The Correct New Year!-A New Beginning

The beginning of the year according to the word is on Nisan 1 on the Hebrew calendar which falls this year at 6:00 P.M. on March 27 on the Gregorian calendar. January 1, as the beginning of the year is okay for business and tax purposes, but to receive from God you have to adapt to His seasons of New Beginnings. So many don’t receive their New Beginning when they think (on January1) and they lose hope. As I also mentioned in the message from last week, January to March is a time of preparation for the New Beginning that God is so excited to give us. As I mentioned also, God can sovereignly give a New Beginning at any time but He generally reserves His best blessings for His seasons. We have to adapt to His seasons!

This beginning of the year also points to a time of restoration. God has rescued us from the plans of the enemy during the previous year. He also wants to restore in our lives “the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm ….”(Joel 2 v. 25). He wants to “build the old waste places….raise up the foundations of many generations…” He also wants to repair the breach and restore the paths to dwell in. (Isaiah 58 v. 12). This is such a great time for God to start to complete the details of our lives and clean up those things from the past that are still hanging around. He can go back for us into the defeats of the past and turn them around into victories. Please let Him accomplish this for you not only at this time of the year, but also at any time He moves to do so. He wants to restore monies lost, relationships that went sour and missed opportunities. This truly is the time of the restitution of all things (Acts 3 v. 21). This season is truly an opportunity for that new beginning that you need so desperately.

The beginning of the year is also a time to reflect on how far God has brought us. We need to look back and remember when we were deep in sin and being controlled by some sinful habit. We need to understand that it is only by the grace of God that we are free from the past and can stay free. We need to understand that we may not be as far as we think we are from that sinful habit and that we need His presence even more now. We are not as strong as we think. God maybe still be healing the wounds in our lives and some could still be open. Be careful not to venture into situations where we fell before, just because we are saved. Remember, our flesh and soul (mind, will and emotions) are not born again. They still need to be yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit. At this time of year, God is preparing us for promotion by reminding us that we can only maintain the new level of promotion by being in His presence. Only His presence can keep us from our old life and help us to maintain our new position.

Draw close to Him and don’t be overconfident. So, you will find during this season that God will remind us of our past and warn us of possible similar attacks. These attacks can only be defeated by being in His presence. The old nature has to be kept under control so we can maintain our new spiritual levels. In Romans 7 v. 14-25, Paul mentions that He is not able to do the things that he wants to do and cannot help doing the things that he doesn’t want to do. But he says in verse 25, that through Jesus he can have the power to control the flesh. Paul also said in Chapter 8 v. 13, that through the Spirit we can mortify the deeds of the flesh. Praise Him!

As you can see, the beginning of the year is a season for God to promote and position us into new levels with new authority. We need to also remember especially during this season, that without Him and His presence we would fall back into the old paths.