While much of the world has been focused this recent holiday season on celebrating the first coming of Yeshua as a newborn baby, I believe the Lord is calling believers in the New Year 2014 to focus on His second coming as King, and to prepare for our roles in His Millennial kingdom.
What are our roles? Well, we know that we will be ruling and reigning with Yeshua as a kingdom of priests and that we will be worshiping Him (Rev. 1:6; 5:10,13; 20:6; 1 Pet 2:9; Zech 14:9). So what can we do, in this new year of 2014, to prepare for our roles in the Millennium?
I believe that one of the most important ways we can prepare is by taking responsibility for our own thoughts, emotions, words and actions. How will we be prepared to rule and reign with Him over nations when we can’t even rule and reign over our own thoughts and emotions? (1 Cor.6:2-3) Yeshua is so gracious in that He gives us the opportunity to practice and prepare every day through our moment by moment choices! For example:
Will we harbor anger and bitterness toward others because they hurt or offended us, and then snap at them, talk down to them, or ignore them because we feel it’s justified?
Will we stress out over all we have to get done, dwelling on our to-do lists all day (instead of on God and His love for us) and then look and act no different from unbelievers?
Will we put ourselves or others down with our critical words because deep down we feel that we are inferior, bad or worthless?
With every thought, emotion, word and action, we have the choice to release God’s power or Satan’s power. We release God’s power when we choose to believe thoughts about our selves, about God, and about our circumstances that are in line with what God says – e.g., that He has not given us a spirit of fear, that His plans for us our good, that He will never leave us, that we are a daughter/son of King and have everything we need, that we have already been loved and accepted perfectly and completely by Him, that we are clothed in robes of righteousness, etc.
We release Satan’s power in our lives when we choose to believe his lies, e.g., that God is not always with us, that we have to make it on our own, that He’s disappointed in us, that we’re bad, inferior, worthless, or not good enough, that we have to be perfect, that we won’t have all that we need, that we won’t make it, etc.
We can choose to follow emotions that give Satan a handle in our lives such as fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, rejection, self-condemnation, drivenness, self-pity, etc., or we can use our weapons of warfare and experience God’s peace, joy, love, forgiveness,acceptance, and freedom.
We can choose words that speak faith in God’s goodness and provision and that build others up, or we can choose words that release Satan’s power in our lives — words of negativity, blame, accusations toward ourselves and others, words of judgment and condemnation, words of pessimism that dwell on what we see versus the unseen.
When we are committed to releasing God’s power instead of Satan’s power in our daily lives, we are ruling and reigning over our thoughts, emotions, words and actions and we are not only preparing for our roles as kings and priests, but also for our roles as worshipers of Yeshua in the Millennium and forever. The core essence of worship is obedience. When we allow our negative thoughts and the lies of the enemy about ourselves, about God, or our circumstances to control us, we are putting them on the throne of our lives. When we choose to obey what God says is true, whether our thoughts and emotions are justified or not, we are putting Him back on the throne — often the most challenging form of worship.
Let’s put our focus for 2014 in the right place. Yeshua is coming soon to establish His Millennial kingdom. He’s giving us thousands of opportunities each and every day to practice and prepare for ruling and reigning with Him and worshiping Him as King. Will you make use of these opportunities and be ready for YOUR role in His return? It’s YOUR choice!
