The year 2020 was a tough year for very many people. This is because of the myriads of challenges many had to go through. This is why many are hoping and praying that 2021 will be a much better year.
Last week, KICC Nigeria Pastor, Femi Faseru revealed what to do to survive in 2021. Below are excerpts of the interview.
As we start a new year, 2021 what should people expect this year from KICC? What is the Lord telling you?
Coming from 2020, the unprecedented year, when unprecedented things happened, like the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed practically every sphere of human ways of doing things. It has changed the way we relate with one another. So we have social distancing.
For me, for example, I hardly have one-on-one counselling session now. Its all done on over the internet. The church was closed down.
Nobody ever thought there would ever be a good reason for that to happen, in a country like Nigeria where we have freedom of worship, whichever way you choose to. So, a lot happened in 2020.
And going back to the Bible. It only tells us one thing. Whilst we try mentally, why we try to give explanations to what happened, but biblically it only points to one thing-Endtime is near. The Bible says it is the signs of Endtime, when Jesus will come back again. But what time we don’t know.
But the signs are there. One of it is war breaking out. We have seen that all over the world. The other one is outbreak of pestilence, disease. Covid-19 is an example. It keeps on having different strains. We have not been able to curb the 1st strain and it is mutating into other variants as we speak.
We are in a season that makes us know that Jesus will soon come back again.
For us here at KICC Maryland, the key thing for us in 2021 is to win souls. It is to get people ready for the 2nd coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by so doing, this is not just the work of the Pastor. This is the work of everybody, because what is most important according to the Bible is Love. For us to Love our neighbours. If I don’t want to end in hell, I shouldn’t want my brother to end up in hell. I shouldn’t want my sister, my friend to end up in hell. Our focus is to challenge each other to love more than we ever did and to have the interest of your brother and sister, the person you live with on the same street at heart, to have the love of the person you have a boss ride with in your heart, more than ever before and to share the Gospel, like you know it. We are focusing on turning everybody in our church to becoming a preacher, to take the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to everybody, because the Endtime is very, very close.
However, whilst we are waiting for him to come back, anxiously, we would also prepare people to be able to live this life in the fullness, to prepare them to be able to still have Joy, and Peace and Prosperity and Progress even in the midst of the pandemic.
Because if you study what happened last year, there are always 2 kinds of stories you will hear – Those who saw it as Opportunity and they took advantage of it as an Opportunity, and those who saw it as a Lockdown and then did nothing and nothing happened.
We want to challenge our members to let them know that even in hard times according to Sam 37 vs 19, God does not intend to put us to shame.
I think that things are going to be hard generally in the world that we live in. Obviously, we are already seeing the signs in Nigeria, not because of the pandemic that happened but because of lack of proper preparations for hard seasons and hard times.
Nigeria was not prepared for it. Like they say, proper preparation, prevents poor performance. How have we prepared for seasons like this? Look at our Economy. We have not diversified enough in the days of plenty. We have not taken all the opportunities that came our way.
The church will pray more this year because, obviously what is difficult for us, with God becomes doable. The church will be taught this year to pray more, to seek the face of the Lord more. We are up against an enemy that seems to be stronger than us, like Covid-19. We still don’t have a solution for it. That is why we are still all covering our noses and greeting each other not in the familiar way we used to. That is why we socialise through the internet, zoom parties. The joy in having a celebration is in having your family around. We are just trying to make the best out of a very, very bad and poor situation. That is what it is. For example, my daughter entered the University this year, and since September she has not been able to enjoy being in a University because all she has been doing is having her lectures over the internet from her bedroom. She has not been able to feel like a Jambite. She has not been able to mix with all manner of people on campus. The excitement is not there. I believe something is being taken away from this generation when they are having their own Univserity right in their bedroom.
So, this is an enemy that seems to be stronger than us. So, we need to seek the face of the Lord to help us. That is what should happen when you are faced with a mountain like we are faced with, because you know God will pull that mountain down. 2021 is not just about church attendance. It is about the salvation of souls. Of course, they still have to be discipled that is where the church comes in. They still have to be brought into the church to be taught to also be discipled and be equipped so that they can do the same thing. We have to move at a fast speed. We don’t know when he is coming back, but we know the time is nearer than ever before.
Usually at a time like this, at the beginning of the year, people always want to know, what to look out for. What is the Lord telling you?
How to cope with the challenges of 2021 will have to do with individuals. It has been predicted in the Bible that as we move close to End times we would see all manners of outbreaks, all manner of calamities, of things that are not pleasant. So, we would not be surprised if the trajectory of things should be going down South, naturally. But for the people of God, we always have an advantage because God says I would make a way, where there is no way.
I will make rivers to burst forth in desert places. From my Geography class in school, what makes a desert a desert is when you have a place and there is no water there. If there is water there, then it is no more a desert. But God says I will make rivers. He was not talking about Rainfalls, or gallons of water. He said I will make rivers. He did not say stream. He said I will make rivers to burst forth in desert places.
As to what 2021 is going to be like, it depends on every individual. What is your positioning with God? Which kind of advantage do you have with God? What kind of insight do you have with God? How have you prepared? What level of catch up are you able to do? For everything there are 2 sides to it. God said to Abraham, I will bless you. And whoever blesses you will be blessed and whoever curses you will be cursed. So an interaction with Abraham will end up being a blessing to somebody and for someone else it would end being a curse. So, an interaction with 2021 can end being a year of prosperity, goodness, a year of Gods Mercy and God’s Grace and for someone else, it could be a year that could be Troublesome and Terrible. It depends on our position. How have we embraced this year? I believe that this year ordinarily will be better than last year. We were caught unawares by Covid-19. It wasn’t just the Covid-19. It was also the response when Covid-19 broke out. It was how quick we were able to do what we were able to do.
We have been wasteful as a nation over the years. Are we able to repent?. Just imagine how much money went into Isolation Centres. This is not criticising the government. This is a call out to all of us. We need to take right decisions if we are going to be experiencing the goodness of God in our nation. See how much went into Isolation Centres. These Isolation Centres are going to be pulled down later. We have them on Football fields all over the country.
We would still have to have our football pitches back. What if we had spent such money on our Health facilities abinitio?.
What if after we had seen what happened? In the new budget, for 2021, what if we had made some adjustments that tells us that we have learnt something from the mistakes of the past.
God can give us a beautiful year in 2021, 2022 and 2023. How have we prepared as a person, individually? How have we prepared as a business? How have we prepared as a state, as a nation to actually enjoy what God has in it for us, for that year? If we are not well prepared, we are not going to enjoy it. There are natural laws, that will take effect either with ease or struggles.
So, 2021 has to do with individuals. How have you prepared? Even if you were not prepared, what are you prepared to do?
But in 2021 for some people, they will say there is lifting for them and for some people they will say there is a casting down. The choice is yours. The choice has to be individual, corporate or nation. We all have to decide whether we want to use the year to go up or we would allow circumstances and situations to pull us back.
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