2025 THE SEASON OF GRACE

A SEASON OF DOUBLE GRACE

(GRACE UPON GRACE) IN 2025

“For out of His fullness (superabundance) we have all

received [all had a share of and we were all supplied with ]

one grace after another [grace] and spiritual blessing upon

 spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped]

upon gift.” 1 John 1:16 (AMP)

It is 2025 and those of us who have been graced to enter this new year, those of us who remain can safely say GLORY HALLELUJAH, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I AM ALIVE. HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE MERCY OF GOD I WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSUMED ALREADY. So many didn’t make it. Right up to the very last day and minute of 2024, many exited and didn’t see this year. I feel privileged. So should you. We have been given another great opportunity to clean up our lives, correct those things and areas that need correcting, and complete the unfinished tasks we are encumbered with.

            So the question we should all ask ourselves even as we rejoice and thank God for sparing our lives, is “Why Me?” When I ask myself that question all I can fathom is that God is not finished with me yet and He is gracing me to complete the assignments He has entrusted to me. Are you thinking the same thing? Is this your answer to your question? This is a great time to reflect, ponder and meditate on our lives going forward.

            This new year of 2025 is where we must each live a purpose driven life, that is designed and orchestrated by Jesus Christ Himself. We are not a people who have no hope but are led by the Holy Spirit of God who guides, instructs and leads us in the way we should go.

The Lord has given the shepherd of the house, Family of Faith Ministries, Pastor Exzabia Dukes, the mandate for 2025:

STRIVE 2 THRIVE

This mandate is founded and established on John 1:16 (AMP) as cited above. When I heard that word I just knew everything was going to be alright in 2025 because the God we service has reminded us that He has equipped and empowered us to THRIVE in 2025. This is a purpose-driven effort. So we pursue this new year with purpose, confidence, boldness, and the assurance that we are ready and able to complete the unfinished tasks of 2024 while embarking on new ventures of 2025.

            The text tells us that Jesus out of His fulness [superabundance] has imputed in us a share of His fulness, grace after another grace which speaks of multiple graces of Christ to do, to accomplish, and dominate in our lives. Then we are endowed with spiritual blessings upon spiritual blessings, the favor of God and man doubly, and most of all gifts heaped upon gifts. Do you realize that we are multifaceted, multi-gifted, multi-talented?

            Everyone needs to read that text over and over again and assimilate it into their hearts, minds, and spirits. So often we are inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so many things but we question our intuitions, we listen to others question our multiple gifts, but here it is, Jesus Christ has given us gifts heaped upon gifts which explains our passion for so many different things. Many times we allow loved ones, friends, and well-meaning people in our lives to restrict us and confine us to a box of one thing (stay in your lane, when you may have many lanes), for God has given us gifts heaped upon gifts to enrich our lives and shine for His Glory. God has endowed us well.

            This is why Jesus said, “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” John 10:10 KJV). Better said, “… I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows” AMP. It is the will, wish, and plan of God for us to live full accomplished lives. To STRIVE to accomplish and succeed. Even for those of us who have passed our prime years, God has a word for us when He said:

¹² The righteous will flourish like the date palm [long-lived, upright and useful];
They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic and stable].
¹³ Planted in the house of the Lord,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ [Growing in grace] they will still thrive and bear fruit and prosper in old age;
They will flourish and be ^[a]vital and fresh [rich in trust and love and contentment]; (Psalm 92 AMP).

            Surely, we are not a people who do not know what to do or where to go in 2025. Abba our Father has spoken and the house of Family of Faith Ministries is guided by this Word which is our mandate into all of this new year. Let us rejoice for Jesus Christ our Helper is here, and we can do all things through his superabundant grace.

            You may have slipped, fallen, or even slept in 2024, but we are reminded to

¹⁸ Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43 KJV).

let us STRIVE 2 THRIVE IN 2025 for the table has already been set before us.

Blessings!

Philippians 4:19

Having an encounter with God through Jesus Christ will transform our lives. Whatever the basis for the encounter, whether it be salvation, healing, deliverance, confusion, or a breakthrough, it will be transformative. It is a personal experience with God that completely alters our situation or condition joyfully or painfully.

These personal experiences of encounter occur in numerous forms, such as:

• A sudden vision: Saul who was later renamed Paul had a sudden encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus bent on imprisoning, killing, and terrorizing the believers of Jesus Christ (Acts 9:3). He was a very religious man who held fast to the laws of Moses and the forefathers, and although the Old Testament prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, he did not understand it and therefore didn’t seem to have received the memo that the Massiah had actually come. He was sincerely wrong in his belief, but he had an encounter with Jesus and he was transformed.

