If you must make a difference this year, you must lay a solid foundation. In Psalm 11:3 the Bible says, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Many people start the year with a lot of noise and feasting. Many start the New Year with village meetings, family meetings, but no meeting with the Lord God, the One who brought you into the New Year.
Beloved, to start the year well is to begin with God, the One that knows the end from the beginning; the Alpha and the Omega.
To begin with the Lord is to wait on the Lord. To wait on the Lord is to fast, pray and study His Word, thereby seeking His will (face) for the New Year (Isa. 40:28-31).
In Proverbs 8:17 God said, “I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me early (diligently) will find Me.”
So, to lay a solid foundation you ought to:
1. Begin the year with waiting on the Lord: Prayerful preparation is required for powerful manifestations. Your hopes, vision, dreams, aspirations cannot be realized without prophetic prayers.
The man that kneels before God can face any situation in life. It is the prayers of today that will give you the victories of tomorrow.
What will fasting and prayer do for you? Fasting and prayer will release your spiritual antennae and sharpen your spiritual sensitivity. Fasting and prayer will place demand on God to help you in all that you set your hands unto do throughout this year. Fasting and prayer will draw down on you the anointing you need for DIVINE PROVISION this year.
The eagle is a good example. The secret of the eagle as a powerful bird is personal retreat (Isa. 40:29-31).
The eagle, as a wise bird, takes time to prepare for the new season (new phase of life). It locates the right rock where to retreat so as to avoid distractions during such times of preparation. It stores the right quantity of food to carry it through the period of preparation.
Many people claim to be eagle Christians but fail to learn from the eagle. The eagle, as a bird, does not carry the past over to the new season. But many Christians start the year with many carry-overs like un-forgiveness, bitterness, drunkenness, immorality, lack of commitment to God, non-payment of vows (Num. 23:21-23), and tithes (Mal. 3:8-12), prayerlessness, laziness, coming late to church, Sunday-Sunday Christianity etc.
Listen beloved, it is your private preparation that determines your public manifestation. If you truly want to experience divine PROVISION this year, you must do what the eagle does. You must realize that isolation is the birthplace of manifestation.
For instance, Moses was not prepared in the palace but in the wilderness for 40 years.
After adequate preparation, the eagle is able to soar high when trouble comes to hinder it from achieving God’s plan and purpose for its life. That is why they that do like the eagle mount up with wings of the Holy Ghost when situations arise to hinder them from possessing their possessions.
In Isaiah 59:19 the Scriptures say, “….When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.”
2. Begin the year with staying in the Word of God. Actualizing God’s plan and purpose for your life this year requires that you possess an unshakable faith in God. Faith in God is faith in His Word. To possess such faith you must stay in the Word.
In Romans 10:17 God said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
In Joshua 1:8 God gave Joshua a recipe. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
Psalm 85:8 says, “I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints…”
Psalm 1:1-3 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Do you want to experience the promised divine PROVISION this year? Then stay in the Word. Until you hear from God you can’t know which way to go. That means that if you do anything without hearing from God, you are on your own because it is not backed up by the power of heaven.
The most authentic way God speaks to us is through His Word. If you hear the Word of God, you have heard the voice of God. Therefore, increase in your Word level means decrease in your worry level. The Word of God is the perfect will of God.
3. Walk in holiness (Heb. 12:14; Gal. 5:16).
4. The third step you should take is to sow into the New Year. This is about the quickest way to release your faith toward what you desire God to do for you this Year.
In life, there are different seasons. The Bible says, “While the earth remaineth, SEEDTIME AND HARVEST, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).
The difference between seasons is often a seed. The seed that leaves your hand never leaves your life, rather it goes into your future and multiplies for you.
“They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest” (Ps. 126:6; NLT).
Sowing guarantees that you’ll receive. Jesus said, “Give (sow), and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom…” (Lk. 6:38).
Once the seed of faith takes root, it cannot be removed or blown away by the strongest wind.
What then is seed faith? Seed faith is a seed you sow in order to release your faith concerning a particular pressing need in your life.
Once the LORD inhales the sweet aroma of that seed, angels are released to work on your behalf.
What will your seed do for you? Your seed confirms what you believe God for. Your seed stands as a barrier between you and the devil. Your seed is a weapon that confronts the forces of darkness that want to mess up your finances and progress. Your seed will say what you cannot say and go for you where you cannot go. Your seed touches the heart of God concerning your case. Your seed stands before God to plead your case. Your seed will speak for you before God. It spoke for Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48).
God takes from you the seed of faith to make for you that very pressing need in your life. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Gen. 2:21-22).
Your quality seed can fetch from God anything you desire for yourself (Deut. 14:26-27, 29).
Peter had to sow his boat to be used by Jesus to preach the Gospel to the poor before he got the fish he needed (Lk. 5:4-7).
Examples include Isaac who got his breakthrough by sowing in the land. “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him” (Gen. 12:26).
The widow of Zarephath got her breakthrough by sowing into the life of Prophet Elijah, the servant of God (1 Ki. 17:1-16).
No one should expect a harvest of any type this year when he has not planted any seed. You can’t receive if you have not given. As a rule, seed sowing must precede harvest.
In Luke 6:38 God commands, “Give and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure you use it will be measured unto you again.”
Sow into the Kingdom so that you can reap from the Kingdom. Sow concerning your business, family, children, career, and for God to frustrate all the plans of the enemy against you this year. Sow for open doors and open heavens.
The Bible says that a man shall reap whatsoever he sows (Gal. 6:7). So, if you want financial and material increase in the New Year, you have to sow money and material things into the Kingdom of God.
Sow into the Kingdom of God financial seeds, and God will release divine increase and overflowing abundance upon your finances, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
The very seed that provokes God to act speedily on your behalf is something that you cannot comfortably afford - a sacrificial seed, your widow’s might.
God will take the seed you are sowing today to activate the divine Provision He has promised us in 2024.
Question: What kind of foundation are you laying for this New Year? Are you laying a foundation that is strong enough to carry the building of unlimited POSSIBILITIES or are you laying a foundation that can only carry failure, sickness and poverty?
Waiting on the Lord, staying in the Word, walking in holiness and sowing into the New Year will bring you to the corridors of unlimitedPOSSIBILITIES which God has promised His people in 2025.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor, HOG)
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