245 ~ 2025 POSITIONED TO POSSESS THE PROMISE

Hello, a big welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

As we enter the year 2025, we are believing that God is

positioning us to possess our promise.

As you listen in, we hope that your heart is stirred up with

renewed hope and faith for the year ahead.

Like God commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous, we exhort

you to be strong and courageous and to step into all that God

has got in store for you this year.

Hi Church, It's a joy and honor to be bringing God's Word to you

even as we step into the new year.

As we've just on the verge of completing 2024 in a few hours,

and as we are heading into 2025, I believe God wants us to align

ourselves to His Word and to see everything through His lens so

that when we see things, it's different than what we've seen

before. And I believe and pray that God

has blessed us. In 2024, I know many things

wouldn't have happened as we want to happen, but I believe

that as we saw, the promise was for 2024 and the theme was set

apart. I just wanted to read that verse

again from 1 Thessalonians 4-7 and this is what it says.

For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness, to be

dedicated and set apart by behavior that pleases Him,

whether in public or private. I know it's been a hard year,

especially with this theme and practicing it out and living it

out. You know, many a times we have

this struggle within ourselves to live the same as your outside

and inside. And this is where God has the

refining. Many times we act out in the

open, but when you come back and we start reading His Word, God

is refining us, pruning us, shaping us, and setting us

different within first. And I believe that this work is

a continuous work. And so even as we step into

2025, there'll be areas in our lives that God will definitely

be working in US so that His plans will be fulfilled through

US. And so even right now, as we go

into God's Word, I just wanted to give you the theme for this

year, The theme for this year, for 2025 as a church is

positioned to possess the promise.

I'm going to repeat it again. It says positioned to possess

the promise. And so today in 2025, the worst

that we've chosen is from Hebrews chapter 6, verses 11 and

Hebrews 6:11

12. And I'm reading it from the NIV

and this is what it says. We want each of you to show the

same diligence to the very end so that what you hope for may be

fully realized. We do not want you to become

lazy, but imitate those who through faith and patience

inherit what has been promised. It says here, inherit what has

been promised. In other translation, it says

possess what has been promised. And I believe God wants us to

rise up today. There's a word of caution there.

There's a word of encouragement there.

That's a word of action calling us to, you know, see others

who've run before us and imitate them.

But even today, as we receive this word, I pray that you and

I, for those who are watching and listening, that we'll be

positioned to possess the promise.

So one of the things that we see when we set apart by God is that

we are not dependent on ourselves.

We are wholly dependent on him. We also saw through the year,

you know, through different series that we did, that our

strength comes purely from the Holy Spirit.

And it's not our our own strength.

You know, we think we've got it. We think we think we can move

through this. We think we can, you know,

through endurance and perseverance, we can push

through it. But the Holy Spirit has made it

very clear. That's evidently because He is

working in and through US. And even as I read this verse

from Hebrews 6, you know, there are two words that popped out to

me. One was diligence.

What does diligence mean? Diligence means effort, zeal.

There's a constant thing. You're going back to this very

act and saying, God, I want to be diligent in this.

You know, as we start the new year, there are so many things.

We might make a list saying, this is what I want to do.

This is what I want to cut back on.

This is what I want to give up on.

But in the pursuit of all of that, I would ask, would we make

a honest commitment to God and say, Lord, I want to be diligent

when it comes to you. I don't want to be laid back

when it comes to you, but I want to be diligent.

What does that look like to quickly obey what is revealed by

God as a priority? In fact, if you look at the

Greek word and it mentions it means spelled SPOUDE, which

means that we are moving in a motion of movement.

I remember a couple of weeks back when I preached, I pray,

one of the points that I spoke on was the Holy Spirit gives us

this constant momentum. We many a times think we're

stagnant. In the world's eyes, it might

look like stagnant, but in the spiritual realm we are

constantly in a momentum. There's constantly a wrestle,

There's constantly this tug of war happening and God is wanting

us to be diligent. The more important aspect is

that we do this with earnestness and with swiftness, which means

we do it quickly. We don't, it's not a delayed way

of doing it. And this reason is so that it is

better than what was done before.

We always are trying to settle a little bit, you know, a little

bit over about what. But when we are diligent in God,

we are actually pushing ourselves to what we've attained

from God before, which means you're going back to him and

saying God in this. When I'm positioning myself

towards your promise, I'm not going to settle in from a

position and see from where I saw it two years back or one

year back or the time when I got that big breakthrough.

No, I'm going to move forward. If you've called me to obey, if

you've called me to give up this, if you're calling

prompting me to take up this new Christian habit of probably

fasting or diligently praying or reading the word and meditating

on it. If I'm moving towards that, Lord

help me to tune myself to do and see it from that place.

There are two things we see quickly.

Obeying what God reveals is what diligent is for us.

The second thing, the word that popped out is inherit.

When you look at the Greek word in that it is cleromeo, which

means to possess to receive and inheritance to possess it.

He talks mainly here with regard to the Kingdom of God.

We possess eternity because we've become His children.

Because when we accept Jesus Christ in our lives, we come

into possession of eternity. Our future is secure.

We come into possession of the promises God has given to us.

We come into possession of certain things because no longer

are we slaves, but we are sons and we become heirs to what God

is calling us to with regard to His promise.

