Happy new year to you LivingStones Agency (LSA) and friends! We celebrate the opportunity to see 2018. This is a blessing from God to us. However, we are mindful of the fact that the passing of natural time alone does not change life circumstances. Things don’t change simply because we are in the “new year”. It is the time clock of the Spirit or change of spiritual seasons, regulated by the voice of God within our hearts, that moves the circumstances of life – that divine knowledge of the plan of God for our lives and inner sense of conviction, imagination and inspiration that brings new divine energy for us to engage life with renewed hope. Without this experience, we simply recycle life issues of the previous year into the new year. Natural time is only significant in that it provides us the platform to serve God here on earth. Our victory in 2018 will be dependent not simply on the opportunity to be alive, but on how well we populate the year with elements of the Will of God in our respective situations and spheres of life. New year for us must not simply be the progression of natural time clock but the continued rising of the Morning Star (the revelation of Christ) in our hearts and the dawning of a new day (a new spiritual season) in our spirits in line with the prophetic promises of God to us (not simply according to our humanistic wishes). In Genesis 1, God declared “a new day” only after the fulfillment of His Will, this means that real time is determined by the fulfillment of the Will of God. The Scriptures exhort us to pay attention to the prophetic words or the voice of God in our hearts and to look carefully as we actively facilitate the process of fulfillment of divine promises (2 Pet. 1:19-21). In this sense, it is “New Year” for us when the Christ, the Morning Star rises within our hearts or when divine things begin to stir up within our spirits. I encourage you as you move into the new year to look beyond natural circumstances and the “deceptive environmental voice of newness” that comes with “a new year”, into the voice of God in your heart to see the movements of the Spirit of God within you. Hear His voice and let that dictate your sense of “time” for your life. Focus your energy in fulfilling those inner convictions because in so doing, you are acting in full obedience to His Will for your life. We can positively exploit the sense of newness in the environment around us by negotiating a spiritual-prophetic movement deeper into the things of God. We learn a lesson from Moses, who read the times for his life and began to negotiate a movement into a new identity that eventually unlocked a destiny of the masses of people (Heb. 11:24-27). The natural time clock told him that his destiny was a great privileged future as an adopted prince in the palace of Pharaoh. But the time clock of the Spirit told him that he was in fact a destroyer of the very empire that sustained his childhood. The two perspectives were clashing until a resolution of faith was established in Moses’ heart, and until he believed the perspective of the Spirit for his life. This is my prayer for you – that you move in step with the definitions of the Lord for your life. Refuse an identity imposed on you by historical circumstances and the spirit of the age. Like Moses, align yourself correctly with relationships that will unlock the things of God in your life. And move with powerful conviction in those things that are unseen. Refuse the pleasures and comfort of life that seek to numb your prophetic convictions and press beyond your current achievements into the outstanding issues of your God ordained destiny. There is nothing in this life that can be more fulfilling than engaging the Davidic journey of pursuing the heart of God. In 2018, we are called to nothing less than a courageous, bold, and fearless engagement of the Purpose of God. Anything less than this will not satisfy our souls. Let us stand side by side as One Man (Phil. 1:27) wielding the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (thoughts, positions  and perspectives of God) and carrying the Shield of Faith to defend the advances of God in our lives and in our season. Happy new year to you Kingdom Warrior!

Robert Ntuli

LivingStones Agency