A New Year offers us a new opportunity. It’s a new beginning in everything. It can be a fresh start of a walk of faith or a fresh start in your commitment to God in the things of God (Isaiah 43:18-19). A New Year offers a fresh opportunity to improve our actions, serve God more effectively, and deepen our walk of faith with God Almighty. If you are serious about your walk of faith, as Brother Jude encouraged us in Jude 1:3, you shouldn’t approach God and the things of God as you did last year. Instead, desire to rise higher, improve your actions, and accomplish great things for the Lord God Almighty (Proverbs 4:18).
Every New Year is a new opportunity to amend your ways and redeem the time lost in the previous year. Let me erase certain things from your mind; you’re not serving God for what you can gain; rather, you serve Him out of love for who He is and what He has done for you. As Romans 5:8 states, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He came and met us at the pit of darkness, pulled us out from it and brought us to His marvellous light.
We owe Him our duty, honour, and respect by serving Him. He has created us to show forth His praises (1 Peter 2:9). So this year, amend your ways to walk more passionately with God. When God wanted to start a new walk with Abraham in Genesis 12:1, He instructed him to leave his country, kindred, and his father’s house. Abraham was a man living in his father’s house in his own country, but because God wanted to start a new walk with him, God told him, “You must leave your father’s house. You have dwelled too much here. You have to leave. You must sacrifice this. You must get out.”
When God wants to start a new walk with you, there are some things you need to abandon, overlook, or deny yourself of. Those things you desire so much that are not for His benefit, He will ask you to let go of them. It is Sacrifice. That was what happened to Abraham. There are some things you need to cut out from, old friends you need to cut out from, and some habits, characters, and things you must let go of because you are starting a new walk with God, and not everything is allowed in that new world.
When God takes you on a new walk, His vision becomes the compass of your life – not your vision. You must run with God’s vision and agenda. When God takes you on a new walk, you cease owning yourself and God becomes the owner of your life. He can call you anytime to say, “Rise, go and do this and do that.” You don’t ask Him for what? When God wants to take a man on a new walk, He will begin to show the man things that He wants the man to journey with, not the things the man wants to do. Until you are ready to disconnect yourself from the things God didn’t lay down for you or ask you to do, you have not started. You have to disconnect. When you walk with God, He begins to show you things, His mind, and what He’ll do. You’ll no longer be seeing from your perspective or mind again; you’ll begin to see from the eyes of God.
Walking with God brings rewards (Genesis 12:2). Abraham never saw that God would make him a great nation. Your vision is too little; that’s why God said, “Drop your vision and take up my vision and walk with me. I will show you a great vision because you are not the owner of your life. You are not the one who created yourself; I created you. Right from your mother’s womb, before I formed you, I knew you. I know what is good for you. You don’t know what is good for yourself. So walk with me. Let me unfold my mind and the blueprint of your life to you.” But some people say no.
In taking a new walk with God, you must depart (Genesis 12:3-4); depart from the old ways, the old approach, and the old lifestyle (Isaiah 43:18-19). Consciously depart from anger, wroth, lying, cheating people in the business, chronic lateness to church, fornication, adultery, or pornography. There must be a departing. There must be an angle you must depart because in taking a fresh walk with God, you’ll not go in the same direction, the same you; you must depart.
Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. So, it’s not about the age. Don’t let age be an excuse to continue in sin. Don’t say, “I am old. I’m not coming to church again or that there are some things (sins) that I’m allowed to commit at my old age.” No. What is sin? Ezekiel 18:20-21 answers it. Thus, age limit is no barrier when it comes to departing. You must depart for God to be glorified, for God to look at you and say, “Yes Indeed, you are ready to walk with Me.” Walking with God in a sincere heart guarantees our assurance of being raptured.
THREE DIMENSIONS OF WALKING WITH GOD
To walk with God effectively this year, consider these three (3) dimensions;
1. Total obedience in walking with God.
2. Following His perfect way in walking with Him.
3. Living a sacrificial life in walking with God.
TOTAL OBEDIENCE IN WALKING WITH GOD
Ephesians 4:24 speaks of true Holiness. Many are walking with God, but not in total obedience to God’s instruction. In walking with God, you must do it in total obedience (John 15:14). If God commands something of you, don’t resist. Jesus Christ says, “You are my friend of you do whatsoever I command you.” (John 15:14-16) Obedience is very important.
You can’t claim to love God or walk with Him while disobeying His commandments (John 14:21; Isaiah 1:19; Job 36:11 – 12). Even God, your own Father, says He will consume you because of disobedience (Jeremiah 9:13 -16; Jeremiah 11:3; Jeremiah 12:17; Jeremiah 32:23). It takes us to obey God, and then the benefits of God will come to us and our families (Jeremiah 18:10). When you obey the voice of God, the evil He has pronounced against you, He will retrieve it back (Jeremiah 26:13).
