Fruitful 2015 – 5: Joy, strength and favour!

Posted on by Ken Newton

In 2015 may you experience increasing joy, strength and favour in your life and in every sphere of influence!

Make a leap for joy in 2015! shutterstock.com | Photocreo Michal Bednarek
Make a leap for joy in 2015!
shutterstock.com | Photocreo Michal Bednarek

“For You are the glory of their strength, and in Your favour our horn is exalted.”¹ Be encouraged by this promise in the coming year. When the psalmist spoke of ‘their strength’, he was referring to the “blessed…people who know the joyful sound” two verses earlier. That can include you and me as we embrace the joyful sound of worship and laughter and connect with the reality of heaven’s atmosphere.

At Christmas we sing carols and songs and write cards carrying the message: ‘Good news of great joy.’ The angels’ announcement of Jesus’ birth was an unparalleled reason to be joyful. But they were also heralding a new era of great joy which continues to this day.

A chosen lifestyle that empowers us

Joy is not only a temporary response to good news or to a good joke. Nor is not synonymous with an inner stoicism and stability. It is a chosen lifestyle of rejoicing that emanates from heaven, empowering and propelling us forward.

The heart union we can have with Christ thanks to that glorious night over 2000 years ago makes what He exudes available to us right now. In His presence is fullness of joy, and His presence is with us, indeed within us. Joy is something that’s catching. And it spills out to other people in our spheres.

The smartest goal?

I could have devoted this post to the steps in making SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals for the next 12 months. But I firmly believe that one of the smartest goals you and I can pursue is to be joyful on purpose. It’s going to be of immense value to us as we prepare for a year of increasing fruitfulness.

Intentional joyousness is a key answer to the cycle of New Year’s Resolutions that fall flat, if not by 7th January, then probably by 7th February each year. We could previously have been setting goals that lacked a purpose connected with our destiny. Or we may have been relying on our own willpower alone to make them happen, which can create strain and frustration.

On the other hand, the joy of the Lord is our strength.² He promises that, as we delight in Him, he will give us the desires of our hearts.³  As church leader and author, Andy Merrick, said recently, “The joy of the Lord gives you the energy that you need to make the changes you need.”

Celebration, healing and more

This is not to say that we just have to be happy and everything else will fall into place – we still need to follow through our plans and assignments diligently and with excellence. But divine joy helps to connect us with our mission in life, and the day-to-day steps involved. And supplies the strength and motivation to see our plans, goals and purposes through. Life’s not just about duty fulfilment: we were also created for celebration and are allowed to enjoy ourselves along the way.

A friend of mine received prayer at an event in Glasgow last year for a debilitating colon condition. As others laid hands on him he burst out laughing, kept going in his mirth for 10 minutes, and was healed. I’ve often seen him laugh that way since then. He was touched by the joy of the Lord, who released healing to him. Just as God can use joy to heal us, our joining in with heaven’s rejoicing can transform us and others in limitless ways, shifting atmospheres and even cultures.

May you be filled to the brim with joy in the year ahead, and let it pour out into the people and situations you encounter!

¹ Psalm 89:17

² Nehemiah 8:10

³ Psalm 37:4

Fruitful 2015 – 4: 4 Rs of speaking out fruitfully

Posted on by Ken Newton

There is positive power in speaking out in agreement with God’s will in order to see our plans and purposes fulfilled. With the right motives in our hearts, this will have a strong influence on our fruitfulness in the year ahead and beyond.

Speaking out fruitfully © shutterstock.com | Syda Productions
Speaking out fruitfully
© shutterstock.com | Syda Productions

Please don’t think I’m plugging prosperity gospel here, or ‘name-it-and-claim-it’ philosophy, where the motive has all too often been about what ‘I’ can get.

Spoken blessing transforms lives

Four years ago I was greatly impacted by the proverb¹: “By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked the city is destroyed.’” It struck me that, as well as blessing people (the ‘city’) by our actions and resources, but we can also bless them ‘by the mouth’, speaking life over communities and individuals.

