A NEW THING
Praise the Almighty for bringing us across into a new year. Blessed be His holy NAME for all HE did for us last year and for protecting, guiding, feeding, promoting, etc, and leading us all through last year and into this year. Thank God that He did not allow the enemy to cut short your days and that He is giving you time to press on to reach the goal He has set for your life. To Him be all the glory, honour and praise.Praise the Almighty for bringing us across into a new year. Blessed be His holy NAME for all HE did for us last year and for protecting, guiding, feeding, promoting, etc, and leading us all through last year and into this year. Thank God that He did not allow the enemy to cut short your days and that He is giving you time to press on to reach the goal He has set for your life. To Him be all the glory, honour and praise. At the night vigil to enter into the New Year He spoke to us expressly and said: I will do a new thing. This is confirmed in Isa. 43:18-19.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?… Friend, you must hear this Word, mark it and note it so that you will live in expectation and cooperate with Him so that you will fully benefit from the new thing He is doing. You must learn to forget (Remember not) the former things He had done. No matter how glorious those things were they will be the enemies of the new things He will do. He has already gone ahead and has already began to do it so we must pursue Him and be part of it. To relax and keep celebrating the former things and the things of old will be a trouble. He is the one doing it so yours is to believe and follow. As they spring forth it is to appropriate them and praise Him and go forward. I thought that after several years of progress and accomplishment, even after he had become an apostle that Paul would relax and celebrate but hear His determined purpose: Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:12-14) This is the testimony of this great apostle who had already accomplished. He had preached in all nations, pioneered many churches, stood before kings and rulers, written several epistles, etc, yet he was saying he had not yet attained nor acquired the fullness of all he was pursuing. What he decided to do was to run with passion into all that for which Christ apprehended him; that he may reach the purpose that GOD caught him for. He told the brethren that he did not regard himself to have reached his fully but did this one thing first to forget everything behind, whether good or bad and press forward into those things in front. He said there was a mark he was pressing into that will bring him into the price of God’s high calling in Christ. Paul was determined to win this prize which would only become his if he breasted the tape. It was the one things (not two things) that he was determined and set to do. He was focused, determined, passioned and packed purpose into every step. He understood that it would not come easy but would involve putting pressure (pressing) because there would be opposition to it. He forsook all else for this one thing. Those that do many things may be doing so because they are not focused. Paul becomes an example of a man who will see new things unlike the Israelites in the desert who keep seeing the same things for 40 years until they perished and their sepulchers lined the wilderness. God kept warning them that, ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn ye, and take your journey, and go… Next, He told them: ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. Those fathers had entered into a recycling (recircling – going round), routine, maintenance, just being alive situation. When you are recircling, recycling and maintaining something there is nothing new to you. No new challenges, no new experiences, no new things, no new scenes. Once you enter such you will lose momentum, desire for new things and challenges and will be dead while still alive. Friend this is not your portion: you must break out of this routine and going round the same mountain. Whatever centripetal force is holding you let it break in Jesus Name. God does new things, exciting things, all the time. He is not the Author of a dull, routine life that is going nowhere and settling down to a life of mediocrity, common and unexciting. Friend you are born to be a goal getter and pace setter like Paul. As the LORD has said He would do a new thing, key into that and follow Him into them. Focus on Him because to follow Him is the way to see new things and enter into them. The year is still young but I am already seeing new things – new utterance, fresh new anointing, new doors and opportunities, rekindled vision, etc. as I follow Him I am renewed and excited. It is this one thing I am determined to do, to press into all that the LORD apprehended me for. Friend, let us believe the LORD our GOD so that we will be established and believe His Prophet so that we shall prosper. Let 2019 be a year of great new things for you, in Jesus Name.
YOUR DAY – TIME STEALERS II God wants you to succeed and have given you all you need to do so including time. But the enemy wants you to fail so he frustrates you, slows you down and does everything to make you fail. He is a thief and steals, then kills and destroys. One of the critical things he steals is your time and he is so subtle that you will not know that he is doing it. There are some things he does and you quickly say it is an attack and rise up but this one you may not even know it so as to refuse and fight it. So we will go ahead and look at some of the ways time is stolen and, or wasted so that you can become aware of them and resist such stoutly.
DIRECT ATTACKThe thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10). The devil is the chief thief. Other thieves are actually his agents and helpers in his objective of robbing you of which God has given you up to your life. When he comes to any man he comes for nothing else but to steal, and to kill and do destroy. Friend, he is a thief and his business is to steal,… He wants to take away from you the things provided by your loving Father for you and finally destroy you. One of the strategic things He wants to steal is time and many are not aware of this. There are some things that are sponsored by him that if you were a little bit careful and discerning you would have known that it was him working. If someone steals your money you are likely to raise an alarm and investigate it and do something about it and take precautionary measures so that it does not happen again. When your things get stolen you become impoverished and do not accomplish much in your life time. Now the matter of stealing your money is obvious. What of those hours of argument and disagreement with your spouse or friend or relative? What of a journey that would have taken 3 hours that took 12 hours because issues arose along the way or a contrary wind just arose. Jesus was crossing the sea with His disciples in a ship and the Bible says, there arose a great storm of wind…. Why was it in the middle of the sea that this storm arose. The disciples thought that it was something they could handle with their strength and expertise until they were overwhelmed. Then they appealed to the Master (Jesus) and He arose and dealth with the wind and storm and their journey was successful. How many times have we taken the storm that have arisen against us very lightly and casually as if it is something we could easily handle because we are experts and professionals. This storm could be a sudden sickness, a little or minor accident or flat tyre on the road, a sudden provocation that strikes like an arrow in the day, many casual visitors lined up when you have some serious things to do, and so on. All these can take away much of time for useful purposes and stress you out. It never occurs to us that such storms can be sponsored by the enemy so as to steal our time. So we handle it with kid gloves and never pray about it nor rise to rebuke it in the Name of Jesus Christ. Many are not watchful and prayerful but take a lot of things for granted. These are not aware that their time and life are being stolen. That when a journey of 3 hours takes 10 hours you may have lost 7 hours. Many do not pray for journeys, events, visits, etc. They do not commit their day into the hands of the keeper. They assume a lot, are naïve and casual and unsuspecting so the enemy keeps stealing their time quietly and cumulatively. Friend you must become aware of and sensitive to the spiritual world. Much of what happens in the physical environment are decided and determined in the spiritual. You must be prayerful. You must be sensitive and so watch with prayers. You must arise and refuse and resist the enemy from stealing your time and other things. You must learn to pray against a visit that is taking too long. This is why the Bible says you must pray without ceasing. Every storm impedes your journey, slows you down, saps your energy and seeks to capsize your ship. There is no innocent storm spiritually. That statement that seems to come from nowhere that is going to start an argument that will steal time is a storm. Deal with it in the Name of Jesus. Start every day with the LORD and table that day before Him so that He will guide you and protect you. One day Peter and co wanted Jesus to go back and continue a crusade. He refused because He was coming out from His quiet time and must have received instruction for the day. He said to them that they must go on to the next towns and labour there also. For therefore came I forth. You too must know how to firmly but politely say no to some things and go on to use your time to do the things for which you came forth. The devil must stop stealing your time. Be prayerful and watchful and always arise when he arises and counter him, in the great Name of Jesus.