Notes for
What God is Telling Us To Do in the New Year
Recognizing Divine Appointments and Opportunities
John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Luke 19:41-44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
God is trying to move us to a new season in our life, a season of “Goshen,” a place of provision and safety.
When you feel like you are wandering in life without purpose, seek God.
The second key we find from Saul is that God has already arranged divine appointments for us for this year.
I Samuel 10:2-6 When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel’s tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, “What shall I do about my son?”’
“Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them.
“After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.
I Chronicles 12:32 from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do
Let me tell you that most people miss their season or miss their divine appointment because they don’t know what it looks like.
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning
Habakkuk 2:2-3 “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Psalm 105:18 They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons,
God owes us a revelation. He doesn't owe us an explanation.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals…
Clarity comes with your first step.
Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you…
Exodus 13:17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
The next great step into our destiny is that we have to come to a place where we die to the dream and vision that God has placed in us.
Joseph had to shift his focus to the demand of the hour, not the dream God gave Him.
The second reason God has us die to our dreams is so that He can work on our character.
In our desire for instant success in life, we miss seasons and then we have to repeat those seasons.
A demand or need is going to intersect with your dream.
Mark 9:33-35 And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
If you're going to walk into your destiny, you've got to be willing to meet the demands that come to you every single day because one day, one of those demands will be your connection to your destiny.
Your dream is a future need.
Philippians 2:5-7 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
