NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE

When the Lord made you in your mother's womb; He had a purpose for you. You never came here by mistake.

God knew you even before He created the heavens and the earth and He had a plan for your life.

Ps 139:16 says that; You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Thus we see each day has a different page in your book. God has not written a summary of your life by years or months or by weeks, by has written each day; and therefore if God has taken much trouble to write down your life for each day; the best thing you can do to please Him is to seek to know and do God's will each and everyday. This days had 366 days; can you say that you did what God wanted you to do for each day? Don't worry about the past, you can start now. Decide that for this new year; I want to fulfill God's plan for my life each day.

God also has planned for us good works that we may do them. Before He cre them the earth, He prepared for us good works for us to do. Yes; there are many good things that God wants you to do this new year. 

Eph 2:10 says that; For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

This year seek to know and do all the good works that God has planned for you to do. There is something specific which God has planned that it's you and no one else should do that; can you imagine what a privilege and honour that is; that God has prepared something that it's only you He wants to do; take that honour and privilege. It's written in your name.

You may probably have been faithful to the best of your knowledge to God; but God has something more for you that you have already experienced. 

Paul says in Phil 3:13-14

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We need to forget the past; when Paul wrote this, he was not talking about past problems, all the bad things: it also included the good things; He was forgetting how much God had used Him; how many churches he He had planted; how many miracles and healing God had used him to do. What a great blessing He had been.

How much he had known and experienced God, how much he had sacrificed for Gods work and all He went through. He was now just like a beginner who is just starting to serve God today. There was no sitting down in self-congratulations of all he had done in the past. 

His focus is on what lies ahead. There is still more than God has for me that I am yet to achieve; there is a greater way that I God wants me to know Him that I am yet to know Him, there are many things that am yet to overcome that am yet to overcome; there are greater ways that God wants to use me that He has not been able;

This is the upward call; God is always calling us upwards; there is still more; come up higher.

Each and everyday if this year; hear the Lord speaking to you in your heart; my son, my daughter, come up higher. There are still better things ahead and upward. The call is forward and upward ↗️📴📈✈️.

Joshua took over from Moses when He was about forty years. Josh 14:7. We know that the Israelites stayed in the wilderness for forty years. Therefore Joshua was born when the Israelites were coming out of Egypt. He was from His childhood a minister of Moses. Ex 24:13. This is a picture of one who has served God faithfully from childhood to old age. The Lord says to such; “You are old and advanced in years, and much land remains to be conquered. Josh 13:1

Yes you has served God for many years faithful; but the Lord says to; there is still much more riches in Christ which are for you which you are yet to experience. There are still that God has for you which you know nothing about. Don't be satisfied with the level you have reached. Don't be satisfied that you are far ahead of many spiritually. There is still much more; continue pressing on. Heed the upward call which is still says to you; come up higher.

God has made a destination for you; and by the way; not heaven as you have already thought. Rom 8:29; For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

The destination God has for us is to become like Jesus; in the way we speak; in our thoughts, in our deeds,as the well known phrase asks; what would Jesus do? , in our attitudes to circumstances of life, to people who hate us, to those who hurts and take advantage of us, to money and material possessions, to the poor, to sinners. God's destination is for us to become completely like Jesus. But this is not done in a moment. It's a little as Paul expresses it in 2Cor 3:18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

We see here is just like a student who moved from one grade to another; from grade one to two all the way to doctorate. We also see the it's not us but transforming powerful of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing He does is to show how Christ was and His attitudes, How He treated people, his attitudes to people and things, and then transforms us to make to be in that same image that Christ is.

Every time if we yield to the Holy Spirit, by the time we end the year; we should be more like Jesus in thoughts, attitudes, deeds motives and our speech.

By the end of the year you should have become a little more like Christ.

In each of the 365 days of this year; there are some things that you need to do everyday; 

1. You should encourage at least one person everyday; especially those whom you see; Heb 3:13

2. You should make your challenges that you face your servants and they should make you stronger than you were before they came. There should be no wasted experience; every experience whether good or bad should make you better and stronger than you were before. Ps 84:6-7- When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

3. As your days increase; so should your spiritual strength also. Deut 33:25; as your days, so shall your strength, your rest and security, increase. At the end of the year, you should be stronger spiritually that you begun, you should be more at rest, and you should be more secure; that is more free from fear and anxiety.

4. Each day your heart should be like the fertile ground which bore fruits; one which received God's word, and obeys it, one that id honest before God and one that has a good attitude towards everyone especially those who do you wrong. Luke 8:15.

5. Each day you need to hear God's voice speak to you. Mat 4:4. You must thus meditate on His written word.

6. Each day you must judge yourself rightly to see where you are wrong, where you need to improve, what you need to change, where you need to repent, and what you need to set right; if you do so, the promise is that God will not judge you. 1Cor 11:31

7. Each day you must keep your conscience clear, as the evidence that you are waiting for the Lord; when you are convicted in your conscience about anything, you must set it right at the first opportunity. Act 24:16-17, 1John 3:3

This year will be the most fruitful to you if you do the above. You'll the Lord more than you ever did in your previous years, you'll serve Him more than you ever did, you'll be humbler than you've ever been, and most importantly is that your life will be more purer than you've ever been.

You are blessed to be a blessing 

Feel free to share 

@Blessed Mshindi Mambo