When you look into the context of Hebrews, you know from

Hebrews chapter 1, the author clearly is giving a case of who

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

Jesus is. He starts off by saying Jesus is

higher than the angels. A lot of them equated Jesus to

angels. And so if you read through

chapter 1, you'll see he's building a casing.

He's higher than the angels, He's powerful, he is God, so

he's not to be constituted as another Angel.

Then in the 2nd chapter we see the author builds the case as

Jesus being fully God and fully man.

Many times it's easy for us to comprehend that Jesus fully God,

but the fact that he was fully man becomes a struggle because

you don't real. We can't come to terms.

Many a times the fact that he might have felt what I felt and

that's the beauty about our God is that when he became man, when

he celebrated Christmas, when he walked here on this earth, he

feels what you feel. So today he's not distant from

what you feel, He rather saying, son and daughter, I know what

you're feeling and I'm here for you.

So Jesus is fully God, fully man.

We saw also that in the 3rd chapter He's more than what the

prophets were before him. A lot of weightage has been

given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and

all the other kings were there, Elijah and all the prophets,

Isaiah, Jeremiah. But Jesus is greater than all of

them combined because he was sinless here or not.

He came here to fulfill the will of the Father.

And so when we see Jesus in these 345 different aspects, we

see also in the end, he's the high priest.

He's higher than the order of Melchizedek, it says.

And the reason why I think the author draws all these

comparisons is because as we mature in our Christian faith,

we progressively also mature in understanding of who Jesus is.

Yes, we initially accept him as God, but then as we dwell

deeper, there are other instances which come.

We suddenly are, you know, put forward with the world's

cultural themes. And then sometimes we think, oh,

I think Jesus can't be related to this.

And then we suddenly see Jesus there in everything.

He is above everything. What he stood for transcends the

culture that is coming upon right now in our generation.

And so we have to come to this understanding that Jesus is just

not a few aspects, but he's everything.

And so this is where it happens where we see in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

6 when he comes down, he says the the author says, till now, I

would have loved for you to have solid food, but you've been

stuck in the state of just taking milk because these are

the questions that you've been struggling with.

Is he a prophet? Is he an Angel?

Is he a high priest? What is he?

He is God. When we have a deep

understanding of who Jesus is, we suddenly mature from just

receiving this weekly or weekend, you know, 30 minute, 40

minute sermons of who Jesus is, what he's doing and all that.

And suddenly we are dwelling in day and night.

We suddenly are seven days a week, you're opening his word.

We are suddenly realizing that without His word we can't do

anything. You're suddenly realizing it's

through his word. We see everything happening

through our lives. And it brought me to an

understanding that this generation, you and me, we are

happy with knowing about Jesus rather than knowing.

And even right now, I just want to draw a parallel between what

knowing about is and what knowing is.

We've probably talked about it earlier, but when you look at

the light of Jesus, we're happy to know about him.

For a lot of you, Jesus can be an other real, another carousel

post, another, you know, social media influencers probably

talking about who Jesus, another preacher or another account that

you're following who exemplifies who Jesus is.

But rather than just knowing about, we need to move to

knowing Jesus. This is what moves us from milk

to solid food. This is what moves us from a

sporadic understanding of Jesus to a daily relationship with

Jesus. What is knowing about looks

like? Knowing about is more of a

handed down information. You're happy getting a second

hand information from someone about who Jesus is, what he can

do, how he works, rather than you tasting it and seeing, you.

Know, one of the beautiful things about church and

community and the reason why we love gathering together is

because it's a confirmation of what God spoken to us privately

being confirmed in public. That tension that we are living,

that set apart that we are doing is that when we meditate on

God's Word privately and dwell on it and chew on it and becomes

a sustenance, we automatically know what God is doing in the

public because we are able to see it with His eyes.

Knowing about is an indirect way of knowing someone.

I won't go around saying I know about my wife.

I would rather say I know my wife because I'm staying with

her, I'm living with her, I'm sleeping next to her, I know

what her rhythms are. I know what aches her heart.

I know what brings her joy. It's not enough to know about

Jesus. We need to move towards knowing.

The knowledge is indirect. What we receive about knowing

about someone, it's a factual, it's objective, it's it's

dispassionate, which means there's no connection.

You know it, it cannot affect you as much.

It's a moral is detached form and it's an IH relationship,

which means this is me that is that person.

So knowing about comes down to that what is knowing looks like.

Knowing is a direct relationship.

You experience another human being or a person who you know

in their uniqueness. This is the beautiful thing

about knowing Jesus is that you go into a direct relationship

with him. You suddenly are listening to

him. You when you invite him into

your heart, you're saying, God, you have full access.

And then when suddenly God opens his door and he sees this huge

pile of things inside, you're like, God, I'm sorry, I know I

haven't dealt with this mess. You can come into my trauma.

You can come in. You suddenly are allowing this

person who you know move into different rooms.

You suddenly are allowing this person who you know to get into

your sacred spaces. You suddenly are allowing this

person who you know to come into those cupboards where you've

kept things, where you're gratifying in your sinful

nature. That's what happens when you

allow this person who knows you walk in, you expose yourself.

You're vulnerable. You'd say, Lord, this is who I

am. This is the real me and Jesus

saying I'm here to work alongside with you.

I'm here to would you share your burden with me?

Can I bring breakthrough in this area?

It moves. What happens?

You allow Jesus to come into your emotional life through the

highs and lows, your likes and dislikes.

Suddenly this person is moved into your world.

