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¹³ Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— ¹⁴ to FULFILL what was said through the PROPHET Isaiah: Matthew 4

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵ So was FULFILLED what was spoken through the PROPHET: Matthew 13

LOOK FOR THE MILESTONES GOD HAS PLACED IN YOUR LIFE!

Heaven put PROPHETIC MARKERS in the Lord’s life to confirm this is the one who was prophesied about, the Messiah. On a quick search of Matthew’s Gospel, written mainly for the Jews, it states that, ‘this or that’ was Fulfilled some twelve times, according to the word of a Jewish prophet. Heaven still gives signs to God’s children today that we’re on the right track and that He’s with us. We could call them Divine Reassurances scattered along our paths!

God speaks in unique ways to each of us, that’s His special language for each of us. We can LEARN THAT LANGUAGE and it will develop and change at different times and for different occasions.

More than ten years ago a prophet from the United States told me, ‘Change, change, change, I see so much Change that you’re picking it up on the street’. Some time after that my employer offered early retirement packages and my application was accepted. About one hour after I signed the form to leave my job, I was crossing a road and there on the ground was some change which I picked up. I was crossing from one stage of my life into a different phase.

On the first day of January 2025, DOORWAY to this New Year, Anne and I were out walking and I picked up two coins. At the end of the first week I was walking near a shopping mall and was diverted in my course. Once again there were coins lying in front of me, 2 X 20p, 2 X 5p and 2 X 1p which totals 52p. This was the end of the first week of January, 52 weeks in this year, a very specific total from the coins. THIS WILL BE A WHOLE YEAR OF GREAT CHANGE!

Later that night I heard a prophetic dreamer, Andrew Whalen, say, ‘THE DAY/TIME OF SOARING IN 2025’. My birthday was in mid January and Anne and I went to the coast and walked by surf, before going to a nearby hotel for some lunch. I’d asked for a window seat with an elevated view over the sea and beach we’d walked on. The table we sat at was number 25, (Year 2025) with an ‘eagle’s view’, seeing a long way over beach and sea below. EAGLES 🦅 DON’T FLAP, THEY SOAR. We didn’t do anything, the food was brought to us and we Soared above the view as we ate. Thank You Lord!

Some of us will learn to stop flapping and SOAR IN 2025 (like table 25). We may need to divert first (like the coins I picked up), but God has a path for us and it’s going to involve Change, Good Change. Hallelujah

As I said earlier, God speaks to each of us in our own unique way. May we learn to know that language more in 2025, the Year of Change.

LOOK FOR THE PROPHETIC MARKERS, THE MILESTONES TO CONFIRM YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH. HEAVEN WANTS YOU TO SEE THE SIGNS AND BE REASSURED IN YOUR WALK THIS YEAR!

May the Lord bless and keep you today and throughout this year. Immanuel, God is most certainly with us.

 

² And ALL (No Limit) these BLESSINGS SHALL COME UPON YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU if you heed/obey the voice of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition AMPC

I like the older translation of this verse at the beginning of Deuteronomy 28, the chapter on ‘Blessings and Curses’. The Blessings shall ‘Come upon You and Overtake You’. It’s interesting to think that the Blessings of God will Overtake those who are living in accordance with His will. Something or someone will release Blessings upon the truly righteous and sooner or later they will Come upon us. The ‘Watershed’, or dividing line, will be those who hear and obey God’s Voice (My sheep hear My Voice and I know them and they follow Me: John 10:27) Religion won’t do it, nor will respectability. The sole requirement is to ‘Hear the voice of the Lord/ Good Shepherd and follow Him.

⁷ Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT AND ONLY THAT IS WHAT HE WILL REAP. Galatians 6:7 AMPC

Whatever farmers sow in the natural, that’s what they expect to reap. They don’t expect to put in one kind of seed and reap something different. However, many people live their lives on this earth doing their own thing (Sowing to their flesh) and expecting God to overlook it and bless them. This kind of thinking is delusional, the verse above tells us that God will not be mocked. He knows our intentions and motives far better than we can imagine.

KEEP THE DOOR OPEN FOR GOD TO BLESS YOU AND THE BEST WAY TO DO IT IS TO BLESS OTHERS.

Don’t think of yourself as small and insignificant, no matter who we are there will always be opportunities for us to bless others in need who cross our paths. Don’t miss the opportunity to sow blessings, for in time we will certainly attract the blessing of God upon our lives as we do. God’s Blessings Will Come Upon us and Overtake Us as we sow kindness and goodness to those around us. God wants to bless us with ABUNDANCE, but devil wants to rob, kill and destroy. John 10:10

Live your life to be a blessing and all the blessings of Heaven will overtake you. God cannot lie, His word is sure.