When the heart motive behind our plans, goals and declarations involves ‘the city being exalted’ – other people’s lives being enriched and enhanced – then that is something that I believe God will bless.

Here are four ways in which we can speak out fruitfulness by faith – all of course from our connection with God:

1 Radiant word

I’d describe as a radiant word scripture that’s highlighted to you by the Holy Spirit for guidance, encouragement or breakthrough in a particular area or situation (the above proverb is a personal example). God will give us these words as we partner with him on our planning and goal-setting. And they can form the basis of declarations.

Several years ago my family gathered together to pray with me during a financial pinch point in my business. During the prayer time, my then teenage daughter ‘saw’ in her mind’s eye ‘DEUTERONOMY 28:8’. It’s a scripture about the promise of provision – one which she did not know from memory and would not have known how to spell!

That same day, unbeknown to her, I had picked up a small piece of paper from my bedroom floor. On it was that very same scripture, which I’d noted down months previously. It must have fallen out of a book. Around that time, a family friend had also just contacted my wife with the same scripture, saying she felt it was for us from God!

Since then, as well as thanking God for that threefold encouragement, I have also sometimes personalised this word by declaring: “The Lord is sending a blessing on my barns and everything I put my hand to.” And He has – which in turn has allowed me to bless others financially in the process.

2 Reply

“A man makes plans in his heart, but the reply of the tongue comes from the Lord.”² In part 2, I mentioned how, while we make plans in our heart, God gives the ‘answer of the tongue’ (Proverbs 16:1). As well as ‘radiating’ particular words of scripture for us, God communicates in other ways.

These ‘answers of the tongue’ can take the form of helping us formulate and articulate our plans, finding the right words to say as we share or implement them, as well as declaring the plan out loud as an affirmation.

If, say, one of your plans is to write a book or start a group, a declaration might be: “I will write my first book/start a connection group this year, which will lead people to a deeper relationship with Christ, help set them free from the past, and discover and live out their God-given purposes.”

3 Release

In  New Testament accounts of healings and other miracles, Jesus and others in each case released God’s will for the people affected, very often by speaking out. Peter said to a crippled beggar, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”³

As believers, we carry that same potential to speak out transformation in the name of Jesus today. Jesus once spoke to a crippled woman who was bent double, saying, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”⁴

That wasn’t just for the Holy Land 2000 years ago, or maybe, at stretch, in the front line of an African mission. An elderly woman with the very same condition had her back straightened a few weeks ago in Glasgow Central Station when a young leader at my home church released healing to her in Jesus’ name! The main point here is that the power comes from Jesus, not us, and we can release it by faith.

4 Removal

Another weapon in our spoken armoury taught by Jesus is to command the removal of obstacles or problems. He tells us, “Whoever says to the mountain (i.e. problem) ‘be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and…believes he will have those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”⁵

I have seen this exercise of divine authority work in all kinds of situations ranging from the removal of severe infirmity and pain to the lifting of unhelpful blockages to progress in practical areas.

As we prepare for 2015, time spent not only writing down our goals and plans but also speaking them out as declarations, will influence the fruit that we bear in the times ahead. And, as Christ’s ambassadors, we can speak life throughout the year into people and places, expecting kingdom transformation and a shift of climate in our communities.

¹ Proverbs 11:11

² Proverbs 16:11

³ Acts 3:1-16

⁴ Luke 13:12

⁵ Mark 11:23

 

 

Fruitful 2015 – 3: Expanding your sphere

Posted on by Ken Newton

“We are called to be thermostats, not thermometers – affecting our environment, not reflecting it,” Ron Hembree once said.

Adding colour to lives: our spheres of influence c Elena Dijour | shutterstock.com
Adding colour to lives: our spheres of influence
© Elena Dijour | shutterstock.com

Everyone has a sphere of influence. Yours may principally be your workplace, your business, your sport, creative expression or place of learning. Or it may be a mix of home, family and local community, or your church ministry and the community it impacts. You probably have a main sphere and a few smaller ones.

