Declarations For April 2022!
Exactly One (1) year ago, I embarked on this journey of blogging out my thoughts on a weekly basis and I cannot believe that after Fifty-Two (52) blogs I still have a lot unsaid. Honestly, I don’t even look at the stats to see who’s reading or not but it was a blessing to hear from those who personally reached out to me to let me know how my weekly blogs have blessed them. I cannot thank you all enough for taking the time to read. Most importantly, I bless God that my quest for knowing Him more is also blessing someone who is desiring to encounter Him.
April 01 was my birthday and this past weekend I definitely felt a shift in my spirit. I can discern it’s a new season and while I don’t have all the details, I know God is moving in a way that I am not very familiar with. He is catapulting us into a new season of our lives and God being God, I do not know how He’s going to do it but I have learned in my walk with Him to try to not figure Him out. I just follow where He leads. He is definitely up to something. In His infinite grace, He confirmed it at least Two (2) times on Sunday for me. It was incredible! I selected some scriptures that have been resounding in my spirit all year. Not just that, so many trusted people in the faith have received these scriptures as well for me and on several occasions relayed it to me as a message God is laying on their hearts to share with me especially. In my day to day prayer encounters, I will come across these scriptures so yesterday, Sunday, I selected the same scriptures to use as a birthday offering at church. When I gave the envelope with the scriptures on it to the announcer, he smiled and said “that’s our first bible reading for today”, it’s the same scriptures. I said “well, we don’t need to repeat it” so I picked another one for him to read instead. Then in the evening I was driving back from dinner with my sister-friends. I turned on the radio and there was a song by CAIN called “Yes He Can”. Right at that moment, the voice-over to the song came on and it was the same scripture that was repeated twice already in the day. God truly has spoken once and I’ve heard it more than twice in the same day - that He is doing new things in our lives this season so declare ISAIAH 43:1-7, 18,19 AMP with me:
But now, this is what the Lord, your Creator says, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you [from captivity];
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
3 “For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt [to the Babylonians] as your ransom,
Cush (ancient Ethiopia) and Seba [its province] in exchange for you.
4 “Because you are precious in My sight,
You are honored and I love you,
I will give other men in return for you and other peoples in exchange for your life.
5 “Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east [where they are scattered],
And gather you from the west.
6 “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from far way
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
7 Everyone who is called by My Name,
Whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
18-19 “Do not remember the former things,
Or ponder the things of the past.“Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing,
Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it?
I will even put a road in the wilderness,Rivers in the desert.
I declare it is so and so it is in Jesus’ name. Enter your NEW this season. AMEN!
XOXO,
Lady Abena.
Old Wineskin
In Matthew 9:14-17 AMP, the disciples of John the Baptist had noticed that Jesus’ disciples were not doing the religious fasts and Jesus took the time to educate them on why His disciples didn’t fast. The 17th verse reads, “Nor is new wine put into old [b]wineskins [that have lost their elasticity]; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the [fermenting] wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.” Jesus was alluding to the fact that He (Jesus Christ) was here to do something totally different and new so if they were trying to make sense of the NEW things that were happening, through a lens of old expectations and processes, then they were going to miss the wondrous things that were happening.
I’ve been ruminating over this scripture for the past week and making some personal analogies. If God is doing a NEW THING in our lives, then we cannot enter the NEW with our old self, mindsets and processes. The old has a way of corrupting the new. It dwindles your expectations and causes you to miss out on what God is doing. Imagine if you have experienced failure in an area of your life for a long time and suddenly the power of God comes in and the situation changes. With glee you jump into the new found success but if the old mindset that is used to failure is not renewed and transformed, you will be operating in a successful atmosphere with a failed mindset. It won’t be long before you fail again.
Are you stepping into your NEW with your old self or a transformed man?
XOXO
Lady Abena.
What Do You Have In Your House?
In 2 Kings 4:1-7 KJV, the prophet Elisha encountered a widow with Two (2) sons who was up to her head in debt and her debtors were about to take her sons into slavery as reimbursement. Let’s just say that we have come quite far from the 9th Century BCE because in this part of the world, you’re welcome to freely owe the bank or credit card companies and they will not come for your children to enslave them. It’s also sad to note that there are parts of the world that still experience this kind of thing. Poverty and hardship is real and if you haven’t been there before, it can be a bit hard for you to fathom that something of that nature can happen.
When she ran to the prophet for help, Elisha asked her a very simple but powerful question, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” 2 Kings 4:2a KJV. The Amplified Bible expands on it by asking, “.. what do you have [of value] in the house?”. The first time I read this scripture I said to myself, “dude, if she had something of value wouldn’t she sell it already to save her dear life and her children from these debtors?”. Then the Holy Spirit assisted me in understanding this a bit better. The widow told Elisha she had olive oil in her home, correct? So, obviously, she had something that God can use to get her out of the rut she was in. That seems to be most of us - when situations overwhelm us, we fail to see the vessels that God can use to bless us. He has bestowed gifts, talents, skills and opportunities in us, around us and through us. He meticulously gave us all these because He knows that there will be times in our course of life that we will need these gifts, talents, skills and destined people to survive.
Here’s where I stand, if you’re always praying to God to bless you or get you out of some situation, have you presented anything before Him yet that He can use to bless you or work through that to get you into a better place? It can be anything you have that is of value to you and to God. It can be the people in your life that you keep ignoring because you don’t see them with Angelic wings flying around. God blesses men through men and that systemic order will never change. Every person you meet carries a grace that you do not see. Your part in this is to be spiritually sensitive and discern when and what He is using to bless you.
XOXO,
Lady Abena.