When I was praying about the year of 2012, I kept hearing the Lord speak to me about GRACE.  In fact, when you observe the year 2012 and actually add the numbers- 2 plus 0 plus 1 plus 2 – it all adds up to 5. Go ahead, take a moment and calculate it yourself. Biblically, the number 5 is the number for GRACE.  Therefore, when I heard the Lord begin to minister to me concerning this year and He continued to speak of GRACE, I really got encouraged when I added those numbers together!
 

Most of us are aware that grace is unmerited or undeserved favor.  I believe this year we will revisit the gift of grace and gain greater understanding of God’s goodness.  Because God’s grace is undeserved, this means that God’s goodness is not expressed to each of us because we are good; it is given to us because He is good!  Sometimes it’s hard to even wrap our minds around this fact.  This is because most of us have, in reality, believed that grace is based upon performance and our religious works.  However, receiving grace from God has absolutely nothing to do with our performance at all; it is completely based upon undeserved favor.  Think about this for a minute- if God’s favor were based upon our ability to do right and perform well, then we would not need His grace, would we?  We would then believe that because of our own abilities we have been blessed.  This is such a deceptive lie of the enemy.
  
   The Accuser
    
The Accuser of the Brethren targets those of us who are performers.  I know this firsthand because I have struggled with perfectionism and performance most of my life.  In my recent book, Silencing the Accuser, Eight Lies Satan Uses Against Christians (Order Now), I go to great lengths to point out how the enemy attempts to keep us bound to religion, legalism and self-condemnation.  The Accuser will attempt to rise up even more in this year because he does not desire that we embrace the revelation of God’s grace.