Well, the Old Year has been ushered out and a New Year has began. It seems so fast that the old year was experienced. What is your perspective on the upcoming New Year? Mine is anticipation (mental attitude that influences a later response). My approach is that, my attitude determines my outcome. I am convinced that I’m on a journey that was predestined for me. I was created for such a time as this to fulfill what I was designed to do. Everyday is exciting because everyday yields revelation in what I’m destined to do. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

This New Year is destined to become what each one of us chooses it to be. It is the Heavenly Fathers heart that we be conformed to the “image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Many strive to become something they were not destined to become. He has created us to represent Him as Kingdom sons & daughters in excellence & glory. Romans 9:23 “and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory”.  We are on a prophetic time clock that is drawing us closer to the catching away of the Church. We have to be in position to hear the voice of Heaven calling us up to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). If we are distracted by the world and  its cares we could miss the coming of the Bridegroom (Matt. 25:1-13).

We have to reach a place in our lives where we do not participate in the deeds of the flesh. The Apostle Paul addresses the Church about temptation and allowing sin to dominate their lives. “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:11-14). He is saying that the time left before the Lord's return is growing short and we must be even more in love with God and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

This is the same reasoning that the Lord Jesus used in the parables of the ten virgins and of the stewards and their talents (Mt. 25). The message of these four verses (vv. 11-14) can be summed up in the words of Jesus from Luke 21:34,  "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly”. The issue of the Lord's imminent return adds even more importance to us walking in love. Paul is using the term "flesh," as referring to the part of man that has not been changed by Christ, (our sinful appetites and desires, Rom. 7:18). These sinful lusts cannot dominate us if we don't make provision for them. Paul is saying to cut off the flesh's rations and starve it to death. Many Christians have mistakenly believed that during our life here on the earth, we are destined to have ungodly lusts and desires. But it doesn't have to be that way. The sin nature that enslaved our flesh is gone, and to the degree that we renew our minds through God's Word, we can experience victory over the flesh       (Rom. 5:21).

The reason the flesh seems so strong in many people's lives is because they are continually feeding it. Temptation is linked to what we think on. In 1Thessalonians 5:23, Paul writes that spirit, soul and body need to be sanctified (set apart for holiness). Sanctification is made possible by the Grace of God, which empowers us to live a life of holiness, where spirit, soul and body are used as instruments of God.  “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). This year many New Years resolutions will be made. People will try to loose weight, exercise, save money, give more, love more and etc…All is good, and written in the Word of God that we should apply these things in our life. But what profit is it, if it is not motivated  from a heart of love for the Lord?

Read what Solomon concluded by Divine perspective….”I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). We should have a perspective also about priorities in life. What is your number one priority for this New Year? I have mine. It is to be more in love with God so I can love others and to be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He is the Divine Agent sent from Heaven to reveal destiny for our lives. Debbie & I have had many conversations about life as husband and wife. The Spirit of God who is Big in us is revealing that time is drawing us closer to the meeting of the Lord in the air (1Thess.4:17). We admonish all of you “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). 

Shiloh Ministry Team