It's that time of the year again and as we enter into this new year, we do so with a fresh hope that this year will be better than last year. Isn't that what we normally do? Well I want to start by looking back on the past year before we even talk about going into the new year. Just over a year ago you stood at the same place and you looked forward to the year which has just been.

Now as you look back on this past year and think back on where you were at the beginning of the year, I want you to think back on what you had hoped for in this year. Now at the end of last year I did a series of teachings which I was hoping to publish in a book for the new year. It was entitled creating a new you for a new year and I covered some very powerful principles and had good motivation in it and if we were to apply those principles they would work if I could remember the principles, if I had the ability to apply them, if I were able to keep them up.

But sad to say we fail in all those don't we? Well I maybe this year I will finally release that book but before I do I want to add a very important part. I was not included in that book and so my message today is going to put the capstone on new you for a new year. We will probably add this as an extra chapter to that book before I release it because this chapter is going to help you put into practice the principles that were taught there.

Now I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. I want you to think about it. Did you begin the last year with a clear picture of what you hoped for in the coming year and how many of your hopes were actually accomplished during the year? Do you expect the new year to be better than the last year? Well then tell me this.

What would make your life better this year? What would make your life better? Now what kind of person are you? You probably one of these following three. You wait to see what happens before you take action. Or you make things happen by taking action first.

Or like many of us you're caught by surprise when things happen and you say what happened? Think about it seriously. Now last week we looked at how to get your faith to work and it's a very important part that goes with what we're going to look at today because what we're going to look at today is how to get your hope to work. Now the self-help people out there are telling us and I studied it and even taught it and tried to apply it that the key to success is setting goals.

They say write your goals down so that you don't forget them because it has the power to help you reach those goals. New Year's resolutions are amongst the most common goals that are set as we come to this time of the year. Most of the time they're things that we tried before and failed in.

So you hope maybe this year I can get it to work. But you soon realize that a few things need to change in your life first because you lack the power to follow through. Sure you'd love to have these things.

Sure you'd love to make these changes but you've tried and failed and tried and failed because you don't have the power to follow through on those goals. Now many years ago I studied one of the big self-help guys by the name of Jim Rohn who's with the Lord now. He was a believer.

Very famous one of the top self-help gurus as they call them. I don't know why they insist on choosing Indian terms like guru but they do. And I studied this whole thing on setting of goals and he actually gave a little workbook to go with it which actually asked you a few questions to answer on what you're expecting in the next year and five years and ten years and I got into it with great gusto hoping I was going to change my life.

A few years later as I was digging through the junk we're talking several years later I found this little booklet. Oh yeah I remember when I filled in that booklet. Let's have a look and see what my goals were.

You know what? They were about the same where they are now. I think it changed. I hadn't reached a single one of them.

I still had those desires in me. I still wished I could accomplish those things but I hadn't made one step. Believe me I tried.

I didn't succeed. You see even writing your goals down makes very little difference unless you memorize them and review them continuously so you don't forget them. So now the question is what are you aiming for? Do you have a clear picture of what you want? See when we come to ask the Lord for something we have to be very specific.

We can't say Lord I want more money. He's going to say how much? We've got to be very specific when we set our goals and we can't make clear plans to attain our goals unless you know where you're headed. If you're one of those that says I'll wait until something happens or you're caught by surprise like oh what happened there? I wasn't expecting that.

So do you have a clear picture of what you want in 2020? And then are you ready to accept anything less? How important is this thing to you? Are you consumed with the desire to get it? And how soon do you give up? If it doesn't come quickly how long does it take you to lose interest? What does it take to shift your interest or attention to something else? Say I'm building you up to something and I want you to sink because if I were to sit down with you right now and ask you what you really want and desire your first response is going to be well I'm not absolutely sure and then you'll start thinking about some specific things you want and I'm going to start there and I'm going to take you deeper. I'm going to help you to see that what you really want actually isn't what you think you want. That's why we never get it.

Now what happens when our desires are not fulfilled? Unhappiness, stress, frustration, depression, worry, fear, all of those internal conflicts and emotions come into our hearts and that makes us very inefficient in the things that we do. Because we're frustrated within. It affects your relationships, it affects your health.

