A word for 2026

 Stop looking backwards, start looking forward.

Recently, I have spent a lot of time looking back in time. I am a historian, so that is where my natural gaze goes. There is value in looking back, remembering what God has done, and celebrating his goodness. We share our testimonies of God’s actions in our lives to encourage each other to do it again in his power and favour.

We also look back in order to examine ourselves. We look to see whether we have anyone to forgive, or to reveal any bitterness or offence we might be carrying. We look to see if there’s any trauma, experiences or decisions made where we have let in or made agreements with negative spirits. This is part of being refined in the fire, part of a healing process we go through with Holy Spirit, bringing the dross of our lives to the surface so he can skim it off, leaving us pure and whole in him.

But Father God is saying that it’s time to start looking forward. We may set goals at the beginning of a year, including things we want to achieve or do, but I don’t think he means that. We may have, or hear, prophecies about what God is doing, some of which may point to future events, but I don’t think he means that either.

He is asking all of us, whatever our spiritual gifts or prophetic insights, to look forward.

We find it easier to look backwards because it’s familiar, we have already been there, it has already happened, and we can know it. We can look backwards ourselves without the help of Holy Spirit.

Looking forward is looking into the unknown. We have to trust in Holy Spirit entirely, we haven’t been there before, we cannot know it yet, we have not experienced it.

So, in 2026, let’s keep our focus on Jesus, submitting ourselves to opening our hearts, minds, ears, and eyes to be available to perceive what he wants to show us and reveal to us, looking forward, not backwards, and to share and encourage each other with our findings.