Joseph prince

The Year Of His Crowned Goodness

God spoke to me many years ago that every year, He would give me His rhema word for the year for our church. It is not a list of do’s and don’ts, but it is a declaration of what God will do for the church in that year. For 2011, the verse that kept recurring in my Spirit is Psalm 65:11.

Psalm 65:11
11You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.

To Crown Is To Surround

Before we talk about the goodness and abundance God has in store for us this year, let me first explain what being crowned means. In the Hebrew, the word for “crown” is atar, which means to surround. Atar is the same Hebrew word for “crowned” used in Psalm 8:5 where it says that God has crowned man with glory and honour.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve were surrounded with God’s glory and honour which gave them authority and power over every living thing on earth. But when Adam sinned, the glory and honour that surrounded man disappeared. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
But do you know that God has crowned believers today with His glory and honour? Not because we have earned it or deserve it, but because Jesus died for our sins and we are now joint heirs with Christ! (Romans 8:16–17)

Be Conscious Of God’s Glory And Honour

My friend, be conscious of God’s glory and honour surrounding you instead of your lack because you have everything when you have God’s glory and honour.
This was what happened to Joseph, who had nothing when his Egyptian master bought him from the slave market. Yet, even then, it was said of him, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man”. (Genesis 39:2) All Joseph had was the Lord’s presence with him, and he rose up and became the most powerful man in all of Egypt after Pharaoh. (Genesis 41:39–43) It was
God’s crown of glory and honour that brought him the blessings.

God’s Shield Of Protection Surrounds You

Let’s find out more about the glory and honour that we have been crowned with. In Psalm 5:12, the Hebrew word atar is also used for the word “surround”.

Psalm 5:12
12For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favour You will surround him as with a shield.

Today, we are the righteousness of God in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30) and God has promised that He will bless us and surround us with favour as with a shield. Here, atar means “to encircle, for attack or protection”. Even the word “shield” is there to tell us that God’s crown of favour can work for our defence and protection.
This was exactly what Wendy and I experienced one night when we were having dinner at a food centre. We were seated close to a pillar when someone sat down near our table for a smoke. So we decided to move to another table that was close by.
Out of the blue, a man who wasn’t in his right mind came along and smashed an empty glass bottle against the pillar to smithereens. In a split second, there were green glass shards flying everywhere. I stood up immediately and I could see smashed remains all around us. But there was a straight line dividing the glass pieces on one side and us on the other. There was not a single piece of glass on us, our table or even under it. It was as if there was an invisible shield surrounding us. If we had been sitting where we were first seated, we would have been at the place of closest impact. Yet, we were also not too far away from the pillar. We were eating and nothing could have prepared us for this sudden act of violence. It was a miracle that we walked away from the potentially dangerous situation without a scratch. All glory to Jesus for His favour and protection over us!
My friend, I share this testimony with you to illustrate what the Lord said He will do for His people this year. Not only will God surround this year with His goodness and abundance, but He also surrounds you with His favour which blesses as well as protects. Don’t think that His crown of favour only opens doors to make you a success. This same crown of favour is also the Lord’s divine shield of protection over you and your family!

God’s Goodness Found

In Psalm 65:11, we learnt that God has promised to crown your year with His goodness, not your own goodness or the goodness of the world. Let’s see where we can find His goodness.

Psalm 65:4
4Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple.

This verse says that goodness can be found in His house — His church, and not in the world. So whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish or earn to succeed in life, don’t make those things your priority. Instead, draw near to Jesus, come to church and make His house your priority because it is the place where all His goodness is stored. And the Word says that you shall drink abundantly of His goodness and be satisfied. (Psalm 36:8)
As if that is not enough, Psalm 92:13 is a beautiful picture of believers who are rooted in God’s house. The verse says that “those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Now, the courts are on the outside of the house. This means that when you make God’s house your focus, you shall flourish and the results of His goodness can be seen on the outside by others.

His Paths Drip With Abundance

God’s Word also says that this year, His “paths drip with abundance”. (Psalm 65:11) Beloved, doesn’t this make you want to walk in the same paths that God has taken? They are filled with His abundance waiting to be unloaded on you!
God is a good God and He does not want you to toil and sweat today to get abundance. As a child of God, your part is to follow Him in His footsteps. (Ephesians 5:1) Your Abba Father has already gone ahead of you into your future, and He has prepared a path dripping with His abundance!

Incline Your Ear And Come To Him

My friend, God’s heart is to crown us with His goodness and for our paths to drip with His abundance. In the Hebrew, the word “goodness” is tov, and the word “abundance”, or “fatness” in the King James Version, is deshen. There is a passage in the Scripture where these two words, tov and deshen are found together.

Isaiah 55:2–3
2Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good (tov), and let your soul delight itself in abundance (deshen). 3Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you — the sure mercies of David.

Here, God is saying that the things of the world will never be able to satisfy you. Instead, listen carefully to Him and you eat what is good (tov), and let your soul delight itself in abundance (deshen). In other words, your part today is to keep on listening to the Word of God.
In the Hebrew, “listen carefully” is shema shema. This means that you should harken diligently, to listen with your fullest attention.
And in case you did not get the point, God says it again: Incline your ear and come to Him. (Isaiah 55:3) To incline your ear is to humble your ear when God speaks. Then, God says it again, for the third time, “Hear, and your soul shall live”.
Now, this must be something very important for God to say it three times! My friend, listening to God’s Word is the way out of your problems. If you are in trouble, listen to Him. If you are fearful, incline your ears to the gospel preached, for “it is the power of God to salvation”. (Romans 1:16) The Greek root word for salvation is sozo, which means to save, rescue or to keep safe. So, when you listen to the good news of Jesus being preached, God is able to deliver you from your circumstances.

pastor prince