Crossing over into a new year (Series) 3 ~ Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2: 10 KJV

What will make the year 2020 happy? What are the things that we need to do?

1. Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve in 2020 within the context of God’s purpose for your life. Where there is no vision says Proverbs, the people perish. Discover the purpose of God. Set clear goals; how much money do you want to make? Set it and write it down. What kind of relationships do you want to have? Set it and write it down. What do you want to achieve in terms of position and power this year? Set it and write it down. What house do you want to build? What cars do you want to buy? How do you want to help other people? How do you want to improve in aspects of your life? Write them and set them down and work purposely towards them. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. What do you want to achieve in 2020 for yourself, write it down. The Bible says; write the vision, set it down upon the post so that anybody that reads that vision will run with it. 
2. Live a peaceful life. No matter what happens to you, don’t get angry. Don’t get upset. Don’t react angrily. Don’t be unduly emotional. Maintain a stable dominion over your life and take time to find out where God is. In every situation, if you can find out where God is, no matter how painful, no matter how sorrowful, if you can find out what God is saying, God will give you peace. I want to tell somebody this day that God will give you peace.
3. Look for an opportunity in every circumstance. Every circumstance has an opportunity inside of it. It may look bad, it may look dark, it may look horrible but there is an opportunity inside of it. The Bible says that when God created the earth in Genesis chapter 2, every seed, every fruit, every tree, he embedded inside the soil. The soil was dark and empty because it had not rained over the earth. But inside of that soil, that dark and empty soil, that soil of death and depression were great opportunities. Inside of every situation in your life, there are great opportunities. If you can open your eyes and see them, you will succeed; opportunity to do good, opportunity to make a difference, opportunity to bring joy, opportunity to make money, opportunity to be a blessing. Let the spirit of God be in you and people will look for you.
4. Whatever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might. Whatever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your energy. Whatever God brings your way, do it with everything that you have, and God will surprise you. Everything that you do, do as unto God. Do as unto God and not as unto men. The problem with people is that there is too much eye service. There is too much attempt at pleasing men. There is too much laziness and slothfulness. There is not enough care especially about other people’s business. When you work for others, you are actually working for yourself. Whatever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might
5. Have a fair and open and truthful mind to all, a fair and open and truthful mind to every single person that comes across your way. If you are fair, if you are open, if you have a truthful mind, God will fight for you, God will defend you, God will help you. And even if people seem to cheat you, they will not get away with it. Have a fair and open mind to everyone that comes along your way. Don’t speak evil of others. Nigerians tend to speak a lot of evil concerning other people. What the Bible says is that where two or three people are gathered there is a ‘G’ amongst them. The ‘G’ that the Bible says is ‘God’. But when you come to Nigeria, the ‘G’ that they have is ‘Gossip’. When two or three people are gathered, you are sure they are gossiping; gossiping about Pastor Ituah, gossiping about President Buhari, gossiping about Pastor Osibajo. This is not the year to gossip. What you know about you will gossip. What you don’t know about, you will gossip. What they didn’t tell you, you will gossip. What you didn’t see, you will gossip. What you are not sure about, you will gossip. This is not the year to gossip. Don’t gossip this year. Tell the truth. Be fair. Be open to everyone. What you cannot say in front of somebody, don’t say it behind them. What you cannot say when they are there, don’t say it behind them. 

This is the year to pray crazily. This year, you are going to pray. And you are going to pray like you’ve never prayed before because God is about to answer your prayer. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 11:6 “in the morning, sow your seed, in the evening, don’t withhold your hand:” because you don’t know which of your prayers God will answer, either this one or that one. Or maybe all your prayers God will answer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray without ceasing.

Crossing over into a new year (Series) 2 ~ Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2: 10 KJV

What will make the year 2020 happy? What are the things that we need to do?

