God says the steps of a good man are ordered by the law. Though he fall over, the Lord lifts him up again. Aye? How about that? So why worry about falling over, because God's just going to lift you up again - if you dare to believe you're a blessed person. See, Righteous falls seven times, and the Lord lifts him up every time. In other words what he's saying is, no matter how many times you fall over in this coming year, God's just waiting there to pick you up. He wants you to be blessed. Ever seen kids trying to walk? They fall over all the time. They don't sort of sit there and say well this is hopeless, I'm staying down, I'm never getting up again. [Laughter] Here's the thing. All of you overcame that one! [Laughter] Except Ian's needed a bit of help over here [Laughter] but every one of us overcame that. Every one of us overcame it - think about that.
So think about every time you fall this year - and I'm sure there'll be mistakes and fall overs, here's the thing. Just acknowledge you've fallen. The worst thing is to be fallen over, and won't even admit you've fallen over. Everyone else can see it. Everyone else can see what's going on, and you're the last one to admit you've fallen over. You're eating the dust, it's all over you, and you can't see it. Hey listen, we need friends around to say: you fell over. [Laughter] And then say come on, get up. Get up, don't stay down. Whatever you do this year, don't stay down. You may have gotten down and stayed down a little last year, but don't stay down this year. I'm blessed, I'm getting up, I'm going forward in the presence and person of God, so what will you do this year, that'll increase the flow of God's blessing, that's the question. What will you do to walk conscious that God is with me, I'm a blessed person?
Here's the last couple of ones now. Notice he says enlarge my territory. That's about provision. See, the first one was personal, second one there was about presence, and now it's about provision - enlarge my territory. Jesus said the same thing, a similar kind of thing. He said: give me today my daily bread, give me what I need, so what his prayer was - enlarge my influence. Now one of the things about enlarging influence is, there's always a giant in the land. Now when the Bible talks about territory, it was a physical land they had, which God said was theirs. Unfortunately there were giants in it, and God says interesting things. He says in Exodus 23, He says: I'm going to drive the giants out of the land, hooray! He says a few minutes later, now you will drive the giants out of the land. Oh, I don't like that!
Now what He's saying is, little by little will I drive the giants out of the land. In other words, I have promised you territory, I promised you blessing, and there are giants, giants of fear, giants of doubt, giants of unbelief, giants of disappointment, giants of grief, giants of rejection - there are things to overcome if you want to expand your territory, expand your influence in this coming year. But He said - notice this - I've already achieved it for you. You have to arise, believe, and go and contend with it, and they'll fall over. Interesting when you read this story, that God sent in hornets in there. Now I hate wasps and bees of any kind - hornets are dreadful. I've been in a place where they had hornets. They're like a magnified wasp. I remember seeing hornets over in Fiji, with blimmin' great legs hanging down off them. They're just like flying terrors - so the Lord sent hornets in, to drive the giants out of the land.