All posts by Carlo Merrick

Saved by the power of God. Huband, father and preacher. Living to reveal the heart of God to the world.

Being ok and shame free.

When we focus on what not to do and disqualifying people for not doing what is right, we are not helping people be authentic. Even scripture gives us the concept to be hot or cold, worst thing is to be lukewarm.

Lukewarm is the place of lying to yourself and others about the state of being you are in.

Also when we try “do” right, speak right, dress right, eat right out of a place of lack within ourselves then we are operating via shame. This is not a life giving or transforming force. But instead it is a tormenting state where you have to suffer in order to appear to be ok. If you want to be more or be better, it shows that you have had at least a glimpse of Gods idea for you, since you are made in His image.

Start with being ok now. Whether you are spiritually cold or hot. Be ok, you are enough. If you can let God love you, you will turn hot, because He can warm you with His love. From this place, doing the “right” things is part of who you are, not dead works to try quiet the shame of falling short.

We all fell short, but then Jesus came. Feeling all the shortcomings of man within His body. He understands, it’s ok. Hebrews tells us we have a High priest that sympathises with us in our shortcomings.

He is our reason to heal. Forget the people’s opinions who just tells you to what you are not. Be ok with you, because Jesus saw the present you and died for you. Also what He died for has released the potential for you to walk in more than you ever have before.

Be ok and heal.

We tend to say : I need to get back on the straight and narrow. In another way we are saying we need to get our act together. God doesn’t desire for you to “act” like you love Him or act like you are a saint. The straight and narrow is Jesus! Not the things you say and do or don’t. It is from a place of being with Him that you do His works.

It is from a place of healing that do the works, it is a priviledge. Religion has put a veil of shame over doing godly works or the lack thereof. He knocks at your door, if you let Consuming Fire Himself in, you will burn with Him.😁🙌🔥 See less

Healing of the soul

I have preached & taught on our identity in Christ for a few years now, how it includes not just healing and prophecy, but the being, as in your perspective of yourself and of God. Walking in the supernatural, so it includes the way we live when we are all by ourselves and how we love others.

Yet recently I discovered how I missed things within myself that was not healed.

I read a secular book from a psychologist on some things I never heard the church talk about. I realised in our religious mindsets we were wired to profess healing and new life while ignoring anything that might resemble the opposite. When I say ignore, I mean we train our self to act like is not there.

But what if we admit that there are some things inside us that might still be broken? Does it mean Christ failed in healing us? No ways. Through Christ we are/were healed. Isaiah 53:5, 1 Pet 2:24

It means we have the Source Himself to withdraw from. Many physical healings I have seen through my own ministry happened when I made people aware of their pain, rather than being ok with just hearing the religiously saying “I believe I am healed” to me and then I walk away.

When they admit their pain or sickness in their body, I saw God heal them right there as I shared Gods heart with them! Then they can be real about their healing as well, which was awesome.

Back to the soul. If we can take ownership of what is broken, then Christ can come heal. If our confidence is truly in Him always being the healer, then we can go to Him confidently with our broken pieces.

I want to add, not all ministries that focus on the soul getting free actually helps. Shortly after I read the book and started trusting God for healing, a person in ministry gave me a prophetic word regarding this broken piece in me and how God is turning it around, in so doing showing me the Healers plan. This was helpful. Another ministry person called out the broken piece in me and blamed a spirit for the trauma, then prayed for deliverance. This was not helpful, since it only highlighted the issue and the need for this persons ministry in order to be free. There was no ownership encouraged for what I needed healing from, instead it was just some other spirit or the devils fault who caused the brokenness(which means it can happen again).

I’m thankful that I was already walking out healing with God, so I knew what to do with the negative info about me.

Lastly, taking ownership has been great since I could tell my wife(who needs to live with me and everything I come with) that I found the issue and solution to things that has had a negative impact on her for 14 years.

Taking ownership is powerful, Christ was our example. He took ownership of our sin(because He had none) so there could be healing to receive His righteousness.

We don’t always realise, when we as Gods representatives don’t take ownership of the broken things in us, then the people around us who experience the outflow of what is in us will think it is God doing it to them through you. That is not representing Him well.

Take ownership, so God can give you your own freedom & healing.

 Your family will praise God with you.

Teach your kids to fail.

Reading that first statement might have made you twitch. Here’s the next one :

Christ taught me to fail successfully.

Read this passage with me.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:17‭-‬18 ESV

Christ says the Father loves Him because He lays down His life. We know how unfair the events were that lead up to the point of the crucifiction.Also worth noting is that Christ knew He has the power to lay it down(think about that) and also the power to take it back up.

