I decree a New Year of abundance

Brothers and sisters, I declare a New Year of abundance and blessing.

Brothers and sisters, I decree twelve months of harvest and prosperity on all fronts.

How many of you say: Amen?

Brothers and sisters, I’m pulling your leg.

Can someone please explain to me why so many of the so-called prophetic words shared today only hone in upon what’s positive and uplifting?

When we compare these ‘prophecies’ with the content of Scripture, something just simply doesn’t seem to add up.

I recall a paragraph I read years ago, penned by a persecuted Chinese believer (Brother Yun), about his new experience in the Western church. He wrote:

“I have seen people in the churches worshipping as if they were already in heaven. Then someone inevitably appears and preaches a message saying: ‘My children, I love you. Do not be afraid. I am with you’.

“I am not opposed to such words; but why is it that nobody seems to hear a word from the Lord saying: ‘My beloved child, I want to send you to the poor slums of Asia or to the darkness of Africa to be my messenger to those who are dying in sin’?”

Spot on! I ask myself the same question.

Do you all remember the case of the prophet Agabus?

That servant of the Lord took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said: ‘The Holy Spirit says: In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles’ (Acts 21:11).

What kind of prophetic word was that? Who would venture to prophesy something similar nowadays? Such a prophet would get stoned before rounding off his message!

Have you all read the prophecies that the Lord Jesus gave to the seven churches in Revelation by means of the apostle John?

Of the seven churches mentioned, five were rebuked (Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardisand Laodicea) and a sixth (Smyrna) was promised coming persecution. In other words, six of the seven prophetic words were ‘negative’ so to speak.

False prophets, however, only share happy-clappy messages. They promise “Peace, peace” but there is no peace (Jeremiah 8:11). How come? Because they detest the Word of the Lord (v. 9)!

The Lord states later on in the book of Jeremiah, “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies: they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:14).

The same state of affairs was promised by the New Testament. Paul writes, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

When words such as ‘sin’, ‘repentance’, ‘condemnation’, ‘wrath of God’ and ‘hell’ start to disappear from Christian preaching; something is wrong, terribly wrong!

The Word of God –the “more sure word of prophecy”- isn’t just aimed at teaching and instructing us but at rebuking and correcting us (2 Timothy 3:16). We need the whole of the Bible, both the positive and the negative parts, in order to be fully furnished unto all good works (v. 17).

That’s why this year I’m not going to prophesy of a New Year of abundance, blessing, harvest and prosperity. That’s entirely up to the Lord.

But what I am going to declare is that all of those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12) and that it is necessary to enter the kingdom of God by going through many tribulations (Acts 14:22).

As long as the Lord is with us, who cares whether we receive abundance or lack, blessing or cursing, harvest or no harvest, prosperity or loss?

Does Scripture not teach that all things are ours in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21-22)?

So, wrapping up, I don’t wish you a New Year filled with abundance, blessing, harvest and prosperity; but rather a year full of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is more than enough.