Why Start the Year with God? Bishop James Hansen-Sackey on Spiritual Strategy

The Spiritual Strategy of Starting with God

• 💡 Starting the year with God is a spiritual strategy, not a religious cliché, signifying alignment, dependence, and priority.
• 🎯 God is the source of time and life, already knowing the future, making it wise to commit the year to Him.
• 🔑 Beginning the year without God is like attempting a journey without acknowledging the creator of the road.

Firsts Determine Direction

• 🚀 What you honor first governs what follows, establishing the direction for the entire year.
• 🌱 The beginning of a thing carries prophetic weight over its ending, influencing how it concludes.
• 🧠 The spirit world governs the natural world, so addressing issues spiritually is crucial for earthly direction.

Overcoming Curses and Barrenness

• ⚠️ The curse on Jericho (pronounced by Joshua) and Reuben's curse (by Jacob) demonstrate how spiritual declarations can stand for centuries, causing barrenness and lack of increase.
• ✨ Elisha reversed the curse on Jericho by going to the water's source with a new bowl and salt (representing God's word), declaring an end to death and barrenness.
• ✅ Moses reversed Reuben's curse 400 years later, showing that higher levels of anointing can break long-standing negative pronouncements.

The Importance of Spiritual Insight

• 🔍 Many situations, like Jericho's "pleasant" appearance but internal problems, require spiritual discernment beyond logical or medical explanations.
• 💡 Human decisions are based on limited knowledge, whereas God's decisions encompass eternal past, present, and future.
• 💬 The words we speak are life and spirit, capable of influencing the future and breaking cycles of unexplained problems.