The greatest gift is Jesus: As a Christian, we know that the greatest gift we can have is Jesus and the life, the hope and the grace that He has given us and made available to us. We can live in joy because of Jesus and because the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us. “Thank You, Lord, that You have given us this great life.” Without Jesus, life would be fairly hopeless and there would be nothing really to look forward to.
The blood of Jesus: In recent days much of our conversation has been on the good things that God is doing and has already started doing for us in the new year 2021. The more we talk about it we are just so thankful and grateful to God that we have this life in Christ – we have meaning, we have purpose, we have assignment, we have relationships that are so beautiful in Christ Jesus. We are family because of the blood of Jesus, no other reason other than Jesus was the First Born and we have a life in Christ and we are family. We are one body with Jesus.
Believe Him: Give thanks to Jesus, give thanks to God for all the good things He has done for us in our lives. Even though you might have had some difficulties in 2020, and had some real challenges, the fact that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour means everything can and will change if you will trust Him, believe Him and walk in faith.
10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places – that means all kinds of thrones, demonic thrones and angelic hosts that are in the heavenly places – might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10 KJV).
We are a gift: When Jesus came to earth and we have a time of Christmas where we give thanks and we give recognition to God and we celebrate, let’s remember that we as the church are a gift by the Father to Jesus. We are a gift to Jesus by the Father. What is the gift? The gift is that all of the spiritual realm will actually be able to recognise the power of salvation that is given to us and that the church is the manifest living evidence of Jesus being raised from the dead. The church is the living evidence of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The church is the living evidence of why Jesus was born into the earth in the first place and so all of the spirit realm can recognise that Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is actually the authority in the universe delegated to Him by the heavenly Father.
11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:11 KJV). This was God’s eternal purpose that He would do it in Jesus. When we celebrate at this time, let’s remember that we are a gift to Jesus because the more we live in Him, the more we love Him and acknowledge Him and serve Him, the greater the gift because we are telling all the spiritual forces in the heavenly realm that Jesus was born to die and He died to be raised from the dead so that you and I could live eternally with Him and we are His gift. We are His gift because as a family we live on the earth as He lived on the earth-that is our eternal purpose.
2020 has been a marvellous year: even though it’s been a dramatic year. It’s been challenging in many ways because of the pandemic. But thank God, He is not dependent on moving us forward as a ministry, as a people, as a church, He is not dependent on whether there are government shuts down. He, the heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, use these things as opportunities to just show how mighty He is in His church on the earth. And what a glorious time we have had this year.
12In whom we have boldness – in whom? In Jesus. – we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him (Ephesians 3:12 KJV). So by the faith of Him, it means we couldn’t get faith ourselves. When we made a choice to make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of our lives, He gave us the faith to be saved. And now we have the faith of Him and we have confidence, and boldness to access the very things that God has prepared for us. What a joy it is for us to be able to celebrate this Christmas in 2020 and celebrate the goodness of God.
13Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory (Ephesians 3:13 KJV). The things that we experience and troubles that we experience in the world come and go. Troubles won’t stay forever but they will come from very many different directions. Sometimes when you choose to live for Jesus, people don’t understand your faith and so if they don’t understand your faith, don’t try and explain it to them. They might say, “But we also have faith in Jesus,” and so they might but their faith is their faith and your faith is your faith. Accept that someone has their faith in their walk with God and you have your faith. And your faith can take you to places in God that other people don’t understand.
Family members together in Him: I want to encourage you as you go forward that as we live our lives in Jesus everything that we live – His life on the earth – tells all of the spiritual realms around us that Jesus is alive in us, and that the eternal purposes of God are demonstrated in our living the life of Jesus. And as we live this life of Jesus, we become the great gift that God had intended us to be. And not only that, we enjoy the richness of being His family and being family members together in Him.
In conclusion: Thank you for being a part of this ministry in 2020. What an unusual start it was. The beginning of the year started with so much planning, so much activity on the cards, celebrations, just with a sense of wonderment of what God had done in 2019 and good things that God was going to do in 2020. And then, of course, the very unusual global pandemic.
For those that have been walking in faith and living and listening to God’s voice – what a wonderful year we have had. Truly, I can say that in 2020 God opened new doors for us, created new opportunities for us and has done more than we could have imagined or thought about or even asked in our prayers for Him to do. God has been absolutely spectacular. He has done wonders and miracles and given us many signs of better things to come.
20Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you (Ephesians 3:20 TPT).
Big and Bold: 2020 God has opened up many doors and we’ve stepped through them and done many great and wonderful things. 2021 promises to be and is going to be big and bold and wonderful and He’s going to do beyond our dreams and beyond what we can imagine because He energises us from the inside. And so 2021 is going to be the year of abundant overflow. Abundant overflow and we are going to go big and bold. We are not going to be put down by the world system, or by what the world says. We are going to flow in God. Begin to declare that 2021 is going to be even better, much better than any year that we’ve had previously before because we are a gift to Jesus. More than His life and His blood, Jesus has given us a personal relationship with Him, where we can talk with Him every day.
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