Seeing and Praying with Perception
“Forget the former things; do now dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43.18 New International Version)
“But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” (Isaiah 43.18 New Living Translation)
There is a desperate need for perception in our day. Through mass media and the internet there is a knowledge explosion and information overload. It would seem, at times, that his generation is knowing, seeing, and experiencing more but understanding less.
By Grant McClung
Most definitions of “perceive” use descriptors like “awareness,” “understanding,” “apprehension,” “comprehension,” “discernment.” A “perception” is insight, knowledge, or intuitive judgment. As a word, “perceive” is derived from the Latin word percipere – “to seize:” per – “thoroughly” + capere “to take.” Therefore, when insight or wisdom is “perceived,” it is “seized” and “thoroughly taken.”
In Isaiah 43.18 God commands Israel – and us – to forget former things, flee a fixation on the past, focus on His current work, and firmly seize – thoroughly take hold of and embrace – what He is beginning in a new season. The command came during a time of spiritual decline and the threat from the enemies to the north. Samaria had been captured and Israel was carried away by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Judah was invaded by Sennacherib in 701 B.C. and additional threats were coming from Babylon (Jerusalem was to fall to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.). Every testimony in those dark days was about the “good old days” when God miraculously delivered the Israelites from Egypt and eventually settled them into a prosperous land, giving them political stability in the golden days of David and Solomon.
God said to depart from a dependence on those days and a backward look to past testimonies. He urges them to forget the past and embrace the future. In essence, through another prophet, Jeremiah, God promises, “I’ll give you something new to talk about:”
But the time is coming, says the Lord, when people who are taking an oath will no longer say, “As surely as the Lord lives, who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.” Instead, they will say, “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north and from all the countries to which he had exiled them; for I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors (Jeremiah 16.14-15 New Living Translation).
This forward grasp, this perception, of the “brand-new” thing God is doing is indispensable and vital for effective and transformational intercession. Perception is needed for prayers that are full of panorama, praise, and purpose – seeing what God is doing in our world (panorama), worshipping and praising Him for that (praise), and seeing ourselves as doing His will (purpose). Intercession, however, can get locked into the past – always leaning upon the history of what God did and, based upon God’s past patterns, predictably expect more of the same. Rehearsing past victories, we could easily get locked into “past-oriented” praying, with the testimony “look what God has done!” But the reminders of Isaiah 43.18 and Jeremiah 16.14-15 push us forward to the brand-new things that God is already beginning now.
The command comes again to Habakkuk 1.5 a century later as a model for us today: “Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (New International Version). The New Living Translation reads, “Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do!”
Jesus urged his disciples to perceive the harvest now, unfolding before their very eyes. “Do you think,” he asked them, “the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest” (John 4.25 New Living Translation). With all the harvest opportunities before us, God seems to be urging us with the admonition, “Don’t be locked into past categories or frames of reference. If you have seen signs and wonders and unexpected developments in the past, I will astound and amaze you again with what is coming in the future. See…look…perceive, for I am about to do a brand-new thing…I have already begun!”
Dr. Grant McClung is President of Missions Resource Group (www.MissionsResourceGroup.org), and International Missionary Educator with Church of God World Missions (Project #065 – 0853)
