This word is submitted by Jane Larsen (jlarsen65@hotmail.com)

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                     After the desert

This is what the Lord says, "Forget the former things, do not dwell on 
the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up, do you not 
perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
Isaiah 43:16,18-19

There has been a time of desert and a time of dryness.  There has been a
time of preparation and of transforming.  There has been a shifting, a
shifting of the old, to make way for the new.  A new time is before you.  A
time where the cleansing will show, a time where new things will move within
you and new doors will open before you that no man can shut.

Do not look at the doors that closed on the past.  The past is where it is,
behind you.  Leave it there and walk forward now.  You are now in the
present time, the now time.  Now is the time.  You have clung to Me you have
wrapped yourself around Me.  Do not grow weary now.  Do not look back.
There is nothing there for you, but there is much ahead.  In front of you.

Let Me lead you there, beside the streams of peaceful waters, and let Me be
your refuge and your strength.  I will strengthen your bones so you shall
leap.  I will make your paths straight.  I will call you from the desert and
set you in an oasis.  Still.  Be still and wait upon Me.  I am not God who
shouts but who whispers and calls your name.  Your name.  I call you from
the desert.  You -- I call you.

Put on your armor.  Shed the issues that burdened you.  They are not yours,
they are mine.  I will look after you.  I will protect you and lead you
where you are to go.  I will calm the storm.  I have watched, I have waited,
I have prepared.  Trust Me.  Be still.  Though nothing else may seem to be
moving in this desert you have been in, I am moving, I have never stopped.
Be joyful.