A Message for 2025
By Robert Anthony
Dec 30th 2024
It’s fun trying to look forward – wondering what the year ahead will be like. Our nation has probably never been in a position to change more rapidly than it is right now! But the church is also poised to change at a rate never before seen. But let’s put the conversation about the church on hold for a moment.
We really need to celebrate this great victory with President Trump’s return to the White House. But I am convinced NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO CELEBRATE. It’s not the time to take our foot off the pedal whatsoever, especially in prayer. There is no telling what the powers of the world are plotting each and every day to try and steal from us this great victory!
Truly we can’t guess what will become of the world in 2025, the complexities are far too vast: how will Russia respond to President Trump’s efforts to end the war, the new Syrian regime is already wanting to normalize relations with Israel but is that a trap for Israel? China promised President Biden to his face they will take back Taiwan. Will there be peace restored to Jerusalem?
Are we entering a new dispensation of Empires and Colonies? Seems so.
President Trump is messaging EXPANSION to the world also. Surprising! I don’t think any of us thought he was so serious about buying Greenland, during his last administration. But now he is gesturing about Canada and demanding the Panama Canal returned to us also! Putin and his inner circle certainly have aspirations of restoring their old Soviet Empire and its vast lands and client-states. President Xi has his eyes on Taiwan but what about: Bhutan (again), Mongolia… of course they took Tibet so long ago… and China continues to grab more and more of the sea and its islands on their eastern and south eastern borders. The South China Sea could end up being one of the most difficult negotiations President Trump is walking into.
BRICS Nations and their aspirations will be quieted during Trump’s presidency. While we will see headlines and threats, all in all India is not going to agree, Russia and China have too many running disagreements and the political possibility of going head-to-head against the US Dollar is quickly diminishing by the day. But don’t think that those plans will go away, they will simply be tabled over the next four-years (plus).
RADICAL CHANGE, NEWNESS, UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITIES and LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES will mark the next year(s) ahead. The headlines will be full of international news, it will be very exciting and there will be a temptation to sit back and “enjoy the show” but we must not. Remember “All Politics is Local”. Do we want to win big, really big or ridiculously big!! Do we want a 30-fold return, a 60-fold return or a 100-fold return?
The biggest possible win will come if we all get involved internationally, nationally, state-wide and locally. We must all fulfill our destiny in this hour – and we will win in ways we never before imagined! God will position us, if we allow Him to.
If your destiny is to head to Ukraine, you had better not run for a political-office in your state. If your calling is business to create some amazing new venture, you had better not start a church! If you are starting a family, you had better not prioritize your career and profession above what is most precious to you. To get the biggest wins in the years ahead we had better come to know the voice of God, and then obey Him.
There are near limitless rewards as we come to trust in God's perfect will.
And what of Jesus’ Church?
Jesus wants us drinking “New Wine” but the crowd shouts back to Him, “The Old is Better!” (I paraphrase Luke 5:36-39). Isaiah practically commanded us from the Lord, “Sing unto the Lord a New Song!” (Isaiah 42:10). But we love our old-timey hymns and the Christian classics we’ve been singing for generations. We love what God did generations and hundreds of years ago! We hold to many of these traditions, sometimes even forsaking the Word of God.
It’s a worthwhile conversation – why does the world around us change so much but Christianity is so adverse to change? Within Christianity there are certain traditions that have practically become law but they truly are traditions, not laws. For instance, where in the whole of the Word of God does it define the role/duties of the pastor or priest? Where does it tell us how to have something called a Church Service? But if someone was to re-imagine church and create something new (howbeit Biblical) they would be treated immediately as an outsider, a radical, a counter-culture revolutionary, even a heretic!! Hahaha. I jest. (Somewhat.)
We have literally no example of them taking up a tithe or offering to buy land or build a building all throughout the Bible. (Reread that sentence.) And yet, how many sermons have we heard from these pulpits convincing us that it is our God-given responsibility to fund these minister's real estate ambitions, construction dreams and more!? And they are doing so without even one single scripture to stand on? Quite frankly, I can come up with several scriptures that lead me to believe they are actually going against God and His will for the Church in what they are doing with holy Church funds.
“Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, what house will you build unto me and where is the place of my rest? For since the beginning all these things my hands have made.” (Acts 7:46-51+)
I do want to talk of these things in detail. Perhaps later this year, I will write about it?
