Good Morning Gorgeous,
It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start. And all things are made new!
The Lord’s mercies are brand new every morning!
And as we head into a brand new year, some of you pray for a Word from God to lean into for the year ahead?
And for others, you might start this year for the first time.
I would encourage you to ask God to give you a Word or a verse for you to lean into, study, grow in that Word in 2023.
And then at the close of the year, you can reflect back and see how God gave you that Word ahead of the year and it really carried such significance as you grew in Him.
Here’s a look back at the previous Words the Lord has placed on my heart!
I placed the links to each of the accompanying blog posts at the end! You can read them to see where I was in each previous season at the start of the year..
2019-2023
This year I believe the Lord has placed two Words on my heart.
Surrender and Sacrifice
This will be my year of learning to do both in even deeper measure.
Surrender is a huge key to receiving from God, stepping into His plans, and remaining in His plans.
You can trace it all back to our surrender. Even the act of conversion from death to life as a believer in Jesus Christ begins with surrender. But this walk is so much more than our first act of surrender. To really receive the fullness of Christ and the abundant, supernatural life He died to give us, we must LIVE in a posture of total surrender.
Surrender is where pride dies.
Surrender is where self dies.
Surrender is where doors that have previously been opened to the enemy are slammed shut.
Surrender is where our ways fall to the ground.
Surrender is where selfish ambition and self gratifying desires die.
Surrender is where God is given the pruning shears by our brave prayers of permission and He begins to cut away things that needed to go long ago.
Surrender is laying down our life, our plans, our will, in a deep groaning from within our soul that cries out to God, “Please enough of me. Enough of my ways. Your will Father. YOUR WILL BE DONE.”
This surrender is the beginning of NEW life in a Christ and NEW levels in your walk with Christ.
Every miracle and every breakthrough I’ve ever experienced began with some type of surrender.
And then there’s sacrifice. It goes hand in hand with surrender.
It’s a pathway to surrender.
When we find it hard to surrender, usually it points to something that needs to be sacrificed at the altar.
This can look like so many things.
For some it is fasting. Fasting works things out of us so that we can surrender fully to what God desires to do in us. Fasting removes the doubt, the desires of the flesh, the physical body is denied and quieted so that the spiritual senses can be attuned to the voice of God.
Sacrifice is the choice to give up something so that the heart is more able to surrender.
Sacrifice can also mean doing something unto the Lord even when its hard so that the heart is more able to surrender.
The sacrifice is the doing or not doing so that the flesh is put into submission to the spirit. It aligns the body to proper alignment to Christ.
What it looks like again can be so many things, but here are a few examples.
You wake up and you feel dark and gloomy and the last thing you feel like you can muster is praise. Your flesh doesn’t feel like praising because you don’t feel well. Instead of listening to your flesh, you bring the Lord a sacrifice of praise. You begin to speak aloud.
That’s a sacrifice of praise to praise even when it’s hard, and I have found that as I sacrifice, I begin to surrender myself over to Him. My sacrifice creates a pathway to my surrender.
“Lord, thank You for this fresh new day. Thank You that Your mercies are brand new every morning. Thank You for breath in my lungs. Thank You for who You are and what You are doing in my life today. Use me however You desire today. I will be Your mouthpiece as You see fit.”
In 2023, I desire to sacrifice all He wants from me. I want to give Him a sacrifice of my time, a sacrifice of my abilities, and a sacrifice of my treasure. Whatever He calls me to sacrifice I pray to be obedient and keep my hands wide open in releasing whatever He wants.
I will write even when it’s hard.
I will teach and preach even when I may not feel like it.
I will share the gospel even if my knees are knocking and I can hear my heart in my ears.
I will rise in the night to spend time with Him.
Why? Because He is worth it all. And its not a religion of works. He’s not impressed by our works. But He is moved by our laying it all down for Him. He is moved by the position of our heart and where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.
If we make HIM our most valuable treasure, everything we do will be unto Him.
Total sidenote… I am so sick right now. Let me rephrase that! I have been feeling so so sick, but by His Stripes I am HEALED and He is making me well.
I will not partner with illness as my portion, but instead I trust that I am recovering..
For over a week now, I have been feeling awful. Cough, headache, deep exhaustion. I pushed through Christmas, pushed through New Years, and the sickness has attempted to confuse me by making everything hard. Even to think clearly to write or reflect has been a challenge. I started this post on New Year’s Eve and the pushback against me completing it has been severe. BUT GOD.
Today He woke me up at 1:30am. He led me to finish watching Kathryn Krick’s New Year’s Day Church Service and He filled me with clarity and strength to keep going.
I was feeling down for having started the year so roughly, and then I realized that this rough start was actually a good place to practice my two Words for the year. I get to surrender all afresh to Him today, and to sacrifice unto Him by pushing through even when it’s hard!
And I am overflowing with HIS JOY now! I have fresh strength, fresh joy, and a fresh perspective. Clarity has replaced the fog that has tried to take over.
Because that’s just how goooood He is!!
So let’s go 2023! Let’s move into New realms of ministry. May the Lord fling open doors that have previously been closed. May He reveal NEW things to His peope.May our spiritual senses be open and ready to see and hear what the Lord is saying, and may we be obedient to His call!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! You are amazing and so faithful and merciful and goooood to us! We honor Your Name. We honor You as Lord over our life. May we learn to bring You a fresh sacrifice that is pleasing to You and that postures us for total surrender. As we surrender, have YOUR Way Lord Jesus!
In Jesus’s Name, Amen.
Blessings, Surrender, and Sacrifice,
Vanessa Lynn
What is the Word that the Lord has placed on your heart for 2023?
Here are links to the last 4 years blog posts on the Word of the Year!
Glad you’re feeling better! I like your words , so important, I’ve definitely been working on those two. I think my word is “hope”.
I like the words, you’ve chosen; I am torn between ‘abide’ with Hebrews 10:23 being my verse and the words ‘redeem, restore and renew’ because that’s the work He has been doing in my life lately
Great words, sacrifice and surrender. Love how you defined them and how well they go, one with the other.
Glad you’re feeling better and that you’ve already seen those words in action through your sickness.
My word for this year is hope. I’m tired of the enemy’s lies and believing him over our Lord. It’s time for me to fully trust God and feel hope through Him.
Hope. Ooooh thats gooood!
❤️
And yes I’m tired of the enemy’s lies as well. Here’s to placing our trust in the Lord over the lies of the devil.
Amen!!