The Breaking of a New Dawn

Some things are more amazing to me than I can say. About 2-3 months ago the Lord spoke to me and said that he wanted me to separate myself to him. To be consecrated to him. I was not sure what that meant but I agreed to it and let him know I was his to have, hold and keep. In the last few months he has kept reminding me about it, that I must separate myself to him. Now I think I know where he was going with it.

Towards the end of October, he began to speak to me about change. That he was shutting the old doors in the market place and would lead me down a new career path. I wasn't understanding it. In fact, I thought he was saying that he needed me to go out and start my own business. Turns out that is not it. God has plans to use me so that he impacts not just my world, but the world through me. Amazing!

There are some things that I have always justified in my life and sincerely speaking could not figure out what the fuss was all about. Clubbing was one of those things. I don't club but 2 -3 times a year, but I wanted to have that freedom, and up until now God has let me get away with it. This morning he said "STOP" just as clear as he could. Additionally, I was led to sign on for the 21 day fast in January with Jentezen Franklin and his church from Jan 4th to 25th 2009.

All that was great but today he has again called me to covenant with him. Only once in my life has God asked me to covenant with him. Now he has called me again and said "Covenant with me." What does he have planned for my life? What is this next phase of my life about? I know that I have finally walked into what I was created for. I feel that I am on the edge of my destiny. That I have come to the end of an era, and began a new one.

I am in awe of God as I write this, knowing that my life will never be the same again. This is the end of life as I know it. I am walking into a new place in God and with God that I have never been to before. My heart is pounding with an awed excitement and a knowledge that God is getting ready to use me to bring about his agenda on the earth.

I lay myself down at his altar. I offer my self as a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to him. I surrender my own desires, plans, passions, hopes and dreams. All that I am I give to him. I surrender all. I give up all. I just want God. I separate myself unto the Lord to be used of him all the days of my life. Here I am Lord, I have come. It is written about me in your scroll. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Sabbath Covenant - A Covenant of Rest

A week or so ago I was on my way home when the Lord started talking to me about his Jubilee's. I had no idea what he was talking about. All I knew was that there was a year of Jubilee and that was it. He said to me at that moment "study my Jubilee's" So I went home and did just that and this is what I discovered. There are mini Jubilee's that lead to the year of Jubilee, the 50th year. This is how they are counted:

The Seventh day, the Sabbath is a Jubilee.
In the Seventh Month, they celebrated the day of Atonement which is also a Jubilee.
The Seventh year, the sabbatical or sabbath year is a Jubilee.
Seven Sabbath years, i.e Seven cycles of 7 Seven years each, i.e. 49 years are then counted off and God makes the 50th year a year of Jubilee.

So the Seventh day, the Seventh month, the seventh year, and the Fiftieth year are Jubilee's to the Lord.

I have always known that we go to church on sunday and that it is a Sabbath of rest, but I never knew that the sabbath was to be a lasting covenant throughout our generations forever. But the bible says so clearly:

Exodus 31:16
The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. and we are spiritual Israel.

The Sabbath Covenant is a covenant of rest. It is a time when we enter into the rest of the Lord, not just physically, but in every dimension. Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, in our relationships, in our businesses, in every way we are to enter rest. On the Sabbath of the Lord, we are to think only of him, and to do good works in the Lord. To serve others, not just our own selfish ambitions. Jesus said that he is Lord of the Sabbath, and so on that day we are to Honor the Lord of the Sabbath, who is Jesus Christ. We are to take time out to refresh ourselves in the Lord. What a blessing!! And as we do so God will bring rest into every area of our lives. We will be able to say with King Solomon:

1 Kings 5:4
But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

Entering rest in every area of your life is predicated on your observations of the Sabbaths of the Lord. You must have seasons where everything you do is focused in on him. Seasons where it is not about you but about Jesus. Seasons of rest and refreshing for your spirit and for your soul.

We are in the Month of Abib in the Hebrew calendar (God's calendar) the first month of God's year. The Lord said to me, observe my Sabbaths, on the Seventh day, on the Seventh Month, on the Seventh year and on the 50th year and I will give you rest. Of course the question arose in me, how will I observe a whole month of rest, or a whole year of rest? How do I translate this thing into my life now. So the Lord said to me (and this is not a command for you or anyone else, just what he led me to do), Give everything you earn at that time to me, to meet the needs of the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan, set the captives free with it by financing ministries that are spreading the Gospel and bringing healing in the lives of many.

That was all fine and dandy except that I didn't know how I was going to support myself if I gave away all my earnings for year 7. How was I going to make it? The Lord has all these answers even before we ask the questions. It so happens that the Israelites had been in the same dilemma. And the Lord's answer to them, was his answer to me:

Lev 25:6
"Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you"

He says you can eat food from it. You can get sustenance from it, enough for your necessities, but you are not to bring it in as a harvest for storage, in order that the poor and the needy, the alien and the fatherless among you may eat. In that seventh year I can have enough to sustain me. Enough for my necessities only, and the rest must go out. I must not keep it, because it becomes Holy to the Lord. He also gives a wonderful promise about the sixth year. He says this:

Lev 25:20-22
You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?" I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

You will have super-abundance in the sixth year, so that you have more than enough to live on in the seventh year, and you will still be eating of the sixth year even in the eighth year. And the word of God is true. That is the Sabbath of rest in action. You enter into serving God and giving to him, and taking seasons out to focus on him, and he in turn ensures that you will have absolutely nothing to worry about. Amen!!