I already did a full teaching on that on how these things affect your health. If you're struggling with a health problem and nothing's working, the medicine's not working, the prayer is not working, it's just not breaking free. Perhaps if you care to admit it, you've got some of these inner things there that are actually affecting you.

It also affects your finances. And so those great three central things to life, health, wealth and relationships, they all take a dive. Because we're frustrated, we're stressed, we're worried, we're afraid.

If we'd admit it and then we stop aiming, we stop shooting. So somebody said if you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time. If you aim and you miss, you're getting closer.

But the way to get the target is to keep aiming and firing until eventually you hit. You know, we use the term big shot for people that seem to have accomplished and they've risen up. He's a big shot.

Or somebody said a big shot is just a little shot that kept shooting. So you're a little shot, maybe if you kept shooting, you may eventually become a big shot. What happened? We spoke last time about persistence, patience, endurance.

Very important. Now hope is the force, the spiritual force that keeps us on target. And I use the illustration, I explained it again last time, that we have a weapon.

The best illustration is a laser gun. It contains the charge that emits the laser. And that is faith.

It has a trigger which releases the power of the laser and that is love. But it must be directed, aimed and focused on a target to accomplish anything. And that target is hope.

Hope gives our faith a direction, a target to aim for. But it must be maintained. You can pull the trigger and the laser fires, but if you don't keep it on the target, it's not going to accomplish anything.

It's going to stop. So how do we change all this? How do I get my true desires to come to a place where I keep at it, where I don't forget it, where I maintain until I get it? The way you do it is by identifying what is known as a core desire. See, we have many desires in life, but they come at different levels and have different influences on us.

Let me tell you what a core desire is. A core desire is a desire that's strong enough to keep you trying. It's a desire that dominates your thoughts and your feelings and it's a desire that doesn't go away until you've reached it.

But you see, our desires are at different levels. And most of the time, what we think is our core desire is not a core desire at all. Well, how do we assess what our core desire is? If I were to ask you right now, what is the main driving force in your life? What is your main core desire? At first, you may have to think about it.

And when you tell me your answer, I will guarantee, guarantee that you will not touch on your core desire at all. You're going to start at a much higher level. You see, there are different levels of desire.

We have the higher levels of desire. And amongst these are things like health and wealth, relationships, self-worth. Why do we want these things? Why do we want to be healthy? Why do we want to have financial independence and wealth? Why do we need relationships? Why do we need to feel good about ourselves? Because we have a deeper problem.

And we see these as a way of solving that deeper problem. But most of the time, we don't identify what the deeper problem is. We just look on the surface and we look at these higher levels.

So you need to move from the higher level down to a lower level. What inner motivation or reason do you have for wanting this? And what have you decided is the best way to get it, which usually is a false solution. But in your mind, you're thinking, if I could do this, if I could get that, I will get the thing that I'm really looking for.

Now, there may be several levels before you finally get down to the core level. And the core level is your main motivation or need. And it's a driving force that's unstoppable.

You will not accept less or second best. You will never give up. You will keep going.

You will persist until you reach that goal and get that desire. Now, how do we find that core desire? Somebody suggested that the best way to do it is to give yourself a scale of one to 100 and start assessing your desires and see what level between one and 100 you would give them. Anything that's below a 20 usually is a temporary desire and not terribly important.

You start out with, hey, that'll be great. Doesn't take long. You forget it.

And it fades away. And then you think, oh, yeah, I was going to do that. Wasn't that important? Then we get a 32 or 50 and we're coming into some of our higher level desires.

And they can be more than one. And here is where our things like health and wealth and relationships appear. They appear in this slightly higher level.

Why do you want wealth? Nobody wants wealth so they can just have money. They want what money can buy. They want what money is going to give.

See, nobody just wants health so they can say, oh, that's wonderful. I'm going to live a long time. You only start worrying about that when you start dying.

When suddenly you get sick in your older age, you realize, hey, I don't have that many few many years left. I need to start concentrating on my health. But when you're young, I've got plenty of time ahead of me.

Health is not that important unless being healthy can give me something that I really do desire. Can you see that? Relationships. Well, you know, if I had more friends, if I was married or engaged, oh, that would make all the difference in the world.

