flourishinggirl: December 2014

Wednesday 31 December 2014

Welcome to January 2015: Our Month of Glory

As we celebrate another new entry into another year of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, tagged OUR YEAR OF DIVINE ESTABLISHMENTS; let me use this opportunity to welcome you and share with you what the Lord has told me about this month. In 1Cor.15:41, we are told:

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”

Also, in Isaiah 43:7, we are told:

“Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”

When we put these two scriptures together, we would understand that every one of us is unique in our glory or manifestations of our hidden abilities put there by God. The reason God puts these abilities in us is quite clear from our second text and that is for us to glorify Him. We are actually created, formed and made for the glory of God. If we go back to Genesis 1:26-28, we would see that God created man’s spirit and then in Genesis 2:7, He formed man’s body from the dust of the ground and over time, He makes men into what He wants them to become to the extent that man yields to him. This explains why, when He called His first disciples, Jesus Christ promised to make them fishers of men. The process by which He actualized this was through discipleship.

When the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished His mission on earth, He said these words to the father in his famous prayer in John 17:4:

“I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Also, in his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Apostle Paul by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, told the Church in Ephesians 4:11-16 that the Lord gave us ministry gifts of men in the body of Christ set in offices like the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher. The purpose of these gifts is to help build up the saints so that we can all come to full maturity as each one adds value or unleash their potential for the general edification of the body so that together we can grow up to become the bride that Jesus is going to return for. As he puts it in Ephesians 5:26-27, a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without any blemish.

Before we list the points raised above, let us first understand that glory simply means praise or honour given to somebody or something because they have achieved something special. Again, it means praise and worship of God. It also means great beauty, and a special cause for pride, respect and honour.

When we put together out dictionary definition with the scripture analysis above, we would understand as follows:

1. Glory is God’s desire for each of us. This is why Jesus Christ was able to endure the Cross. In Hebrews 12:2, we are told that he endured all he suffered at the Cross because of the glory to come and we have seen it above that the glory is a bride without wrinkle, spot and blemish but beautified with holiness.

2. God actually made us to bring Him glory and this happens as we unleash out hidden abilities to become productive and bear spiritual, mental and physical fruits that would result in honor for us and Him.

3. As God’s product, his name is at stake when we do not perform optimally. This is why He not only created us; He formed us and is responsible for making us.

4. When Jesus finished His work, He said he had brought God glory by finishing the work God gave to him. In the same way, we must understand that after we are saved, we must find out the particular good work God has worked out for us to enter into as shown in Ephesians 2:10 and then depend on the Holy Spirit to help us do it. As we are faithful in doing it, we would end up bringing glory to God.

5. When we make it our life mission to glorify God, we would fulfill our divine purpose and be glorified by God in return.

6. Finally, to enable us fulfill our God given purpose, we must take full advantage of the fivefold ministry gifts in the body of Christ. However, before we can do this, we must understand what they are, why they are and how we can benefit from each ministry gift.

In light of these truths, this month we shall be looking at the fivefold ministry gifts and how we can take full advantage of them to attain to our maximum potential for the fulfillment of God’s purpose to glorify him.

As the year commences, this is a good time to make the greatest resolution of your life if you are yet to do so. That is to accept the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for your Salvation and respond to His love by receiving Him as your Lord and Saviour. If you want to do so now, please say the following prayer out loud to God meaning it with all your heart and the Holy Spirit will take you up from there.

Father in Heaven,

I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your word says in John 6:37 that you will not cast me out when I come to you. So I thank you that you will take me in.

You also said in Romans 10:9-10 that if I shall confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that he died for my sin on Calvary’s Cross and was raised from the dead for my justification and I confess him now as my Saviour and Lord.

I believe that I have now become your righteousness in Christ whom you made to be sin for me on Calvary’s Cross.

Thank you father that I am saved from this day in Jesus’s name!

If you just said this prayer, congratulations! Welcome to the family of God. Please send me an email at flourishinggirl@gmail.com. This will enable me send you an e-copy of our “Believers’ Guide to Growth” to help you start out well on your spiritual journey.

For more information and our resource materials, you can visit my blog at:

www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com & www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com. You can also become a fan of our page on face book by logging on to www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl and liking: healing & Restoration time with Pastor Alero Nanna.

WELCOME TO THE YEAR 2015 OUR YEAR OF DIVINE ESTABLISHMENTS

The two key words here are DIVINE and ESTABLISHEMENTS. Divine has to do with that which originates from God. In other words, God’s plan for us in 2015 is to establish us. Establishments on the other hand is the noun of the word establish which for our divine purpose means to make stable or firm, to set in a place and make it stable there; to settle; to confirm. You would observe that establishment is in plural and this implies that the establishment God is bringing us to is complete as it would happen in every area of our lives and not some areas alone. In other words, this year, God has purposed to settle us spiritually, in our souls and bodies. Where foundations were wrong, the Lord would help us remove them and lay the right foundations so that we can build on immovable foundations for if the foundations be destroyed, we can do nothing.

In 1Peter 5:10, we are told:

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

Also, in the book of Ezekiel, 36:11, we see this prophecy:

“And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

From the above sure word of prophecy, it is evident that God does not want us to labour for nothing. We have been working hard and it is time for God to reward our hard work with His establishments. All the sacrifices we have made for a better future, all the labours we have invested in improving every area of our lives etc, have not gone unnoticed by the Lord. This is why in our first text scripture, we are told that after we have suffered a while, the Lord would perfect us, establish, strengthen and settle us.

How is He going to do this? From the prophecy in Ezekiel quoted above, we are told that He will increase us numerically as a team, He would cause us to manifest His productivity in all we are and do and then He will settle us as He originally intended before many of us went astray. Now that we are returned to him, He will cause us to do better than at our beginnings. His intention is that we would recognize His leadership over our lives. This is awesome!

Sincerely, were it not for the rebellion of man, God would not really need to prove many things to us; we would naturally know them.

However, the natural man cannot receive that things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Therefore, if we must get the best of what God is set to do in our lives this year, spirituality cannot be compromised. The reason is that the prerequisites for divine establishments are faith and righteousness.

In the book of Isaiah 7:9, we are told that if we do not believe, we would not be established. So we must first believe that it is God’s purpose to establish us this year and then we must act out our faith by mixing it with the actions required of us. The bible says in Hebrews 4:2 that the word sent to them did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. When we believe, we enter into God’s rest and are established like the man described in Psalm 112:7. We must also understand that we cannot please God without faith. See Heb.11:6.

The second prerequisite for divine establishment is righteousness. There is the imputed righteousness we receive at new birth which is the first step to divine establishments [2Cor.5:21, Rm.6:23]. However, the proof of our repentance is in our obedience to God afterwards. In John 14:23, Jesus said:

“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

From this text, it is evident that the proof that we have entered into the works that God has prepared for us from the foundation of the earth as revealed in Ephesians 2:10 is our consistent obedience to God’s command because of our affection for him in return for His affection for us. See Prov.12:3 & Isa.54:14.

When these two requirements of faith and righteousness are met, then nothing can stop our divine establishments in the year 2015. To help us attain to God’s standard, we shall be learning from His word about his kind of faith and how to exercise dominion over sin so that our righteous living would be a practical one.

Once again, I welcome you to 2015: Our year of Divine Establishments; God will establish you in every area of your life in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!!!