After counting off this 7 sabbath years, I will then celebrate the Year of Jubilee, the 50th year!!! That will be a celebration and a half, for me and my generations after me. I intend to teach them this principle.

Now, let us look at the results of observing the Sabbaths of the Lord on the Seventh Day, Seventh Month, Seventh Year and 50th year.

Lev 25:18-19
" 'Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety."

Isaiah 56:2
Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

Isaiah 56
3 Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say,
"The LORD will surely exclude me from his people."
And let not any eunuch complain,
"I am only a dry tree."

4 For this is what the LORD says:
"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant-

5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will not be cut off.

6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
to serve him,
to love the name of the LORD,
and to worship him,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant-
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations."

What wonderful promises for those who keep the Sabbaths of the Lord! I am convinced that the enemy is against us trully understanding the word of God because of the amazing promise and power that doing so holds for us. And the sabbath of rest is still open to each one of us. Paul says in the book of Hebrews 4

"1THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [[a]to distrust it], lest any of you should [b]think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it...

7Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts.(D)

8[This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, He [God] would not speak afterward about another day.

9So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God;

10For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors [f]peculiarly His own.(E)

11Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell]."

That is where I'm at. I am zealously exerting myself, striving diligently to enter the rest of God, to know him and experience him for myself on a daily basis, and especially by taking time off my own labour, labours to profit just me, that I may seek him, worship him, and do the works of him who sent me. That others may be set free, that others may eat and be filled of the bounty that my Lord has given me. And the Lord in turn has secured my portion. The Lot has fallen for me in pleasant places. My land is well watered, I eat my fill daily and live here in safety. For the Lord my God has given me rest on every side.

The Promise of rest is for you and me today. I step into the covenant of rest, rest from toil, from my human labors. Won't you join me?

Covenant of Fruitfulness

John 15:8 "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" God delights in us when we bear much fruit in every area of our lives (and yes, that includes children). Often we go to work, or live our lives without assessing the fruitfulness of what we do. Are you bearing much fruit? Is your presence felt wherever you are by virtue of the fruit you bear? My industry is quite challenging and I found myself in a meeting with my directors saying things that totally violated my sound dynamics teaching. I said "That kind of work is hard to find...We are not competitive in price because our bandwidth costs are too high..." What in the world?!!! The Lord reminded me of those things this morning and said to me "You are not subject to natural rules of business, you are subject to the supernatural" I am to be fruitful in the market whether the conditions are favourable or not!

I can see some of you looking at me funny! Let me explain.

Gen 26:1,12

"Now there was a famine in the land...Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him"

His fruitfulness was not subject to the conditions for planting. It makes absolutely no sense at all for a guy to plant in a famine. There is no rain, there is not even a cloud, the sun is scorching and here you are planting. That is either total madness, or engaging in covenant. This is what God had said to him before he planted:

Gen 26:3 "Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you" Have you heard the Lord say that to you? Are you in the right place? Then regardless of the conditions stay in the land and God will be with you and will bless you. Now the blessing overrides the physical conditions. It overrides the economic situation, it overrides the fact that your womb is messed up or you don't even have one, it overrides the fact that you don't have a husband, if the Lord says I will bless you here, don't stress out about what you see in the physical the Lord will bring it to pass, yours is to have a word that you can hold on to, and activate covenant with. So how do you activate the covenant of fruitfulness, what is your part?

Josh 1:8 "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful" You must keep the word in your mouth, confess the word and meditate on it until it becomes your MO. What it says is how you operate.

Ps 1:2-3 "But his delight is in the law of the LORD,and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water,which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers" It is when you delight in the law of the Lord, Keep it in your mouth, meditate on it day and night that prosperity comes. Then you yield your fruit in its season.

Let me help you, we each go through seasons in life. My season is not your season, and my time is not your time. If you are like me, in your thirties and single, that should not be cause for alarm. We all have different seasons. My sister who is 3 years younger than me, has been married 9 years and has 4 children. She just had her tubes tied and the devil took the opportunity to remind me that I was not even married. The one who comes after her, six years my junior, has a soon to be 5 year old and is expecting her second child next month. The devil was dancing a jig and whispering in my ear. He is a liar!!! God cannot do things out of time. He is a perfectionist. When it is time for me to get married, I will get married and not before, and when the time comes for me to have children I will become the mother of many. I totally believe that I am still within God's schedule and that is all that matters. In its season, you will yield the right fruit. Ps 1:6 "For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous"

John 15:4-7
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you" So there are two things a) We remain in Christ through salvation and b) His words remain in us. Many of us are in him but his word is not in us. Keep his word in your mouth and in your heart and mind by meditating on it. Then you will ask the Father whatever you wish and it will be given you. Then you will be fruitful and be multiplied.

Summary
To walk in the covenant of fruitfulness I:
a) Remain in Christ
b) His words remain in me - I do this by keeping the word in my mouth (confessing it)and by meditating on that word until it becomes my MO.