Would it? Is married and engaged people out there that are frustrated and worried and stressed? See, question is, what is that going to give you? What are you going to get? Then we go to 60 to 90 scale. And this is where we're coming to some of our inner motivations. Things like, I want freedom.

I want to get rid of some of these conflicts I have within me. I want to be accepted and recognized and understood and appreciated. And some of these may even become 100.

But the 100 is your true core desire. It's very specific. It's very emotionally dominating.

When a person begins to express their core, they either smile or cry, or do something that just, it's all over them. They can't stop talking about it. They bubble.

Well, I'd like to have enough money to pay my debts. When's the last time you got excited about paying your debts? So excited that you couldn't wait to get up in the morning to pay your debts? No. You see, you've got to drill down from the top.

So let's take some examples. My desire is to make a lot of money. Okay, good.

Now assume your desire is fulfilled and you've got all this money. What does this give you? How do you feel now? Where do you go from here? Well, I could buy a nice house in a posh area. Something really fancy that pops and stands out.

Wonderful. Now you've got this wonderful house in an elite area of town. What does this give you? You know what? People are not going to look down on me anymore.

People are not going to despise me. People are going to sit up and take notice when I talk. You see, you're getting down to something much deeper.

Because you know what? When I grew up, nobody took me seriously. I was always pushed down and ignored. Now I will get, finally, people will listen when I speak.

They will take notice, pay attention. They'll respect me. Can you see the hundred? See, there's your core desire.

If you were hiding behind, I'm going to make lots of money, so I have to start businesses. I've got to work hard. I've got to push.

I've got to market. You haven't identified what's really driving you yet. And you know what? That need may be able to be met in a different way.

Certainly with the Lord it can. For years you've been trying to raise enough finance. You're struggling and you're frustrated because the money is not coming and that deep inner burning need in you is not being met.

I've got bad news for you. When you make the money, it still won't be met. And then you'll have to find something else.

You have to find another core desire. Well, I want to be healthy. Why do you want to be healthy? So I can be efficient and play sports.

What kind of sport do you want to do? Competitive sports. Okay, so now you are fit and healthy and able to compete in that kind of sport. What does this give you? I'm going to win.

I'm going to come first in the race. I'm going to beat the record. What's that going to give you? Oh, they're going to splash my name up high.

All my friends that thought I was an idiot, who thought I was a little weakling, all the bullies they used to pick on me, they're going to look, they're going to notice. You find your own. Start taking what you think is your desire.

Well, I really want to succeed. I really want to make a lot of money. I'm going to make my business have branches everywhere so that we can raise a lot of money.

Why? So I can support the work of the Lord. Oh, that's so spiritual. Why do you want to support the work of the Lord? So preachers won't look down on me and see me as the little nobody in the church.

When I speak, they'll take notice. They'll actually listen to some of my ideas instead of just brushing me aside. Well, you've obviously had some experiences there.

I'm not saying any of these apply to you. I'm trying to give you some ideas, a way to look. And if you find it hard to do by yourself, get somebody else to ask you these questions.

If you obtain this desire and reach it, what would that give you? How would you feel? Where would you go from here? And then when you get that one, okay, now that you've got that, where does this take you? Keep drilling down. You may have to go six or seven levels before you finally find what is at the core of what is really driving you. In this world, you have a series, a range of teachings, of programs known as self-help.

I studied all of them. Spent a lot of money buying books in all of them. I even went into the word of faith, which is kind of like a spiritual self-help, to see how I could get what I really desired.

That wasn't good enough, so I went to the Lord and I got my own principles, which I put out called The Way of Blessing. Very powerful principles. Many of them came straight from the throne room.

You won't find other people teaching them. Powerful stuff. They seem to work for everybody else except me.

Tell you what, I've been pushing for years, and I'll get shortly to where ministry fits into it. We came to our first seminar this year on transformation. The Lord did what he always did.

He said, you live it before you teach it. He began to dig in me and show me some of my true cause, my true motivations, and what was really pushing me. He reached in and he healed them and took them away.

