Church leaders putting faith in ‘destiny helpers’ in 2025
Published:Thursday | January 2, 2025 | 12:09 AMCorey Robinson/Senior Staff Reporter
This year will be one of changes, featuring a series of “destiny helpers” impacting the country’s affairs and making things better. It is a belief several pastors in the Corporate Area’s toughest communities held as they rung in the new year on Wednesday.
Some called them “shifters”; others said “angels”, but somewhere throughout 2025, they will come into the lives of Jamaicans, steer the country’s leadership and, most importantly, remedy Jamaica’s run away crime problem and economic woes, explained the religious leaders.
“Many Jamaicans are going through a lot and they need a change, in their jobs, their lives; and many feel like for this year they will have to fight their way to get a change,” charged Pastor Dennis Davis of the Tree of Life Church of God in Cockburn Gardens.
“But God is about to change things. He is going to send the right persons, the right connections, to propel us. My projection is that God is going to send destiny helpers for people who need the change.”
“Everybody needs help, and we need destiny helpers to get to where we are going. One man is not an island, one man cannot stand alone,” continued Davis, who, even as the gunshots and explosions erupted at 12 a.m. on Wednesday, was still leading his congregation in worship and praise.
They were gunshots for celebration, but the constant bloodletting is nothing to be proud of noted Reverend Rohan Treleven of Praise City Transformatión Centre in Trench Town.
He is confident God will chart a breakthrough path away from the challenges of crime and violence in that community and beyond.
“God promised that he is going to bring a set of shifters, and he is going to put them in different walks of life,” he said. “Destiny helpers, burden bearers and intercessors. I’m praying for a revival of true worship.”
The prayers were similar at the Church of God Deliverance Centre Ministry on Chisholm Avenue; at the 203 Olympic Way Church of God of Prophecy; and at the House of God, Alexander Road Branch, where residents lit candles and walked briefly through the community praying for islandwide peace. They were led by Pastor Jordan Edwards.
Inside the Boulevard Baptist Church, off Washington Boulevard, the praises were modest compared to the excitement of the new year which manifested in a cacophony of explosions outside the church.
Words of solace
Its leadership, The Reverend Devon Dick, offered words of solace to Jamaicans facing tough times, especially those who worry excessively.
“We must not worry about the things of life. We just have to try and change those things that we can change, accept those that we can”t and ask for wisdom to know the difference,” Dick said, adding that worrying only compounds the problem.
Instead, he said, Jamaicans should strive to live holy lives bereft of worldly pleasures, and for a healthy relationship with God.
“I also hope that the political leaders, particularly the prime minister, will cooperate more for the betterment of the country, to improve the standard of living and for the safety and security of our people. We have to find solutions to the socioeconomic problems so we can have a kinder, gentler Jamaica.”
Meanwhile, Reverend Augustine Momoh, of Central Assembly of God on Lincoln Road in Kingston, dubbed 2025 a year of recovery; while Bishop Sheryl Robb-Burton, of New Life Association of God on Constant Spring Road, prayed for more children to be brought closer to God during this year.
Momoh’s sermon was centred on recovery from all negative afflictions and disappointments in the past year. Even the death of loved ones was not exempt.
“There are some losses; loss of a parent, for example, recovering from these losses will take time. It has to be incremental,” he said. “The posture that we have to maintain is to look at what God has done for us, and then use that as encouragement going forward. You lose your job, your house, loved ones ... those who are in the grave, their chapter is done. We must not be stagnated by our failures and defeats.”