All Posts in "Day: December 31, 2022"

Monthly focus for January 2023 by Pastor Favour Onoja

MONTHLY FOCUS FOR JANUARY, 2023

 

By Pastor Favour Onoja

 

 

“And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
For all the land which thou see, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever (Genesis 13:14-15)”

Welcome to the Year 2023. Our Declaration for this Year is: “SEASONS OF MANIFESTATIONS (Luke 1:80)”.

I decree and declare that you shall manifest in glory, uncommon favour, uncommon breakthroughs, open doors, honour and dignity, in Jesus Name, Amen!

I decree and declare that the glory of the LORD shall be your defence throughout this year (Isaiah 4:5-6), in Jesus Name, Amen!

I also welcome you to the Month of January, the First Month of the Year, 2023.

Our teaching for this Month is on “LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES”

WHAT IS LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES?

This is when you have:

* An unending and inexhaustible supplies;
* An endless, unlimited, infinite and limitless possibilities;
* A seemingly boundless blessing, in amount, number, degree or size;

HOW TO ACCESS LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES:

1. The Power Of Sight: What are you seeing in your 2023? What you see and how you see it is a clue to where you will arrive. How you see will determine where you will end in 2023. Therefore, I counsel you to see far and see well.

God asked Jeremiah “what do you see?
Moreover the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of almond tree.

Jeremiah’s answer in Jeremiah 1:11b was in the affirmative. Then God responded in Vs.12 that He will hasten what you saw. Note that, It’s your sight that invites and involves God’s participation in your affairs of life, not your tears, murmuring and complaints.

Trinity and Divinity came down in Genesis 11:1-6 because of what the people saw. Don’t underestimate the power of sight. It’s the instrument that will facilitate your navigation throughout this year and your future. With it you can never loose your bearings in life.

The only prayer you need to pray this year is LORD, Open My Eyes to see far and seal my ears with instructions (Psalm 119:18; Job 33:16)

BENEFITS OF SIGHT:

a. Sight kills fear (2Kings 6:17)
b. Sight hasten and facilitates our manifestations (Jeremiah 1:12)
c. Sight invites Trinity and Divinity into our affairs and battles of life (Genesis 11:1-6)
d. Sight brings boldness
e. Sight brings possession
f. Sight infuses strength
g. Sight brings transformation
h. Sight facilitates focus, direction and speed (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34)
i. Sight brings restoration and recovery (Luke 15:18)
j. Sight tackles and terminates darkness
l. Sight is both curative and preservative
m. Sight brings revival and strength (Genesis 45:25-27)

2. Have A Strategic Plan/Vision (Luke 14:28-32). Don’t live your life to chance for those who do, do not have chance in life. Identify what you want to achieve this year and write them out. Vision is like a road map. It helps you to navigate through your journey of 2023. Vision facilitates speed and eliminates waste. It attracts people, resources and opportunities; and open doors into your life. It preserves your energy, resources and helps your mind to be focused (Luke 11:34)

3. Commit Your Plans Unto The Lord (Proverbs 16:1): It’s not enough that you have a plan, commit it to God in prayers. The journey for the year 2023 is not in your strength and abilities, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-7). Take a periodic fast weekly, monthly and quarterly.

4. Demand For Wisdom And Strategies For Operation (Exodus 35:30-35): Wisdom is a principal thing and in all thy getting, get understanding (Proverbs 4:7). Go for requisite wisdom if you are going to be successful this year and learn from others who have gone ahead of you in your field of endeavors.

SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHO DEPLOYED WISDOM

– Solomon deployed it in 1 King 3:19-28
– Moses also deployed it in Exodus 18:17-26 and weariness was handled.
– Joseph deployed it in Egypt and it earned him a throne and salvage a whole generation.
– Daniel deployed it in the Babylonian kingdom and he was relevant for 70 years.
– The woman in 2 Samuel 20:15-22 saved a whole city on the platform of wisdom.

5. Avoid The Spirit Of Excuses (John 5:5-7): Those who give excuses have no chance, opportunities in life. There is nothing that limits a man in life like excuses. When you give excuses, you excuse yourself out of destiny and relevance. The man at the pool of Bethesda’s affliction lasted for 38 years because of excuses.

6. Avoid The Spirit Of Laziness (Eccl. 9:10; 1Cor 15:10): Hard work does not kill. Work now that you are young so that you can rest in your evening season. There’s dignity in labour. Paul said, ‘I laboured more than them all’. No wonder he saw grace and wrote two third of the New Testament. Grace accompanies Labourers. Do you want to see grace in 2023, then labour. It does not kill. It enhances your values and impact on earth.

7. Embrace The Spirit Of Excellence. (Daniel 6:3): Avoid the spirit of mediocrity and average; and the spirit of “just let my people go”. Don’t aim for less. Aspire to be at the top of what you do through excellence. You don’t go to the top by hype, compromise and corruption. You go up through calculated efforts, combined with excellence. Do your work well and let your work speak for you (Proverbs 22:29).

