Mandy and I want to wish you a Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We pray that your 2016 has been full of God’s favor and exuberant blessing. We believe that 2017 will only build upon what God has done as He continues to fulfill His word in your lives.
In preparation for this letter the Lord brought a set of verses to my attention that I felt was nothing less than an exceptional way to end this series of thoughts on God’s love. I pray that as you received them, the light of the Father’s love and its effect on you built each month and established your heart in its truth. God’s love must be the foundation from which we live and through which we perceive and interpret the seasons and circumstances of life. His love is the garrison that surrounds us and keeps the enemy at bay. It’s the surplus of more than enough that continually overflows our cup and the favor that continually places us in positions of advancement. This is the covenanted love that pursues us and is without exhaustion as it looks to express and fulfill its realities in our lives. This is the love that has captured our hearts.
Psalms 89:1-5 (MSG) Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it! I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I’ll never quit telling the story of your love – How you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives’ foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
As the twilight of 2016 begins to set in, I look back and stand in complete amazement of what God has done in both Mandy and I’s personal lives and ministry. Oh sure, the devil would want me to look and belittle events and totals in different categories and moments, but in such, lies the danger of becoming like the children of Israel in the desert. We begin to complain and depreciate the goodness and miraculous of all God’s fullness. Psalms 89 goes on to say, “Search high and low, scan skies and land, you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God. God of the Angel Armies, who is like You, powerful and faithful from every angle?” I like that! No matter the angle you come from, or problem you hold, God is more loyal, constant, and steadfast. Radiating both ability and strength. You cannot stand in a place of knowledge where the Father’s love is concerned and not be filled with songs of praise and stories of satisfied desires.
As you know the Lord gave me the assignment to fly and get my pilot license. He boldly told us that in doing so it “would not be expensive, but paid for.” As I write this letter I would be lying if I didn’t say that my head at times trips to grasp what my heart has so emphatically received as a done deal.
In September 2015 I completed the first step in this assignment and received my Private Pilot license and by January 2017 I will have my Instrument rating, and you know what? Up to this point, it’s all paid for. This is only the beginning, but it’s a testament to God’s faithfulness, for when God gives vision He also gives provision. Doubting God will do nothing but delay the promise. Every assignment comes with its need to believe God and to doubt the doubts. We must all continue to build our faith in His love and faithfulness as we prepare for the BIG that He has in store for us, for what God speaks He will perform and make good.
Maybe you are sighing a sigh of relief concerning 2016. Thanking God that the year is almost over, as it may have held some wild and challenging moments for you. No matter the case, I believe that if it were not for the faithfulness of God, what the devil had planned to defeat, discourage, or derail you, you would have never made it to this point. I read a quote on Facebook that I really like. It said, “God did not bring you this far, to only bring you this far.” This is not the end or even the best yet. God has so much more in store and wants to make 2016 pale in comparison to what He has for in you 2017. I want to encourage you to set your faith on God’s ability to never change or relent on His covenant promises. Get those promises and words spoken over you out and begin to call them into being and stir your faith again as you expect them to be made a reality in your life.
Psalms 89:20-24, 33 (MSG) I found (your name here_____________) David, my servant, poured holy oil on his head, and I’ll keep my hand steadily on him, Yes, I’ll stick with him through thick and thin. No enemy will get the best of him, no scoundrel will do him in. I’ll weed out all who oppose him, I’ll clean out all who hate him. I’m with him for good and I’ll love him forever; I’ve set him on high – he’s riding high! I’ll preserve him eternally in my love, I’ll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
May these verses be your song and declaration for 2017. Knowing that you have been anointed for the job and task ahead and that God’s supporting hand is resting mightily on you. That no enemy that would place itself in your path would be able to withstand the greatness of the One who has forever tied Himself to you through the blood of Christ. And finally, that you would walk with knowledge of God’s unfailing faithfulness in every moment of every day. May 2017 be your year of constant overcoming victory and advancement.
“And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Mandy and I continually give God thanks and praise on your behalf. You are in our hearts each time we take the word of God to impart, establish, and encourage the body of Christ. Lives are positively being forever changed by His glory and anointing, and to you we say Thank You. There truly is a worldwide ministry in the making and you are a part of it!
Exploits for Him,
Dustin and Mandy