I am pretty committed to getting a Word from God on various matters in life. In fact, over the holidays via a friend, I was reminded of the value of seeing this occur in others, as well as yourself. Well, that led me to a journey we are taking with our staff team, and seeing the first day of it was very encouraging.

We are having a two-day, in-house winter retreat with our Ministry Team. Yesterday we were at Pinnacle Hills all day, and today we are at our Springdale Campus. Much of our time is spent in sharing what the Lord is sharing with us about our lives, our families or our church family, especially the respective ministries led by these staff team members.

I charged them to spend the last few days of 2008 searching and asking God for a Word from God for their lives or families or ministries. I asked them to get an actual Word from the Word of God and then be able to articulate it in one word, perhaps from the text itself.

Well, this was an interesting journey yesterday to see what God is saying to our team, plus what He is saying to each one of our players. It has been a blessing to hear those words shared by these brothers and sisters in Christ. You would be very encouraged if you had been with me in these days. We have many others to hear today and experience their journey with them. Then, the rest of our time is spent on priority issues for the ministry itself.

Any takeaway for you from this blog today? Get a Word from God’s Word for 2009. Then, articulate it in one simple word. There is no telling how many times you will be able to share this in 2009 and how many lives you will be able to touch.

May God give you a Word for 2009.