WELCOME TO THE YEAR
2017 OUR YEAR OF REHOBOTH!
“… for now the lord
hath made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land” Gen.26:22
Towards the turn of the year, I began to wonder what the Lord
would name 2017 to us. On my own, I cannot make up a word for the year. If I
could, I may have run out of words. As I wondered about the awesome ability of
God to always come up with something new, He spoke to my heart and said the
year 2017 would be Rehoboth to us for now the Lord hath made room for us and we
shall be fruitful in the Land.
I quickly checked where it was written in the bible and found
out that it was a word that was spoken by the hardworking covenant father Isaac
after he had out laboured his adversaries when they kept trying to frustrate
his various moves at providing for his household in the course of his sojourn
on the land promised to his progenitor, himself and his descendants.
A preview of the year 2016 would disclose that prophetically,
the Lord has been helping us to actualize the establishments he gave us in the
preceding year by causing us to build more physical structures to enable us
have proper places of worship and residence. In fact, in 2016, He promised us
that we would be divinely exempted from all evils. A lot of evils were
unleashed in 2016 on the world around us but He graciously exempted us in the
Kingdom Heirs family from all of them. We are still in awe of all He has done
and now He has brought us this great promise of fruitfulness combined with His
establishments.
In the story of Isaac from where we draw this truth of the
mind of God for us for the year 2017, we read in Genesis 26:16-22 thus:
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go
from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
And Isaac departed thence, and
pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again the wells of
water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them
after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which
his father had called them.
And Isaac's servants digged in the
valley, and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive
with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is
ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
And they digged another well, and
strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
And he removed from thence, and
digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it
Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be
fruitful in the land.
In this story, we see that Isaac became the envy of his neighbours because
of the blessing of the Lord on his life due to the covenant God cut with His
father Abraham which he inherited. They demonstrated their envy in their bid to
frustrate all the efforts they made through their good works. The first well
they dug was forcefully taken from them and the peaceful Isaac moved on from
them and dug another well. They enviously took the other one also. He left them
again and dug the third one and this time, they did not strive for it and in
his relief, he declared that now the Lord had made room for him and his house
and they shall be fruitful in the land.
As I write, I had to pause to attend to some ministry demands. We just
by the grace of God planted a new branch of our Church in another area of the
same local government area here in Lagos state Nigeria four months after this
branch where I am now was planted. At the beginning of this month, we
experienced the devil’s envy and a fight that ensued between the community and
the family that let the property to us resulted in their planting a charm in
the property which by their law forbade the use of the property until the
community removed the charm. Our resident pastor in that area knew that he
could not come to tell me any story about unaccomplished work. He just removed
the charm and continued work.
His action
sparked the infuriation of the community leaders and they went and planted
another one on the road leading to the property. At this time, I was already
informed and the elders wanted to meet with me. I took my time because at this
time I was in the middle of our annual December gratitude and praise time which
we fixed for 4 to 6 am. That meant no sleep for some of our Church leaders and
I. I sent a missionary colleague to go and see them on our behalf and he came
back with a report that we were fined a certain amount of money. I immediately
told him I would pay nothing because we did not owe them anything. I decided
there and then that if they insisted, I would leave the place for them and tell
them the owner of the place (God) would come for his investment in his own way.
Thankfully, God
went ahead of us and gave us favour with the community leader who did not also
see any reason for us to be fined and our place was restored to us. In fact
they tried to make us give for their community day but we declined letting them
know that what we brought to their community was worth much more than all the
money they could ever ask for. As I write now, I know that God just used this
experience to give us a sample of what he has in store for us in the year 2017.
Much room and fruitfulness!
In fact looking
at the word of this year, it is clear that God is calling us to fulfill the
purpose for which we were created in the first place. A look at God’s purpose
for making man in Genesis 1:26-28 shows us that we were destined to be
fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion over it. This
was God’s original intention but man’s sin in Genesis 3 truncated this
introducing bareness and unfruitfulness. But the good news followed after some
thousands of years when Jesus said on the Cross in John 19:30 “… it is
finished! By this verdict of the Lord, we can fulfill his intention expressed
in John 15:8 thus: “Herein is my father
glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples…”
In summation
here, I must let you know if you do not already know that until you fulfill the
purpose for which you were born, you have not glorified God. In John 17:4,
Jesus said these words in prayer to the Father: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do.” It is therefore evident here that until you find your
purpose for living and finished it, you have not really glorified God. This
will make more meaning to you when you look at the book of Isaiah 43:7 where
God said by the prophet that He actually created and formed us for His glory!
Sadly, many are
walking the sands of time living meaningless lives because they are not even
aware they have a purpose for living not to talk of fulfilling that purpose.
For anyone in this category, I have good news for you. You can discover, pursue
and eventually fulfill your purpose. Understand that you are only as relevant
to God to the extent you are willing to fulfill your God given purpose. Jesus
Christ by his death, burial and resurrection has made it possible for you to
know and fulfill your purpose. Your access point however is that you must be
born again. You must belong to God’s family to be able to do this because sin
previously cut us off from the glory of God. If you desire to be restored to
that glory now, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out
loud in faith and you will commence the journey to discover and actualize your
God given purpose:
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus
died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore
declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the
fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you
for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.
Congratulations! For more information and resources
that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face
book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email: jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.
