2013 – The Year of Promise!?!

For some reason it seems that we want to perpetually attach themes to years around this time. I wonder if anyone goes back and compares the year to the theme that was prominent, or if they just forget about it and go on theming the future? And we like a theme that is bright, big, promising and so forth. Nobody wants to hear any half steps toward the positive in prognostications! Let's make it big and bold guys, okay?

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I know that some of the things I have forecast in certain years have been hard to see in the exit interview of the year I pinned them to. Probably is pretty common thing, but that doesn't make it good. I think it does us good to be honest when comparing predictions to what actually happened, instead of trying to save face or spin things. And we can also benefit from other perspectives and input, even if it is contrary. We could benefit from some honesty in our times, and acceptance of responsibility for things we have gotten wrong or misunderstood. Humility is refreshing. We learn by contrasting expectations with what actually happened, so don't stop, and don't fail to examine.

Can this year actually be a year of promise? Can any year? Sure it can, they can! But promises should also confer responsibility, not just hope. Not the responsibility to make or force such things to come to materialize, but the responsibility of following the Lord, the responsibility of cooperation with Him. Here is something to look at from the scripture about promises, waiting, cooperation, and so forth: Click Here for verses. The problem in this example is that they did not wait for His plans to develop, and by waiting show respect to His plans. We have to get this waiting and respecting thing down.

Some may think Jesus was going thru a personal negative patch when He wept over Jerusalem – (Luke 19:41). Was He? The fact is that sometime we don't pay attention to the changes that are required to make us ready to walk in God's plan. By this, what He intended for our personal lives is lost. The grief generated by such needless loss is what Jesus is going thru when He is weeping over Jerusalem. “Time after time I appealed to you, but you were unresponsive, and now it is too late.” And this was the city, not just a person. This type of thing can still happen, and in fact is happening now, on the personal level, and beyond.

Sometimes we feel that timing is everything, we are just waiting on the right timing…. “It was perfect timing… everything lined up and fell into place.” Does everything line up and fall into place based on timing, or preparation? Timing plays a role, that is certain. However, timing isn't everything. God's plan for our lives has stages and seasons. We can be out of sync, or in sync. There is space between the promise and the inheritance of it. If you don't believe it, talk to Abraham. As you have no doubt heard, the time you have between a promise and the season for the promise to come to pass is given to you for preparation. If you don't create an environment (thru obedience) where the promise will be welcome, can you legitimately expect it to materialize? Also, if you don't prepare, the manifestation of these promised things won't be a blessing, but a discomfort, or worse.

“God's promises to you are invitations, not guarantees.” This is a quote from Mike Bickle. That is clear wording. Often the reason we are not already walking in the victorious story described by the promises we receive is that we are living in disobedience. This cannot be corrected by another glowing promise, but only thru repentance. I am not talking about tears, tho they may or may not be present. The repentance I am talking about equals change. A lot of our celebration around promises and personal prophetic words is because we have a low self concept and are looking for a boost. This is not the ultimate intended purpose for such things. God is calling to us from a future that is more agreeable to His will, and trying to show us we have place in such a context! If we will turn from our selfish and wayward pursuits, we can walk in it. This is often what is really happening. God doesn't redeem you in spite of your cooperation, and that is not how you walk in His promises either.

We will know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:3 Well said.

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We can mistake God's will for our own. I have done it. Or we can try to get to God's will by following our own way. I have done this too. I remember a time in my life where difficulty was mounting up and up, to the point where I was approaching complete financial ruin. This continued for months, and relief was not in sight. During this process, I heard a man say, “the man who follows his own way is cursed, and the word cursed here means hemmed in by obstacles.” He was giving an interpretation based on a word study he had done from a bible verse, from the book of Jeremiah. Read the context here. I knew at the time that the verse hit me funny, but I wasn't sure why, even tho it described my situation perfectly. Looking back, I think God, in that very moment, was reaching out to me, but I was having a hard time making it out. In my mind I was suffering needlessly. After all, I was following, or so I thought in my own mind. And yet the train was getting closer and closer to the cliff, and my creditors were growing impatient, and my revenue stream drying up.

One day, I was heavy under the weight of the situation. I was alone in my car, driving home from work, and talking to the Lord about it. Complaining might be a more accurate description. In the middle of my complaint, the Lord reminded me of the verse and words the guy had spoken months earlier. I yelled out loud, “My own way?!” The type of response, and the state of my heart in it, was all the confirmation that was needed to prove the fact. Thank you Jesus for helping me see something that was all around me but was concealed from me because of my mindset. You saved me from this delusion, and from it's consequence.

I went on to be rescued, and to see things as they were, not as they were appearing. This was a decade ago.

Trust the Lord. Cooperate with Him. Follow Him. Seek Him and Obey Him! He wants more and better for you than you can possibly want for yourself, but it may not be exactly the same as what you want. How could it be if it is better? Yield to the higher! You will be glad you did. Regardless of whether the year appears to promising or threatening, you will rise to the place He intends, seated with Him as one who has overcome the world.

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One Reply to “2013 – The Year of Promise!?!”

  1. I am kind of going through the same sort of struggeling time you talk about, and what is weird (good wierd) is the fact that, when the financial ruin came to my life, I realized that my faith was being tested and then I rejoiced, because before this time, I used to complain about “bad times”, but now I know that God is watching over me and that is very very good cause it means that he wants something for me, and, like you said, something better than what I want on my own way. Plus I understood that before Him I got nothing to boast about. there will always be “good an bad” times but our faith must not fall apart but grow more and more as the years come by.

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