No longer are they distant. And so when this happens,

everything changes. So suddenly it's just not milk,

it's solid food. You're spending quality time.

You know that God, this is what you're doing in and through my

life. I'm confident with who you've

called me to do. I'm confident who you've called

me to be. And the writer of Hebrews talks

about that, that we move from knowing about Jesus to knowing

Jesus in Hebrews 5. It goes on to say in verse 11 to

14. There is much more we would like

to say about this, but it's difficult to explain, especially

since you're spiritually dull and don't seem to listen.

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be

teaching others. Instead, you need someone to

teach you again the basic things about God's Word.

You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food

for someone who lives on milk, is still an infant and doesn't

know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are

mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the

difference between right and wrong.

God wants us to rise up. Church, this 2025, God wants us

to rise up. I know many of us have been

comfortable knowing about Jesus, but I want us to move to a place

of knowing Him. Because if you do not know him,

you won't be able to position yourself.

If you know about Jesus, you'll position yourself the wrong way.

But when you know Jesus, you'll position yourself the right way

and you'll be able to see the promise that He wants you to see

exactly how He wanted you to see it for your life.

And that's where we see when we know Jesus well, when we allow

Him and when we get to know Him, his will for our lives becomes

clear. When you know about a person,

they always give you a general answer.

They give you. You get a general information of

what a report has read and what an article is told about them.

But when you actually get to know them, you know what their

heart is. You suddenly have a higher

degree of respect. You suddenly have a better

understanding of why they're doing certain things.

And that is where God wants us to be.

And even today, as we get into God's Word, you know, even

though we've been looking through Hebrews, I've taken my

passage of reference for us to meditate on from the book of

Joshua. You know, Joshua's one of these

characters which really encourages me and strengthens me

time and again every time. And I have a doubt of stepping

into an unknown uncharted territory where there's no

forerunner before Joshua's life is 1, which I'm able to see as a

reference point for me to move towards.

Imitate towards. Why?

Because Joshua got his glimpse early on about what the promised

land was. He was when he was sent among

the 12 spies, and he and Caleb in fact went into the land, saw

came, but what they reported was one filled with faith.

What they reported was not to dissuade people from chasing

after the promise, but rather to move in faith.

And one of the things to have realized over the lifetime of

Joshua is that Joshua knew when his time had to come to position

himself to possess the promise. Till then he was content waiting

with Moses in the different places he was led and asked to

wait. Just want to read a passage from

Exodus 2413 and this is what it says about Joshua.

Verse 13 says Then Moses set out with Joshua his aid and Moses

went up on the mountain of God. We see time and again in

battles, crossing the Red Sea, getting out of Egypt, moving

from place to place, Joshua Wiz with Moses and he proved himself

time and again till a point when Moses had to go up to the

mountain to be with God. He took Joshua.

It says when he went to the temple, Joshua stayed and when

he went out with the glory of God.

It's so clear that Joshua knew and wanted to, you know,

understood who God was entirely compared to the others who were

in Israel because there was something distinctively that he

really caught that Then it was taught.

He caught a lot from just being around with Moses.

And I want us to come to a place like today when God's calling us

into a place of positioning ourselves to possess the

promise. I want us to be in a place where

we are able to say, God, I'm here to learn from you.

I want to catch more from you. Imitate from others who had that

faith journeys. If you are wanting to possess

the promise, you need to imitate others who've gone before and

possess their promise. Because everyone's promise is

different. The promise for our church as we

assign is entirely different. The promise over me, my life is

entirely different. The promise over my wifes life

is entirely different. The promise over a marriage is

something we both work towards, but that is an internal clock

that is always causing us to pursue and find that promise.

You might be like, you know what?

Getting the dream job. Getting a dream job is a dream

job because everyone in the world wants a dream job.

Everyone in the world wants a dream card.

Everyone in the world wants a dream home.

It's not about a dream home or a dream card.

It's rather about God's promise over your life.

What is God wanting you to run after and possess?

Run after and possess? Probably the generational

breakthrough that your family needs has to come through you,

and then your generations to follow will have an entire

trajectory marked out because you are the sole purpose who

pivoted them to an entire different trajectory, what God

has planned. What if the promise that God has

on your life is for you to rise up?

Because all this while, you are the sole person in your family

who received Jesus, and from now on you're raising a godly

generation that's going to follow him with all of their

heart. You're telling me, you know

what, I've got my job. I don't have anything.

God has a God ordained purpose for you.

Wherever it is, whatever work you're doing, there is a God

purpose. There is.

The physical aspect of our work is very important Monday to

Friday. It puts food on our table.

God blesses the hands of our work.

Yes, but there is a God-given mandate for us to position

ourselves so we can possess the promise, so that we'll have

greater impact as to what God's calling us to do 'cause this

possessing the promise is US fulfilling the Great Commission

over our lives. It's nothing else.

A lot of us are thinking, you know what, it's probably making

sure my family's intact. Your family will be intact if

Jesus is at the center by you doing everything.

Nothing will happen to that. When you're trying to work it

out, it might crumble because nothing is within our hands.

But the more you leave it into God's hands and you pursue after

what God's calling you to fulfill.

Yes, we are mindful of all that he's given.

We sometimes think, you know, it's, it's difficult for me to

balance, but God will give you the grace.

As we heard in the Christmas sermon, the truth when we've

received is interlaced with grace.