I was at a loss. All these years I've been pushing so hard to succeed in ministry. I didn't need to do that anymore.

The need was met. You know what it's like to lose the drive? What are you aiming for? Well, I've arrived. I don't need to aim anymore.

Oh boy. Lord, where do I go from here? The Lord said, now you're finally ready to do what I really called you to do. I said, Lord, you know how many years I've been doing this? I've been teaching other people.

The Lord said, yeah, that was part of your calling, but that's not your final calling. Oh dear. But you know, Lord, it was nice.

It gave me a sense of satisfaction. It brought me to a place where people respected me and looked to me and appreciated me. People wrote and said, I read your book and it was awesome.

Oh, you know, I wrote those books to bless other people. Did I? Yes and no. You see what I'm saying? I'll get shortly to ministry.

Now, what is stopping you from attaining your core desires? What has prevented you until now? What main thing, if you overcame it, would make all the difference? Have you thought about that? Well, the best place to look for that is inside of you, in the area of the inner conflicts that you have. Now, I'll tell you what's the main hindrance for most people is fear. Fear.

You know, most of us never admit we're afraid. Well, you know, I could see me standing up there preaching to the crowds. Okay, let's put you up there.

The thought terrifies me. It terrifies me. I'd really like it, but it terrifies me.

You see, so on the one hand, I really want it. On the other hand, I'm almost afraid I'll get it. You been there? We have things like procrastination.

I once said that if I could conquer procrastination, I would accomplish everything I ever wanted in life. So the Lord said, okay, let's help you overcome procrastination. And I did.

We never really overcome it, but there's no longer control. And I thought, that's it. Now I will accomplish.

It didn't. It was more. It was more.

And perhaps I wasn't really ready to admit that there was some inner drives in me. Things that I was hiding away that I wasn't prepared to open up. Those were the things that were really hindering me.

So fear and insecurity, low self-concept, many of these things, they hinder us from reaching out and accomplishing our desires. Now, you know what happens? The Lord took the children of Israel to Sinai and gave them a direction. And you know what? They missed it.

So he took them around the mountain again, and again, and again for 40 years. How many times you've been around that mountain? And every time you will come face to face with that same weakness. And you think, well, I can bypass it because I have so many other strengths.

Just look at me. I'm intelligent. I'm attractive.

I'm capable. Whatever your strengths may be, I can overcome. I can succeed.

But then one little thing, well, you know what? It's not really that. You know, some people, they need it, but I really don't need it. I could get by without that.

And so you go around the mountain again, and maybe you succeed a few things. But there's still that deep nagging thing deep within you. It's like what I described last week when I spoke about a motorboat that's going flat out, but there's a rope tying it to the bank.

You need to cut that cord. You take off immediately. If you care to admit and be honest with yourself and say, I have a problem in that area.

But if you're insecure, you don't want everybody to see your weakness, so you'll never admit it. You won't even admit it to yourself. Well, any healing began to change that for me.

I couldn't stand up as the big apostle and the great big teacher who was instructing everybody else or standing before the king of kings, and he was higher than me. And I began to see myself in his sight. See, and so as he began to dig down in those things and take them out of me, amazing.

The thing I've been striving to accomplish for so many years, I suddenly realized I actually had already accomplished it. But I didn't feel I could accomplish it because I still had this thing within me. And the Lord just took it out.

And I no longer had the drive to accomplish that because there were other things. And now I could break free of what I thought was the core desire and find out that there were other core desires that God had for me. See, the force of hope is not a vague thing.

It's not, well, I hope this year is going to be better than last year. If that's the way you feel, I've got bad news for you this year. It's either going to be the same or worse.

See, hope is not a flaky little thing that we make. Hope is a positive expectation. Hope says I can see it happening and I expect it to happen and I won't be happy until it happens.

See, that's hope. Hope says, well, you know what, let's just hit in the direction of that mountain and maybe we'll hit the bird on a tree. Or maybe we'll just aim towards the tree and maybe I'll hit the bird by mistake.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Blast the whole branch down, the bird flies away. I know we shouldn't be shooting birds.

I did when I was young. Other than I was aggressive. I remember once sitting with a little catapult and there were some pigeons on somebody's roof and I thought, I will never hit one of them.