If we don’t do these things, the year will just be like any other year, because what the Bible says in Genesis 28:22 is that God promises that while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night do not cease. So God has guaranteed that things will continue as they continued every year. But what will make this year different is not what God does, but what you will do to make sure that this year truly goes your way. No earthly year contains any magic or portends to be different from the other years. God will make all things work according to the time of life. The sun will still shine, the rain will fall, there will be winter, summer, spring, the moon will come out, the flowers will bloom, people will be born, and people will die, there will be accidents and there will be crashes, armed robbers won’t disappear, thieves will still operate, some will make money, some will lose money, some will marry, some will divorce, sickness will not disappear neither will success fail. There might be slight differences here and there, but the earth will continue in its cause. But what will make the year happy, progressive and successful are the things that you will do. What are the things that we must contract to do as we turn into a new year?

1. You must know your God and serve him well. This year 2020 is not a year to joke with God and to joke with the things of God. David said to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28:9, he says Solomon my son, know the God of your father, serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. If you seek God, he will be found of you.  This is the year that you must know your God and serve him well. Know your God this year. This year 2020, know your God and serve him well. That’s why He said to Jerom, if God heals you, what are you going to do for him. Don’t let it be a point of pain, a point where you are being harassed before you start to know your God and serve him well
2. Fear him, love him, and obey his commandments. Psalm 128 says “blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that worketh in his ways. You will eat the labour of your hands, happy you will be and it shall be well with you.” Fear God, love him, obey his commandments. We know that all things work together for good for them that love God, for them that are called according to his purpose. If you love God, everything in 2020 will work together for your good.  Obey God.  Deuteronomy 28:1-2 - ​And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:   And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”

Crossing over into a new year (Series) 1 ~ Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2: 10 KJV

Luke 2: 10 -13

We are all hoping for a better 2020, much better than 2019, and I pray that by the sound of the numbers 2020, it will be a year of perfect vision. It will be a year of rounded blessings. It will be a year of accelerated speed. It will be a year of great increase in the name of Jesus Christ. 2019 was a very strange year. A year that even the Queen of England said was a little bit bumpy. And what was a little bit irritating or annoying to me was that towards the end of the year, it tends to claim a lot of people, most of them very young, under the age of 40. Somehow, the year swept a few people away. I want to decree and declare that 2019 has done its worst, 2020 will be a year of compensation, a year of encouragement, a year when God will wipe away our tears, a year where God will recover you, a year where God will restore you, a year where God will lift you up, a year where God will say I’m proud of you. Everybody that has shed tears in the year 2019, the Lord will wipe away your tears himself. Everybody that has lost someone or something in the year 2019, the Lord will encourage you. The Lord will put his hands into the eyes of the devil and he will pluck the eyes out and he will rescue our children and it shall be well with us.

A lot of people come to Church on the last day of the year. Some have not been in Church in a long time. Some are coming maybe for the first time. Let me tell you, let this not be your last time in Church. It is not what you do once, but what you do consistently over time that causes your change. Today, God will bring you a new change. Some of us are in church thinking – ‘if I start my year with prayer, maybe God will answer my prayers. Church is a holy place. It’s a place of protection. If I start in church, I am protected for the rest of the year.’

It’s best to start on a right footing. It’s not how you start but how you end that is important. There is no point starting in church and not continuing in Church and in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. There is no point starting well, and then abandoning the cause midway or midyear. There is no point starting in church only to go back to your old ways; worldly music, champagne, alcohol, fornication, adultery, lying, wickedness. If you go back to your old ways, nothing will change. If you go back to your old ways, the old ways will stay with you. It’s not the once-in-a-year visit to church that makes a transformation. It’s a consistent fellowship with God and fellowship with the people of God that brings a steady change.

We have said so much about the dangers of sin, the dangers of wrong thinking. A lot of people think sin is an offence to God but the real meaning of sin is doing something that will damage your own life. That is what sin is. Not necessarily an offence to God. So a lot of us say, well God doesn’t mind a little bit of sin. It has nothing to do with God but it has everything to do with you. Sin is something that damages your own life. And because you don’t see the damage immediately does not mean that the damage has not been done. My prayer is that God will help us in the year 2020. God will stand by us in the year 2020. God will make this year a wonderful year. God will make this New Year a delightsome year. God will make this year an extraordinary year and God will make it a happy new year.