And what does that mean when we receive his promise?

It seems too good to be true. It seems too big for us, but

that's why He graces us. That's why He'll bring people

around and say, hey, how are you doing this?

I've been struggling to do this and you'll be saying, you know

what? There was a season in my life

where I just held on to God. I meditated, He gave me clarity.

He told me this is the step I need to take.

There was no one there who could help me out, but I solely

dependent on God today. The promise you and I are called

to step into and pursue and possess is one which will be a

testimony for ourselves and no one else, ourselves and no one

else. So even as we look into Joshua's

life, you know, during the time period of Moses life, there were

there's two big lessons which I wanted to take back, take out of

that as we see how Joshua started this journey of

possessing the promise till then we see they walk through the

wilderness. They wander through the

wilderness for 40 years and there's these two big lessons

that come out. And even as we start 2025, I

think they're very important. What are those two things?

The first thing is the spirit of grumbling has to die with us

today. The spirit of grumbling.

If we want to position ourselves towards a promise we need to

stop grumbling. What does that mean?

Which means situations around you won't be right.

The so-called friends around you won't be right.

The people around you may not be right.

The the very place that you gather and you do things may not

be right. But God saying I am here, would

you keep quiet and just do what I'm asking you to do?

The Israelites constantly went back the the pathway that was

marked out for them was hard, but God knew their hearts and So

what he wanted was them not to grumble.

When they grumbled, he gave them.

When they grumbled, he gave them quail, and when they grumbled he

gave them water from a rock. But grumbling even angered God

so much that he split the land open.

They fell through. He made sure that they went

around the in circles for 40 years.

And so today at church, I want us to come to a place.

Can we enter 2025 and without grumbling?

Without grumbling. Why?

Because what He's done for us is far bigger than what we want him

to do. If we want the spoils of our

previous life, we are on the wrong Rd.

We would rather go back and live that and say God, I don't want

you anymore. Rather we would say God, I'm

here, I'm content. Lord, give me the spirit of

contentment. Teach me humility, teach me how

to pursue you. Teach me how to do things Lord,

because I am here to worship you.

And so we humble ourselves to say, Lord, I don't deserve this

freedom, but I don't want to grumble about it.

Hardships will come, but God, I would see your hand through

that. Struggles will come, but I will

see through that. That is where we are going to

start this year from. Not one with grumbling, but one

which is of gratefulness. If Caleb and Joshua lasted that

40 years with Moses, Moses even didn't make it.

God said you can took him to the mountain top.

He saw him the land that I've promised to Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob. He said he's a God of promise.

And so the beautiful thing that we see at the end of it is Moses

couldn't make it, but Joshua and Caleb made it.

I believe they were grateful for everything.

Why I'm saying grateful is when you're grumbling constantly, you

would see giants as giants. When you're grateful, you would

see things with faith. You would see things with faith.

What does that mean? Which means the very two people

who went into the promised land and saw land flowing with milk

and honey, saw the fertility of the land, the wealth of the

people, saw everything that they came back saying.

This is what God's giving us. It's far better than what we

left. In came.

This is where God who's faithful till now.

He's faithful then, He's faithful now.

I believe today church is for us to rise up with the eyes of

gratitude that we'll be able to look through into the future

with gratitude. No longer will we look through.

Yes. Did bad things happen?

Did did I lose so many things? Yes.

But I'm looking with grateful eyes, not with grumbling eyes.

I'm looking with faith filled eyes, not with eyes which are

complaining and nagging God. Because at the end of the day, I

don't want God to be tired of me, that he's distant away from

me. But I would rather be grateful

so that he's closer to me. Because it says every time when

I bring a tank offering before God, it's like a sweet aroma to

him. A sweet aroma is in its closest.

He doesn't travel far long until unless it's a closed room it

gets trapped in. But a sweet aroma is like an

incense that rises up, and I pray that the incense as it

rises up will be one with God coming alongside with me.

Numbers 26, verse 65. This is what it says.

Numbers 26:65

Now the Lord had told these Israelites they would surely die

in the wilderness, and not one of them was left, except Caleb's

son of Jeffrey and Joshua's son of none.

So today, if you and me are going to possess the promise, we

are not going to look with the spirit of grumbling.

You know, I need to confess this last year there were so many

seasons in my life where I was grumbling so much that middle of

the year I remember preaching a sermon, preparing to preach a

sermon. And God worked in me that week.

And I remember after I preached and, you know, we record our

online sermons a couple of days before our church and me and

Tina had just gone to get coffee and we were sitting and talking

and I said, you know what? I want to be accountable to you.

I want to stop grumbling. And you know, I, I, I, I was

really convicted, you know, because many of many a times my

disappointments, my disagreements, my, the things

that I strongly feel come out as grumbling.

And I said, you know, hold me accountable.

And towards the year end this year, it was really tough

because I again went on that I was really, you know, having I

felt like I had that spirit of grumbling, but I also realized

it was like a lot of tension because I was preaching on this

entire preparing to preach on this entire topic of possessing

the promise that I realized, Lord, I'm trying to fight

battles out of my own flesh. But the very evidence of you

being with me in the wilderness with you journeying along with

me is 1 to say that you are with me.

It's not about me. If the goodness in my life is

happening so long today, if everything is intact, it's

because of you and nothing else. It's because of you.

It's because of your sheer grace over my life.

It's because of your sheer mercy over me.

