First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Isabella and I pray you had a great Christmas and New Year’s celebration. From our family to yours, we pray 2016 will be the best year of your life.
In January we customarily spend a few weeks fasting and praying, seeking guidance for the new year. Calendar dates are not necessarily all that important, other than the fact that they give us a tool by which to measure our progress (or lack thereof). If you have been following Today’s Word for any length of time you know God made plans for you before the world began. You were born when you were born and where you were born, because of WHY you were born. You are on this planet, in this season, for a reason and that reason is God’s divine purpose.
Paul said this of Jesus: “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” (Gal 4:4,5). God could have sent Jesus at any time in history, but He only sent Jesus at the “right time”. Jesus came at the right time to perform a specific divine purpose. The same holds true for you. You are not a mistake. The timing of your birth was planned to the second.
Now that you are here, your goal should be to FIND, FOLLOW and FINISH God’s divine purpose for your life before you die. You cannot decide your purpose because it was decided before you were born. Therefore, you must discover it. Your role is to discover, develop in, and then deploy into your divine purpose.
The understanding of divine purpose and the fact that God has ALREADY given you the grace to complete it is the backdrop for the series I am about to teach. It’s January and historically I spend the month of January in fasting and prayer before I hear from God for the vision/focus of the year. This year is different. The Lord spoke to me in December. The Lord had already spoken to my Pastors (Tony and Cynthia Brazelton) about 2016 and He told them that 2016 would be a year for us to RESET, REBOOT, and RENEW! As I prayed about what He told them and I asked the Lord for guidance for me and our ministry, I heard the Lord clearly. The Lord said this would be a Year of Refined Focus. I am just laying the groundwork today, so I will stop here. I obviously have much more to say about this and I will in the days to come.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
- God made plans for you before the world began, therefore you can never be a success in God’s eyes outside of His plans.
- God has already given you, by grace, everything you need to accomplish what you were born to accomplish.
- When you discover and make an alignment with your divine assignment you begin to flow in the grace of God and your success will come by His power.
- In this season your TO DO list is not as important as your NOT TO DO list.
- Spend time with God in this season refining His vision for your life. As you do, begin to cut away things that don’t line up with it.
- Anything that is NOT taking you towards your divine purpose is a time waster and in this season the Lord is looking for you to eliminate it.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your amazing grace. I declare this to be a season of refined focus for me. In this season I spend time with You in fasting and prayer. I spent time in Your Word. I hear from You clearly. Whatever You tell me to do, I do it quickly. Whatever adjustments You lead me to make, I make them without hesitation. I simplify my life to Your purpose. I strip away the things that have been keeping me from Your best. If it does not line up with Your purpose for me, I won’t do it anymore. 2016 shall be the best year of my life, because this year is a year where I lay aside every weight and sin that has been holding me back. I am determined to complete my divine assignment before I die. Change starts now. Change starts today. Change starts IN ME, by Your grace and for Your glory! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
