Cross over without carry over!
CROSS-OVER? TO Where Exactly?
That sounds nice, really nice! That will make a good line for spoken words, poems, motivations and so on but in reality, it makes just a little or no sense.
Whatever you have not been able to address this year will follow you into next year. And please, carryover is not a bad thing to some sort. The debts you ran into this year and never settled it will follow you into next year no matter how you prayed! The clothes you didn’t wash on 31st night won’t suddenly appear neat on 1st January.
There is no single difference between the new year and the old year just that you are reminded that time is passing! It is the same air, the same atmosphere, the same issues… Nothing changes except what you choose to change.
It is better to carry over things and really solve them next year than thinking you’d run away from it because you spent a few hours in Church on 31st night. The only thing about the New Year is the change of number, nothing else is new about it. Understanding this makes you feel less guilty of not doing certain things this year and encourages you to carry on with it next year.
It is still that same old earth, we are only celebrating the completion of earth’s rotation around the sun and funny enough, as some pause their lives to celebrate New year, the earth doesn’t pause, it keeps moving! The new year is just the same thing with a new day, your failures don’t become success automatically! Your prayers can only act upon things you have put in place, the earth as we see it has no holidays, we are the ones that halt our activities just to mark the successful activity of the earth!
It always seems like yesterday when we all stayed in Church on the 31st Night of the previous year to ensure that we crossed over without carrying over, that we crossed over without disaster and all stuff like that. And, we remember jumping and celebrating the theme of the new year! Some called it “My Year of Mega Money”, “My Year of Encounter”, “My Year of Divine Accomplishment” and lots of other “Year ofs”.
How far? We are at the end of the year, we’d be having another cross over night vigils in various churches and families, some will be burning old properties into ashes to make sure the scent of the past doesn’t follow them into the new year, some will be making new resolutions and saying real hard stuff all in the bid to make the new year a very good one but the Bible says in Proverbs 1:31
“Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices” and the Message Bible puts it this way “Well, you’ve made your bed – now lie in it, you wanted your own way -now, how do you like it?” Somewhere else the Bible says “wisdom is profitable to direct.” (Ecclesiastes 10:10)
You don’t lie on a neat bed when you do not make a neat bed. You may have wonderful dreams on that bed but you will always wake up to the harsh reality that you are the one to make your dreams come true.
Being a Christian isn’t a solution to hunger, Jesus didn’t come to give us food or money, He didn’t come to do our works for us. When Jesus said “it is finished” on the cross, He didn’t mean things He never came to die for is settled. Jesus finished His works, not ours. Jesus didn’t come to make you materially rich, anybody who wants you to believe that lie is not only deceiving you but doesn’t know the truth.
What Jesus came for is more serious than the material wants of this life. Jesus came to save us from the snares of darkness and bring us into union with God by making us become like Him. That is the gospel. Now, onto the next one…
No matter the weight of the fasting, the heaviness of the prayer, the intensity of the word preached on that night, the mighty manifestations of signs and wonders and other great things that you will experience or do on the 31st night, it will be as good as drinking your way into 1st January if you just get home and fold your hands because Pastor has said: “it is going to be your year of Boom!”
It is okay to sow great seeds and give your first fruits, it is okay to enter the new year with earth-shaking seed but listen to me, none of those things will change what you have refused to change! You cannot bribe God, that “seed that will move God” does not exist! Oh yes, it doesn’t exist. God has moved!
The seed you need to sow now is not just dropping money on the altar in expectation of protocol bypass, you need to take a step now, you need to start learning and start acting on what you have learnt, you need to discipline yourself now! If you want that marriage to be better, you have to start playing your own part so well, you have to start learning what works for your own marriage and start applying them.
Your giving in Church is not enough and your giving in Church should stop being attached to certain problems, you are financially responsible to the local Church where you belong, it has nothing to do with bribing God. If you do not give, the Church may not run smoothly and that is why you must give if you are in Church organizations!
Stop making it seem as though God is aware you are having difficulties but have refused to do something about it until you sow a seed that will convince him or until you cry so hard that his heart is touched.
We should stop judging God with human frailties. We must be able to differentiate what Jesus came for and what He never came for. Jesus didn’t come to make us richer, give us better marriage or make us more intelligent! Jesus came to save us from sin, to give us God’s life in abundance and this is chiefly a spiritual experience and can outplay in natural circumstances but there were things God already placed in our hands from the foundations of this earth, there were things He commanded us to take charge of.
He won’t take charge of it on our behalf because it will be unconstitutional. He expects us to know those things He already placed in our hands and start taking charge of them. It is the physical gift of God that is without repentance! Just like everyone enjoys the rain, the sun and other things regardless of belief in God, everyone can enjoy wealth and other material things! There are also unbelievers who have never been sick for a very long time and they even died in old age! Material blessings of God are without repentance and we cannot do anything about it. But Spiritual gifts are given for ministry.
I respect whatever it is you are tagging your new year but always bear in mind that the theme of the year has no control over the year! The year doesn’t become extraordinary just because you tagged it “Year of Extraordinary Results.” The theme of your year should be your focus of the year, the theme is not a magic chant for unconditional success in the new year!
If you like, call it “Year of Mega Money” but you may even die hungry if you do nothing. Since it is your year of mega-money, your focus should be on making money! The only difference between the previous year and the new year is a change of figures, circumstances remain the same.
Getting lots of wishes also doesn’t grant you success! If it were so, then we all would be making merry this Christmas. There are people who were wished merry Christmas but they never had merry. It is not because they aren’t born again but because they lack the resources for making merry.
When people tell you “I wish you a happy new year” it simply means “I desire that you stay happy this new year.” But people’s desire for you isn’t enough, you’ve got to be the one to work those desires out. Even God Himself has plans for us but we can only work with Him in seeing it manifest! Working it out with Him doesn’t mean He is weak to do it alone, it means we consent to His plans for us and accept it. In Jeremiah 29:11 we see God’s plan is to prosper us and never to harm us! He already did that anyway but just like we work out salvation, we can only work out what God has already settled in the Spirit. It will take effort!
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I have not come to attack the prayers we make during the eve of New Year, I have not come to say that we shouldn’t pray! I am interested in correcting what religion has done. Every new year, we should be grateful to God for witnessing another session of the earth’s cycle but we must also know the essence of living isn’t to merely celebrate this cycle but to fulfil the purpose for which we are made.
We don’t just remain grateful to God for the earth’s cycle, we remain grateful because of ourselves and what we have done so far. Our gratitude can be expressed in the place of prayer and we can be grateful for things we would still experience. While we pray trusting that our ability isn’t enough, we must work knowing that God has empowered us to work! It is a man who works that has major reasons to be grateful!
In Luke 14:28, Jesus never said a builder sits or stands to pray before building! He says the builder sits down and count the cost before embarking on such a project. Prayer shows our humility and dependence on God but work shows our faith, it is in works that faith is expressed!
So, as we cross over, what do you think you are crossing over into? You aren’t crossing from Egypt to Israel, sorry if that is what you were taught. You aren’t crossing over without carrying over! It is still that same earth and that same environment.
So, as we gather to celebrate, pop champagne, pray, fast, dance, receive words of prophecies and even make new year resolutions, let us just bear it in mind that nothing changed! Whatever will change is what you decide to change, whatever will work is what you decide to work out. Where do you think you are crossing over to? Not probably new earth or a new environment. Face it!
Happy New Year in advanced darling.
Comrade Abdulkareem Yusuf Opeyemi (Irreducible Eminent)
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