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

 

⁵ But there they are (evildoers), OVERWHELMED WITH DREAD,
    FOR GOD IS PRESENT IN THE COMPANY OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Psalm 14

⁵ Terror shall grip them, for GOD IS WITH THOSE WHO LOVE HIM. Psalm 14, Living Bible (TLB)

^5-6 NIGHT IS COMING FOR THEM, AND NIGHTMARES,
    FOR GOD TAKES THE SIDE OF VICTIMS.
Do you think you can mess
    with the dreams of the poor?
You can’t, for God
    makes their dreams come true. Psalm 14, The Message (MSG)

Different renderings of this scripture from Psalm 14, bringing out the same Truth in various ways, that God is with the Righteous and the poor and needy. I believe the rendering of the Message Bible is particularly fitting at this time, ‘NIGHT IS COMING FOR THEM AND NIGHTMARES’. God is moving against the enemy forces in this dark world as never before. He is exposing and rooting out corruption in every place and we, His people, must be prepared to stand with Him. God is going to Shake everything that can be Shaken and that may appear frightening, but He knows what is hidden in the darkness and needs to be exposed.

3 There is A TIME for everything,

    and A SEASON for every activity under the heavens:
²         a time to be born and a time to die,
    A TIME TO PLANT AND A TIME TO UPROOT,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    A TIME TO TEAR DOWN AND A TIME TO BUILD,
⁴     a time to weep (For the Enemies of God) and a time to laugh (Celebration for His People), Ecclesiastes 3

It’s so important that we know God’s Times and Seasons and cooperate with the work of His Spirit in the Season we’re living in.

²⁰ and (Daniel) said:

The time of Nightmares has come for those dedicated to the Babylonian system, God is removing it. Many Christians, though suffering hardships, still believe in that system and even strive to maintain it, but God is going to remove it for good (literally). So make sure you’re standing with God and welcoming the new day and the freedom He’s giving us. Hallelujah

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

⁵ who SATISFIES your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103

God is a God who SATISFIES and He does it like no one else. David wrote Psalm 103 and he declared that God SATISFIES our desires with GOOD THINGS. Everything in creation, everything we can enjoy here, has been made by God. It was all His Beneficence (the act of doing good or promoting the well being of OTHERS), He designed it all for mankind, but the devil has usurped it for a time.

⁸ Let them GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HIS UNFAILING LOVE 
    and HIS WONDERFUL DEEDS FOR MANKIND,
⁹ for HE SATISFIES THE THIRSTY 
    and AND FILLS THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS. Psalm 107

The enemy has used the media and false religion to poison people’s minds today and blame God for all their troubles, but His word shows the true nature of His character. The psalm above speaks of His ‘Unfailing Love’, ‘Wonderful Deeds’ and how He SATISFIES those who thirst and hunger, those in need. But most importantly the psalm tells us to GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HIS UNFAILING (My iPad keeps prompting ‘Unconditional Love’ which is also true). Remember to say THANK YOU for the good things in life and for God’s Unfailing Love to you today.

¹³ He strengthens the bars of your gates
    and blesses your people within you.
¹⁴ He grants peace to your borders
    and SATISFIES YOU WITH THE FINEST OF WHEAT. Psalm 147

A third quotation from the Psalms declaring God’s goodness to His people. ‘Protection and blessing’ for Israel and choicest grain to SATISFY their appetite.

Psalm 23 may be the best known and most quoted psalm and it speaks of God’s blessings for His people, even in the midst of many enemies.

23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want. (Derek Prince said any further word would have limited this!)

¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened, (death of John the Baptist, Jesus earthly relative) HE WITHDREW by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.  Matthew 14

Jesus wanted some time by Himself after learning of John’s execution, but the demands of the crowd were incessant and they followed Him. In fact the next part of this chapter deals with the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men besides women and children, so Jesus was surrounded by needy people. However, later in the chapter we see Jesus once again withdrawing from all people.

²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. Matthew 14

Jesus made His own disciples get in their boat and depart from Him. We don’t know what He told them, maybe something along the lines of, ‘I’ll be along later.’ Then He dismissed the crowd, probably quite insistently because this time they left Him.

