“For with God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37
By Michael Adekoya – Dear Reader, I’ll like to sincerely ask you a question, “when was the last time you did any seemingly impossible thing for God?” If the answer to that question is “a long time ago”, “not at all” or “I wish I could but I don’t know how”. If your answer to that question is one of the aforementioned, well this article is for you. We are serving God who specialises in doing impossible things everyday, we have a Father of all possibilities, so as His children too, we should be operating often in the realms of possibilities if not perpetually like our Heavenly Father.
My friend, if your desire this year is to accomplish the “impossible” for God, such as to win many souls for the Kingdom, to build a cathedral for His glory, to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and to cast out demons on daily basis, to see the manifestations of the words of your mouth instantly, to organise crusades with thousands in attendance with many people giving their lives to Jesus, to start a charity organisation that is touching thousands of lives, to see your lost loved ones coming to Christ, to accomplish great things that no one in your ministry, denomination or generation has never done before and the list goes on. Well, if that’s your desire as a child of God who loves, fellowship and in tune with God, my friend, your desire is godly, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7. Surely, it shall be done, but for it to be done, let’s learn from Mary whom God used to accomplish what no man has ever or would ever accomplish forever in human history.
Firstly, to accomplish great things for God in this 2023, you must be able to hear the voice of God. “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” Luke 1:26-27. A specific angel of God was sent to a particular place, to a certain young lady, Mary who was betrothed to a specific man, Joseph and of a named lineage. My friend, to accomplish a seemingly impossible feat for God this year, you must spend time with God to hear His specific instructions, directions, words, dreams, visions and specific tasks for you this year. It’s time to stop following what others are doing but to do what God specifically instructs, the visions, the dreams and or the patterns He puts in our hearts to do in the Kingdom. Remember, only what God authors that He’ll accomplish. Whatever He Alphas He shall Omega it. There’s a specific vision or task for you like everyone, it may look similar to others, but they are not the same. Therefore, get your specific task (vision, dream, conception, desire, etc) from God, don’t be a copycat, you are original, so you have God’s original and unique vision for your life. What God chose Mary to do, He never chose anyone else to do so again. Seek Him for your own unique vision this year!
Secondly, we need favour to accomplish great things for God in this year 2023. “And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”” Luke 1:28. Mary was favoured by God to conceive and to give birth to a “vision” that no one has ever or would ever do again forever in history. The Bible says, “For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” Romans 9:15-16. Surely favour, grace and mercy located Mary. But I also believed that Mary’s life of purity – a virgin for that matter provoked the favour of God that located her. If Mary have been sleeping around like a lot of young ladies do nowadays, she wouldn’t have received the favour she received. God will not borrow a messed womb or vessel. She kept her virginity despite the fact that she has been betrothed to a man, her secret life was not marred by secret sin. She wasn’t pursuing reputation above character. My dear friend, if you want to accomplish great feat for God in this year, live a life of purity. Pursue godly lifestyle, pursue goodly character, let your secret life lineup with the Scriptures and public lifestyles, stop living double faced lifestyles, rely on the Holy Spirit to live a holy life like Mary, be committed to your husband/wife alone, stop jumping from bed to bed and runaway from secret sin. As we do, surely, God who sees us in secret shall cause His favour to locate us to do great and mighty things for Him openly in this year. Stop abusing God’s grace, the grace, the love and the mercy of God is for us to run away from sinful lifestyles and not to indulge in it.
