2025: A Year of Profound Spiritual Awakening — a Time for Rethinking and Retooling for Maximum Impact.
The Year 2025 is here with us - the beginning of a new year, another year added for those who lived through 2024. Daily, we remember and celebrate the day of our birth, counting the years we’ve been around here on earth. The Psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12). Our birth celebrations are expressed in thanksgiving to the LORD God of life, knowing that many who started the previous year with us are no more - and, more importantly, that our days, months, and years here are numbered.
The beginning of every year means different things to different people. For many, it’s time to make new resolutions about their goals for the new year. In other words, they recognize that certain habits and behaviors must change to attain their set objectives. It is the essence of repentance, a crucial aspect of our spiritual journey.
This year, 2025, holds a profound significance for our spiritual journey. It’s a year of awakening, a time for us to rethink and retool our practices for maximum impact.
Apostle Paul begins his letter to the Roman believers with this introduction: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scripture regarding his Son…Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1: 1-4). This gospel, this message of Jesus Christ, is the cornerstone of our faith.
Gospel ! Gospel !! Gospel !!!
The Prophets' messages in the Holy Scriptures point to the anointed One, Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus is the Gospel; the Gospel is Jesus. Take a moment to reflect on this profound truth and how it shapes our understanding of the gospel’s valid message.
Paul’s passion was to share the gospel with all - Jews, Gentiles, rich and poor, illiterate, and the educated. He writes,
”I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jews, then to the Gentile.” “For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:16).
There is no room for storytelling or distractions - It’s by faith from first to last. This means that our faith journey must be sincere and focused, without allowing ourselves to be swayed by false teachings or distractions that lead us away from the true gospel.
Paul laments his people’s stubborn religiosity and the dire consequences awaiting those who turn their back on the gospel:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them…” (vv.18-19).
Paul, speaking in the Holy Spirit, says, "It is godlessness and wickedness for anyone who knows the truth—educated and able to read—or who has read the scriptures but chooses to ignore what they say about the gospel of Jesus Christ, twisting scriptures and fabricating their own stories."
2025 presents us with a significant opportunity for profound introspection and transformation. It calls for each of us to look within, evaluate our beliefs and practices, and strive for personal growth and change.
Prophet Isaiah beckoned the people of Judah, “Come now and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18 KJV).
God presentst a case against Judah as if he were " taking the people to court ”for their breach of covenant.” He calls on his people to examine the case and make the necessary corrections.
In the twilight of his ministry, as he prepared to depart from his people, Joshua told the Hebrews: “You have a choice to make.”
“If it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell (Christians are in the world but not of the world). But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24: 15).
Can you say that for you and your family? Joshua told them, “You can continue to serve God after I’m gone, or you may not. It is up to you.”
To my reader, you can choose whom you will serve today:
You can either embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ or continue without question to follow some “fathers in the Lord”- leaders who, despite their titles, are out of touch with the true gospel. They may be bathing in the glow of false teaching while misleading millions of souls hungry and thirsty for the truth.
Jesus says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Ironically, many churchgoers are in bondage of falsehoods perpetuated by modern apostles and false teachers.
At the beginning of this year (2025), we are stepping back to examine what has become an annual ritual in Nigerian churches: the tradition of declaring 30, 40, 70, and now 100 days of fasting in the new year as the key to accessing God’s special favor and blessings. This practice, which has its roots in the desire for spiritual renewal and divine intervention, has unfortunately become more about the number of days than the spiritual purpose.
Let’s delve into a series of thought-provoking questions that will engage our minds and heart and challenge us to think deeply about our spiritual practices. How do we justify fasting from the gospel standpoint? Where in the gospel or the early church did Jesus or the apostles command fasting as an obligation to access God’s blessing?
How do we justify fasting from the gospel standpoint? Fasting is a biblical practice, not a means to earn God’s favor. Instead, it is a spiritual discipline that can help us draw closer to God, seek His guidance, and express our dependence on Him.
Where in the gospel or the early church did Jesus or the apostles command fasting as an obligation to access God’s blessing? Did Jesus or the apostle teach fasting or make compulsory fasting a church ordinance to be observed annually or periodically as works of righteousness, which are actions or deeds believed to be morally right and good in the sight of God and, therefore, a means of earning God’s favor?