Many of us have only received a gospel where we win, get breakthroughs and blessings. We teach our kids the same, there is no losing, saying something is hard or even uttering anything negative is a big no no. The problem with this is that we don’t learn how to actually deal with situations and circumstances that are hard or even unfair at times via the faith God works through us.

Where should the focus be? God, right? Yes, not on our victory. Because it is His victory, His blessing, His finished works working through us.

If we focus on OUR victory we are trying to achieve, selfishness and the flesh can take control there and by partnering with that, we will manipulate and trample other people around us for the sake of our victory.

Teaching our kids what they carry is far more powerful through love than cheering them on to feel affirmed only because the got what they wanted or attained what you as parent wanted for them. You know why so many parents refuse to have their kids lose at something? Because the parents don’t really know who they are. You have to know Who you carry before you realize you have the power to lay yourself down.

Maybe some child suicides could be prevented if kids knew how to lose successfully. Because then they will know, it is not about just getting what they want, but that their life and destiny is much bigger than what they are facing right now.

The ultimate is when God gets what He wants, because His nature is love. He wants to pick us up and comfort us, heal us, free us and give us hope. But we have to partner with Him to receive that.

We have His incorruptible seed in us if we have received Him, therefore we have the ability to overcome. So we will through His strength. But if we have learned to lose successfully, then winning also loses the buzz we get. Instead our heart will be filled with thankfulness for the faithfulness of God through our life.

Losing successfully is knowing inside you, you have the ability through Christ to do anything but using the ability to serve, lay ourselves down for the sake of love, still fully knowing He will lift our heads, comfort and promote.

It’s about His agenda. If we seek to accomplish our own in His name then we will wrap religious language around our agenda and manipulate people into our mission(the thing some of us need healing from since others have done this to us).

You can win, have breakthroughs and be blessed, but only because you already are in Christ. The kingdom is within you, don’t seek it out there, don’t just seek it with outer observance. This will make seeking the kingdom first make more sense before all these things will be added unto you.

It is how the kingdom works –
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25 ESV

Church with trauma.

Have you ever wondered why many Christians ignore natural consequences or limitations as much and as long as they can while they sit and wait?

Usually declaring God or His grace as the solution?We don’t realise that it is a trauma response to we are having to laws. I’m not just talking about Old testament laws here, although many people might use them in this context anyways, but the law I speak of is the law of limitation or consequence.

Christians have been fighting laws for a while now, and to the point where universalism even gets embraced(since it would be a limitation that all people can’t be saved, so we put in on God to save everyone automatically).

We avoid taking responsibility for our life because we feel like it is punishment instead of a privilege. If we take responsibility then we have to deal with the fact that we might fail and others around us might fail as well. This especially is the reason why so many have been disappointed and hurt as believers, because they thought God is just going to give them a new car, house, friends and a joyful life while they do nothing.

Praying and doing nothing = prayer without faith . The book of James says the “faith without works is dead. Prayer is powerful, especially in the heart and mouth of one who lives out what he/she prays. God does supply, provide, strengthen, heals and restores. But not at the cost of what He has called you to.

For example : If anyone gives me a ferrari now, I would not be able to get new tires or service the car. So God is inviting me to become the person who can own a ferrari, which means I am then able to maintain it. That all being said, do I believe God can miraculously give us what we pray for? Yes, but…It would be an invitation to become what He has called you to be, not just get what you need or want.

Ultimately God wants you to let Him heal you inside, enable you to take responsibility for what He has called you for(law of freedom), instead of just trying to not miss it for fear of punishment(law of sin and death).God didn’t come to just save you from the world, but to be with you(Him in you and you in Him).

He is our Source of life, so then FROM Him we grow and bring the kingdom through our life lived, but we still have to live it!In James chapter 1 it talks about a man looking in the mirror seeing his natural face(own ability), then walks away and forgets what he looked like, but then it says that the man who looks into the law of freedom and perseveres will be blessed in all his doing.

It means You have a new perspective on doing(working). You don’t just “have to do” things based on the law of sin and death, but you “do” things based on the law that says you are free. You have the privilege of changing your perspective today. Invite the Holy Spirit to show you the things that scare you, so He can fill those areas as you face each fear with Him.

It is time to be brave in heart, going places you might have been avoiding in your heart. It will be worth going with Him, because He wants you to be blessed in all your doing.I have seen people tell me “they are fine, they already believe” when I wanted to pray for their healing, then after pressing them on what they are really experiencing they told me they still have pain. So I then laid hands and as the pain left, they would be surprised and even asked how I did it.