God said to Abraham, “Walk before me, and be perfect” (Genesis 17:1). That’s the ancient landmark we must follow. The ancient Landmark is – Follow peace with all men, and Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14); For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto Holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7); And be renewed in the Spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true Holiness (Ephesians 4:23-24). Landmark without Holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
Obedience brings God’s blessing (Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Genesis 22:17 -18). To obey is better than Sacrifice. God told Abraham, “Sacrifice Isaac, your son.” “Yes, sir,” Abraham answered. Then God said, “Because of your obedience, I will multiply you.” Just a little obedience towards God’s instruction can put you above your enemy. The Devil will come and push you to commit sin, knowing that once you go inside that sin, God’s blessing is being locked up towards you ( Isaiah 59:1-2). Have you not heard? When God remembered to bless Ephraim, his iniquity was discovered (Hosea 7:1).
Your iniquity has put a barrier between you and God (Isaiah 59:2). Simply step away from sin, then that barrier will go, and you’ll see the presence of God and His blessings. It’s not that you obeyed this month; you will not obey next month. You must keep to God’s instruction diligently (Hebrews 11:6).
In Exodus 32:25-26 Moses asked, Who is on the Lord’s side? I’m asking you the same question today. There’s always proof that you’re on the Lord’s side, and it’s in the doing. All the sons of Levi gathered themselves onto Moses, not knowing what was next. Get ready to obey God’s instruction no matter how it looks so tight on you or unpalatable. Moses instructed all the sons of Levi who gathered themselves to him in Exodus 32:27, saying, “…go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.” This instruction means that even if it’s their mother or Father who’s among the people who sinned, kill! Every man, his companion, means, even if it’s their friend, wife, husband, or neighbour that was involved in the crime, kill! Would you now say you’re no longer on the Lord’s side because your mother or Father was involved in the sin? In Exodus 32:28, you will see how they slay everyone according to God’s instruction. To obey is better than Sacrifice.
FOLLOWING HIS PERFECT WAY
Except we are in union and fellowship with the son of God, we cannot hope to live a perfect life. In walking with Jesus Christ in the New Year, you must follow His perfect way (John 15:1-5; Psalm 25:4; Jeremiah 6:16). Which is the old path? The path of Holiness. When you walk in the good way (the old path of Holiness), there’ll always be rest in your soul. So, in walking with Jesus Christ in this New Year, we must follow His perfect way: the way of Holiness, and there’s a blessing to it (Genesis 17:1-2).
LIVING A SACRIFICIAL LIFE
In walking with the Lord this year, your life must be a life of Sacrifice. Get ready to lay down your life, go the extra mile for Jesus Christ, and not complain. Sacrificial life is constantly prioritizing God’s needs and work above yours and prioritizing other people’s needs above yours. You must get ready to lay down your life for God and others (John 15:11- 13; Romans 12:1).
Apostle Paul lived a sacrificial life. He said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In essence, his life is living on earth is Christ. Everything he is living on earth for is Christ, not for himself (Galatians 2: 20). That’s why you should be sensitive to the Spirit if you live a sacrificial life. Know when God will ask you to do something, and you should be able to do it.
Let’s consider what happened to Paul in the Acts of Apostle 20:18 -24; the Jews did a lot of things against him; they maltreated him, made him cry, tempted him, persecuted him, and did everything to remove his courage. Despite that, he never gave up or had an excuse not to minister. He stood for God, serving God with all humility. He kept testifying to the Jews. The more they slapped him, the more he testified to them; the more they called him names, the more he preached. That’s a sacrificial Life.
Paul said to himself, “I careless to know, but I will go there; even with the persecution, I’m going there; whatever it is, I will go there because my life, I’m no longer the one that lives it; I live for Christ; I’m ready to die for Him; the afflictions or the persecution; none of them move me.” Romans 2:1 says, oh, man, you are Inexcusable. A man who’s living a sacrificial life will live his life to obey God no matter the challenge.
Consider Paul again in Acts of Apostle 21:8-14; Agabus, in this Scripture, was a genuine prophet of God; he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Paul, Philip and others were present when Agabus said this. They all begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul went because it’s no longer him that lives. The life he lives now is the son of God. Paul was ready to die for the gospel because his life was sacrificial.
CONCLUSION
If you are ready to walk with God this year, these three things must be intact: Total obedience, Following His perfect way, and Living a sacrificial life. You can’t follow a man without following his ways of doing things. You want to work in a company that employs you but don’t want to follow the company’s way. That’s what many people are doing. You are not deceiving God, and you can’t deceive God. So, as you walk with God this New Year, you must do it in total obedience and His perfect way – don’t give God excuses for doing things your way. Finally, you must live a life of Sacrifice.