8. Embrace Covenant Practices:
* Tithing (Malachi 3:8-10)
* Offering (Acts 24:17; Proverbs 3:9)
* Parental Giving (Exodus 20:12)
* Giving to your Pastors (1Samuel 9: 7-9)
* Sacrificial Giving (2Samuel 24:24)
* Giving to the Poor (Deuteronomy 15:7; Proverbs 19:17)

9. Embrace The Spirit Of Joy: Joy is a spirit (Galatians 5:22), therapeutic, a tonic and medicinal. Joyful people are not limited in life. There cannot be dull moments when you hang around them. Happiness is free and having joy is a choice. Joyful people ventilate the atmosphere with the spirit of joy and nothing offends them (Psalm 119:165). Whatever you have trusted God for in the past that have not happened, rejoice. The Bible said “Rejoice evermore” (1Thess 5:16; Hab 3:17-19). Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the well of salvation (Isaiah 12:3-6). There is a connection between joy and your inheritance, portion, possession or possibilities. There is an allocation for you this year, both physical and spiritual, but you need joy to draw (collect) them. Joy is a drawer. With joy you shall draw strength, blessings, glory, uncommon favour, uncommon breakthroughs, uncommon open doors, honor, dignity, opportunities and ideas this year. Even your health can be enhanced and facilitated if you embrace the spirit of joy. A merry heart doeth good like medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones (Proverbs 17:22).

PROPHESIES:

– I decree and declare that the year, 2023 shall be your “Seasons Of Manifestations” in Jesus Name, Amen.

– You shall manifest in grace, wisdom and abundance in Jesus Name, Amen.

– You shall rest and your rest shall be refreshed (Exodus 31:17), in Jesus Name, Amen.

I decree and declare your preservation throughout the year 2023 (Isaiah 4:5-6) in Jesus Name, Amen.

PASTOR FAVOUR ONOJA
Tel: + 234(0)8055842594
E-mail: onojaaf@yahoo.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Patoma Admin by — December 31, 2022 in Religion 0
Pope Francis to lead funeral of Benedict XVI, date revealed

By admin

 

Pope Francis will preside over the funeral of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, next week, marking the first time in modern history that a sitting pope has done so.

The ceremony, which will take place on Thursday, is expected to be “solemn but simple.” Benedict, who was the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages, had renounced the papal throne but continued to live within the Vatican and wear white.

His sudden decline in health earlier this week prompted speculation about what would happen next.

The death of a Roman Catholic pope usually sets in motion time-honoured traditions, but would someone who had given up the papacy get papal treatment?

Unlike when previous popes have died, there is no need to call a conclave to elect a new pontiff, as Francis — chosen to succeed Benedict in 2013 — remains very much in the post.

Under rules set out in 1996, a pope must be buried between four and six days after his death.

How and when he is buried is usually decided by cardinals who gather from around the world, and who also organise the Vatican’s nine days of mourning, known as novemdiales.

They decide because the death of a pope traditionally creates a power vacuum at the top of the church.

However, no such vacuum exists in this case, as Francis is in charge.

 Last rites

The Vatican said it would be respecting Benedict’s wishes.

The ex-pope’s funeral will take place in St Peter’s Square, the vast square in front of the basilica, on Thursday at 9:30am (0830 GMT).

“As the Pope Emeritus wished, the funeral will be simple,” Bruni told journalists.

Francis had alerted the world to Benedict’s frailness on Wednesday, when he called on the world’s Catholics to pray for him.

He later visited him at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican gardens which became Benedict’s home when he retired.

Bruni said the ex-pope had that same day received “the anointment of the sick”, or “last rites” as it is often called, a Catholic tradition in which a person’s soul is cleansed of sins in preparation for the afterlife.

That was performed at the end of a mass at his home, in the presence of the Memores Domini, four lay women similar to nuns, who lived with him.

The body of the German pope, whose birth name was Joseph Ratzinger, will lie in state from Monday so that the faithful can pay their respects.

In 2005 the body of John Paul II, the last pope to die, also lay in state before a funeral mass in St Peter’s Square presided over by Ratzinger, then a senior cardinal.

An estimated one million people attended, alongside heads of state from around the world.

Fisherman’s Ring’
It was not immediately clear which heads of state would attend Benedict’s funeral.

In 2020, media reports said Benedict had chosen to be buried in the former tomb of John Paul II, in the crypt of St Peter’s.

The body of the beloved Polish pope was moved to the upper part of the basilica when he was beatified in 2011. He was confirmed a saint in 2014.

Benedict, a conservative intellectual, was not as popular as John Paul II, who was pope between 1978 and 2005, but his funeral is still likely to draw large crowds and dignitaries.

Traditionally, when a pope dies, his “Fisherman’s Ring” — a signet ring specially cast for each new pope which once was used to seal documents — is also destroyed.

When Benedict left office, the face of his ring was etched with a “X” to make it unusable

AFP

Patoma Admin by — December 31, 2022 in Religion 0