads. I had no idea why, but the words practise something new came back to me again.

I arrived for the prayer night and shared with the leader that only that afternoon I realised the beads were to be used like rosary beads, to pray the Lord’s Prayer in a new way. She shared that she had thought the exact same thing!

As we gathered with believers from all walks of life, including those who had come through the corps’ AOD program, we knelt around a table, each with our set of beads. I led by praying a line from the Lord’s Prayer, then each person would add in prayer what that line looked like lived out in their lives and relationships with God. This naturally turned into an open time of prayer and affirmation.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).

The word perceive here denotes a deep, full, and multi-faceted sense of knowing and understanding. It is more than looking or acknowledging; it is a Spirit-given discernment to see what Jesus is doing and to respond to what God is asking of us. We might not feel like we have the full answer in the moment, but the first step of faith is all that is required to unlock the next part of the journey. We might not even see the full result this side of heaven. But our obedience in the face of the cost is what matters most.

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations” (Isaiah 61:11).

God is the garden and the soil. God is the flower, the seed and the fruit. If we so choose, we can join our Genesis fore-parents in sowing a new seed with God … a seed that is very, very good.

So, what might practise something new mean for you? Perhaps it’s to throw the net on the other side, even if you feel like an expert who already knows the best way to fish (and this is not an accusation! I have had to take this instruction myself.) Even the familiar practices can grow old. We must sow in all seasons. We must return to the Fount afresh.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing;

tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

streams of mercy, never ceasing,

call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

sung by flaming tongues above;

praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

mount of God’s unchanging love.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Author: Robert Robinson (1758); Alterer: Martin Madan (1760)

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” (Lamentations 3:22-24).

What might hold you back from practising something new? Is it fear? Judgment? Past experience? Apathy? Doubt? God will not fail you or leave you to rot.

God’s mercy, love, and compassion are new every morning. Wait for God. God will deliver us.

Will you practise something new?