Purposed to Profit

Merry Christmas, sis!

You know, there’s something about Christmas, beyond the bright lights, presents, parties, food and lots more food! For one, Christmas brings with it the undeniable reality of the countdown to the end of the year. Sis, 2017 is as good as gone! As I took some time out this morning to reflect on this reality, one big question - followed by several others in rapid succession, came to mind. I’d like to pose those same sets of questions to you today because I think they are pertinent to entering 2018 with the right perspectives. 

Sis, what were your markers for 2017?

Markers? Yes! What were the things that marked 2017 for you? What were your major gains? What were your major pains? What were your take-away lessons from both your gains and pains? What events – global/local/economic/social/emotional/physical etc. impacted upon or shaped your 2017 one way or the other? What goals did you set for yourself in 2017 that you achieved or surpassed? Which goals did you not attempt, or attempted and failed at partially or even completely? What things did you achieve in 2017 that were nowhere near your goal radar at the start of the year?

What relationships did you forge or forgo in 2017? Who added to or took away from you in 2017? 

Did you ‘grow’ in 2017? How exactly? Are you the same person you were at 12.01am on the 31^st of December 2016; or are you different and if yes, how? What has evolved around your thinking, perspectives, actions and inactions? Which bad habits and demons were you able to conquer in 2017, and which did you continue to ‘fellowship’ with? Did you wallow in comfort zones in 2017, or were you able to take baby steps/quantum leaps away from the things that once kept you in the cycle of sameness? Who is grateful for having had you in their life/lives in 2017? Who are you grateful to have had in yours? What was your spiritual life like in 2017? Did you grow, stagnate or regress spiritually?

Many questions sis….so many! That said, can I ask you to please not just breeze past them? Honestly, nothing beats a no-holds-barred one-on-one with yourself ever so often, and methinks today is as good as any to find some quiet space and think through your life in the past 12months. You can’t just roll on into 2018, sis. Honestly, you just can’t!

It would take at least three million words for me to share with you what some of my responses to self were, but suffice it to say that 2017 has been and still is an INTENSE year for me. 2016 had ended on a highly traumatic note for me, and so also did 2017 open with trauma. I had to contend with challenges and deep-seated pain that I never thought I could feel. It almost broke me, sis. No scratch that… I was broken! I was! But herein lies the gift of a strong relationship with God and an understanding that He alone is your firm confidence, trust and dependency. I had to learn new dimensions to the word grace and believe me….it’s one thing to ask for grace from God, and its another entirely to then extend the same grace to those who have wronged and hurt you deeply. I had to relearn how to release my heart to God and allow Him do a healing work. I had to release my mind to Him afresh to allow Him deal with painful memories each time they resurfaced. I had to relearn how to allow God carry me daily from a higher dimension, and if only for that reason then I’m actually grateful for the pain.

In business, wow! Talk about intense! This year stretched my business acumen in a way it hasn’t been stretched over the past 23 years. I had to run three major projects, major both in terms of the quantum and the depth of deliverables to get each project to a successful close-out. In the face of how badly our industry was hit by global events, I am grateful that the stretching was about growth and not a decline. In ministry, in other industry and social responsibilities that I carry…. Hmm! Did I already say ‘intense’? Well, pardon me for saying it once more. It really was intense for me, sis – emotionally, spiritually, in my family, business-wise, and in every area.

I saw God do the most amazing things in my life and through my life. I saw Him heal me and cancel a negative report. I saw Him deliver me from what would have been a major accident. I saw Him hug me through my tears. I saw Him provide in my difficulties. I saw Him speak to me and through me, things which came to pass. I saw Him as light in my darkest of places. I saw Him raise helpers and the right voices to encourage and grow me. I saw Him grant me access into places I thought I was unqualified for in my own eyes. I saw Him create and consolidate opportunities for me to grow and grow others. I saw Him through so many facets of my life, sis. If there is one thing that I can take out of 2017, it is that God walked every day of this year with me! I wish I could boast as unequivocally that I walked with Him as faithfully…but I can’t, and I won’t. That wouldn’t be true. I had my struggles in 2017, sis. I did! Without a doubt however, I know He was with me, ahead of me and all around me every single step of my way! I know this, and boy am I grateful.

As this realization washed over me, something dropped in my spirit. It was a statement and then a question: ‘So, you are clear that you profited from God this year…. But, what did you profit heaven in 2017?’

What did you profit heaven in 2017, sis? What did heaven gain from your life and existence? What did you do with the impartation of God’s divine breath that gave you life? How well did you walk in your assignment? How did you transact in 2017 such as to enlarge God’s Kingdom and deliver glory to Him? Did you take territory for yourself, or did you take territory for Christ? What are your spiritual markers for 2017…particularly the ones that are not about you alone? To whom were you Christ? To whom did you represent Christ? To whom did you minister Christ? What did you profit heaven from your marketplace transactions? Did you attend church efficiently in 2017, or were you actually ‘the church’ on a daily basis to a world very much in need? Whose spiritual life was impacted and enhanced by your spiritual life in 2017? How did your obedience walk go in 2017? Did you follow through on God’s instructions and assignments for you? What would heaven score you on your 2017 spiritual assessment? 

Hmm!

So, this post would be too long if I tried to share my answers with you. I will sum it up to say that I had quite a few things I could honestly and humbly declare that heaven profited from me, sis……things for which I was and am grateful to have had the privilege to be used to deliver on for the Kingdom. But, I also had quite a few things I knew I didn’t deliver on, instructions which I didn’t follow through on at all, or which I followed through only partially. I was also brave enough to be honest to myself about why. Sometimes, it was out of fear and uncertainty, and sometimes out of sheer laziness to make the effort required to push through. Other times, it was because I was clueless, and I didn’t take time to go back and ask for clarity and direction. So yes, heaven profited from me in 2017, but it was less than could have been.  

Why is this important, sis? Because a New Year is around the corner and I want to be sure that it is a more profitable year from me to the Lord! I know He will do His bit. I enter 2018 with a confidence and trust around the things that God will do for me and mine because He loves us like that. But I want to be sure that as He up’s His spiritual play in my life, I also up my giving back to Him. I know that with each passing year, I am on a countdown to standing before my Maker, and I know I am too old to be planning towards the day when I can begin to get it right. The time is NOW, sis! I was brought forth for this time and this season, not to occupy space on earth; but rather, to be productive for God and to fulfill the various assignments which He purposed I should deliver on during my time here on this earth.

I am purposed to profit heaven, sis. You are purposed to profit heaven! Entering each New Year and season of our lives with this understanding brings us to the place of intentionality and determination. It brings us back to the place of asking God to begin again with us, and walk again with us, so that at the end we may indeed deliver the glory that is His due, in the quantum that is His due, for that season and beyond. Ah sis, that we would better understand as time slowly but surely rolls by, that this life is ultimately only about how we profited He Who sent us. It would change the way we do life day to day. It would change the decisions and resolutions we make. It would change the actions we take. It changes the perspectives we adopt. It changes the impact we make. And I so want my impact to be about His glory. Don’t you?

The Lord will help me, sis. He will help you. Find quiet time to think this through, sis. Speak to God and let Him speak to you about 2018. Allow Him to show you through His eyes, and then commit to the instructions and assignments He would have you deliver on. By the grace and power of God, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, our lives will profit heaven in greater measure in the year ahead. In Jesus name, amen.

Be blessed sis…..for you surely are!