First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Good morning. I pray you had a great Christmas break. Isabella and I surely did. We have been praying for you, and we thank God for your prayers.
As I do every January, I share whatever VISION the Lord has given me for the year. To be clear, God is not tied to a calendar year. He is not set to dates, and He is not moved by time. But that does not mean that He cannot use calendar dates as “markers” of change. There are times when God uses a CHANGE in the CALENDAR to announce a SHIFT in the SPIRIT. I believe we are living in one of those moments.
What the Lord spoke to my spiritual parents, Pastors Tony and Cynthia Brazelton, is that this year will be a “Year of Progression” for us. The Lord kept me in the same vein. What He added for our ministry is to be very intentional about the progress He has already ordained for us to walk in during the season. So for our ministry, this will be a “Year of Intentional Progress.”
So what does this mean for you today? I will share a few quick thoughts to establish a baseline for us this year. Believing that this is a “Year of Intentional Progress” tells me a few things:
1. God has made plans for us for this season.
– There are specific things God has ordained for this season. I will speak to these things throughout the year.
– We don’t have to make things happen (necessarily), but instead, our job is to discern what God has already provided.
– The life of faith is less about “making” and more about “discerning.” Because when you discern the right thing at the right time and your launch out, you are not really making it happen. You are simply receiving what is already done.
2. God is a God of progression and not regression, so His plans involve PROGRESS in every area of our lives.
– One thing we know about God is that He is a God of advancement, acceleration, promotion, and increase.
– As we hear from God, He will lead us to experience divine progress in many areas of our lives.
– We will talk about those areas this year and we will seek wisdom from the Bible and the Holy Spirit to experience this progress.
3. Knowing that God wants you to experience progress does not mean you can sit back and idly wait for it to manifest.
– Some Christians use God’s providence as a license for laziness.
– Faith without works is dead.
– You can think about it or dream about it for years, but at some point, you are going to have to do something.
– Faith is an action word, and our God is a God of action. As you are led by God’s Spirit and guided by His Word, you will have to ACT in faith.
4. Faith pursues what God has already provided by grace.
– You can’t make things happen in God’s Kingdom, but you can receive what God has already provided when the right time comes.
– Faith is something you say, something you do, or a seed you sow, based on what you believe God has already provided.
– There can be no faith where there is no grace.
– If the grace of God is not there, your faith is not faith. You are acting without God; you doing things on your own, and you may call it faith, but it is not.
– Faith begins where the will of God is known.
5. True faith involves deliberate action (when the Holy Spirit releases you to move) that is intended to receive what God has ordained.
– When you discern that the time is right for you to launch out in faith, you must do so without hesitation or reservation.
– Delayed faith is disobedience.
– When God tells you to move, you must move, in faith, without wavering, without a doubt in your heart.
– Resisting fear, doubt, and unbelief is a critical aspect of faith.
6. When you are focused, intentional, purposeful, and prayerful with your faith-filled actions, you will make PROGRESS!
– God does all He does by grace (unearned, unmerited, and undeserved).
– But you must do all you do by faith.
– If you provide faith where God has provided grace, success is inevitable, and progress is undeniable.
I am just laying the foundation for the year today.
I have already given you enough to think and pray about for today.
I will close with a declaration of faith I received from my spiritual parents. Pastor Tony and Cynthia Brazelton shared this with me, and I am sharing it with you:
Declaration of Faith:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for what you have already provided for me through the finished work of Jesus Christ. I attend to your word and incline my ear to Your sayings. I will not let them depart from my eyes. I keep them in the midst of my heart, for they are life and healing to all my flesh.
As You were with Moses, so are You with me. My eyes are not dim; neither is my natural vigor diminished. I Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all your benefits: You forgave all my iniquities; you healed all my diseases; you redeemed my life from destruction; you crown me with lovingkindness and tender mercies; you satisfy my mouth with good things; so that my youth is renewed like the eagles.
Blessed are my eyes for they see and my ears for they hear. No evil will befall me, neither shall any plague come near my dwelling. For You have given angels charge over me. They keep me in all ways. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. In my pathway is life, healing, and health.
Jesus took my infirmities and bore my sicknesses. THEREFORE I REFUSE TO ALLOW COVID or ANY SICKNESS TO DOMINATE MY BODY. The life of God flows within me, bringing healing to every fiber of my being.
I am redeemed from the curse because Christ became a curse for me as your word says cursed is anyone who hangs upon a tree. The Blood of Jesus covers and protects me. It flows to every cell of my body, restoring life and health.
My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. I pray for a release of the right chemicals and hormones. My body is in perfect chemical balance. My pancreas secretes the proper amount of insulin for life and health.
Every abnormal cell is uprooted from my body now and replaced by cells perfected by the Spirit of God. My immune system and every organ in my body functions in the perfection that You Father created it to function. I BELIEVE THAT BY YOUR STRIPES LORD JESUS I AM HEALED and will continue to walk by faith and not by sight In Jesus Name, Amen.
Get Excited! GREATER IS COMING!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
