First and foremost, may I apologise to you for not releasing this message to wider audience earlier enough. The Year started in full earnest with a lot of engagements including the Open Gates Conference of the International Ministers Fellowship which took place in London: 6th – 8th of January 2012. My first task was to deliver the message to the members of the Community Outreach Ministries, London (my local Church) on the 1st of January 2012 and then to a wider of audience at the Open Gates Conference with delegates from USA, South Africa, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Just before the year 2011 drew to a close, the Lord made me to understand that the coming year will be quite different from the one preceding it. In December 2010, God told me to tell His people that the year 2011 will be “Unquestionably a Year of Unprecedented Great Reversals.” In obedience to His word and instruction, I delivered this message throughout the year encouraging believers to pray and believe that God will definitely reverse challenges and onslaughts from the enemy leading to crisis in the economy, the family, and the workplace, health situations, the Church and the nations as a whole. The Lord was true to his word. Despite the challenges many believers can testify that they experienced uncommon favours especially from unexpected sources.
Testimonies abound in our church where people experienced open doors which were hitherto shut to them. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous has continued to avail much. We backed the preaching of the word with persistent prayer. To ensure that no gaps were left for the enemy creep in; by the grace of the Lord, the Perpetual Fire Lighters Ministry (PFL) was launched in May to engage in spiritual warfare on behalf of all believers but in particular the members of the Community Outreach Ministries. Looking back at 2011, it was indeed a difficult and challenging year, but those who knew their God mounted up with the wings of eagles and soared beyond the arrows the enemy was catapulting their way and they experienced such unprecedented great reversals.
Having proved and tasted God’s faithfulness to His word and promises, I have no choice but to declare to all who will care to read and listen as I declare once again God’s message to His people for 2012. The message is anchored on Christian Hope which is one of the three great virtues of a Christian including Faith and Love. God has made it clear to me that Faith and Love with Love been the greatest virtue is still a truism. However the marginalisation of the Christian virtue of Hope is not justifiable and if Hope is embraced by all Christians even as Faith and Love have been espoused, victory will be our bonafide priceless possession in 2012.
In the light of this the Lord has made it clear to me that there will be a lot of shakings in every sphere of our lives. The scripture, “scarcely will the righteous be saved” will be so real. The Prime Minister of Great Britain has already warned that the economic situation will not be better in 2012. All forecasts from prominent economic institutions and agencies are forecasting doom, double dip recession, the collapse of the Euro Zone in its current form, already many prominent businesses are filling in for the administrators to come in. Political crises and instabilities are looming especially in the Middle East (Iran and Syria); every attempt is being made to thwart any sign of peace between Israel and her neighbours (Hamas and Fatah accord) and in Africa (Nigeria with the unsettling Boko Haram episodes).
The Lord has told me to tell His people to:
“Live in this present World with Confidence and face the Challenges of the future with Courage”
Therefore HOPE is the anchor that will sustain you as everything that is shakeable will be shaken. Those who anchor in the HOPE embodied in the truth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will prevail.
The key scriptures are:
- Romans 5:1-5
- Hosea 2:13-15
- 1 Peter 1
- Titus 2:11-13
God has promised abundance of grace toward His people. This grace will cause the peace of God which surpasses all understanding to rest in our hearts and mind as we cultivate a hope that empowers us to have a trustful expectation that God is faithful and will perfect everything that concerns us even in the face of adversities. I hear the Lord declare strongly that the valley of Achor (a place of depression, suffering, persecution, tribulation, capital punishment, a place of hopelessness, a place of rejection) will be transformed into a door of Hope (Hosea 2:13-15) as we make the Almighty God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the ground and object of our Hope in 2012. This hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Rom. 5:5).
I heard the Lord declaring to me; tell to my people that I will be with them and I will never leave them nor forsake them for “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Nu. 23:19). This is a great promise anchored in Hope which is a trustful expectation that God will fulfil every of His promises to His people. No matter the adversity in 2012, as you look unto Him, you will never be put to shame. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass (1Thess 5:23-24). I also pray that the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13) even in 2012 and beyond.
Pastor Leonard Amechi (Senior Pastor)