²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside BY HIMSELF TO PRAY. Later that night, HE WAS THERE ALONE, Matthew 14

THE LORD HAD TO FIGHT FOR SOLITUDE AND SILENCE ON THE MOUNTAIN. He firstly had to separate Himself from those closest to Him and that may be the most difficult. Even after he dismissed the crowd He still climbed the mountain, He removed all chance of a random encounter with people.

The Lord knew He needed that time alone with His Father and engaging with heaven. He had to pour Himself out and meet the needs of a huge number of people but though He gave them His time and energy, He wasn’t permanently deflected from His own time of peace and inner strengthening. Jesus met the demands of those around Him, but withdrew to be alone, to be still and listen.

It’s very easy for us, ‘to run on empty and sometimes not even be aware of it’, but that’s a bad place to be in. The Lord dismissed those around Him, both those close to Him and the more casual ones in the crowd. Jesus knew that He needed to be refreshed and refuelled to keep fulfilling His calling. May we also CARVE OUT OUR OWN TIME to be still and be refreshed in His presence today.

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

 

Gracious words are a Honeycomb, sweet to the soul. Proverbs 16:24

A card within a card and a message within a message. Perhaps a bit like Samson’s riddle at his wedding, when there was honey in the lion he’d killed.

A lady sent me a birthday card last week, thank you Maggie if you read this. The card was of a cricket scene and there were eight players visible on the pitch. This was prophetic for me, although I can’t go into full detail just now.

Eight is the number of ‘New Beginnings’ and the Lord has been speaking to me about CHANGE COMING throughout this year of 2025. We need to be ready to EMBRACE THE CHANGE IN THIS YEAR. Things will not be the same, nor will Old Wineskins carry what the Lord is about to release. We must be willing to EMBRACE CHANGE AND FLOW WITH WHAT GOD IS DOING.

The picture of the eight men playing is also prophetic to me because last week I crossed into my eighth decade, seventieth birthday. I believe that the decade ahead will be very different from anything before, as I said Change is coming!

But it’s interesting that there was a small card within the main card. It’s as if God was speaking prophetically and at the same time reminding me to speak graciously to others, especially His children. I believe that many times in the year ahead I’ll be sharing  or thinking to myself the words on the little inner card. God is always speaking to our character, like any good parent He loves to see Himself in His children.

Gracious words are a Honeycomb, sweet to the soul. Proverbs 16:24

God may have spoken to you recently, but has He more to say than you first thought? Is there a message within a message for you, especially if you don’t feel satisfied with what you’ve received?

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Genesis 28

Jacob first met the Lord at Bethel (means house of God) when he was fleeing from his brother Esau and his home in Canaan. His mother Rebekah conspired with him to steal Isaac’s blessing from his elder brother, Esau.

The first time Jacob met the LORD he was asleep and God spoke to him in a dream. How many of us are literally or figuratively asleep when we first meet with God.? Much of the church has been asleep in our own time and God has been applying pressure through different means to awaken us. It’s dangerous to be asleep when we have an enemy looking for someone to destroy.

⁸ BE ALERT AND OF SOBER MIND. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

The next time we hear of Jacob and Bethel is after his sons Simeon and Levi have taken revenge on Shechem, son of Hamor and all their men for violating their sister. Jacob was worried that the Canaanites and Perizzites might join forces against him and destroy the entire family, but God met with him once again and reassured him.

35 Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.’ Genesis 35:1

Jacob told all those with him to get rid of their idols and they obeyed him. We asked the question yesterday, ‘Are there doors we need to close for God to be with us and bless us?’

⁵ Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. Genesis 35

God protected Jacob and his family as they set out for Bethel. Many times God protects us and we may not even have been aware that He has intervened on our behalf but after Jacob obeyed God He met with him a second time at Bethel.

⁹ After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob,(literally he deceives) but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. (means he struggles with God).’ So he named him Israel. Genesis 35

Jacob knew a lot more about God on his second encounter at the place he called Bethel. We should be grateful that God cares for us enough to protect us, even while we’re asleep, but how much better to stay awake and alert and give the enemy no opportunity to harm us. God blessed Israel with a new name to mark how different he’d become before him. May we also grow in character and maturity as we walk out our lives before Him.

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

 

Don’t give up on your blessing from God, He is mighty to save!

The Shunammite woman who could hardly believe for the birth of a son, did believe for his resurrection. 2 Kings 4

The miracle son she’d longed for, suddenly became ill.

19 He said to his father, ‘My head! My head!’

His father told a servant, ‘Carry him to his mother.’ 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and ‘laid him on the bed of the man of God’, then SHUT THE DOOR and went out.