And so today I want to enter in with gratefulness.

And I had to repent. And that's a beautiful thing

about us. Parting of the Lord's Table week

on week is to go back to say, God, you did something which I

didn't deserve, and I'm sorry if I've grumbled today.

And so today, even as we step into the next few points, as we

meditate on it, I would ask that even as we take some time, that

our hearts will be filled with gratitude toward what God wants

to do. Because you're maturing from

knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus, which means there only

has to be thankfulness because if we keep grumbling, we'll move

him from the knowing zone to even knowing about zone.

And that's scary. So today, as we see from the

book of Joshua, we see one thing very clearly is that Joshua is

asked to lead the people of Israel after Moses time.

And he knew because he already got a foretaste of what the

promised land was. He knew what and where and how

to go. But as human, as human as it

gets, we sometimes are like, you know what?

But this is comfortable. You know, this is OK.

You know, this is enough. And this is where God comes in

and says do not be afraid. I am with you.

And so today we see Joshua, who moves into his new season, being

strong and courageous. So even as we come to a

conclusion of today, as we set the tone for what 2025 looks

like, I want to leave these three points which I think are

going to be very pivotal as we step into 2025 every day so that

we'll be able to step out being strong and courageous.

The first thing is we need to be strong and courageous to lead

ourselves. We need to be strong and

courageous to be to lead ourselves.

Let's read from Joshua chapter one, verse 6.

And this is what it says. Be strong and courageous because

you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to

their ancestors to give them. In fact, let's read it from the

NLT also. It says be strong and

courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to

possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give

them. It's a promise.

What is the promise today? What is your promise?

What is the promise that God's spoken over your life?

Yes. The promise for all of us is

that we will see him face to face.

The promise is that we will be in a place where there'll be no

sickness, there'll be no pain there.

We will all be. There'll be no night.

In fact, it says, it says there'll.

We will behold Him. We will worship him.

That's what the promise of eternity looks like.

But today you and I have a promise here on this side of

eternity. What is what is this side of it

only looking like? What are you and I called to do?

What are you and I called to do? Yes, we all have a calling of

all our lives, but many a times we've suppressed the God-given

calling to the worldly calling. And that's good.

The worldly calling is good. But God wants us to move to a

place of realizing. This will aid this.

My earthly calling will allow me to pursue and fulfill my

God-given calling. And so today, I don't know how

many of you have been hesitating to step into your God-given

calling, but I want you to identify that promise for

yourself. Because if you have to position

yourself and possess the promise, I'm not talking about a

job. I'm not talking about a wife or

a husband. I'm not talking about a home,

Oregon, a car. I'm talking far bigger to what

God wants you to possess because what you possess is what you're

going to set down for generations to come.

Because let me come to a place where Joshua is encouraged.

And at the end of Joshua, when you read, he says, As for me and

my house, we will serve the Lord because he tasted and saw what

God did through his entire lifetime, the second-half of his

lifetime. He's telling me we will serve

the Lord all the days of our life.

And I want that to be our prayer.

I want that to be our end goal. I want that to be something that

we will leave behind for our future generations to say, As

for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Anything else that we leave behind will be fought over, will

be will will incur the wrath, will incur hate of our children.

But when we leave things with God intentions, there'll be God

grace that is on that which will allow them to pursue it and

propel it 10 times more than what we've done in our lifetime

for the generation that God is setting them up for.

What does this look like? This looks like us opening our

eyes and seeing things prophetically.

When it when you have to go possess something, which means

someone already has inherited it, which means someone already

is holding back, which means some man that is the enemy.

Each of us have a God-given call on our lives which the enemy is

sitting on and is not wanting us to have.

And so often times the problem that we are all going through is

the fact that He moves us to a place of being disgruntled and

finding fault and us just kicking ourselves rather than us

kicking Him. Who's the enemy?

We need to move towards possessing it.

I want to read a verse from Proverbs 28 verses 18 and in the

Proverbs 28:18

ESV this is what it says where there is no prophetic vision.

The people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the

law, blessed is he who keeps hello.

It says, I think in the message it says it talks about what God

is doing. If people can't see what God is

doing, they stumble all over themselves.

But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.

I love that word in ESP and it says prophetic vision because

many a times the vision of our promise is blurry.

And that's intentional because if that was clear, then we won't

be solely dependent on God. When it is blurry, we are

holding on to His word. When it is blurry, we are

holding on to His community. When it's blurry, we are holding

on to these moments that when the community comes together and

worships, God reveals time and again.

That's what happens every week on week.

I don't know about you, how you experience worship, but every

time when I come into the four walls of our church and when we

are worshipping God, it's a confirmation of what God is

doing, what God is going to do, what's God revealed, what His

Word says, and where we are headed.

So today, if I don't have a prophetic vision, I won't be

able to lead myself. If my wife doesn't have a

prophetic vision, she won't be able to lead herself.

What does leading ourselves mean?

Which means what I'm called to do, what I'm given as in terms

of responsibility. All these things will fall in

alignment with that. As a son, as a son-in-law, as a

husband, as a father. All these things will come in

alignment, and so today we need to be strong and courageous to

lead ourselves. What does strong and courageous

look like? It looks like us being dependent

solely on God every step of the way.

Us being dependent on God solely because we want to say God.

Without you we cannot do nothing.

If we don't see through your eyes, we fall because we'll be

pursuing something else. Today.

