Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus,
We head into the new calendar year of 2025. Another earthly year, buried in the blanket of eternity where time is irrelevant, has passed and a new one is upon us. Many people make wishes, goals, or desires for the new calendar year. However, they seek only themselves, or others like-minded, for these aspirations. How about you? Where do your new year aspirations originate? Or do you even aspire any longer? Have you given up because of life beating the aspirations out of you? As Sisters and Brothers in Christ, this should not be so with us.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith The LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Hebrews 10:7 (also Psalm 40:7)
Then said I, Lo [behold], I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will [the thoughts God thinks toward us], O God.
Our Heavenly Father makes it clear that He has plans for every one of His children. He tells us this in Jeremiah 29:11 and in Hebrews 10:7. Every person born into this earth, God has written a volume of the book for this person. It is God’s will for this person’s life. God doesn’t force His will upon us. We can choose to follow God’s leading and fulfill the thoughts God has toward us in the volume of the book He has written about our lives, or we can choose to go our own direction and fulfill our own will. Which do you think will end in success?
In fact, God even writes about us when we are just a fertilized egg in the womb. I love how It says God writes what we are going to look like according to His will when as yet none of our body is fashioned. If you have a petition for healing, petition God to return you to what He wrote of you in Psalm 139:16 through the stripes of Jesus Christ (I Peter 2:24 and Psalm 107:20). God only creates the good and the perfect.
Psalm 139:14-16
14 I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
The next question we’re likely asking is, “if God has written His plan for me in my volume of the book, how do I find out His plan?” If we continue reading the next two verses in Jeremiah 29:12-13, we will find the answer for how we find God’s thoughts toward us.
Jeremiah 29:12-13
12 Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
God tells us in Jeremiah 29:12-13 that if we diligently seek after Him with all our heart, we shall find Him, and He will intently listen to and respond to us. “All our heart” means we are sold out to God with no room in our hearts for anyone or anything else. No, this doesn’t mean we disown our family, ignore our spouse or children, quit our jobs, or become a hermit for God. This also doesn’t mean we put the church ahead of God, our spouse, our children, or our job (religion will do this). It means you put God on the throne of your heart, and you seek first The Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then you follow God’s leading in all areas of your life and not the leading of the world or the kingdom of darkness. In doing this, we will fulfill what God’s thoughts are for us in the volume of the book for our life. Just so we completely understand, God’s thoughts are His will for us – thoughts and will being one and the same.
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law [God’s Word], happy is he.
God clearly tells us we, His people, should have a vision. Where should we draw from for our vision? Yes, as Proverbs 29:18 tells us, from God’s Word. When we receive the vision from God, what are we do with it? Habakkuk 2:2-3 tells us what we’re to do with a vision God gives to us: write it down and make it plain so that he that readeth it may run. If writing it down were not important, then why would Jesus have replied to satan, and to others that questioned Him, “It is written…..”?
Habakkuk 2:2-3
2 And The LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
The word “run” in verse 2 is the Hebrew word, “ruts” which means, “to run.” The deeper meaning of it according to Strongs is a metaphorical representation of “the pursuit of goals, the urgency of a message, or the eagerness to fulfill a task.” God is telling us in verse 2 to seek for and plainly write the vision so we may pursue and fulfill it. The Amplified Classic Bible, in the footnotes, tells us “The godly are responsible to study and proclaim His [God’s] revelation while awaiting its fulfillment.” This means we are to study, find, and confess [proclaim] verses in God’s Word that supports the vision while simultaneously thanking and praising God for the vision’s fulfillment in our lives. This is an ongoing action until the vision is fulfilled. Now, don’t confuse constantly confessing the vision to mean we are constantly decreeing the vision over and over again. We decree it once, and thereafter we praise and thank God for its fulfillment in our lives (whether we’ve received it yet or not). We thank and praise God for the outcome of the vision in our lives, the end results of the fruit of the vision. We speak as if we have already received its manifestation in the physical realm (Romans 4:17, “calling those things that be not as though they were”). This is called faith.
Notice in verse 3 where God instructs us to wait patiently for the certain outcome of the vision. God encourages us by telling us the vision will be fulfilled provided we continue patiently in faith. Numbers 23:19 makes this perfectly clear to us.
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?
If God has said It, He will do it. This is why we should never enter fear, doubt, unbelief, or worry. We are also further encouraged by I John 5:14-15.
I John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence [faith] that we have in Him [God], that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us:
15 And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
I love these two verses. We really must ask ourselves how much plainer or how much clearer can God make it for us? If we ask anything according to His will, He hears it, and He brings it to pass in our lives provided we do what? Provided we do what is said by The Holy Spirit through John in verse 15 – “And if WE KNOW that He hear us.” The Hebrew word for “we know” in verse 15 is “eido,” which means, “to see, to know, to perceive, to be aware” in either a physical sense (seeing and perceiving with the eyes) or a spiritual insight and comprehension (seeing with one’s spiritual eyes and heart). If “we know,” this means we have faith that God hears us and answers our petition of Him. We’re told in Habakkuk 2:3 that we are to wait patiently until the vision has come to pass. It will absolutely come to pass provided we don’t allow ourselves to fall into the sin of doubt, unbelief, or fear.
Romans 14:23
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
The Holy Spirit, through Paul, teaches us in Romans 14:23 whatever we do that is not done in faith is sin. Yes, it’s truly this black and white. When meditating, we should ask The Holy Spirit, and ourselves, these questions: “Why would we do anything that is not done in faith? Why would we “chance” something? Why would we roll the die, or “speculate,” rather than take the sure thing?” When one really meditates this, it stands to reason only a fool, of which I’ve been many times, would give way to “chance” or “speculation” when they have the sure thing in The Word of God. God will always answer His will with a “yes” and “amen” in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 1:20). God’s promises are His will for us through Christ Jesus.
I encourage all of us to go before the Lord and ask Him what is His will for us in 2025? Ask it for you, individually, for your family, for your marriage, for your business or job, for your ministry, for your tithes and offerings, and for anything else The Holy Spirit leads you to ask. Then, as God has commanded us in Habakkuk 2:2-3, write it down, meditate on it, then give the decree, and thereafter just praise and thank God for the fulfillment of the decree as if you’ve already received it. Remember as it teaches us in James 1:2-4, Habakkuk 2:3, II Corinthians 1:20, and Numbers 23:19, to be patient and let patience have her perfect work because God WILL see His will for you come to pass in your life if you seek it, believe it, confess it, and then praise and thank God continually until you physically manifest the promise.
In closing, Jesus found Himself in The Word, through prophecy, and He acted on it. If Jesus was diligent to find Himself in The Word, then we, too, should be diligent to find ourselves in The Word and act on it.
I speak blessings over your family and you for 2025 in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. I thank God you will have a tremendous year of Spiritual growth which will result in the astounding fruit of health and prosperity and of blessings for others. I praise God you and your families will be the men and women of Jeremiah 17:7-8.
In Christ Jesus,
Larry