NEW YEAR MESSAGE, 2017

Breathe upon Your Word now, dear Father, that it may give life to my friends in radioland; that it may also give healing and health even to their physical bodies…in Jesus Name. Amen!

The Old Year is on its way out; and the New Year is fast replacing it: for nature abhors vacuum. Some of us may say 2016 opened wounds that are still raw and sore. Plainly, we may say it was not a good year for us. Such personal feelings are also shared cooperatively.

However, I am reminded of the experience of Matthew Henry, born in Wales England (1662 – 1714). Somebody stole Matthew Henry’s wallet with some money in it. Matthew Henry thanked God for three reasons:

1. Matthew Henry said, “He stole some of my money, but not all of my money.
2. “He stole only some of my money, but he did not steal my life.”

• And thirdly, he said, “I thank God that, he did the stealing, and not me.”

There are some experiences that we would not want to see repeated in 2017 or ever. However, the complaint against 2016 will be partial truth, which is a life, if we do not admit that 2016 had some merits to it short existence: the marriages, safe childbirths, graduations from various institutions of learning, healings, deliverances from danger; and above all spiritual salvations and restorations. All these speak favorably for 2016.

In obedience to the command of God, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – let us all those who are unhappy and those who are happy with 2016 give thanks to God for having given us access to the Old Year and a peak into the New Year. As we leap into 2017, let us trust God to give us a spiritual lift, an emotional lift, a social lift and an economic lift…in Jesus’ Name.

May 2017 be a year of extras and not of lack…in Jesus’ Name. May the Lord keep sorrow far from us. And if we would sorrow at all may it be Godly sorrow that leads to repentance, as spiritual fruitfulness…in Jesus’ Name.

Romans 8:1-2

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  

Ira Stanphill, in a 1950 song, said something interesting, about handling the tyrannical potential of fear of the future in the song that says,

I don’t know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead

 [the he goes on to say]:

Many things about tomorrow
I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

Psalm 23

¹The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
³ He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

And I will say: AMEN!

Our ambition would be to please God in all things and always: in our private as well as public lives.

In Psalms 24, from verse 3 to verse 5, we read:

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
⁵ He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

James 4:8

⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you [intimacy]. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Intimacy and sin cannot mix. If you want to be intimate with God, you cannot be living in sin at the same time.

Intimacy with God is a process that goes on incrementally, if you will see Him face to face. No wonder after many years of knowing the Lord and experiencing His awesome power, Paul the Apostle still longingly cried, in Philippians 3:10 – that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Today a number of Christians don’t want us to bring the word sufferings into Christianity.

Intimacy with God is fueled by an insatiable hunger for Him, as we find in the experiences of King David and the Sons of Korah. In Psalms 27:4, David said:

Psalms 27:4

⁴ One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

And in Psalms 42:1-2, the sons of korah said,

¹As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

Intimacy with God grows when we are on speaking terms with God. By that I mean, it grows as we pray. As our prayer life grows, intimacy with God grows.

Johnson Oatman (1856-1932) captured this spirit of pursuing God in his hymn of 1898: Higher Ground. In stanzas 1, 4 and the refrain of the chorus, Oatman says:

• I’m pressing on the upward way,
  New heights I’m gaining every day;
  Still praying as I’m onward bound,
  “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

• I want to scale the utmost height
  And catch a gleam of glory bright;
  But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
  “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

• Refrain:
  Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
  By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
  A higher plane than I have found;
  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

Beautiful prayer!

May no one sorrow any longer over the past – so that the disappointment and misery Satan would want us to experience would be his instead… in Jesus’ Name.

Above all, let all who are outside of Christ come into Him; and those who have one foot in Him and one foot in the world take the bold and wise step to end such miserable life…in the Name of Jesus.

The love of God has not quite permeated our fellowship with one another: creating unnecessary pain, especially to those who chose to hate. May the love God has poured out in the hearts of every believer in Christ according to Romans 5:5 through the Holy Spirit flow out to all…in Jesus’ Name.

May you have a prosperous; may you have a Godly and good 2017…in Jesus Name. Amen!

PRAYER

Father, in the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ again I present to You my friends. And I am asking now, Father, that You meet the needs in their lives, especially the need to know Christ. And not only to know Him, but to know Him intimately. I pray, dear LORD, that the manifestation of the life and the power of Jesus Christ would be their portion, that He may rid them of sin, of sickness and of disease of anything and everything that is of the devil. Whatever problems they may have, O God, especially the things that hinder them from being what they ought to be in Christ I pray, Father, that You take care of it. Relieve them of such burdens that they may be free to live for you.  Do these in the lives of these ones, dear Father, and take the glory. And Lead them with the blessings, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!