What are our eyes locked in? For those of you who probably

follow these trends, 2025, they're saying with regard to

fashion, it's boho chick in suede.

For those of you who are following the colour theme of

2025, it's yellow. For those of you who are

following finance, it's AI being integrated into all your

investments and you know that helping you to make things

happen. With regard to design, they're

saying textures coming back in, but it's interesting that we

always are looking for the trend of the coming year, not for the

trend of our life. Trend of 2025 is solely for 2025

and today the prophetic vision that God's talking about is for

your life. It's for your life.

A lot of us are not pursuing it thinking that in the next 10

years, I don't think it's important, but God's saying if

you don't do it in the next 10 years, the next 40 years won't

make sense. And so today, if you want to

possess what God is calling you to do, rise up, be strong and

courageous and lead yourself, you need a God vision.

You need a God sized vision, you need God eyes today.

What is God asking you to see through your prophetic vision?

What is God asking you to see through your prophetic vision?

Yes, the word prophetic has been misused or you probably it, it

might be a trigger word, but I'm just telling you today it's a

God word because it's for God to reveal himself to us.

So what does this look like? Are we willing to go back to our

quiet places for us to see God and say, God, could you speak to

me? God, can you tell me what to do?

God, I'm waiting here for you. Can you tell me?

The miracle cannot be a template or cannot be a result.

A lot of us are seeking for a miracle, but the miracle is just

a pit stop. The miracle is just a pit stop.

When it happens, it's a pit stop.

It refuels you and then it moves you towards the possession.

It moves you towards possessing the promise.

So today, no, make the miracle the biggest stop of your life.

Lot of you are waiting for the miracle to happen.

The miracle will happen when you see these races, which happen

when in an F1 race, when they come into a pit stop, it's

quick. That's what a miracle is like.

It'll come. And then your eyes are set on

saying, God, I've got this injection of adrenaline for the

next wave that you're calling me to run.

The miracle received is going to propel us to greater things.

The miracle that you've received is going to propel us to move

closer to the promise. So today, first thing is for us

to lead ourselves. So be strong and courageous to

lead ourselves so that we can be dependent on God.

The second thing is we need to be strong and courageous to do

what God says. Here is God encouraging Joshua

to lead. Take his people and lead him.

He gives him the command solely to him.

And then he goes on to say, you need to do what the Word says.

Joshua chapter 1, verses 7 to 8. It says, be strong and very

Joshua 1:7–8

courageous. Be careful to obey all the law

my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right

or to the left, that you may be successful.

Wherever you go. Keep the book of the Law always

on your lips. Meditate on a day and night so

that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

Then you'll be prosperous and successful today for you and me

to position ourselves and to possess the promise is where we

need to do what the Word of God tells today.

More than us doing what a pastor says or a man of God says or the

people around say, do what God says.

It's a confirmation when they talk about what the Word says.

A lot of us today are finding it difficult to chew on that.

If God says stay, and if others around you are encouraging you

to stay, stay. It's a direct obedience towards

God. God uses his people around.

A lot of us are so hell bent on just fulfilling and doing what

the people of God say rather than doing what the word of God

says. Both work in tandem.

If one is not right from the other, seek God more.

Don't seek man more because man has.

His intentions are not right. Our intentions are human, as

human as it gets. Go back to God.

There are a couple of things that it highlights from this

passage. When Joshua's getting this

command from God, it says 1 Meditate.

What does meditate mean? Meditate means you take captive

your thoughts. You don't allow your thoughts to

wander. How many of you allow your

thoughts to wander? You know, when I'm sitting in

front of my workstation to work and do things, thoughts wander.

Thoughts wander. I I'm I've opened my tab to

write that e-mail and suddenly my thoughts are wandering to 10

different other things. We've seen it evidently here and

every time you get to pray you suddenly are thinking of the

next pressing thing you have to do.

Our thoughts are need to be taken into captive witty and be

confined to say hey now it's time to meditate on God.

What is God telling me about the situation?

Be made be on our minds day and night Because day and night

there are things for us to worry, things that we see

immediately catch our eyes and that starts we start meditating

on earth. So let's take hold of those

thoughts and capture it so that we don't allow it to wander and

move us to a different place where we are not supposed to be.

Because when we start meditating on it, it automatically comes

down to a confession. What is that?

Our lips so we don't speak death, we speak what the Word

causes us to speak. Silence when we don't have

anything to say. We need to move to a place of

realizing what God is wanting us to talk and our actions.

It's a beautiful thing because when we read and meditate, we

allow it to sink in. We speak faith out and we move

towards possessing the promise when we read, if it doesn't sit

in us, we speak death and then we're unable to move and we

remain stagnant. And so today, as we meditate on

God's word, let it sink in, let it take shape, let it work in

and through US. May it become the confession of

our mouth because our confession show brings us the dependency on

God where we say God I'm solely depend on you and no one else

and may move us to action because we see God come through

every step of the way. A lot of times we are setting

for one over the three things that God wants us to do, to

meditate, to confess and to do our actions.

But we need to allow all three. When we meditate our words and

our actions everything to be In Sync, which comes to renewed

mind cleansed lips and yielded hands.

It comes down to a renewed mind cleansed lips, yielded hands.

I want to read from 1 John chapter 5 verses one to five.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

It says every person who believes that Jesus is in fact

the Messiah of God born. If we love the one who conceives

the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived.