Let's just shoot it. And this jolly pigeon. Killed that bird.

And I realised these pigeons were a guy who raced pigeons. It was a racing pigeon. They were not any old bird.

Man, I ran my legs off. I was terrified. And I heard somebody, somebody killed my racing pigeon.

Who? Not me. See, hope is a spiritual force. It's very powerful.

It's very exact and it's very positive. But as I said last time, hope doesn't run alone. It requires faith and love.

See, faith is knowing that you know. Having an assurance that God wants you to have this. Finding some scriptures on which to base your desire.

Know that it's okay. God wants me to have this. Love adds an ability to follow through.

Love helps you overcome fear. Did you know that? The Bible says perfect love calls out fear. You know what? A father or a mother will put their lives in danger to save the child that they love.

You'll throw yourself in the fire and get burnt. You pull out the one that you love. Love is greater than the fear.

Love is a very powerful force. And when your motivation becomes the love of God instead of what will people think of me, that changes everything. Now, how do we align our core desire with our ministry calling? Now, I've spoken and taught in our launch your ministry about the difference between a ministry and a calling.

Let me remind you briefly what the difference is. Ministry or desire for ministry is frequently based on your experiences in life and your personal aspirations. If you grew up in poverty, you find yourself having a compassion for people who are poor.

If you grew up an orphan, you have a compassion for people that are orphans. Whatever experiences you had in life, you tend to have that soft spot for other people. And so as you come to do a ministry, a spiritual thing for the Lord, you find yourself gravitating towards that kind of activity.

And it's actually a strong drive. It keeps you going because it's a real emotional desire in you. But it's not a calling.

It's not a calling. What is your calling? Well, I'm called to be a prophet. Are you really? Why do you want to be a prophet? Think about that.

Why do you want to be a teacher? So nobody will think I'm stupid anymore so I can instruct them and know more than them. Could be your motivation. Could be.

Could be quite simply. You know what? When I grew up, I really struggled to study and understand things. I want to help make it easy enough so people can grasp the Word of God without being pushed into studying and forced to do something you don't want to do.

They can see that it's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But can you see that somewhere along the line, your core desire is starting to mix with your activity? The Lord.

Because ultimately, what's driving you has now become colored by your activity in the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit that you desire are to help you do that better. So I really need gifts of revelation to be able to help people in their problems.

I really need a better knowledge of the Word so that I can counsel people in their problems. Because man, I've had every problem there is and I really have a compassion for people with problems. Well, isn't that wonderful that you desire to help others? That's my core desire.

It's helping other people. Is it really? What is it going to give you when you finally helped people? Sense of satisfaction? People are finally accepting you because you cared enough for them. They're not rejecting you anymore for all the other things.

It is so easy to get it mixed up, isn't it? What is helping other people going to give you? Well, they'll finally respect me. Nobody ever respected me. Nobody ever listened to me, paid attention to me.

See, so your core desire very often, having some of these deep-rooted things, begins to get mixed up with your ministry. And in the end, your ministry becomes not so much meeting the needs of others, but in meeting the needs of others, meeting your own need. And you know what? God's still going to bless it.

But here's a test. If you minister to somebody else and they reject your ministry, how do you feel? If you've got this brilliant revelation in the Word and you taught it, then somebody says, well, I disagree with that. No, that's nonsense.

Or, hey, I've known that for years. What's so brilliant about that? What I shared with you, my powerful revelation, doesn't it excite you like it excites me? No, I've heard that before. My emotions drop.

See, what was my real desire? Was it really to help people? Or was it to impress people? That they would look to me in a different way. Now, I want you to realize that a calling is a kind of a core desire. It comes from deep within.

It doesn't fade over time. And it becomes a driving force inside of you. I want to work for the Lord.

I want to give my life doing something in the Kingdom of God. And so you start off having that passion, having that inner drive, and how am I going to fulfill it? Your personal desires come in first and they color your ministry. And your actual real calling takes the vaccine.

That's why it sometimes takes so many years, as I taught, for us to find out what our calling is. Because your calling is something specific and unique that God gave to you. Well, I'm called to be a prophet.

