He's Here. Happy 2017.

Welcome to 2017. He's with us.

Out of all the things that have empowered my life, the largest has been ACCEPTING the reality that God does not leave nor forsake me. That he is always always always with me. Watching out for me. Empowering me. Guiding me. Defending me.

A few years ago I wandered into Exchanged Life Ministries, a counseling and resourcing unit. I was saved and so in love with Jesus. But so, SO broken. The brokenness was from a variety of sources, but the largest reason it still existed 5 years into being saved was that I believed that God did leave me. That at times he did forsake me. I would feel a lack. I would have a set back. And I would (wrongly) assume God had abandoned me. It wrecked havoc on my faith, and kept me in a holding pattern in my calling.

There in counseling, I learned about the irrevocable promises and truths of God. The truth of God never leaving nor forsaking me sunk deep over a series of months. Regardless of how I was feeling that day, my feet and heart were buried deep within the concrete of God's truth. God is with me. God resides in me. His spirit is available and on tap within me.

For most of us, the reason our lives lose power is because we don't reckon this as TRUTH. That God is WITH US. That he resides in us. And greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. The enemy can't take this promise of God, so he tries to make you believe it isn't true. Our lives lose power when we lose sight of God being with us and in us.

In a worship song I love, Steven Furtick from Elevation Church preaches about the power of belief in the middle of the song. At the climax of his mini sermon he yells to his crowd, "lift your hands - HE'S HERE."

This needs to be our anthem as we walk into 2017. Lift your hands. He's here. Believe his promises. They're right here. Trust with everything you got. He's here. Tell the Enemy what you're made of. He's here. 

May your 2017 be full of the promises you KNOW to be true. Lift your hands. He's here.