Are not the ways of God past finding out? But we, as mere men, like to try to fit eternity and the powers of God into our safe little boxes and buildings - perhaps it helps us sleep better at night? We shove God into our books of doctrine and create even our own dogma – and then we sell it for $19.95 (on clearance sale at Amazon)! Oh, what small and insignificant men are we who decide to diminish our All-Powerful, Omnipresent and Omnipotent God in such a way.
But it has been declared to us, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways above your ways and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaiah 55:9) But who will believe Him?
So instead of letting God out to show us His glory, we try to put Him as if in quarantine. We, as little men, attempt to relegate Him off to the side of the room but then call for Him when we would like for Him to perform, but only when it’s convenient. Most of the Church treats Him like the “Jeanie in The Bottle” saying, “Bless us with Food in abundance, Clothing beyond measure, whatsoever our heart desires, with Houses and Cars, Boats and Vacations – and if you do, we will Praise You.”
We acknowledge Him when we are afraid and hurting, we talk of His power and ability when we need Him but then when we feel safe and our fears subside, we attempt to put Him back into His book, up on the shelf for the next time He’s required of us.
I praise Him because He is so merciful. I praise Him because He loves us so much and understands that we are merely like blind children, trying to find our way in this dark and broken world.
So, it’s first and foremost to the leadership of Jesus’ Church that I sound the alarm. James 3:1 tells us that the leaders will fall under the greater condemnation, the harsher judgment. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus gives us quite the most serious warning, “Not everyone that says to Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say…” (And allow me a little room to paraphrase) “…LOOK AT WHAT WE BUILT IN YOUR NAME!! Look, God, at all we accomplished in Your Name! We did the greatest works on earth, all in Your Name!” But Jesus will reply to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you, you who work iniquity.”
What a stern warning for the people of God.
But the true children of God need not to worry, not for one moment of one day. God loves those who are His: these who are simply content to let God be their Father and Jesus to Save the World!
God does have great plans for us. He wants us to live life and live it more abundantly but also, He is our God and Father. We are not our own gods, but there remains one God and Father, there is but One Salvation and One Savior of the World!
He has adventures for us to go on, with Him! He has incredible stories all prepared for us to live, with Him! He has Good Works laid up, inside of us, in store, to glorify His Son and bless His name all throughout the world. But He remains God and the Father of all.
In Closing.
I don’t personally get too excited about the affairs of men. Whatever good becomes of our nation and the nations of the world, it will all be revealed as broken and godless in the end, built on shifting foundations of sand and iniquity. Very little will remain come the end. (Rev. 16:19) Therefore, in all our striving, in all our building and laboring, let us strive instead like this: that we would know our God and be known by Him!
Bless your families men, come to rest in the finished work of Christ women of God, enjoy your learning and growing children, life is but a vapor, remember, only the good works planted upon eternity will remain.
The warning I give to the Church leaders is this, “Let His people Go!” Your strong and determined ambitions, convincing speeches and manipulation of His Church has continued for long enough. The Church is the Lords, it’s His Ekklesia, He will build it – and the gates of hell shall not prevail. Do you want to teach and lead His people? Then you seek a high calling – a high calling the demands much of you. Be careful with what is God’s, with what He has called Holy.
Israel is God’s, the Church is Christ’s. It is His gospel, His Word and His Holy Name. Be cautious how you would wield the holy things of God.
Will the Revival come this year? Will God birth The New Thing? Jesus responded to us of this before, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power…” BUT we will receive power “after the Hold Ghost is come upon us” and we will be witnesses to God out into the world, even to “the uttermost parts of the earth”! (Acts 1:7-8)
I, like so many of you, long to see this great move of God… And perhaps the move God is looking for truly, is within us!
So we pray, “God move us. Move our hearts and minds. Blow the wind of the Spirit upon us and make us New. We have been broken and defeated for long enough. Make us into something else, something beautiful, something victorious, something worthy of being called the sons of God!”
“We will give You back Your Church, Jesus. It was never ours to have taken control of (them) in such a way. We submit them back to You. We repent for all we did to stand between Your Church and their God. Forgive us Lord.”
“Thank you for this great work you are doing with our nation and throughout the nations of the world! It’s exciting to witness and it inspires hope within us. But let us be a part of Your Kingdom as all these things unfold! Help us to build our lives upon eternity and life-everlasting! We are often children so easily led astray.”
“We love you, Father. Thank you for choosing us to be born for such a time as this!”
“Amen.”
Let us remain in prayer as the old passes away and God makes…
ALL THINGS NEW!!
Amen!?
Love you friends, and brothers, and sisters
Love you very much,
- Robert