She ‘laid her son on the bed of the man of God’, that was the closest she could get to God at that moment. We read in 2 Kings 13:21 about the body thrown into Elisha’s tomb, that came to life and stood up. (Shock for the burial party!)

The woman hadn’t given up, then she went out and SHUT THE DOOR. No one knew the child was there, so no mourning could begin, she’d shut the door to it and wouldn’t permit it. Some of us may be in a position today where we need to shut the door and GO FORWARD looking to God alone. Some may need to shut the door to other distractions so that the plans and purposes of God may become manifest in our hearts and lives.

ASK GOD TODAY ARE THEIR SOME THINGS THAT HE WANTS US TO SHUT THE DOOR ON IN OUR LIVES.

The Shunammite didn’t TALK TO ANYONE, such a temptation to talk to people and tell them what’s happened but sometimes, for our faith we must not do that. We shouldn’t give the enemy glory when something untoward occurs. This courageous woman had shut the door on her son and refused to speak, even to her husband V23, about the situation.

The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

Finally she WENT IN HASTE to find Elisha, for she still believed for a miracle – that her child would live. She didn’t accept that what God had given should be taken from her, she wouldn’t give up. Both the Shunammite and then Gehazi travelled as quickly as they could, but Gehazi said, ‘the boy has not awakened’. She wouldn’t let Elisha go and he came to that room on the roof that had been made for him and in the place she’d made for the prophet, there God gave her son back. We never know how God will use the things we put into His hands, even simple, everyday things can become a mighty blessing.

The Shunammite in her dire emergency, SHUT THE DOOR V 21, TOLD NO ONE V23 AND WENT IN HASTE TO FIND GOD V 24. Her son was restored, dare to believe God for your own miracle today.

‘“‘The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face towards you
and give you peace.’” Numbers 6:24-26

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

¹⁰ Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures; Psalm 90

Thank you Lord for giving me seventy years and good health. May there be many more to serve you here on the Earth.

The next Psalm, 91, is one that we try to declare daily over our lives.

¹⁴ ‘Because he LOVES ME,’ says the Lord, ‘I WILL rescue him;
    I WILL protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He WILL call on me, and I WILL answer him;
    I WILL be with him in trouble,
    I WILL deliver him and honour him.
¹⁶ With long life I WILL SATISFY HIM (Again Thank You Lord)
    and SHOW HIM MY SALVATION.’ Psalm 91, last three verses

God gives mankind many promises in these verses, SIMPLY TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM, that’s His only condition. We don’t have to keep numerous laws (like Judaism) or submit with our foreheads to the ground (like Islam). His condition for all these blessings is that we LOVE HIM and the Son who died for us. Read the promises again and be thankful for HIS LOVE TOWARDS YOU TODAY.

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.

 

¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, ‘I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.’ Genesis 29

Jacob’s mother Rebekah had conspired with him to get Isaac’s blessing, rather than it going to their firstborn, Esau. Then she convinced Isaac to let him go to her brother Laban’s people and take a wife there, and not marry a Canaanite woman. There is no record that Rebekah ever saw Jacob again, she was not mentioned when he returned to Canaan, twenty one years later. (Rebekah is honoured as a righteous woman and a prophet in Jewish tradition)

Jacob had no material wealth to offer Laban for his daughter Rachel, so he offered seven years of his life as payment for her hand in marriage. Many people, like Jacob, enter into agreements which may end up taking years of their lives but they’re not aware of it at the time. Training for jobs and careers, our work, can certainly take up a large part of our early lives. Jacob’s life in Paddan Aram also saw the coming of his family, including the birth of eleven of his sons. (Benjamin, the youngest was born on the way back to Canaan and Rachel died giving birth to him. Jacob still spoke of her death while blessing Joseph’s sons near the end of his life. Genesis 48:7)

Jacob acknowledged that if God had not been with him all the time that he worked for his uncle Laban, that he would have left with nothing. But Jacob had a Covenant with God and his descendants still do to this day.

³ Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty (El-Shaddai) appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me ⁴ and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.” Genesis 48

Jacob worked for a long time, building his family, without seeing much prosperity, however God’s Covenant with him did come to pass. God blessed Jacob and he left with much of his uncle’s wealth and his two daughters.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie,
    nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfil? Numbers 23

The same mighty God who worked all things together for good in the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still working in the lives of His children today. Though we may not see much evidence or progress of it for a time, He is faithful and seeks to bless those who belong to Him.

May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.