Transformed from a hater of the name of Jesus, a threat to the body of Christ, a cruel and vicious man to a man who not only came to love Jesus Christ but all those who love Christ, so much so that he spent his entire life teaching about the love and mystery of Jesus Christ. He was so transformed that his name had to be changed from Saul to Paul. The Hebrew name Saul means “desired” and its Greek meaning for the word Saulos means “prancing.” Prancing has an arrogant, egotistical, self-opinionated tone to it. Likewise desired, signaling confidence and self-importance.  The name Paul, which is Roman means “little.” In assuming the name Paul, he humbled himself to present Jesus as greater, seeing himself as smaller. It could also be that recognizing his inner transformation with this divine encounter with his Lord, he didn’t want to be associated with the ugliness the name Saul represented. The church which once feared him, now revered him.

• A Quiet Moment of Connection: The woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:2534) had been suffering for twelve years when in her extremities where she had spent all that she had and just didn’t know where to turn came upon a gathering with Jesus. Like so many of us I can imagine her saying to herself, ‘What do I have to lose? I have already lost everything. So she said to herself, “If I would but touch the hem of His garment, I will be made whole.” She then pressed through the crowd until she touched Him and she was healed immediately. Jesus recognized that touch amidst all the other touches he was getting from the crowd that was trying to be as close to Him as possible. He recognized that intentional and purposeful touch that demanded something from Him. It was a touch of need for healing that only He could give and she received it and was made whole in a quiet moment of connection.

• During Ordinary Moments: During ordinary moments like doing the dishes or jogging. I can recall one of those ordinary moments one evening while sweeping when suddenly the Lord told me to call one of my sons and tell him to “stop doing what he was about to do.” So I leaned the broom against the wall and I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed him and I told him what the Lord had told me. I didn’t tell him that the Lord had told me, but I gave him the instruction to stop doing whatever he was into and about to do. He responded with a burst of loud laughter and asked me if I was psychic. I told him no I am not psychic but the Holy Spirit had just told me to tell him to stop. Years later he told me that he did cancel what he was about to do but wouldn’t tell me what it was and I didn’t ask. LOL.

Encounters with Jesus can lead to repentance and conversion, deliverance as in the many cases of demon-possessed persons being delivered in the bible; boldness and a desire to share God’s love; joy and happiness from a life of sadness and depression; secure and confidence in the place of once being insecure and self-incriminating; filled with empathy and humane whereas you were once brash and cruel.

Tanika Marie writes, that having an encounter with God is much deeper than a tangible feeling or emotion. To encounter God is to have your inner Spirit refined and redirected in such a way that completely changes your life. To encounter God is to be welcomed into His all-consuming presence. To encounter God is to discover who you were made to be and who He has always seen you as. Your identity begins to mirror that of Jesus and all He provides for you through His sacrifice, resurrection, and love. Hence one’s encounter with Jesus Christ can be both tangible and/or intangible depending on the purpose of the visitation from God in the moment.

Tamika shares 7 Things That Can Happen After An Encounter With God.

1. Encountering God repositions you on the straight path. The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you” Psalm 32:8 NLT.
2. Encountering God heals the inner parts of your heart. Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28 NLT.
3. Encountering God changes the trajectory of your family and those close to you. “But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15 NLT.
4. Encountering God makes you to be a great Ambassador for Christ. “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say, how beautiful and the feet of messengers who bring good news” Romans 16:14-15 NLT.
5. Encountering God strengthens and affirms the power in you to no longer struggle with sin. “Anyone who continues to live in Him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know Him or understand who He is. Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this; when people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous” 1 John 3:6-7.
6. Encountering God ushers in a great desire to build the Kingdom of God. “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the frit that abounds to your account. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, and acceptable sacrifice, will pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:17-19.
7. Encountering God establishes a deep hunger for His presence and glory to exist, in every area of your life. “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you” Psalms 63:1

As we exit 2024 and welcome 2025 let us seek to have encounters with Jesus that will enrich our lives and make us more of who and what God wants us to be. It is all in the process of perfecting His creation that God seeks to visit our lives in such tangible and intangible ways. Let us become seekers of God. May we find ourselves in such pursuit of God that our transformation will not only please God but those with whom we come into contact with and associate with. Remember, an encounter with God will change us and our situations forever. Blessings!