Shifting the atmosphere in your sphere

We are dispensers of the superior realm of heaven into the earth – carriers of the goodness and grace of God, and the creative solutions He has for every situation, working through us. Biblically, we‘re called the ‘fragrance of Christ’, His ‘ambassadors’, ‘vine branches’, and carriers of ‘fountains of living water’. We’re not alone: we have the presence and resources of the King of the universe. As well as saying, “Go,” Jesus said, “I am with you.”

Taking the water balls in the picture as metaphors for our spheres, God is ready to fill your sphere with His influence using you as the connector valve. He wants to change the atmosphere within each sphere, as you partner with Him in exuding His realm and presence.

There’s no sacred-secular divide

The spheres of God’s kingdom extend beyond the church. A friend told me recently that he had been considering ‘scaling down his work to focus more on the kingdom’. What he meant was spending more time on church ministry and outreach – His primary sphere. But his reference to kingdom as being more focused on church-related work underestimates the much broader scope of the kingdom.

We’re called to reign in life

We’re called to reign in life’s situations: ‘Those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness’ will reign in life through … Jesus Christ.’¹

The kingdom is within you and me by faith in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. God doesn’t impose His kingdom, although He could easily do so.  I believe that, in His sovereignty, He chooses mainly to advance His rule and reign on earth through willing people. And He chooses you and me – in whatever sphere we occupy and influence, from our family and neighbourhood, to our job, business or golf club.

Our impact is not chiefly about quoting scripture – although it sometimes involves that. It’s about how we do life, for example in forming relationships, expressing creativity and approaching work, in ways that bring about positive transformation in other people’s lives.

Prepare for sphere expansion

Paul spoke of his ‘sphere to which God appointed’² him as he wrote to the Corinthians, who were within that sphere.

This passage is sometimes interpreted with an emphasis on the limits on Paul’s authority, but Paul in fact expects to see his sphere extending. He expresses hope that, as the Corinthians’ faith is increased, his sphere will be enlarged to cover the regions beyond.

But don’t get fixated on the seeming current size of your sphere – big or small – or even a recent sphere reduction. Six years ago, my business was hit by the 2008 recession, along with government policy changes that saw the kind of contracts I’d specialised in for five years dry up almost overnight.

While business has recovered well since then, I know that I now have a broader sphere involving more than my immediate enterprise, embracing writing and song-writing to touch more lives. In the lean times I was able to develop those areas that were vital to my wider sphere.

God can turn around even life’s setbacks to develop you or me for sphere expansion, perhaps taking us into the arena that He meant for us all along. Could your sphere be a new business, a learning establishment you’re called to, the impact of your artistic creativity, writing or blogging? Perhaps it’s the voluntary organisation or post-retirement project you’re involved in, or the young lives you impact in your family, church, community or city.

As Vance Havner said, “The tiniest post office can bear a letter that may wreck or bless a nation. And the simplest life can relay blessings that may rock a continent toward God.”

Let your letter be one that blesses increasingly, and let there be an expansion in your God-appointed sphere in the year ahead!

¹ Romans 5:17

² 2 Corinthians 10:13-15

Fruitful 2015 – 2: Engage your heart, engage God

Posted on by Ken Newton

I’ve found Proverbs 16 to be a great source of inspiration for getting to grips with preparation and planning. In fact, I’d describe the whole chapter as ‘the planner’s toolkit,’ and encourage you to read it.

Dreams take off with heart-level engagement. © shutterstock.com | seregalsv
Dreams take off with heart-level engagement.
© shutterstock.com | seregalsv

A key take-away for me is that planning is an affair of the heart, and not just the intellect. Verses 1 and 9 reveal that the ‘preparations of the heart belong to man’, and ‘a man’s heart plans His way’. It’s also a process that God wants to be part of based on intimate relationship: “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”¹

In fashioning the future, there’s more going on than rationalistic programming of our neurons and conditioning new behaviours to propel us to meet our goals. Yes, we have amazing God-given brainpower, but we are also spiritual beings with a loving Creator God who wants to be involved in the detail of our lives.

