Happy new year again to you and yours. 2019 will be your best year ever. This will be POWERTALK first teaching series for the year and hopefully by the time we are done with this we will have a great understanding of what lies ahead of us and we will be fully prepared for the adventure and the blessings that lie ahead in the next 360+days.

What is it that makes the new year special? Or maybe there is really nothing special about the new year?

Someone said the new year is just a change of calendar, nothing new or special has taken place at the turn of the year. Your wife doesn't change, your bank balances don't change, same with your job or business or house or cars or whatever belongs to you. All remains the same even with the chorus shouts of HAPPY NEW YEAR that shook the whole world on 1st January. You are the same person in 2018 and you will be the same person in 2019 except you drastically changed something about your life. In other words, according to Newton laws of motion, things remain the same for you except an external force is applied.

You will probably continue to live the same old life except you make new moves! As far as natural reasoning goes, this is true; to make 2019 new and positive we must all strive to take new steps and create new waves, only by taking new decisions will our lives head in a new direction. At the turn of one year, Jabez decided he was not going to live in sorrow again. Mind you Jabez has lived for years in sorrow. But one particular year he made a positive choice! A choice to live above sorrow and poverty and that choice made Jabez!

"And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested." (1 Chronicle 4:10)'. I pray in 2019 you will make some great choice for yourself that will change your life.

Now if Jabez has not taken a decision Jabez would have remained the same. Certain key steps taking in the past are the major factors for where our lives are today. A new decision today will take our lives in a new direction tomorrow.

Now, this is one way of looking at the new year. It is a view that says its all in my hands, it says I have to make moves in order to create waves. This is the thinking that asks you set goals and make new year resolutions and earn more in 2019, create other sources of income. This is the thinking that says to have a new attitude for the new year. This thinking is true, what becomes of you in 2019 is up to you. It is up to you, but completely not up to you! This is where the second view of the new year comes in!

And so at the turn of the year, your Pastor declares you have come into the season of newness! It is your new dawn era! You are soaring higher! 2019 will be your year of dominion and multiplication! It will be your year of restoration! Of quantum leaps! And so much prophetic words heralding the dawn of the new year to which we all say amen!

Now, these two divides or mentality defines how people approach the new year. One is that of personal responsibility as a pacesetter for the success in the new year, the other is leaning on the prophetic agenda for success in the new year! Now, both are required for your success, for you must never get carried away with the notion and mentality that all that what will happen in 2019 is all down to you. The bible says there may be many plans in the heart of man but ultimately it is God's purpose that will prevail!

God has a calendar and on His calendar, he has an agenda - agenda for the whole world, for nations, for communities, for people, for individuals and especially for his church!

Acts 17:26 tells us, "and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation". Another translation said He determines which nation to rise and which to fall and appointed times for all these to happen! The new living translation tells us, "From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries". Beforehand God has set out his agenda for 2019, and those who will enjoy the best of 2019 are those who are aligned with God's original purpose and plan for their lives in 2019!

God does not live within time, but God works with time! In Genesis 21:1 the Bible says, "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him"

At the set time of which God has spoken, God visited Sarah and that divine visitation brought about a turn around; this time, God is about visiting someone now!

This is the truth we must grab about time and Dr. Francis Myles put it succinctly in his book, The Order of Melchizedek this way:

'Since God exist in an eternal state of now, it therefore follows that His eternal work of creation, restoration and renovation was finished before the fall of lucifer and the fall of mankind. The Bible even goes further to suggest that Christ was the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world. This means that time is a spiritual instrument God uses to systematically and progressively manifest in time His finished work'

And the last part of what he said is very instructive as we move into the new year, time is an instrument that God created to reveal in order, his finished works for humanity! it is, therefore, safe to say that for 2019 God has already finished his works for humanity, and a prophetic understanding of what he has set for us will help us properly aligned our lives goals and plans this year with his thereby bringing easy fulfillment and accomplishment!

God does not live in 2019, but hey friends, He is got some agenda lined up for your life in 2019, when you find that and tailor your goals and plans according to his settled plans in 2019 then success and accomplishments becomes easy! It will be an easy year for you!

To be continued.