The year 2013 began with a note of celebration for me, which I shared with you through this blog. It is with greater joy that I begin to write for this year. On the new year’s eve, while I was praying and preparing to preach at BRC, I received a word, Hosea 10:12, which I believe, will be in my heart for an entire year, and I want to share it here, so you may be blessed too.

Hosea 10:12 (NLT)

Here’s what it had to tell our church:

– I (God) said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, .. 
For too long have we been expecting a harvest from God without first plowing the ground or sowing seeds in it. I believe this year the Lord is calling me, our church and our nation to begin to sow good seeds of righteousness.

It is easy for us to criticize ungodliness and evil that is rampant around us, but now is the time when God is expecting us to start sowing small and tiny seeds that will bring righteousness in our nation. It could be that one word of prayer, that one extra mile of prayer walk, that little effort you put in to evangelize, or show your love in action, which will fall on the ground as seeds that will bring forth eternal results.

 .. and you will harvest a crop of love.
Isn’t this what we need? In a time and age like this, when porn, and casual and unnatural relationships are celebrated, when evil is on the verge of running us over, all that we need is a mighty ocean of God’s love to flood our lives, our homes, our offices, our parliaments and our nation. This will come as a result of the church sowing good seeds, that will have an eternal value.

Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, ..
Ooooooh! This will be the most difficult part of all. It is easy to organize prayer walks, revival meetings, or worship conferences, but much, much painful to plow our own hearts, get rid of the evil, break the hardheartedness, weep like a baby before God and continually submit to His perfect will for our lives. I believe, more than ever before, God is calling us to repent from the depths of our hearts. It doesn’t matter how painful it gets, will you pause for a moment right now and ask the Lord to help you plow the hard ground of your heart?

.. for now is the time to seek the Lord,
We need to understand that we’ll never be drawn to seeking the Lord unless we have plowed our hearts. As long as it remains rock solid, we will continue to ignore the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit and consistently drift away from God. However, when our heart is sensitive, we’ll be drawn to God even in the darkest days and moments of our life. NOW is the time to seek the Lord, not tomorrow, not the coming Sunday nor the next month, it’s NOW! There is no better place and time to pursue God than here and NOW!

.. that he may come ..
Revival is nothing but God coming down in all His power and glory. Haven’t we been praying for revival? Because when we do what God expects us to do, He will definitely do what He has promised to do, that is, send revival! There is no changing or doubting that.

.. and shower righteousness upon you.’
It is only in the midst of a revival that a city or a nation will experience righteousness in its truest essence.

It is said about the Wales Revival that the prisons were empty and the policemen were out of job due to lack of crimes and criminals. I know it sounds too optimistic to believe or pray such a thing over our countries today. However, if we do experience a revival, we can be sure that righteousness will prevail in the land as a fruit of that revival!

How did God speak to your heart through this post? Do share your heart and thoughts below.