He has plans, passions and purposes for us individually, as families, enterprises and communities, and wants us to partner with Him to see these bear fruit.

Being present to His presence

Presence is the starting point – our engagement with the presence, character and resources of God in our lives. Before, and as, we carve out our future, we need to carve out quiet, quality time and space to reflect, question and listen in God’s presence.

The two proverbs I mentioned above also tell us that, as we plan in our hearts, the Lord ‘gives the answer of the tongue’ and ‘directs our steps.’ Here are some questions that will prompt your God-guided planning for your year ahead:

  • Do you already have a long-range vision for your life? (See related post: Why it’s vital   to keep your vision visible) If so, how do you want to see it progress in 2015?
  • What is your overriding passion? What makes you come alive?
  • What desires, projects or plans have you put on hold for some time, perhaps because of financial or time constraints?
  • Could you be approaching a new season in your life, where something needs to come to a close to let you move to the next stage?
  • Challenging us to embrace God’s dreams for our lives, Rolland and Heidi Baker ask, “Is your current dream too small for such an amazing God?”² In other words, do you need to think bigger to reflect God’s view of your potential and His limitless resources, while not belittling the idea of small first steps?
  • Do you need to turn away from any wrong, negative beliefs about planning, preparing or visioning, based on unfulfilled dreams, past setbacks or put-downs? Remember, He will give you the desires of your heart!
  • How do your plans and passions connect to advancing God’s kingdom purposes?

I’ll continue this series on Friday with a post looking at how we all have God-given spheres of authority and influence, and why you could be poised for growth in one or more of these spheres.

In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know how  your preparations for a more fruitful year are shaping up.

¹ Psalm 37:4

² Reckless Devotion, Rolland and Heidi Baker, River Publishing

12 days towards a fruitful 2015 – 1

Posted on by Ken Newton

With advent now underway, and as we approach the traditional 12 days of Christmas,  I’m beginning today a 12-day mini-series of reflections to help you and me prepare for a fruitful 2015.

Let there be fruit in your 2015!
Let there be fruit in your 2015! Copyright shutterstock.com | Choat Photographer

It’s healthy to explore, and to want to see fulfilled, the desires of our hearts. Early December is a good time to start the process of reflecting on next year’s possibilities.

With this in  mind, I’m writing five posts spread over the first 12 days of December, each covering a different aspect of year-ahead visioning. This will be a real-time preparation for 2015 for me personally, and I invite you to join in the journey.

We painstakingly plan our festive fare – let’s prepare our year

Most of us are already looking ahead to Christmas. It’s a time of preparation for that season, not least spiritually as we reflect on the Good News of great joy.

The question occurred to me as I began to write this post: what if we could devote at least the same time and effort in preparing ourselves for the year ahead as we do in painstakingly planning our Christmas celebrations?

In our household, I customarily morph into head chef to create the Christmas dinner. Every year, ‘Ken’s cunning plan’ swings into action. That’s the grid I fill out with all the steps involved in making the festive repast. From coring parsnips and crossing the bottoms of sprouts to the timing and temperatures for slotting the main roast and various trimmings into top or bottom ovens.

All this means envisioning beforehand what you want to serve up for dinner, purchasing all the ingredients, crackers and any missing cookware, and resisting the impulse buy of the discounted red-nosed jumper. Hopefully avoiding, too, the unscheduled trip to the supermarket 5 minutes before Christmas eve closing time for that overlooked but pivotal sauce ingredient.

How would it be if you and I could apply that same enthusiasm to planning ahead for 2015 and helping make this next year among our most fruitful yet?

My own vision for this series is partly summed up in this blog’s subtitle: Live and lead with presence, passion and purpose. I want to help you and me discover and live out passionately our God-given destinies in increasingly closer connection with Him.

In my next post, I’ll look at why planning involves engaging our hearts as well as our heads. And, crucially, why the best laid plans engage God.

I’d love to hear how any of the posts in this series impact you, and any tips or testimonies on how your approach to planning has made a difference.