The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is

this. Do we love God?

Do we keep His commands? The proof that we love God comes

when he keep his commands and they are not at all troublesome.

Every God born person conquers the world's waste.

The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our

faith. The person who wins out over the

world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of

God. It's purely comes down to, if

you love God, why did Joshua get this command to stay within the

confines of the laws that God had given today?

The extension of that is through our New Testament.

When we read, it's in fact far tougher than what was given

during the time of Moses. And in a changing culture like

ours, where the depravity of sin, the selfishness of man is

at its peak, we need to move into an abundance of God's love.

How do you move is when we love God and you know that's where

his commandments come from. When we love God, we know this

is what God means for my God. If God's disciplining me, if

God's pruning me, I've told it time and again, we feel God's

closest only when he's pruning. And I believe that's where he

wants to tell us. Son, daughter, hold on, I've got

you. We saw many a times that if

we've concentrated a lot on the fruit that we are exhibiting

that we forgot the health of our leaves.

But it's in that crushing of our leaves we see healing bringing.

And so constantly we are in this momentum where if we are not

meditating and we allow the world's trouble get to us, when

we meditate, it is spoken out and it's dealt with in our

actions. But when we have a renewed mind,

time and again, that's what the more we go back to God's word,

the more our mind gets renewed, the more we are able to confess

with our mouth where we have cleansed lips, where it says

Isaiah says, Lord, take the cold, cleanse my lips here.

And that becomes a constant prayer because we know that many

a times we utter things which should not be said.

And then we come back to God and say, Lord, my hands are yours.

I yield it to you. Do tell me what to do and I'll

do that lot because whatever I'm doing as a selfish motive, help

me to do it with your hands. So today to that promise that

God's spoken over your lives, Would you have a renewed mind?

Would you have a cleansed lips, which means you constantly are

going back to God saying God, I'm sorry, I spoke death over

the situation. But today I speak life.

I speak life and yielded hands God all these while I was just

concentrating on my soul dream thing, but I want to come back

to your God-given promise which you're calling me to possess.

Let me possess it, Lord, let me possess it.

The third thing that we see from Joshua's life when he encounters

God is God tells him to be strong and courageous to take

the next step. I know a lot of us are probably

stuck here. 2025 I want us to be a place where we've taken a God

step. The next step is a God step.

Joshua 19 it says you, have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be

discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever

you go. He will be with you wherever you

go. Discouragement said sin when

there was no one around to encourage you.

And I don't know how many of you are going through discouragement

and I want to speak into that. God is with us.

A lot of times you're thinking the people closest to us, the

people we care about, my spouse or my children or you know, my

friends are the ones who are supposed to encourage me.

My girl gang or my, my, my gang has to be there.

But God is there, the person who can encourage you with words

that will bring life, the words that will bring strength, with

words that will be portioned is there with you.

So I pray today that we'll find encouragement in God and no one

else. Because encouragement in God

will only propel us towards the promise, which will help us

towards possessing the promise. The encouragement will only

cause us to take that step in the dark.

We can, we can get the nice stickers, we can put the nice

Wallpapers up. We can have everything around to

encourage, but still not take that first step.

And I believe that's where we allow God to come and say God,

can you please come with me and you'll say I am with you, I am

with you. Don't be discouraged, for the

Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Deuteronomy 31 was a 7 to 8. This is what Moses talks to

Joshua. And then Moses summoned Joshua

and said to him in the presence of all Israel.

Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people

into the land that the Lord swore to the ancestors to give

it to them, and you must divide it among them as an inheritance.

The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid or do not be discouraged.

And I had wondered why the word discouragement is there a lot.

It is a real emotion. You know, one of the beautiful

things about doing life is the fact that you find pockets where

you find discouragements. And many a times we make it all

about ourselves. And this is where it's been very

true in my life. And I had to encourage myself in

the Lord. You know, I love that verse

where it says in one Samuel chapter 30, verse 6, where David

and his entire gang are there. They are his mighty men are

there, they are all there. And then suddenly they get his

entire family, children, and all of his people are captured.

And the people were so angry with him that they wanted to

kill him. They wanted to pelt him and they

want to hit him. And this is what it says in one

Samuel 30 verse 6. David was greatly distressed

because the men were talking of stoning him.

Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and

daughters. But David, strength in the Lord

his God. So today even the closest people

be next to you, your spouse, your children, whoever it may be

might not be the one who's actually encouraging you, but

rather discouraging you. They might not even they might

they might look at you like a failure.

They might look at you like someone else.

You know what, Why did I trust this person?

But today find your strength in God because this part that he's

marked out for you is 1 where you need to go and possess

possess I even as I said earlier that a lot of us are stopped

with our miracle is because we are afraid of being discouraged.

We're afraid of something not working.

But the beauty about this is it's not on us.

It's God. It's God.

The one who's promised is God. The promise keeper is God.

The one who's giving you the promise is God.

And so even if you read through Hebrews, there's this beautiful

way in which the the author concludes that chapter 6, he

says, why does God give us the promise?

Because God stands as a guarantor.

No one else is standing. He's not causing another Angel

to stand or another third party person to stand.

He is standing as guarantor. So he's saying, yeshum, if you

have to possess your promise today and you have to find it

and take hold of it, I am with you.

I am your guarantor. I will make it happen.

But you need to take the step. You need to take that first step

because without you initiating it, I can't do it.

