Embrace the Challenges

I was saying to a friend of mine recently that for some reason I’m so excited in my spirit about the year 2016. I have nothing to base this excitement on save for a knowing and a confidence inside of me that this is going to be a great year. Outwardly though, you perhaps wouldn’t know it to see it, sis. Indeed from the very first working day of the week, my life has been on an accelerated ‘go’. By the middle of January, I felt like I was already well into the middle of the year. It’s been one assignment or challenge after another. There have been times when all I’ve had it in myself to do was to put my head back and close my eyes, deliberately disconnecting in every spare second I could get. That said, I can nonetheless feel my molecules continuously dancing to an internal praise beat. I can sense that my heart is beating in alignment with the worship songs that spew forth from my spirit daily. It’s a good place to be, sis. It really is!

And I can’t put my finger on the source, you ask? No, dear friend! I can’t and quite frankly, I’m not even trying to. The Scripture says in John 20 v 29 ‘Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed’. I don’t need to know, sis. I only have to trust, and I only need to rest in Him Who is my assurance that all things are working out for my good, that all things end in praise.  

I recall that when I put together my GPS for 2016, I’d sat for a few minutes able to do nothing more than say ‘Hmm’ several times over. I looked at all the goals I’d set for myself and tried to figure how I would make them work. Eventually, I sat back and had a hearty laugh, and then printed it out as my final working document for 2016. You see sis, in those few minutes I was reminded about what I preach regularly…. that if our goals are easy enough for us to achieve without much effort, then they are not from God. Those kind of small dreams and goals are nothing more than our personal want-to-do’s and nice-to-do’s. God’s assignments tend to come in God-sized packages that help us know that we can’t do them in our strength. I laughed because I remembered that God is my Source, my Anchor and so as much as He lays in my heart to do, He also would help me to deliver on them as long as I stay faithful to the cause.

Where am I going with this post? Actually, truth is that I’m somehow hoping that by the time you are done reading, you would find your molecules also being agitated somewhat as the Holy Spirit unfolds this word to you Himself. I’m hoping that you will take a few minutes to be still before God and allow Him stir you up with this same internal excitement. Can I assure you that this is going to be a great year sis? If you would only but catch the bug, sis… if you would! It’s going to be a radically great year, in Jesus name, amen.

God gave me a word for 2016. He said that I would experience new challenges that would bring new opportunities for me to take new territories and give new testimonies. Wow! Wow! Wow! Sis, I am so holding on to this word. It still blows my mind every time I think on it. It’s probably part of what has me so stirred up internally. And you know what? I have found it hard to believe that such a tremendous word could be for me alone, and so I have continued to declare it over everyone who would hear and receive it from me as a sure word from Heaven above for their 2016. I declare it over you also sis, in Jesus name I do!

One thing I love about this word is the fact that it infill’s me with a boldness to face any challenges that have and are still coming my way. If my God Who knows the end from the beginning is able to tell me that I will have challenges, then it goes without saying that He will be with me through them and that I will overcome. So no, God has made no effort to sugar-coat 2016 for me. He hasn’t tried to give me a sense that I would live in La-La land all through 2016. Simply put, He has said to me ‘brace up’. He has not indicated just how big or small the challenges I will face in 2016 are, but He has said there are new testimonies that will come out of each and every trial I will face. What awesome encouragement! My loins are girded up, sis. I know with greater certainty that He Who is Himself the mighty Man of Battle fights with and for me, and I will receive victory on every side in Jesus name, as will you.

The Lord also told me categorically that in this year, it is imperative that I maintain an atmosphere of worship around me. He has told me clearly that this will be the key to my victories. He has said that He will help me and He will uphold me, but the greatest parts of the battles will be won by praise, in a continuous atmosphere of worship, in spending time daily in His presence.

I am excited about new territories. Cautiously so, I will admit and this is because as well as I know God, He is not predictable. He does as He pleases, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are certainly not our ways. When He says He wants to use you more, it does not follow that it will be in the same way that He has used you before. I also know that when He wants to take you higher, then there is a higher level of testing that you will necessarily go through for the purpose of refining. God can’t have those who are still drinking spiritual milk on assignments that require those who are spiritually mature and rugged enough to eat meat. You know this right, sis? Hmm!

Anyhow, my heart’s desire is truly to grow in Him, to be used more of Him and to walk more closely in alignment with His will and purpose for my life. So, my response has been and is that I yield. I yield fully and I yield completely. I yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit because He will bring this word to my remembrance in the times of my testing. I yield because at the end, if I allow God lead, I win. And when I win, God gets the glory. Can you see, sis?

What has this got to do with you? Very simply sis, I want to encourage you to embrace the challenges 2016 will throw at you. Don’t try too hard to pray them away. If you had nothing to deal with, your life wouldn’t bear much fruit and that is the truth. The muscles we grow when we go through trials always position us to be more greatly blessed later on, and to be a blessing to countless others who get the benefit of our counsel, our compassion and our prayers in their own times of need. Don’t worry about the challenges you currently face or will face in 2016, sis. Embrace them with the fullness of the realization that indeed, they are creating new opportunities for you. Embrace them because those new opportunities will make room for you to take new territories spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, in your relationships as a wife/mother/daughter/friend; in your businesses or work; in your finances; etc.

Sis, those new territories will put indescribably awesome new testimonies on your lips to the glory of God. This is His assurance! So brace yourself, sis. Wear worship well! As it is, praise looks incredibly good on you, and it never goes out of fashion. Are your insides dancing yet, sis? Pray over this Word, sis. I assure you that the Lord will interpret it for you Himself and help you internalize the assurance that He has given me.

I’m so looking forward to sharing your testimonies all through this year, sis. And please send in your praise reports if you will. This year, I want to feature your testimonies of what God is doing in your life. I’m happy to share this page with you, my fellow unique woman. It’s an honor to go and grow with you on this remarkable journey of a life in Christ. Here’s to fruitful and fulfilling 2016, by the power of the Holy Spirit Who is effectually at work within us, in Jesus name amen.

Be blessed sis…for you surely are!