NEWNESS OR FRESHNESS, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

PART 3

This morning i will be sharing with us the concluding part of my post, NEWNESS AND FRESHNESS WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? 

I will be showing us the things that help us to stay fresh at all time whether in ministry, business, church, marriage, job e.t.c.

Even though we need both new and fresh encounters in our walk with God and God always give both.

If we ever have to choose between the two; choose freshness. No matter what we do, new things will always become old, I John 2:17, Isaiah 51:6. 

However we can make old encounters or things look new by making it stay fresh always, Exodus 16:32-34. 

How to do this is what I will be showing us this morning. Ride with me.

The first point I will be bringing to us is:

1). INTIMACY WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

To understand this better I will like to share with us the mystery behind the name, Ancient of days

ANCIENT OF DAYS MEANS ONE WHO HAS BEEN IN EXISTENT LONGER THAN ANY OTHER THING AND DOES NOT WHITHER, DIE OR CHANGE. 

All human beings die but only God never die. God is life personified. 

So to maintain our newness and freshness we need to stay close to the one who is life Himself. 

God keeps things fresh and new by a covenant of salt in the old testament. Generations after they left the wilderness, Numbers 18:19.

One thing about being intimate with the Lord is that you can't be bored. It is always new and  fresh

You are reading the Bible the tenth time, yet you are still seeing new revelation and receiving fresh insight from the Word that is giving you strength.

The Holy Spirit is full of fresh and new ideas for your ministry, marriage, church and business that will take it to the next level. 

To be close to Him is never to run out of ideas. 

He is the one that teaches us how to profit, Isaiah 48:17. He teaches our fingers to fight so our hands can break a bow of steel, Psalm.18:34. 

The angels keep shouting Holy Holy Holy because ech time they always see a new revelation that makes them to shout in awe of Him.

Intimacy with the Holy Spirit  will always keep you fresh and new. 

The bible says even youths in the best of their strength shall utterly fall but they tgat wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. 

If you are close to Him He will teach you what to do to your marriage, business and ministry to make it new and fresh at all times..

2). FINDING PURPOSE

By this I mean have a vision that is driving you. 

People have different reasons for doing the things they do. I mean intention or motive for getting married; having a job, starting a ministry e.t.c. 

Many times the reason why people do what they do is not because they found purpose or vision but rather because they are tired of their present state and needed a change. 

For some it is because they want more money or comfort. For some it is for position/title, respect and honour. 

However when those expectations  are not met, frustration set in. 

Even when those expectations are met weariness still set in because in themselves thode things don't have the power to satisfy. 

Your purpose for getting married shouldn't be sex or the need for someone to cook and clean the house for you or give you children or just because you want to carry the title MRS. 

All those things will fade away with time, Isaiah 40:6-8 But when two people come together because they have a vision either as couple, partners  or as individuals ,vision will sustain them when they are weak. 

One day, the Lord told me the vision I have given you will out last your present need for money and material things so don't drop it to seek money. 

A God given vision will outlast the carrier. What that means is that you will wake up everyday having a reason why you should be alive till you die. 

Vision is so powerful that it gives you  a reason to forge ahead against all odds. It gives you a reason to live because there is something you are truly living for that counts both for now and eternity. 

When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. 

Let me describe what a vision looks like for us. 

You can have a vision of youths that are on fire for Christ and are living a chaste and pure life. Your lifetime is too small to exhaust that kind of a vision. 

Because as long as you are alive, there will always be a youth that is not bornagain talk less of being on fire for God. 

That vision will outlast you and is enough to sustain your life time. 

Another example, my God given vision is to rsise a people that are matured and established in faith. 

As long as I am alive, there will always be one persom that needs to grow and become established in Christ. 

So, that vision is enough to sustain my life time. 

If your vision is to have money or acquire possessions, that kind of vision cannot outlast you because a time is going to come when you will not need those things again because you now have them. 

The question will be, so what next? Your vision must be such that can keep you on your toes till you go to be with the Lord. 

Such that even in your old age you are still bearing fruits, Psalms 92:14

3) CONSTANTLY UPGRADING OURSELVES.

Whether we like it or not the world is changing, our children are changing, the economy is changing, your body is changing, your spouse is changing, government of nations are changing. 

Even the society we are living in today is not what it used to be five, ten years ago. 

As things and people are changing, what is needed to meet up with those changes are becoming different than it used to be few years ago. 

The question is are you also changing positively to meet up with those changes?

Faith without works is dead. The spirit without the body is dead, James 2:26. 

Everything about our life is not all up to us neither is it all up to God. God will do His part but we too must do our part. 

The world is changing and we must become constantly equipped to meet up with an everchanging world. 

If you are not constantly growing and emerging into a better version of yourself the world will leave you behind at some point. 

We live in the world even though we are not of the world, but there is a level of constant upgrading we must have to be able to match up with the changes that keeps happening in our world on a daily basis.

Till tomorrow my mother still give me her checkbook to collect money for her in the bank and do her transfers. 

She doesnt have an ATM neither is she ready to learn how to use one. She is not just ready to catch up with the new trend that the world has evolved into over the years. 

There are wives like that too. That, while their husband is strving to rise they didnt do aything to upgrade themselves; so a time came when the distance between them and their husbands necame so wide like heaven and earth. 

All these things cause loss of freshness and newness in marriage. 

Learning new strategies of marketing and new ways of doing things will renew your marriage, business and ministry. 

There are new ways of cooking, of dressing of talking that you can adopt to make yourself or your brand more pleasing to your spouse, even to the market if you are a business owner. 

This is why companies always rebrand and re-package themselves from time to time to meet up with an ever growing world. 

Don't remain analogue when the world has gone digital. By so doing, you are not being wordly but you are making yourself better equipped to be used more by God. 

There is so much God can do with an educated christian than with an illterate christian. 

The educated christian will be able to penetrate more into places that the illiterate christian cannot no matter how anointed. 

I pray the Lord  will grant us understanding  of this word in Jesus name.

SALVATION PRAYER

Anything short of you being born again and living a life of holiness and purity hurt Jesus so much. But you can make things right here and now by saying this simple prayer and mean it genuinely from your heart:

 Lord Jesus, I come to you today. I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I cannot help myself. I repent of all my sins and I forsake them. Jesus, I invite you into my life, be my Lord, be my Saviour. 

Wash me by your precious blood, forgive my sins and write my name in the book of life. From this day, I promise to follow you all the rest of my life. Help me, Lord, in Jesus name, Amen. Congratulations, you are now born again!

PEACE