God's not here like a robot controlling us.

We're not robots here. He's given us free will and he

wants us to trust Him and have faith and take that God's step

today. So today, where is our

discouragement? Is it on ourselves, the people

around? Let's give it to God as we

leave. Leave this verse with you even

before I close as an encouragement.

Isaiah 40 verse 31, it says, but those who entwine their hearts

Isaiah 40:31

with Yahweh will experience divine strength.

They will rise up on soaring wings and fly like eagles, run

their races without growing weary, and walk through life

without giving up. You know, one of our church

members daughter recently got married and she does this

macrame and she gave it as a take away gift.

I wanted to bring it, but I forgot.

But the way she's intertwined it is strength.

So even if you pull it, it's really tight.

You can't really pull it across different places.

And that's what God's saying like he is with us in our

weakness. He's joined together in our

illness, he's joined together in our in our insecurities.

He's joined in saying, I'll make you secure.

I'll encourage you in your in your, in your feeling less than.

He's saying I'm here with you. And I pray that you will find

hope and strength in God because he says he will renew.

He will renew like you can't split it.

He's saying you can't split. And so today you and I have to

be intertwined like that. We need to be strong and

courageous in the Lord as we lead ourselves, as we obey God's

word, as we take the next step. Because the promise is what we

leave behind for the future generations to follow.

Because if we don't possess it, someone else is already

inheriting and it'll be a deterrent for the generations to

come. So today I would ask you, can we

be bold enough to take the next step?

In fact, I had read on a few of these stories of people who had

actually pursued God in possessing their promise.

Just wanted to talk about one person, and his name is Doctor

Nelson Bell. He was, he worked in China for

25 years. He was serving as his people.

He was serving the people that are both in the spiritual side

and also in the physical needs. He was a doctor.

He had his own clinic there and he served and used every

opportunity to shine Jesus. He could have stayed back in his

hometown, run a clinic there, did what God called him, but

there was definitely his calling and a God calling.

He fulfilled his calling of being a doctor, but the God

calling is what gave him purpose.

And so you see in this next 25 years as he's done this

faithfully in possessing that promise, He lived.

He what happened over there was the impact was so much, but the

immediate impact was on his children.

One of his daughter's name is well known.

His name is Ruth. Belgrim was the second child and

the parents example of faithful ministry and loving obedience to

Christ obviously shaped her life in ministry.

So today whatever we are called to do has greater repercussions.

What we are called to do has greater things for the future

generations to follow. If we don't possess it, our

generation misses it out. Hudson Taylor said this

beautifully. He said all God's giants have

been weak men who did great things for God because they

reckoned on his being with them, reckoned on his being with them.

We need to be intertwined with Yahweh.

And I want to conclude with that, that today, as you and I,

as we make this decision, Lord, to keep you at the center of

2025, as we move towards possessing the promise that we

will have our vision very clear. We won't just know about you,

but we'll leave that aside and we'll move towards knowing you.

And as Joshua, who heard it from you directly, was strong and

courageous, constantly increased to be strong and very

courageous, we lead ourselves. We'll obey what God says and

we'll be bold enough to take the next step.

Church, as we enter into this new year, I Commission you all

that we all will fulfill, all that God's called us.

Let's go and possess this promise that God has for us

because I believe he's wanting us to set us apart as a

testimony for the future generations ahead.

Can I pray and close? Loving heavenly Father, Lord, we

thank you, Lord, for this time. Thank you, Lord, for all those

who are listening, and Lord, that as they listen and they'll

be charged right now, I pray Holy Spirit will move into their

hearts right now. Lord, I pray hearts which have

been broken, which have been dissuaded, I pray which have

been, which are in the verge of giving up, Lord will reckon with

the truth, Lord of your word, that you love them, You are

their God. You have called them your own.

I pray that every situation they have gone through will be laced

with your grace, Lord, to find fulfillment in You,

accomplishment in you. We thank you Lord, for your

word, Lord. Lord, we would be imitators of

those who've gone before. We'll boldly take the next step

because if you are with them, you are with us.

We declare this in the name of Jesus, that we'll be able to

conquer the promises. I pray for those who've settled

in their miracles that they would rise up now.

Lord Jesus, give them the infused strength to rise up and

to move past. To move past.

We give you the glory, We give you the honour.

Be glorified, be honoured, take charge.

In your most holy name we pray Lord, Amen.

Amen. From the Via Zion family, from

both me and Tina, we want to wish you a blessed and a

prosperous New year. We continue to pray that God

will bless you and everything that you do.

Pray the food and water of your home will be blessed.

Pray that everything that you undertake this year will be a

blessing. I pray that we will be able to

hear testimony. Do reach out to us, do get to

tell us what God is doing and through your life we'd be

encouraged and we'd love to uphold you in prayer.

Also don't forget to get your calendars.

We also have some Magnus, follow us on social media media.

We'll have some pictures up. You'll be able to order it

online. But more than anything, I pray

you'll also take this option to gift it to someone else because

I believe many, we need to raise up many to possess the God-given

promise over their lives. Amen.

I pray that you have a blessed year ahead.

God bless you and your family. Have a blessed week.

See you soon. God bless you.

Thanks. For listening to this message,

we hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this.

Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past

episodes. If you like what you are

hearing, consider rating us, subscribing and even sharing it

with friends. That would really help us.

For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to

Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus

finds life.