What is our definition and concept of grace? Grace, in Christian theology, is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. We cannot earn it through our actions, such as fasting. What do we teach people about grace as distinct from works of righteousness?
Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Our righteous deeds - religious deeds like fasting, when done with the wrong motives or as a means to earn God's favor, are to God “a polluted garment.” In light of this scripture, how do you come to terms with a church leader commanding his members to fast 100 days, more than a quarter of the year?
People in our churches are under pressure to fast at the beginning of every new year. We now have “New Year Prophets”. People fasted in 2024 with diverse prophecies to the bargain. Let’s do our fact-check. What were the results of the 2024 rounds of fasting? What were the prophecies, and how did they come to pass? Are the people better today than in January 2024 because they fasted 70 days? I leave the reader to fact-check.
Think about this,
Are they making disciples - born-again Jesus followers or clones of themselves? Can they separate Christianity and Bible teaching from myths - from different versions of Indigenous religions? We know that religious rituals spread like wildfire from church to church in our country. People are really into power and would do anything to get it. “Apostles and pastors” promote power-mongering in the name of church growth. More and more churches are springing up in every nook and cranny in place of workshops and marketplaces. New pastors and apostles are emerging, promoting their brands of charismatic movements. They are out there promising the good life for members just by praying and fasting—little wonder the churches are filled with unbelievers pretending to be Christians. Congregants are hearing next to nothing about salvation and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The messaging has changed from holiness to success and prosperity. Cursing in the Church has replaced praying for our enemies, as Jesus teaches his disciples. The G.O.s no longer teach and preach core Christian values and spiritual blessings of living by faith. Their assemblies are full of men and women with no change to old habits and behaviors. The goal, for them, seems to be the more, the merrier.
Moreover, people seek spiritual power in fasting, and most world religions engage in fasting for power. The church has become a breeding ground for power-mongers and health and wealth seekers.
It is nauseating!
One begins to think that church leaders calling on their members to fast 70 and 100 days at the beginning of every year are doing great harm to the body and are driving would-be Christians away from the church.
At this point, we shall allow the Bible to speak - answering a couple of these questions.
Let’s begin by saying that fasting is neither mandatory for Christian character formation/spiritual growth nor central to accessing the spiritual blessings in God’s kingdom. Jesus referred to fasting in passing to underpin its significance as a spiritual prayer discipline. Even then, fasting was not mentioned in the Lord’s prayer. No one can buy God’s favor with fasting. Fasting as an integral part of prayer was never isolated special mention by Jesus. Fasting in Christ’s teaching belongs in an individual’s private and personal realm - not a public affair nor a pre-condition for answered prayers. For all that we care about, fasting is not peculiar to Christianity. To force fasting on Church members is to render the grace of our Lord, Jesus, and the love of God null and void. They say, “You have to earn God’s favor by showing Him how long you can fast.”
Balderdash!
Some Reflections on the Two Ordinances Instituted by the Church in Obedience to the Lord’s Commands.
Apart from his Olivet sermons - teachings that highlight His kingdom perspectives on issues of the law and interpersonal relationships, Jesus commanded his disciples to celebrate two symbolic events that graphically speak to the goal of his entire ministry on earth.
First, the baptism ordinance requires new converts to openly confess their faith in Jesus and symbolically identify with His death and resurrection by immersion in water. Second is the Lord’s Supper, an ordinance established by Jesus after he and his disciples had observed and eaten the Passover meal. The Last Supper, also known as Holy Communion, symbolically replaced the Passover.
In other words, the Old Testament and the New Testament (call them Covenants) are two phases of one continuum, for the Old is fulfilled in the New. Thus, in addition to celebrating the Passover, when all firstborn sons of the Egyptians were struck dead and the Hebrew firstborn children were passed over, the Last Supper foreshadows a future event in which all believers will partake in the ultimate banquet with God’s Firstborn.
Certainly, fasting is not one of Christ’s memorial statements. And here’s the warning from apostle John:
“Anyone who runs ahead (leading) and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work” (2 John 1: 9–11).
SHALOM.