Thirdly, you may be wondering, “how can I do great things for God since I have no connection”, “I have no money”, “I have no proper Western education” and so on. Actually, Mary said a similar thing, “Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?””Luke 1:34. This leads me to the third point, depend on God’s resources alone! You don’t need to “know a man” to do anything great for God. You do not need to sleep with any man, you do not need the “seed” of any man, you do not need the idea, wisdom, support, connection or the approval of any man to accomplish mighty things for God. The only One you need is God Himself. Once you have Him in your life, in your vision, when He is involved in your dream, you can do great and might exploits for His glory. Stop looking for human support, approval, ideas or counsels, God knows all what you need, He is able to bring those things across to you. Jesus Himself said, ““I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5. Depend on God’s resources alone, look unto Him only, focus your attention unto Him alone and when He sees your heart that you have no one but Him alone, He would shake all the shakeable, He would move all the moveables and He would touch all the touchable to come to your aid without been shrewd, deceitful, begging or compromise His standard to accomplish anything for Him. Our Holy God is a jealous God, He doesn’t share His glory with anyone, bribery, stealing, embezzlement, any idol, any sugar mummy/daddy, any mentor, any benefactor, any babalawo, any charms or any power of darkness. Therefore, depend on God’s resources and His ways alone to accomplish any seemingly impossible thing/s for His glory in this year.
My friend, the next important lesson from the Biblical account of Mary for us to do unbelievable, dumbfounding and glorious thing/s for God is not only to depend on God’s resources alone but also to have faith in God that He is able to do that which He puts in our hearts. “Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” Luke 1:38. The same angel that appeared to Zachariah, who gave him a seemingly impossible message, which he couldn’t handle or believe and as a result, he became dump because of unbelief (Luke 1:18-20). The same angel appeared to Mary and she said, “let it be to me according to your word”. My friend, without faith we can’t do anything worthwhile, tangible, record-breaking, breathtaking or heaven recognisable thing for God. Faith is to trust, to hold on, to confess, to run with and to obey what God says irregardless of the contrary opinions or situations around us. Reading through the “hall of fame” of the people that accomplished great things for God in Hebrews chapter eleven especially from verse 32, the Bible says, “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” Hebrews 11:32-34. Therefore, may I submit to you too that you need to rebel against your senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, touching and tasting before you can believe God and switch to the realm of faith which is “believing before seeing” to do great and mighty things for God’s glory in this year and beyond. It is written, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” James 1:6-7. My friend, as we have been commanded, live and walk by faith and not by sight to achieve great things for God.
My dear friend, another lesson we need to learn from this unique and prominent example of Mary who God used to do what no man can ever do again is obedience. Yes, you read it well, obedience, acting on the word of God. The Bible says, “Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.” Luke 1:39-40. As soon as Mary heard the words of God from the angel, “Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste…”. She did not rationalise, seek for human opinion, she did not look for Joseph, her husband to debate, argue, project or consider the available possibilities or options, she acted in a haste. My friend, enough of overthinking, enough of ungodly patience, religious hesitation, enough of bureaucracy, enough of committee planning, enough of board of elders’ approval, enough of maintaining status quo in the guise of godliness, enough of fear of failure and enough “it’s not done this way or that way before”. Mary made haste without any human consultation to go to Elizabeth’s house to confirm and to commence the process of what the Angel said to her. It’s time to go to “Elizabeth’s house too”, it’s time to mingle with the Elizabeth’s of this generation if we want to achieve great feats for God in this year and in our generation. (We shall learn more about who are the Elizabeth’s next week in part 2 of this article by God’s grace).
In the meantime my friend, start acting out the words of God, start laying hands on the sick, start confessing the words of God, start commanding your mountains to move, start taking actions based on the words of God, start calling things that are not as if they were, start acting like a pregnant woman, start seeing yourself married, start imagining the reality of the words of God, start acting out your dreams, never allow fear, human limitations, traditions, culture, your gender, backgrounds, colour of your skin, race or socioeconomic status to dictate or determine what you want to do for God, but rather let His word motivate, energise and propel you to action. As you do, you shall see God doing great and mighty things in you, for you, through you and with you. I believe it with all my heart, that this year shall be the best year for the people of God despite all the contrary things going in the world right now. Be ready to join the wagon of those who are ready to go all out for God. Of course, there will be oppositions, attacks, criticisms, ridicules and challenges but in the midst of all these, there shall be progress, advancements, enlargement and greatness for those who have made up their minds to do valiant, marvellous, glorious, mighty and to accomplish great things for God, for His Kingdom and for His glory. The Bible says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21. Remember, “with God all things are possible” – Luke 1:37. Also “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:23. See you at the top and remain blessed!
To continue next week….
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