Do This Before Running…

Welcome to the year 2026. I believe God that this year will be the best of your years—that you will go from strength to strength and from glory to glory. Welcome to this glorious year, and my prayer is that whatever proclamations have gone forth from the Lord concerning you and your family, and all that you do, will be made manifest for you in the year 2026 in the name of Jesus.

It’s already 9 days into the new year, amazing how fast the year is running. Many are already running with it and restyling without waiting on God. But before you run, do this first: wait on God and fast. The greatest thing to do is to wait on God. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings as eagles.

Many hit the ground running, they hit the year running. But strategically, it is best to hit the new year by waiting on God and fasting. There are so many benefits of waiting on God and fasting. It is great to set apart days, weeks, etc. to wait on God through fasting.

This must not be a religious activity, it must not be a routine or yearly church program. You cannot make the most of it if you are not purposeful. If you lack the understanding of the power of fasting, you will miss the power that comes with it.

Fasting is not a demonstration of spiritual superiority, it loses its potency when the purpose is misconstrued. Your church family may have declared 3 days of fast, or a 120 day fast, it does not translate to spiritual superiority or inferiority.

Understand that the period of fasting is to set yourself apart to seek the face of God. It’s a time to recalibrate, to turn down the noise, interference, and clutters of the flesh so that you can amplify your receptivity to the signals of the Spirit. The signal of the Spirit will give you great direction for the year 2026, enlarge your capacity, and thrust you forward with unstoppable speed of the Spirit.

Major things of the Spirit are not birthed without men waiting on God. Moses waited 40 days for the tablets of stone written with the fingers of God to be delivered unto him. Jesus waited 40 days before His ministry would begin. Paul and Barnabas would only be separated to the work the Holy Spirit had listed for them when the leaders, the prophets, and teachers fasted in Acts 13. Ezra fasted for direction with his people. Esther fasted for deliverance for her people. Just name it, fasting is vital.

Listen, be blessed, and share this with others.

In optics, radiance is the measure of how much light a surface releases, how strongly it shines, and how far its glow extends. It is important to state clearly that light never appears on its own. It always comes from a source. Whether it's a spark, a flame, or a star, every light has a source. The strength of the source determines the strength of the light.

John 1:4-5 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Light does not appear by chance. It begins with life. Your radiance is directly connected to the life within you. Life is more than breathing or simply existing. Life is the core of your shining. When life flows fully within you, your radiance stretches far. Your purpose expands, your influence increases, your joy is strengthened. But when life is stolen, radiance is dimmed. The enemy understands this. Every attack on your life is truly an attack on your light, on your God-given brilliance, your influence, and your destiny.

Satan has used this method throughout generations. Look at Dinah in Genesis 34. She was the only daughter among Jacob’s children recorded in Scripture. She was meant to be the carrier of generational brilliance.

Sadly, Satan positioned a man called Shechem to dim her radiance. Through the abuse of that one woman, Satan brought down an entire city. The man who raped her died. His father died. All the men in the city were killed (Genesis 34:25-29).

Note that the abuse of a woman often leads to collateral damage. Dinah's family was not exempted. Her brothers became murderers. Jacob was troubled and wounded in his old age (Genesis 34:30). When he was about to die, he even cursed the sons who carried out the attack. The violation of one woman led to the destruction of both the guilty and the innocent.

Do you know that when the man went after Dinah, he even had a deeper secret desire? See what he said to his fellow brethren in Genesis 34:23: “Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours?” They understood that by violating one girl, they could gain access to the wealth and generational blessing of Abraham. They saw that her stolen life was a doorway into the inheritance of a covenant family.

What many young women do not know is that the enemy saw you as a doorway to greatness. He knew you were designed to be radiant and born to shine. So he positioned dangerous, damaged, and demonic people to come after you. Those people were being used even beyond their own understanding. They were manipulated to steal life. By stealing your life, the enemy hoped to gain access to the lives and destinies connected to you.

Tamar, David’s daughter, is another example of a stolen life. She too was violated, raped, and left desolate—not by an external force, but by a family member. Satan always uses external or internal agents. If not a stepfather, it’s an uncle, a cousin, an aunt, or a father. The abuse of a woman is one of Satan’s quickest tools to destroy multiple lives. Through just one stolen life, destinies, nations, and futures can fall.

My wife and I have met young girls who were used to break marriages, damage men, and tear down destinies through sexual perversion at its peak. When we prayed and asked questions, we discovered that their lives had been stolen at an early stage. A wicked messenger of the enemy came to abuse, rape, and shatter them. They carried the pain, the shame, and the loneliness. Some who could not find healing became instruments of destruction. But those who met Jesus became bright and burning lights again.

I sense the Lord saying, this is your season, precious woman of God. You will shine again. Your life will be restored. Your radiance will be restored. You will manifest the light of life. You will shine. You will live. You will grow, and you will rise in the strength of God. Hallelujah.

Enough of crying. Enough of weep

Exodus 34:6–7:“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

“By no means clearing the guilty” — this reveals the justice and accountability nature of God. Justice is the very foundation upon which God’s throne stands. It is the heartbeat of His kingdom. Justice is love aligned with holiness. It is love that refuses to trade truth for comfort or righteousness for convenience. Justice gives love its strength and holiness its meaning. It is how God maintains divine order in His creation and purity in His people.

In God, mercy never violates justice, and justice never cancels mercy. They coexist in perfect harmony, revealing the fullness of His divine nature.

Justice is the balance between compassion and conviction, between grace and truth. Mercy without justice becomes indulgent, and justice without mercy becomes cruel. But when both walk together, the heart of God is revealed — tender yet firm, forgiving yet pure, compassionate yet unyielding.

Justice is not punishment; it is protection. It guards love from becoming weak and holiness from becoming harsh. Mercy heals, but justice preserves what mercy has restored. Every act of divine correction is not an act of cruelty but an expression of care. Justice is how God guards what He loves.

In the covenant of marriage, justice manifests as righteous accountability — the willingness to uphold truth, protect purity, and preserve covenant. Justice in marriage does not come to condemn; it comes to restore. It is the voice that says, “I love you too much to let sin destroy what God has built between us.” It calls for truth, repentance, and humility. It refuses to let pride, secrecy, or deceit erode the foundation that God has sanctified.

Justice restores divine order where selfishness once ruled. It dethrones pride, silences rebellion, and exalts righteousness. It calls both husband and wife to integrity — in speech, in action, and in motive. Justice becomes the inner compass that guides them back to holiness whenever temptation whispers or weariness sets in. It is not control; it is covenant protection. It is not dominance; it is divine alignment. Where justice reigns, love becomes safe, trust is cultivated, and the presence of God abides richly.

Without justice, mercy becomes weakness. Without mercy, justice becomes a weapon. But when they unite, love becomes both strong and secure. Psalm 85:10 declares, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” This is the harmony of heaven, the culture of God’s throne. In such a marriage, mercy heals the wound, and justice ensures the wound does not reopen. Mercy restores the relationship, and justice sustains it.

To live justly in marriage is to live truthfully. It is to speak honestly, even when the truth is uncomfortable. It is to uphold righteousness when compromise seems easier. It is to set boundaries that honor God and to choose forgiveness that does not ignore truth. It means guarding the home as a sacred altar where the presence of God dwells. To dishonor your spouse is to dishonor God. To violate your vows is to violate His order. Justice restores that reverence and places the throne of God at the center of the home.

But hear me singles and unmarried: justice does not begin at the altar; it begins before the altar. It begins in singleness. It begins in the quiet places of integrity, in the discipline of truth, and in the willingness to be accountable. A person who avoids accountability before marriage will not suddenly become accou