Adjusting For The New Year

Adjusting for the New Year 2025

We sit this morning at a threshold, for we are about to enter a new year, not just any new year, but 2025!  Can you believe that? I was reading a National Prophet Jeremiah Johnson, and He said of 2025:

  • A Year of Five-Fold Ministry…where the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher begin working together in concert
  • 2ndly, A Year of the Priesthood of the Believer…where the believers move from being an Audience to an Army…
    • A Prayer Army
    • A gifted Army
    • A Equipped and Prepared Army
    • An Army operating in Kingdom Demonstration…mass evangelism with deliverance
  • 3rdly, Healthy Marriages and Family
    • Date Nights, Anniversary Trips, and Family Vacations are going to be prioritized just as much as Revival…
    • There is no need to separate the one from the other…
    • God is going to Show that authentic revival looks like healthy marriages and families…

Several weeks back the Lord spoke to me and said, “Start praying for all the single people in your church who desire to be married…”  2025 will be a year of many weddings!

Ex 14:15, 15 And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: KJV

Life is not about huge events but a steady life lived of faithfulness.  We too often look for a huge event or something supernatural (which I believe in all these things) but real growth and stability come in the day to day living of faith.  A consistency of moving forward with Christ.

Now to move forward with Christ we must be willing to make ADJUSTMENTS ALONG THE WAY.  There is a process of doing this and I want to take a few minutes and discuss the subject of

TITLE: “Adjusting for the New Year.”

  1. You Cannot STAY Where You Are and Move with God at the Same Time
  2. This Christian life is about Change
    1. From darkness to light
    2. Lost to found
    3. Repentance is all about Change
    4. Matt 3:1-2, IN THOSE days there appeared John the Baptist, preaching in the Wilderness (Desert) of Judea, 2 And saying, Repent ( think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. AMP

To honestly repent we must be willing to change. You have to be willing to ask God to help you move forward The children of Israel at the Red Sea were facing some serious obstacles, but they knew the only way to victory was to move forward. They had Egypt which represented their past chasing them and a seemingly immovable obstacle in front of them…

  • Many of you today have your past chase you daily
  • You need to do like the Apostle Paul instructed us to do: “Forgetting those things which are behind, we press toward the mark of the prize Christ Jesus…”
  • You have to be willing to change your thoughts
  • You have to change the old thought patterns and believe God’s word
  • Romans says, “Be ye not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
  • Phillips translation says, “Don’t allow the world to squeeze you into its mold of thinking…”
  • Some of us have not been able to move forward because we have stayed with the same ole thought patterns

Listen to this, Thoughts determine, attitudes, attitudes determine actions…You and I cannot stay with the same cynical, faithless train of thought and think we are going to move forward in the new year.

1 Peter 1:13-16, 13 So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed., 14[Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel]., 15 But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.. 16 For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. [Lev 11:44,45.] AMP

Rick Joyner declared this:  “Radical changes will come to the lives of those who throw off the prevailing luke-warmness and see the Lord and His will for their lives with a whole heart.”

Formula for Growth and Change:

Vision + Goals + Strategies + Routines = New Results

If your routines do no change, you will never sustain change in your lives…

  • That’s why I tell people who come to Christ, to be in church everytime the doors are open and you are able to attend
  • Talk to God every day
  • Read either John’s gospel or Mark’s gospel
  • Go through the Following Jesus book…

 Matt 4:1-4, 4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”, 5 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”*  NKJV

  1. Mountain of Temptation
    • After an encounter with His Father in Jordan River…Look at what happens at Jesus’ baptism…
      • It is declared who Jesus really is…”behold the Lamb of God”
      • He is not only baptized but the Holy Ghost descends upon Him
      • Then His Heavenly Father Speaks…Identifying and Qualifying Jesus
      • Immediately HE is driven into the wilderness by the Spirit…Look who’s there…the Devil.
      • At New Levels you will always face New Devils
      • Everything the devil goes after is what was just declared in the waters of the Jordan River…
      • The devil is after what God said about you and try to cause you and me to doubt that…

Prayer Promises From the Father

  • Kingdom Influence
  • Apostolic ( A Regional )House
  • Restoration
  • Provision for the Vision – Finances, Andre Prophecied Clusters of Grapes…and Vineyards
  • Multi-Cultural and Multi-Generational
  • Pastors Restored
  • Successful Businesses
  • International Impact
  • Fruitful Ministry
  • Purging
  • $1,000,000 Checks given to the church for new facility

What Had God Promised You…That Promise is What the Enemy is After….

