It’s Time To Soar Into Glorious Light and Great Grace

Shine brighter, Soar higher.

Dear #DailyFollower,

Introduction

Welcome to the first 5-day work week in 2025!

One of my commitments as #DailyFollower is to start every calendar year by saturating myself in the Word and Prayers. Since 2023, purposefully engaging God in His Word and communion at the beginning of each year has helped set the tone for my year.

Starting the year with God will help give you the strategy, guidance, and direction you need to make the best of the year ahead.

Why Do I Do It, and Why Do I Encourage You To Do It?

I took Genesis 1:1-3, EXB literally! Especially the first four words:

In the beginning, God…

While in my walk with God, beginnings have happened at any time in any calendar year when I have partnered with God to birth such beginnings. The beginnings that sync with the new year seasons are very special because, in these seasons,

God’s Spirit moves [hovers] over the waters of formlessness and darkness in the year ahead preceding God’s Word that brings light, clarity and direction.

Right after these movements, I hear God speaking as He spoke at the beginning of creation, but this time, He speaks to give me the strategies, guidance and direction I need for the year ahead of me.

That’s why I do it, and I hope you’ll join me in starting 2025 with God.

Why It Matters?

Without God’s intervention in creation, the universe, as we know it now, remained formless and void of light.

Without the move of God’s Spirit over the formlessness and darkness of the universe, His Word that birth creation didn’t come forth.

Without God’s Word, creation remained without physical manifestation.

God desires to bring many realities into physical and tangible form in and through our lives; these things will never enter our minds unless we participate in God’s beginning process.

Last year (in my second year of intentionally starting my year with God), God imparted me with the grace I needed to bear a challenging year ahead. I lost my job (the one providing my primary income, which contributes to catering for our family expenses) by the end of the first quarter. It’s not the kind of start to the year anyone wants.

However, in my ‘beginning encounters’, I received what I needed to rise above the resentment that should have come from the circumstances surrounding my job loss and the unending disappointment from the rejections I have received so far in my search for my next role. After all, it was my year of soaring on eagle’s wings (God’s word over my Church family—The Elevation Church).

The grace we received at the 2024 beginning encounters also extended to our family finances. God increased us, even on just one income, which He increased and gave exceptional yield to our investing that year.

God knew ahead of time what the year would bring and used my beginning encounters to build my faith to a level that moved mountains my family and I would face in 2024.

Beginning the year with God matters because it provides the enablement you didn’t know you needed for the season ahead of you.

Your story might be a year with a promotion into a new position you don’t feel adequately equipped for, but because you started your year with God, you get the enablements you need for your new season.

What I Do To Saturate Myself In The Word and Prayer?

I pray with my Church family during our New Year’s fasting and prayer campaign to get my spirit in tune with God’s Spirit for the season ahead.

I also immerse my mind and spirit in an intense faith development academy: the Word of Faith Believers Convention (WOFBEC), powered by The Covenant Nation.

My investments in these spiritual activities in 2024 delivered tangible and intangible benefits for me 2024 across five dimensions - spiritually, physically, mentally, financially, and relationally, and have begun to shape my 2025.

I started my Word and Prayer immersion with a “Let there be light“ teaching by Pastor Godman Akinlabi as a primer for our fasting and prayer campaign.

Then in the evening, at WOFBEC with Pastor Stephanie Ike Okafor, God began to show that His intentions for me to soar on the wings of faith can never change. However, there’s a part I must consistently play; He wants me to pay attention to any weight that will hinder the manifestation of this promise in my life - a demand for anyone actively following Christ daily.

Then Pastor Poju Oyemade taught that contrary winds are required for soaring. To soar, my mind must be attuned to consistently creating an atmosphere of worship. So, contrary winds must not draw out complaints from me; they must lead me to worship the God who brings peace over adverse winds.

Then, I start today praying with Pastor Godman Akinlabi to enforce the glorious light and great grace that empowers me to be a beacon of Light, bringing God’s light into the dark places in our world today.

The year is off to a great start!

Find your rhythm for saturating yourself in the Word and Prayer to set the tone for your year.

Conclusion

The quality and quantity of your possibilities are boundless when you invest in beginning encounters, especially the beginnings that sync with the start of the new year.

As I’ve mentioned, beginning encounters can always happen all year round, so they aren’t limited to the start of the year. However, starting your year saturated in the Word and Prayer positions you for divine strategies, guidance, and direction that deliver God’s best for each year to us.

Suppose you don’t already have a rhythm for starting your year with God in His Word and Prayer. You need the combination (of the Word and Prayer) for the results that make a difference in your year. The Word provides the basis for praying in faith (the only prayer that makes a difference) that delivers the strategies, guidance, and direction you need to enter into all God has already made available to you from the beginning of creation.

It’s time to soar into glorious light and great grace, and the best way to start is by staying in the Word and Prayer.

Yours faithfully,

John, a #DailyFollower

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