At The Shoulder on Wednesday, December 28, 2016, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to pronounce a blessing upon the men for the New Year!
The Lord says this…all the previous trouble you have known in your life is only prelude to the coming productivity you will realize in the future!
You stand at a fork in the road leading to your permanent recovery. One direction is marked Blaming Others; the other, Taking Responsibility. The choice of direction is yours alone. God gave you this choice. Choose wisely!
Remain vigilant and sober. Do not grow weary in well doing for in due season you will reap if you do not faint. There is reward in all your labor. Sow daily, sow faithfully and your harvest will come.
Blessed is the man whom the Lord finds so doing when He comes. You are the ones who stay engaged when He is obviously present or when He is not yet seen. It is in you to do the work!
Some wait for God; but He has already come. Others are busy and careless and presumptuous, never asking, “if the Lord wills…” Even unprofitable servants work for the night is coming. They are not lazy. All their work is dedicated to the Lord, from the least, seemingly unimportant task to the greatest.
2017 is the beginning of a potential harvest time in your life if you continue on the path of Taking Responsibility. This is not Easy Street! It is not the so-called fast-track. It will require diligence in details, undistracted devotion to the Lord and hard work, but the motivation of the Lord will accomplish this in and through you over time. You will become a resource, not a needy dependent. You will become the lender rather than the borrower. God will make you a wellspring of provision. Do not settle for second best!
Do not forget from whence you came. It will serve you in the future. You will become an example of all that God can do when a man chooses wisely. Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many men and nations follow that popular path. But you have chosen the narrow path even as Jesus Himself did. The Lord Himself will sustain you by His word. And the latter end will be better than the former, even compared to your best days from the past.
You are recovering, not your former life as you knew it, but rather the life God always intended for you.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered your heart, the things God has prepared for those who love Him and those who are called according to His purpose.’ The best is yet to be!