  • 40 Days
    1. Jesus is there to fast for 40 days…
    2. 40 is the number of transforming and testing…it is the number of a Paradigm shift…a shift of thinking
      • If you want to change your life you must start with 40 days of consistency
      • If you want to lose weight…get disciplined for 40 days
      • Want a paradigm shift in your money…start saving for 40 days
      • Want a shift in your spiritual life, be faithful to worship, prayer, meditation, and church for 40 days straight and you will encounter a shift in your spiritual life….

3. 40 is the number of Paradigm shift and New Territory

4. Did you know flies only live for 40 days…that’s the life cycle of a fly…they must be given opportunity to reproduce within that 40 days…Beelzebub means – Lord of the Flies…

5. If you can resist the devil for 40 days and give him nothing dead to feed upon so that he can reproduce…You will experience a shift into victory

6. God sent a flood and cleansed the earth while Noah and his family were on a yacht for 40 days and 40 nights

7. Moses killed an Egyptian and was in Exile for 40 years on the backside of the desert…

8. Moses was alone on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the pattern of the tabernacle along with the 10 commandments

9. The 12 spies searched out the land of Canaan for 40 days…because they did not believe what the Spirit of the Lord had spoken to them…they were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years…a year for every day spent in the land….

10. 40 is the number of Transition….

11. After 40 days of a pregnancy the child you are carrying is recognizable as a living child in the womb….

12. At 40 weeks the child is born into the world….

13. 40 is about a shifting of thinking, a shifting of a Paradigm…that launches you into New Birth and Renewal….

14. A caterpillar fights out of its cocoon after 40 days…and a butterfly emerges…

  • Why is 40 so powerful of a number?
  1. It is the sum of 5 and 8
    1. 5 is the number of Grace
    2. 8 is the number of New Beginnings…
    3. God is saying if you will allow me to do a New Thing of Grace within you and through you…and you’ll give me 40 days…I will lead you into New Territory and a Shift of Thinking and a Paradigm shift like you have never known…
  2. Look at the sermon on the Mount
    1. Jesus responded to the Devil…man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God….
      1. Proceeds – that which goes before you…to go forth, to issue or declare, to spread abroad as a rumor…
      2. God’s word goes before you and me when we set ourselves to hear from heaven and allow God and His word to Go before us
  • Give your Soul a Fast for 40 Days
  1. 3rd John says, “You will prosper as your soul prospers…”
  2. Your battles do not take place on a physical mountain but in the mountain of your mind…no wonder Paul said,

2 Cor 10:4-6, 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. NKJV

  1. Oh let me expound for a minute…the word punish all disobedience is a very unique word, only time this word is used in the New Testament…it means: hearing amiss, failing to hear, and refusing to hear…
  2. It is telling us to judge our own thoughts that are not of God and punish those thoughts and lack of hearing and bring them into obedience to Christ, not allowing the unhealthy thoughts to stay in our minds rent free!!!!!!
  3. All through the New Testament there are scriptures that encourage us to take authority over our thoughts
    1. “fear not only Believe” Mark 5:36
    2. “prepare your mind for action” 1 Peter 1:13
    3. “renew your mind” Rom.12:2
    4. “put on the mind of Christ” 1 Cor.2:16
    5. Romans tells us “to set our minds on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace…” Romans 8:6
  • Need for Renewal

As I think I have proven, the bible has a lot to say about the number 40…we all know the story of David and Goliath. Goliath terrorized the armies of Israel for 40 days…Until David came upon the scene and put an end to it…Check this out…someone sent this to me the other day…so powerful…I thought I had studied this passage of scripture out to exhaustion…but missed this:

  • 1 Sam 17:34, 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father.
  • David recognized the moment…my question is do you recognize this moment…
  • David was a shepherd just yesterday…but he knew there was something about this moment that meant he’d never go back to the same ole thing he left…
  • Who did you use to be yesterday or in 2024…
  • I’m telling you the Little David, the Little worshipper, the Little Giant Killer in you needs to rise up……
  • Now get this and I’ll get out of your hair….after David killed Goliath, David had 40 years of unprecedented victories…
  • Solomon ruled and reigns for 40 years with no fights and no battles…

IT’S TIME FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT…

  • FROM DOUBT TO FAITH
  • FROM DEFEAT TO VICTORY
  • TO FEAST UPON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF OUR GOD…THE ONE TRUE GOD

Call to a 40 Day Soul Fast

  • There are churches all over this country right now that are entering into this kind of fast…this first week of JANUARY…
  • Where you give your mind only to things that are Godly, edifying and uplifting…we arrest our words and measure them before we speak them…
  • Let me close with a few scriptures:

Jer 7:23-24, 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. NKJV

When was the last time you were so hungry for a move of God that you waited on the Lord?

 

 

 

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