Minister: Pastor Wale Afelumo
Date: Sunday, September 16, 2018
Deuteronomy 2:1-3
If you’ve had a particular experience for so long, you can get used to it, forget your assignment, and lose every desire to go forward. This was the case with the Israelites in their wilderness journey until God came to stir their nest. He spoke these words to Moses: “You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward.”(Deuteronomy 2:3)
Although the Israelites at this time were out of Egypt and slavery, passed through the Red Sea and experienced miracles in the wilderness; they still had a ‘Promised Land/Land of Promise’ to go to, even though they were stuck in the wilderness for a long time.
Yesterday’s victory becomes our greatest accomplishment when we remain in a particular place in life for long and nothing happens. We adjust our desire to push for more; start living in mediocrity and accept the abnormalities of life as normal. But, there is always a place called ‘forward’ in life; and God wants us to continually make move to get there.
Turning northward for the Israelites meant going forward to possess the land of Canaan – their land of promise. For us as a ministry and as individuals, it means going upward and forward.
As we enter our 3rd year ILCC, the prophetic word for us is: “Advance.” God is saying; there is more to us, more in us and more for us; He has more ahead for us and for this reason, He wants us to advance!
Advance means to move forward in a purposeful way. It is to make or cause to make progress. It also means forward movement to accelerate the growth or progress of something.
This season is a time to march forward as a church and as individuals. What we have done in the past is actually an indication that we have the potential to do more or to advance. We have what it takes, we only need to take what we have and use it to our advantage in order to go forward.
However, we have to be deliberate about going forward because nothing happens in life unless someone makes it happen. If things just happen, there won’t be beggars on the streets. In other words, nothing moves until we move; a system will only be operational if we so make it, what we put in, is what we get out. Therefore, to rise to a higher rank in every sphere of life and living, we have to make it happen.
How? By leaving the elementary things we’ve always known and pressing forward towards the future God has for us. Olympic runners don’t wear flowing robes to a race because they don’t want anything to encumber them. Likewise, soldiers don’t get tied up living like civilians to avoid distractions. There is too much at stake at the advanced level of living; it does not give room for excess luggage, so, we need to trade off things that are irrelevant in our lives for things of value.
Judah made this statement in Nehemiah 4:10, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.” Rubbish (excess luggage) of any kind reduces our capacity to build or go forward. We must drop off certain things that are detrimental to our growth.
Just like Isaac Newton’s first law of motion implies, everything in life will remain the same until it is acted upon by an external greater force.
Unless we push, things will remain the same and will not advance until we advance them. There are things we want to see happen in our lives hence we need to generate that greater and external force for them to happen.
If we want to fly, we must be ready to pay the price for the responsibility that comes with flying because, “They that walk, walk with many. They that run, run with few. But those that fly, fly alone.” – David Cammy
Grace has been released for supernatural advancement. Anyone who is ready can take it!
ADDITIONAL TEXT
II Timothy 2:4
Hebrews 12:1
