The Sunday Mail
Pastor Tinashe Zinyemba
One of the joys of being a Christian is that you have access to a different perspective to life and situations, thanks to the word of God.
Times are tough and things seem to be getting worse. Joblessness, harsh economic times and moral decadence appear to be the norm.
However, let me take this opportunity to say that God is always in control, especially during such times. He always does the impossible and turns the situations in dramatic fashion.
Jeremiah 29 vs 11 boldly declares that God alone knows the plans that He has for you. Not your mother or father, your friend, boss, husband or wife, not your Member of Parliament, headmaster, teacher or pastor is aware of God’s plan for you.
At times, God will reveal to some extent some details of your future to those around you but ultimately, He is in control. It is in that light that I want to encourage you that He is working on something bigger and greater than our minds have ever fathomed. The future is not bleak but brighter than it has ever been.
In Joel 2 Vs 28, God says, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions”.
Today I want to focus on three particular elements from this verse. First, I will look at the portion where the Lord says, “…I pour out my spirit . . . ”
My question is what spirit is driving you?
In Luke 9 Vs 54-55, Jesus had to deal with some overzealous young men – James and John who were brothers. They were not happy with how Jesus had been treated and wanted to call fire down on a town in anger. Jesus says to them in verse 55 “ . . . You know not which spirit you are of.”
Some people are driven by the spirit of pride, other by the spirit of anger, for some it is jealousy or lust or greed, for others it is fear. Which spirit motivates your actions?
This has a significant bearing on your future and the outcome of your effort. God does not look only at the works, He also looks at the heart.
The second part says, “… and your sons and daughters will prophesy . . . ”
The word prophesy can be defined as to foretell or to predict the future.
My question is who is your prophet?
Who has foretold your future? Some people grew up in very abusive systems where there was verbal abuse. For example, you were told you are too ugly to get married or you will never amount to anything.
Your teachers could have told you that you will never amount to anything because you never performed well in class. Friends might have made fun at you for one reason or another.
Besides the words that people speak, sometimes it is the situations around us that begin to precast and foretell our future. For example, the newspaper or television can precast your future through the information they give out, magazine and books can do the same.
Today we have statistics that tell us that marriage is unnecessary and old fashioned. We are told by the media that it is okay for young adults and teenagers to indulge in sex before marriage as long as they are “safe”.
Who is the prophet determining your future?
There was a young lady in the book of Esther. She was an orphan and her uncle was taking care of her. To add salt to the wound, they were in a foreign land because their nation had been conquered by a powerful king and they were slaves in that kingdom.
Many voices or prophets were telling her that she was a nobody heading nowhere. Her future really looked quite bleak. However, she knew who held her future. She believed that the situations around her did not control the outcome of her future.
In a short space of time, she became the queen of a kingdom that was the combination of India, Palestine, parts of Africa and Europe.
Finally, I will discuss a scripture that says “young men shall see visions”.
What is your vision? Where do you see yourself in five years? What is your plan for the remainder of the year? Do you have a plan to move you from where you are to the next level? Some of you might be saying that plans do not mean much but I beg to differ.
If the spirit of God is leading and the Word of God is your prophet, your plans will come together. I wrote this short note to tell you that this is the season that God is pouring out His Spirit.
You need to be awake to life and not to death. The plan of God is always to raise you up and guess what, no matter how big your plan is, God’s plan for your life is better and bigger.
Today and in fact right now, take the time to ask the spirit of God to come on you and to begin to lead you in your exams, in your work, in your family.
Till next time, God bless.
