ESTHER’S WARRIORS MINISTRY

Blessings this second Sunday in January!  Have you honed in on what tone you are setting for 2013 during this first month?  The first month is so important as it is full of promise and expectation for the coming year.  Don’t just ‘resolutionize’ your plan with time worn resolutions you have never kept.  This year ‘revolutionize’ your focus.  Establish and set a Kingdom-centered plan for 2013 that will shift you from worldly drudgery to Godly unction.

Temple Maintenance

Am I saying not to set any goals to maintain a healthy weight, get enough sleep and exercise regularly?  Of course not as these are all good plans to maintain the body that God has given us.  After all, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are responsible for keeping your temple well.   However, if you tend to focus on just the worldly or physical aspects of your life you can miss the greater portion of what God has for you.

Spiritual Focus

Do you set spiritual goals for the year?  Do they go by the wayside as February moves along?  Your intentions are surely positive if you purpose to read the Bible more, pray more, fast more and give more to Kingdom endeavors but how long do you stay with your plan?  To have a Kingdom-centered design for your life you first have to know the King in your heart (and it is always a heart issue).

Take a Step Back

This first month rather than overwhelm yourself with a long list of resolutions, step back a bit.  Decide to set aside quiet time to start, build or enhance your relationship with Jesus Christ.  Without a close relationship with Him at your heart level all else is form mostly devoid of the power and unction of God.

This first month abide in Him.  This first month rest in Him.  In John 15:4 Jesus tells us, “Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”  If you do not stay close with Him you do not have fruitful results in your life.  Just think, if a fruit tree limb is injured and not well connected to the tree itself, that limb will wither.  There will be no fruit and it will eventually die if not grafted back in to the source of life.

What is Your Reality?

So it is with you and Jesus.  If you choose to cut yourself off from a deep relationship with Him, the fruit of your life withers and dies.  Life becomes just daily actions piling up a heaviness you cannot quite seem to release.  The peace that surpasses all human understanding and the joy of the Lord remain elusive concepts you wonder how to grasp.  You may even question if they are truly real and attainable.

I tell you unequivocally that peace and joy will permeate your life when you abide in Him.  This first month let the revolution in your spiritual life be to fully accept Jesus Christ and let Him into your heart and into your life.  It does not matter if you have been a Christian for fifty years or five minutes or are thinking about taking your first step.  Step into position for 2013 as a ‘Christ-abiding’ believer.  Give it one hundred percent and He will give you back a hundred fold.  Today is the day to begin!

“Get a move on; begin to abide now. In the initial stages it is a continual effort until it becomes so much the law of life that you abide in Him unconsciously.  Determine to abide in Jesus wherever you are placed.”  Oswald Chambers quote taken from The Quotable Oswald Chambers by David McCasland.

A Prayer Request

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray.  Please keep all who serve our country, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety.  They are our frontline on the battlefield, let us be their frontline in the spirit.  Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives.  God bless all our diplomatic and military personnel and their families.

Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi and for safety in Israel.  May God richly bless the United States of America and keep her safe.  May we may arise united in this auspicious season in our country’s history.

My Prayer for You

May God richly bless you and yours.  May you fully open your heart to Jesus this year and abide in Him always.  May He reign supreme in your heart and in your life.  I pray that His peace will wash over you in each and every life circumstance and that you will know His presence and live His peace that surpasses all intellectual understanding.  May His Kingdom supernaturally invade your heart and forever change you from glory to glory in the precious name of Jesus.  Amen.