There's thousands out there. Well, I'm called to business. There's millions out there.

What makes you special? See, your calling is something that's uniquely, specifically designed so that you're the only one who can do it. It's based, yes, on your experiences. It's based on your knowledge.

It's based on your abilities. It's based on your physical capabilities. It's based on exactly who you are and will be.

And God chose it before you were born, but it's progressive. You reach it in stages. Now, how do we mix these two together? Because that's where most people have a problem.

So as you start this new year and you finally identified your true core desire, are we going to look at that more and we're going to see how we can maybe meet some of those needs God's way, with God's help, without you having to use the false methods that you thought were necessary, without you having to drive yourself and drive yourself. So I really don't feel like working this weekend, but if I don't work, I'm not going to get the results that I need. You can't rest.

You are driven, but you don't really know what's driving you. See, the core desire is a very powerful driving force, but it needs to be understood so that it can be clarified. And maybe God's got a better way for you to meet that desire.

Maybe an easier way, maybe a more spiritual way, maybe a much quicker way. Maybe your desire is based on bad experiences and hurts of the past and the Lord can heal it and modify that core desire to something more positive. That's what you need to find out.

And then as you examine the call of God on your life, you need to know how to bring the core desire and the call of God together, so they flow together, until eventually your calling takes priority. And you take the core desire and you have it add drive to your call. In other words, it adds extra drive and power to your calling.

And then you can actually fulfill both of them together with the help of the Lord. Can you see that? As we face this new year now, get ready for change. You know, most of the time when we set our goals, we look for change in our circumstances.

I can see me. I've got the money. Well, what's money going to give you? I could buy a new car, one of those nice big fancy ones.

That's wonderful. What's that going to give you? Or you know, when I drive up in my car, people are going to say, huh, you must be pretty wealthy. You must be pretty successful.

I should pay attention to this guy. When I drive out in my car there, the women are going to notice me instead of just brushing me aside. Maybe I'll finally find that partner that I'm looking for.

You see how it all gets mixed in. You know, God wants you to have these things. God wants you to be wealthy.

He wants you to be healthy. He wants you to have an abundance of satisfying relationships, and he wants to give you the best. But these things are not our prime goal.

Our prime goal is to glorify the Lord in our lives and to fulfill the plan that he has for us. Along the way, all of these things will be added. As the scripture now says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added.

But while we're focusing just on one, we actually never reach what we truly desire because it's a false solution. At the end of the day, if I come to the end of 2019 having 10 times the wealth that I have now, but I'm still the same poor thinking person with a poverty mentality, what's the wealth going to do for me? I'll probably spend it all in the first month. See, I've got to change from within.

I must become a wealthy person before wealth comes. I must be a person who knows who they are before I start developing relationships with others and have confidence. The change must come within me first.

Somebody said for things to change, you have to change. The circumstances that you're in right now are a result of who you are. Not even about what you did.

It's who you are. See, because who you are determines what you do. Who you are determines what you say, how you act.

You've got to change who you are. And that you can only do with the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm afraid. Only the Lord can do that for you.

That's why I entitled my series, The New You for a New Year. Not new circumstances, not new blessings, a new you. Because when there's a new you, there will be new circumstances.

So start by identifying your main core desires. You usually find this one main one that drives you most of the time. There can be other ones.

There should be other ones because when you reach that core desire, something else must step in to take over. I know what it's like to lose my core desire and not know where I'm going, floating around. For an expressive, that is a disaster.

Expressive without a goal is the most miserable person in this world. Identify God's purpose for your life. And then deal with those hindrances that are blocking you and see what God needs to heal.

Because by his power, he can go in and transform those memories and change you and make you into the kind of person that you should be and that you desire to be. Then get ready, aim, pow, fire. Once you start firing, keep firing until you hit the target.

So as you enter into this new year, and you know what, it doesn't have to be a new year as in the 1st of January. Every day starts a new year for us. So this is not a once a year message that you can listen to now and forget in a couple of weeks time and go relisten to it again in February.

It's still a new year ahead of you because the year doesn't start with January. The year starts with tomorrow. What lies for you in the year ahead? Oh, well, I wish a prophet would give me a revelation, would give me some prophetic prediction to tell me what's going to happen to me this year.

