Today a friend made a statement about me that was very true. She said ‘I know you are a person who processes, and I do.’ If I hear a word from God, either from a minister or God Himself, I don’t often say much about it at first, I take time and process it; that is just how it works for me.’
When God shows me something, a new revelation or something He wants me to do for a season, I take time and process it in my mind and in my heart. This is just what I have been doing since God spoke to me about letting the season end. I had…by faith…let the season end, and let it go…not realizing when I did that I simply gave God permission to dig as deep as He needed to dig to cause me to truly let it go.
Today I got a glimpse of how deep He wanted to dig. When I woke up Tuesday morning I was already emotional. I had dreamt of my sister who went to be with the Lord and I woke myself up in tears. Later that day, a friend emailed me and said she had a ‘hard’ word from the Lord for me. Honestly I thought ‘this isn’t the day for this.’ Yet, I steadied myself to hear this hard word.
When I read the word she sent me, frankly, it felt like someone took a sharp knife and cut into my heart – it hurt and it hurt deeply. The word was about a painful thing that had happened in my life. I thought I was over it and that I had moved on, but, her words cut me to the core. I sat at my desk and wept…
Here is some of what she shared with me about holding on to that thing of my past:
“In this season it is like keeping that thing on an IV drip – a life support of sorts – like wearing a parka in summer or a bikini in winter – it no longer fits because it is no longer relevant. It no longer exists. He chose to break covenant, and move on without you. That was his choice, not yours. Today, I pray that you will unplug the IV pump, pull out the line and surrender that part of your life for good. Close the book and remove any and all reminders that you may still have in your home. Leaving these items, if any, in your home, allows the enemy legal ground to torment your mind, or at the very least hinder the healing that God wants to bring to you. I understand that getting rid of these things will be painful but, it is necessary for you to move forward.
When I had endometriosis, I first had to be cut on in order to be healed. It reminds me of this scripture: Hosea 6 – ‘Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.'”
She was referring to my marriage, to the love of my life, she said God said ‘I don’t see Kim’s marriage as a failure, however, I no longer see that marriage.’ I knew the words she was speaking was truth and it cut me like a knife. I cried a bit and then I began to listen to the Lord quietly speak to me. He said ‘Remember not.’ That is all He would say, over and over again, ‘Remember not.‘
I knew the scripture He was speaking to me, it is our ministry scripture. It is found in Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43:18-19 says; ‘Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.’
I looked up the word ‘remember’ to find that it means do not bring it to remembrance. Do not remind yourself of it, don’t mention it, don’t record it and don’t recall it. The word ‘consider’ means do not try to understand it.
You see, if we keep things in our life that cause us to daily or even hourly recall that past thing that has died, it will torment us just as she told me. The Bible says when something dies in our life that we are not to remember it, not to rehearse it and we certainly don’t need to try to understand why happened the way it did.
We often drive ourselves right into stress and anxiety by trying to figure out what happened and what we did wrong or what we didn’t do. God says ‘don’t do that!’ Let it go, let that season end
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Don’t keep reminders all around you of things that bring you pain and torment – there is no good fruit to be found in doing that. There is no peace in that, we need to do what God says…remember not and move forward.
I love the scripture in Isaiah 43; He doesn’t stop with telling us to forget the past, He assures us that He is doing a NEW THING and it is about to spring forth – but we must first let the past season go and remember not the former things – instead press into the new thing.
Oh God is surely doing great things in His people today! He is preparing us for the new things that are ahead – will you let Him do what needs to be done in your heart to enable you to let it go and move on? Are you prepared to remember not? I know I am. I don’t want anything stopping me from the new thing God is doing in my life…therefore today, this moment, I choose to Remember NOT.
