Touré Roberts - The Year of Perspective

This is the year of perspectives. Every time you move, it’s going to be according to our every time you open your mouth; it’s going to be according to who you are. Every contract, every deal won’t be signed unless you are going to live a life with stop playing, okay? You’re going to flow differently this year. I’m almost done. You’re going to flow differently. God is shifting your perspective. He’s shifting your perspective. That’s what He did with Jacob. He said, «You’ve been called.» He says, «You shall no longer be called Jacob.» In other words, you’re not going to be called Jacob anymore; you’re going to be called Israel. You’re going to be called by the name that I called you. You’re not a slickster. I know you do slick things, but my DNA is in you. Some of you are getting ready to break out of false identities. You’re going to make up your mind once and for all; you are who God says you are. No more vacillating back and forth. I’m powerful in God. Oh, we’re just trying to get by? I’m strong in God! Oh, somebody give me a sandwich. The devil is a liar! I am who God says I am. By the grace of God, I am who I am. I will no longer shrink. I will no longer back up. 2019 is going to be in here; focus on it still being here. Fire! One last passage: Isaiah 43, verse 1. This one verse, one verse: «But now, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: I’ve called you by your name; you’re mine.» Now, if you graze over that, you would think that He’s talking to two different people, but He’s talking to one person. So God is saying, «I both create and I form so that what I have created will ultimately look like what was in my head before I started.» Are you tracking with me? 2018, you can sit down if you want to. Every year, I’ve been graced to give a prophetic word about the year, not because I’m special, but because I believe, as we all should, to walk in what many call the Issachar anointing. They were one of the tribes, and it says this about the tribe; it says a few things, but one of the things this tribe is known for is that they had an understanding of times and seasons and what Israel ought to do, what the people of God ought to do. So every year, I pray and I say, «God, what sort of word about the season of the new year are you releasing?» If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard several; the year of alignment was a couple of years ago. God was bringing things into alignment. An alignment season is difficult because it seems all cute and fluffy—oh, I’m getting into alignment—but to get into alignment means that things that are not in alignment have to break off. So, 2017 was a year of alignment, and it was probably one of the most difficult years, but you got some things in order, and then you stepped into 2018. 2018 was a year of becoming. What’s kind of tricky about alignment is that you think that the moment that you are aligned, you start to take off and prosper and grow and blow up and all that kind of stuff—no, no! Alignment is just positioning you. It’s just positioning; you still have to become. It’s like Psalm 1. You know Psalm 1:3. We love that it says, «Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.» It’s one verse we love: verse 1 and 3. It says, «He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in his season; his leaf will not wither, and whatsoever he does shall prosper.» We like that, but there is a sequence to get to that, and it starts off by saying, «Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, for his delight is in the law of the Lord.» You know it. So, there is an alignment that must take place to get you in a position to grow, evolve, and ultimately to become. So, 2018 is a year of becoming; it’s a year of becoming. Things have been happening. A becoming process is hard—that’s the difference between being created and being formed. The Hebrew word that was translated «form» when He says, «That I formed you, O Israel,» literally means to squeeze into form and has the idea of a potter with clay on its wheel. The season of becoming is challenging and tricky because all of your issues show up! Hey! I don’t have a ton of time because we’re going to launch this thing right into the day; no, you’re in it. Matter of fact, I’m just going to talk to you. I can’t do that; I don’t have enough time to do that. I’m just going to talk to you. So, I like Jacob’s story. There are several stories in the Scripture about people becoming, about them going from God creating them to God forming them, and that’s your destiny. To be honest with you, God created you, and that is wonderful, but He is yet for your becoming. I’ll be honest with you; becoming is not necessarily a one-stop shop where we never really arrive as it relates to becoming. But there are critical and pivotal moments where you begin to take shape in such a way that your life will never be the same again. Oh God, I feel it!