I can tell you what's going to happen to you this year even without giving you a prophecy about the same thing that happened to you last year and the year before. There's going to be conflicts. There's going to be difficulties.

There's going to be problems. People are going to be ugly to you. You will hit snags and problems.

Satan's going to be on your back. The world will try and squeeze you. It doesn't change.

You must change. You must change. You must know how to handle these things and you must set the goal and say, okay, Lord, this is what I want to be.

And along the way, yes, I would like to be financially independent. I would like to walk in health. I would like to live a little bit longer, Lord.

You know, some people die just a little bit older than me, but I don't want to be one of those. I want to live a bit longer because there's so much that I still want to accomplish for God. You know, Paul kind of reached that stage and eventually got to the place where he said, okay, I fought the fight.

I've done my thing. I can go now. I don't want to ever reach that stage, but I might.

I did kind of reach that stage when I reached my goal and I lost my core desire. The Lord said, I'm not letting you go yet. Here's a new core desire for you.

Here's a new goal for you to aim for. See, well, as an expressive, I have to have that. Some of you analyticals might think a little bit different, but actually in the end, we're all the same.

It's the goals that keep us going. I see old people writing things and saying, well, you know, now that I'm old, I've got to be careful with my health. I've got to take my medications and just sit and wait until I die, basically.

And I think, you know, you're going to die any day now. See, I don't have time to die. I've got too much I want to do.

I've got too much that God wants to do. There's too much that God can still use me in in this world. I don't care what age you are, whether you're young or old.

Keep that core desire burning white heart. Focus it. Go and reach the goal and the target.

In the end, we do it. We'll turn this world upside down for the Lord. Let's make 2019 as good as 2018 was.

Ooh, but 2018 was bad. I can't, you know what? 2018 was the best years I ever had. So you didn't have any problems? Probably had more problems than before.

But you know what? I found a way to overcome them. I got some new revelation. I got some new direction.

I got some change taking place in my life. Oh, the Lord totally rearranged me. By the end of 2019, I expect to see a whole lot more of that.

I expect to see me flying high. But I wouldn't have arrived yet. Sorry, I got 2019 and 2018 back to front.

Sorry, we in 2019 now. 2020, cancel that, folks. See, I'm getting old.

But I don't care if I'm getting old. I will still push on. You see what I'm saying? What are your aspirations for the year that lies ahead? And actually, it's better I don't even mention years in this because this message is going to apply 10 years from now.

Just the same. As you face tomorrow, you start a new year in your life. Start it by finding out what is really driving you.

Start it by finding out what's blocking you. Ask the Lord to help you. Get focused.

Start making some plans. And then I've got lots of principles to give you, which you'll find in the rest of New Year for a New Year. So I would recommend you go and read it.

We've even got a bridge so you can even go and listen to it. Start focusing. Keep going.

Keep pushing. And keep reaching further and further and further. And as you come close to a goal, you take the goal further and further.

There's always something lying ahead. That makes life worth living. That brings the true joy and satisfaction in this wonderful abundant life that the Lord's given for us.

Father, I thank you for your word and I pray for each one who's heard it now. I ask that you'll help them to identify what the true driving force is. What lies at the core of everything that they want to do.

I ask you also to reveal your purpose and calling for their life so that they can get these two aligned together and flowing together as one. Lord, I'm asking you to reach in and heal some of the hurts that have been left, some of the traumas of the past, some of the bad ways a person's been treated, some of the scars that have been left by words and actions of others. All those things that color our core desire and block it and hinder it.

The fears that stop us from reaching out and being all that you called us to be. I ask you by your spirit to move deep now and pour your healing oil deep down, deep down into the heart and soul of each person that's listening to this now. I ask you to massage those wounds, to take out the thorns and to heal with your warm healing oil of your spirit so that we can rise up now strengthened and ready to face the time that lies ahead knowing that your Lord already gone ahead of us.

It's to you, it's always now. May we find what it is that you've already laid out for us for the year that lies ahead and may we accomplish every single part of the plan that you made for us. Thank you for that now in Jesus name.

Amen.

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