Sat.’s Devo - New Beginnings

Happy New Year! Every year I ask God for a word that will describe the next year for me and the word for next year was “change.” Not only are we moving from Tulsa to Lexington, Ky. but I feel like everything in our nation and world is changing. Things in the spiritual world are changing also. I see heaven coming down and invading earth in a way that is more tangible than we have ever known possible. I see a Red Sea moment when God is going to show up and do something incredibly miraculous which will begin our exodus from the slavery our nation and world is in to a brand new world. Sounds like a movie but that is exactly as it is playing out. I see God changing members of my family and your family through some really difficult situations. It is through these trials that God is bringing about the change that needs to happen. It is through adversity that we find freedom and deliverance. I see chains that have held people in their ruts being broken and setting them free to run with God and be what he intended them to become. I am very excited about the next year but I am also seeing great challenges for God’s people as his kingdom comes violently. Satan is going to fight this change because he has his own agenda of change that he wants to bring on the world. His change leads to greater bondage and slavery, but God’s kingdom will win. The battle is being played out on earth but it is won in the heavenlies so let’s continue to press in and pray. We surrender to God but never to the devil. Read: Genesis 1:1-2:25; Matthew 1:1-2:12; Psalm 1:1-6; Proverbs 1:1-6 In the dateless past, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was worthless, full of darkness and empty until God came and hovered over it. The word for “moved” means “shook” as if God shook the earth with his power and it came to life. He spoke and told there to be light and light came. This light was good. Then he divided the light from the darkness. God named the light, day and the darkness, night. The second day God separated the waters of heaven from the waters of the earth. He called the space between them the firmament or the sky. The third day God gathered the waters and called them seas. He called the ground, Earth. God put lights in the sky to govern the day and the night. The greater light was to rule the day and the lesser light was to rule the night. Stars were created also. On the fifth day God filled the waters on the earth with sea creatures and the sky with birds and told them be fruitful and multiply. On the sixth day God created animals and man. Man was created in God’s image and was told to rule over the animals. Man was told to eat the plants and the fruit and to be fruitful and multiply. On the seventh day God rested and set that day apart as holy and blessed. In Chapter Two we have a more detailed account of Adam’s creation and how he was made from dust. God breathed life into man and he became alive. God prepared a beautiful garden for man which had trees and a river that flowed through it. Two of the trees in the middle of the garden were named. One of the was the Tree of Life and the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man was told to eat anything in the garden except the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. God said it would surely kill them if they did. God brought all the animals and birds and told man or Adam to name them. Adam noticed that all the animals had counterparts except him. There was no mate for him. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and took a rib from Adam’s side and made woman. When Adam awoke he was greatly pleased with the woman that God had created for him. In Matthew we are given the family line of Joseph who God chose to be Jesus’ father on earth. He was from the kingly line of David. Joseph was engaged to marry Mary but then found out she was pregnant. An angel came to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to marry her because she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and would bear a son. They were to name him Jesus and she would be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the virgin that would bear a son. He would be Emanuel - God with us. Jesus was born during the reign of Herod. Herod would be visited by wise men who saw Jesus’ star in the sky and knew that a king was born. These wise men would have been taught about this star by Daniel when he was taken to Babylon and placed over the wise men. Herod was told by the wise men where the king was to be born and told them to come back and report to him what they found. The wise men arrived in Bethlehem and found Jesus. They gave Mary and Joseph their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. God warned them in a dream not to go back and tell Herod where the child was. It is amazing how God had to sneak Jesus into the world. He had to put one past Herod and led all the players through dreams. Once again after 200 years, God was talking to his people and they were hearing and obeying. Jesus was coming as the promised Messiah to save them and rescue them from their sins. Lord, thank you for your great plan of creation and salvation. Thank you for grace to walk through 2022 with You in love and victory.