As we enter the New Year 2017, trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. “Certainly the Lord will make all things new in your life” (Rev 21:5). In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the LORD and depart from evil (Proverbs 3:5-7). Delight yourself in the Lord for he shall give thee the desires of your heart, Commit thy ways unto the Lord and trust in him and he shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:4-5).

Many are the plans in a man’s heart but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails (Prov 19:21).It declares the sovereignty of God over the plans of men, we may plot and scheme to be able to have our plans come to pass year after year but only God knows if they will be able to attain them as He and He alone knows the future. We know our past, we know our present but we do not know our future, certainly we know one thing that, God holds our future, and he has great plans for our future (Jer 29:11).

People around the world are trying their level best to be Happy through money, material, entertainment, parties, drinks and dances etc. but The Bible hardly mentions the word happiness but repeatedly uses the word Blessing, as something God bestows on those who live for Him and in His way, rather than living from a self-centered life. People in the world today have a difficult time finding happiness and fulfillment because they are going about it the wrong way. Consequently, life doesn’t get better – it gets worse.

‘You can’t get second things by putting them first, only by putting first things first’ as Jesus said ‘Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be given you as well’ (Math 6:33). Put your relationship with God first and everything else second and you will be happy, for you will be blessed. We’re truly happy when we’re radically yielded to obey Jesus. All our worries will come to an end when we put our trust and faith on God who created heaven and earth, worries will come back when we lose our trust and faith on God, Mathew 6:31-33 says that people who do not know the true living God will be always worried for everything, such are the people who will go after astrology, fortune tellers, horoscope etc but for every one who knows the Heavenly Father, Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit the God of Trinity may not be worried because God knows their needs and He will meet all their needs.

Sadly for many people, concern of their lives is not the Kingdom of God, but their selfish needs and wants. Jesus reverses the order and tells us to get rightly related to God first, to keep that as your main focus and He will take care of everything else. Everything else will fall into its right place and that’s why He said ‘Do not worry’. There’s absolutely no need to worry if first things are first, because God can’t break a promise. That is why Mother Mary said “do whatever Jesus says” (John 2:5). When we focus on the Heavenly father and His son Jesus we get the heavenly support to receive the anointing of the Heavenly Spirit that is The Holy Spirit. “You will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses …all over the world” (Acts 1:8).

when the Lord saw the world during the days of Nova, people were filled with wickedness, lawlessness, sinfulness and full of evil, so He destroyed the evil people by flood, the flood water which destroyed the people, same water lifted the ark and saved Nova and his family (Gen 6:5-13.) When we see the present world it is worse than the days of Nova, so God has decided to destroy the sinfulness in our body than to destroy the physical body, and transform our physical body in to His temple by filling our body by His Holy spirit (1John 3:8, 1 Corinth 3:16.) So Jesus instructed Mother Mary and His disciples to wait and pray to receive the baptism of the Holy spirit, as per the instruction of Jesus, Mother Mary, His disciples and others prayed for nine days and on the tenth day they were all baptized by the Holy spirit (Acts 2:1-8.) Even today you can be filled by the power of the Holy Spirit and have the Pentecostal experience. The Pentecostal experience helps you to lead a clean, holy, healthy and blessed life and you will become a channel of blessing to yourself, your friends, your family and others in this world. The Pentecostal experience also helps you to have a new life, new vision, new hope, and this new future will put an end to all your wickedness, weakness, lawlessness, sinfulness and bad habits. Jesus used the symbol of water to describe three levels of spiritual development possible through the Holy Spirit:

St Paul was the most problematic person in the Church history but after he was filled by the Holy Spirit and had the Pentecostal experience he became the pillar of the Church (Acts 9:1-22). St Augustine was the most problematic person to his parents and to everyone and was involved in all types of sins but after he was filled by the Holy Spirit and had the Pentecostal experience he became a Saint. You too can become the best even if you are the worst.

Every saint has a past and every sinner have a bright future. You too can become living saint in Christ Jesus. In the old covenant, the emphasis was always on the ‘external’ because of the hardness of men’s hearts (Matt. 19:8). The law emphasized cleanliness in the external matters. The new covenant, in contrast, emphasized cleanliness “inside the cup” first (Matt. 23:25 – 26). Jesus says that once the inside was cleansed, the outside would automatically become clean so that there would be no need to clean the outside at all. One can see this clearly from Matt. 5:21-30. If one has cleansed his heart from anger, there would be no danger of his committing murder externally. Likewise, if he has cleansed his heart from sexually dirty thoughts, there would be no danger of his committing adultery externally. Clean the inside of the cup and the outside will automatically become clean. our emphasis primarily on the externals like – avoiding smoking, drinking, taking drugs, gambling etc., – The way to get rid of external evils is not by concentrating on them first but rather on the internal worldly attitude of mind and heart which produces those external evils.

Prayer for the New Year

Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus name I thank you for all the blessings that you have given me. Forgive me when I fail to trust you and try to take decisions in my own way. Lord I know that you have the best plan for my life. Please give me the grace to accept it and to do the things that pleases you each day. Jesus help me so that my inside be cleansed there by automatically my outside life will become clean, fill me with your Holy Spirit and grant me the grace to change the things in my life that are not pleasing to you. I ask this in the name of Jesus, heavenly Father, Amen.

Dr. Jayaanand