Shortly before the end of 2021 in a short personal retreat I had, the Spirit of God started nudging me to focus more on knowing Jesus as this is the secret to every exploit that I craved in 2022 (They that know their God shall be strong and do exploits).
I was specifically instructed to begin a daily one-chapter study of the Gospels (Matthew-John) and read with a plain, open mind, seeking to know Jesus afresh and glean principles that will furnish me with strength and capacity for the New Year.
The truth is, the last few months of 2021 was a slightly difficult period for me. I struggled in a particular aspect of my life and really needed fresh scriptural perspectives on how to better navigate the demands that the New Year is sure to bring.
And so I began Matthew Chapter 1 on the 1st of January 2022 with a deep hunger and desperate desire to be fortified with revelation knowledge that will inspire, motivate and set the ball rolling for the year. The 3 insights I gleaned from studying this Chapter are what I want to share with you today.
The first is from Genesis 1:17: “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations”
It has always intrigued me why it took so long for Christ to appear on the scene to save humanity. I mean, why couldn’t he have appeared in the very first generation? Why wait a whole 42 generations before showing up? This is the same way many get flustered about why it’s taking long for Christ to be made manifest in a particular aspect of their life. I began to understand recently that it is not that Jesus could not have arrived in the very first century and all of the evil and havoc that humanity had degenerated to would have been avoided. It is not that Jesus cannot manifest in your life and all your problems and sorrows are solved and resolved at the bat of an eyelid.
The real issue is that God needed to create a context within which humanity could understand, appreciate the need for and willingly receive Jesus. Patriarchs and Prophets in scripture that lived long before Jesus created the canvass upon which the image of Jesus would be painted. If Jesus appeared too early, too soon, man would not see His value, His worth. Sin had to be so rife, and the solution had to be impossible for the world to see that until God provided a way out, the human race was doomed.
Dear Reader, you have to come to the end of yourself for Jesus to be made manifest in your life. If you’ll do exploits this year, you have to see that you cannot do so with the best of strategies, plans and goals that you have skillfully crafted for yourself. 2021 should be the last year you relied on your brilliance and wisdom, and start trusting Jesus implicitly to see to the fulfilment of your dreams.
God is creating a masterpiece with your life that can only be understood in submission — submission to events on the pathway of your ultimate breakthrough, submission to occurrences that don’t make sense now but ultimately add up when viewed in retrospect. Just think of how Jesus had to observe the trajectory of the evolution of humanity as he waited patiently to come into the scene. From the foundation of the world, God had the plan to send him to die, but he had to wait out different systems, reigns, regimes, trends, inventions, wars, and seemingly endless narratives.
Is this you? Are you in that place where many events and situations have happened and are still happening in your life that doesn’t make so much sense in light of the promise you have in your heart? Trust the God that placed you on this path. He is a Master Story-Teller, and He is not casual about His plan for your life.
The second lesson I gleaned from Matthew 1 is from verse 20: “But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost”
Before this dream, Joseph was bothered that Mary was pregnant even though he had had no sexual relations with her. He was at the verge of putting her off (break-up) before He got perspective that renewed his conviction and assured him to take her as his wife. See that? What he wanted to do was jet off at the slightest discovery of something he considered unpleasant to his sense of rightness, uprightness and morality, but what he needed was a higher view about the situation and this altered his perspective immediately. All of this happened because he gave himself just an extra moment to think about it before making a seemingly rational decision that was outside of God’s purpose.
Dear Reader, sometimes all you need is just a moment of fellowship with the Holy Ghost before you get into or out of that relationship, job or business deal. Don’t make seemingly rational decisions until you have communed with your Maker. You may just be discarding Jesus because of a lack of perspective that is higher than your feelings. That idea that comes to your mind and can almost be dismissed because it does not align with how you view life may just be the saviour of the sector you’re in.
It is pertinent that you think well of things before you put them away. Thoughts will be dropped in your heart by the Holy Ghost but the ease with which they will come may make you think it’s your own thinking and consider putting it off. But God wants you to think on it. Ask God to show you the purpose behind every thought that bothers you or keeps coming back.
A similar thing happened to Moses in the forest when he saw fire in the bush yet the bush was not consumed. That decision he took to not dismiss it but draw closer to observe it more keenly was the beginning of his finding purpose in God. Perspective means a lot. Sometimes, what we need is not a change in scenery, but a change of perspective that only God can supply. Nothing about Mary had changed on the outside; she was still pregnant. But Joseph had received superior information that stabilized his emotions and altered his position. This year, ask God for doubt-clearing perspectives from God that furnish you with confidence on the path to destiny fulfilment.
Finally, Mary also had something to teach us about how to align ourselves with a prophecy. Even if Mary had stumbled on and studied Isaiah 7:14 where it was prophesied that a virgin would give birth, she couldn’t have possibly believed her way into making it happen in her life. I personally do not think it was possible for her to have had faith in God to make her the one to fulfil this prophecy. The decision on who the virgin would be was solely within the purview of God’s Mercy. But what Mary must have understood so well was 2 Chronicles 16:9:
“For the eyes of the Lord runs to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him…”
Dear Reader, this year you’ve got to be intentional about positioning yourself so you can be a recipient of the mercy of God. God always has a myriad of plans that He wants to be accomplished on the earth and His eyes are literally scanning to see who is most aligned to incubating, nurturing and executing the Jesus He wants to send to the earth. God found in Mary the right “heartitude” that could house the Messiah.
This was the same thing God saw in David — a young, impressionable and unimpressive boy at the backside of the desert attending to a few sheep, but with the right heart of integrity and skill as he served with a conscientious sense of duty, devotion and diligence. Such is the kind of person that God goes for.
This year, don’t do shoddy work, whether or not you get paid little or nothing for it. God is your Employer and the One who opens other doors for you, based on how you handle where He has placed you now.
God is counting on you to trust the story He is weaving with your life. God is counting on you to get His perspective before you opt-out or in. God is counting on you to align your heart and commit to being faithful in readiness for explosive fruits in this year of the Prevailing Blessing. Will you?
Have a grace-charged week!
Peace Bamidele
@askpeace_