In preparation for a season, professional basketball players put in a lot of work to get ready for what the opposition might try to throw at them. The rigors of the season alone often take out the weak ones, leaving them short of reaching the goals that they set before the season began.
The new year comes and gives us an opportunity to start fresh. As a church family and individually, we have begun the journey of the new year with a God mission, but like LeBron James trying to win his fifth ring, if he doesn’t prepare himself properly, another year will go by with unmet expectations.
The King, not LeBron James, I am talking about Jesus the Christ, knows a thing or two, or probably everything anyone would need to know about having a mission and meeting expectations. He had a mission while here on Earth, and before He started, the Holy Spirit led Him into a fast.
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days, He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
Luke 4:1-2
The Daniel Fast is tough, but forty days with no food. How do you survive? How do you not die, but instead gain the strength needed to overcome the temptation of satan, and fulfill the calling on your life? You feast on God’s Word!
If we are going to build in the Kingdom, we are going to need a Kingdom Mentality. The world doesn’t determine how we accomplish our mission; God’s Word determines how we get it done.
Everybody should know the vision of Faith Chapel, right? If you don’t yet, it’s quite simple. It’s Jesus PERIOD. Jesus didn’t have any food out there in the wilderness, but I know what He was out there eating. God’s Word! Three times satan came to Him to tempt Him into trying to accomplish His mission in a way that was contrary to the way the Father instructed Him, and three times He responded back with scripture, “It is written”.
I am here to encourage you, church family. In 2025, let’s practice intimacy with God by feasting on God’s Word. The Kingdom is all about feasts. We all should be excited about the great wedding feast that we as believers in Jesus have been invited to, where we will dine with God. I’m pretty sure this meal won’t be a number three from McDonald’s, and it will outdo any seven-course meal that the world’s greatest chef can prepare. Heaven is going to be amazing, but we can and need to be in the presence of God right now. Heaven is here now. This is a KINGDOM MENTALITY!
I heard Pastor Josiah say a couple of Wednesdays ago that our time in the scriptures should be about intimacy with God. Man of God, Greg Hendrick’s, said, “The Bible is the only book that when you open it, the Author is right there with you.” Let’s be intimate with The Father by having a meal with Him. Let’s feast on what He says.
Engagement: I challenge you, in the last days of our fast, to go to God and ask Him to prepare a seven-course meal for you. Find seven scriptures that truly minister to you in a unique way and let these be the Words that strengthen you as you continue the journey of this new year. And like Jesus, let’s overcome satan, and fulfill our mission as a church family. Each one of us being elite in our personal assignments, and all of us creating a culture like Christ.
Coach Hawk
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