Happy New Year, my friend. Welcome to 2024! I’m grateful to God for another opportunity to write to you. 2023 may not have been the easiest of years, but we are confident that the Lord draws us into deeper fellowship with each experience.
I pray that 2024 will be yet another year to take even deeper root in our respective callings as light and salt that must shine and season this dark, distasteful world, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Taking on the Challenge
This newsletter is a sequel to last year’s first newsletter. I pray that the Lord gives us the right burdens for the things that tug at His heart.
After the Ministers Leadership Retreat (MLR) last year, the call to dig more ditches was so personal to me. Every Christian who stayed faithful to God all through their lifetime sacrificed many years to grow their roots.
Listen to all MLR Messages on YouTube.
This year, I pray that we’ll hold hands and concertedly ask the Lord to take away leanness from our hearts and dig a deep trench of hunger and thirst for righteousness in our day. Following this, I have written a few issues to ponder, pray and insist on this year till we walk into all that God has for us.
Denouncing the enemy and all his pomps and works
Then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord's side—come to me!”
- Exodus 32:26 NKJV
When we declare our faith in Jesus, we pledge loyalty to Him alone, implying that we deny every other thing or person that is contrary to Him. But for many of us, this only exists on paper, but not in the heart. Every day, the Spirit of God beckons, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” But He doesn’t stop there. He says — “let him come unto me.” Our commitment cannot remain only on our lips, we must cross over from darkness to light. One has to go.
Victory over sin and self
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
- Romans 6:6 NLT
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- Galatians 2:20 NLT
The enemy knows that once a Christian finds victory over sin and self, all he can do is merely attempt to tempt them. To be victorious over sin is to wield power against the enemy. A Christian delivered from sin and self becomes a ready vessel in the hands of the Lord. It is possible by the grace of God.
The cry for depth in our walk with the Lord
Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.
- Jeremiah 33:3 NLT
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
- John 7:38 NIV
Shallow waters are for those that are filled. But if any man is thirsty, let him come. Unfortunately, depth in God doesn’t just fall on us. It takes a seeking heart. This would require dwelling in His presence with diligence and devotion to His Word and prayers.
The cry for discretion, wisdom and discernment
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV
If the devil can’t trick us with glaring sins, he presents “Trojan horse offers.” They don’t look harmful on the outside but can cause years of walking with the Lord to come crashing like a pack of cards.
Nations are presented with those kinds of offers. Some nations have been lured into accepting LGBTQ laws and other ungodly beliefs because of the “Trojan horse” called financial aid. It calls for discernment.
The cry for our lives to bring forth something for the Lord
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
Isaiah 58:12 NKJV
There is a great call to repair the breaches and raise old foundations of godliness in our generation. My heart longs to see children raised in authentic Christian homes where fathers are spiritual pillars and mothers labour till Christ is formed in the children. What does your heart long for? To see God outpace the politics of the world? To see Jesus reign in the hearts of more people?
Can we pray:
Lord, I don’t want to end without birthing something for you. Burden me with your burden for others. Like Paul the Apostle, keep my heart on you, supplicating for saints and sinners, day and night by name.
God bless you this year and keep you from rising and falling, Amen.
Goodbyes and Housekeeping Announcement
Our subdomain was changed to thejesustherapy7.substack.com
Please feel free to visit and share with a friend as we trust God for more this year. Thank you!
Till next time,
Wednesday, God willing.
The Blessedness of reading God's Word in an amplified form.
Truly, May God help us to always be wise (in His Wisdom), and to be discerning!🙌🏼. The heightened rate of false teachings (the devil's most reliable Trojan Horse) calls even more for great discernment.
It is with utmost joy that we welcome the return of Jesus Therapy Seven🎉🎉. May it continually speak Righteousness to our hearts🙌🏼, Amen🙏🏼.
More Grace Koko 🥂