This shows me we have made up religious language to cover our fear and trauma of failing.We make it about getting healed or not, but God wants to deal with why we are saying things to cover our unbelieving heart. He wants us to believe Him, see with a new perspective and also be real with what we are facing in order to actually deal with it so that true healing, salvation and provision can come.

No new year prophetic word.

Last year God showed me a wild ox regarding this year. Like so many words I have gotten yearly about blessing, overflow and revival, it never accompanied how to, since we have been trained to sit and wait to see what God does. But we rarely see those promises as a body, because we as a body need to move with the head.

But this year I took some brave/stupid moves out of my comfort zones and I didn’t realise what it would entail. So as a wild ox, you face the attacks of wild animals and need to find your own sustenance as well. My point is there is a practical side to a word.

So instead of giving a prophetic word for 2023, I will rather just say what I am seeing, because the scope of it is bigger than next year.

On Christmas day God showed me how He gave His Son as a Gift to the world. So many Christians choose to celebrate that gift on Christmas, but there is more to it. We are to see what the purpose of the Gift is.

He came as a Son, so that there would be many sons.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:29 ESV

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Hebrews 2:10‭-‬11 ESV

The purpose was and still is His childrens(sons). Just like He was and is the gift, He leaves us His Spirit also as a Gift.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:6‭-‬7 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Romans 8:14‭-‬16 ESV

So the Spirit is our witness of being Gods’ sons. We are to live according to the Gift(Spirit) and not according to our flesh(own ability and reasoning).

Because of Jesus and Holy Spirit, we are made the gift to creation. This is why scripture says it this way :

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Romans 8:19 ESV

Creation waits for you to manifest a son and not your flesh. The son is driven by the Spirit of God. But the shift will come when we realise we are a gift.

This is not the prideful and arrogant thinking we are used to, thinking we are some gift to the world through our own flesh effort or ability. It is realising the calling and purpose of our life through God.

This will be accompanied by a leveling that is coming upon the church. Every part of the body will start walking as a gift to the earth. Not just the pastor or prophet on your facebook banner. The leaders will be the greatest servants and cheerleaders to the rest of the body of Christ to walk in their calling as a gift.

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:12‭-‬16 ESV

So I want to ask you if you know that you are Gods gift to the world? Or do you want to remain feeling like the problem? Or that some other person is more anointed and that you will only at least make it to heaven?

His purpose is that you will walk as a gift from Him, with His purpose and heart toward the earth. Creation is waiting, this is not a one man show, not even Jesus thought so, because you are His body. Level up or level down, wash some feet. God wants us all to be part, so the body can function as it was supposed to.

Forgiveness Part 2.

If you missed part one, check it out here.

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”John 20:22‭-‬23 NKJV

How does this verse above work?

This is the difference between forgiveness prior and after the crucifixion, the source.

The old covenant forgiveness was from us toward others.In the new we use the forgiveness of Christ and give it to others.

Just like we love others like we love ourselves in the old. But it the new we love others like God loves them.

This explains it well too :

that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.II Corinthians 5:19‭-‬20 NKJV

So forgiveness is retained in us if we don’t give it to others, because they remain in condemnation. But if we forgive for the sake of Christ(not to gain or benefit ourselves) then Christ’s forgiveness becomes part of their life, just like Christ reconciled the world to Himself but gave us the word of reconciliation so those who would respond to the word we have can also have it for themselves.

If we receive Christ’s forgiveness over us, we will overflow to those around us. Because we don’t work for it, but we source forgiveness from Him.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness works different in the new testament than in it did in the Old Testament.If you hear people telling you that you have to forgive people to get freedom then you know their perspective is old testament.

Jesus says before the crucifixion(which is actually Old Testament).

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.Mat 6:14

And we could mention this one as well :

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;Luke 6:37

Many still quote these verses to Christians today to try condemn them into forgiving people.

After the cross forgiveness is talked about this way.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.Ephesians 4:32

bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.Col 3:13

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight. Eph 1:7-8

It is in being forgiven(past tense) that we gain the ability and perspective of being free from people and what happened in the past, now we can forgive them out of our own freedom provided in Christ.

When we try the old testament way of trying to forgive people enough to get free ourselves we realise we can’t get free, because people around us keep misbehaving.😁

But the blood of Christ is faithful and steadfast, it will keep us clean and free personally if we keep our focus there instead of on people.

he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.Col 1 :22-23

After Christ rose from the dead He said this :

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”John 20:22‭-‬23 NKJV

Isn’t that a contrast to “forgive so you can be forgiven”? Now it is “forgive so they can be forgiven”. Because your forgiveness is past tense and the gospel message you now carry is forgiveness for all. That is our reason for forgiving, otherwise people will live in unforgiveness, so we share forgiveness so they can live free too.

Too read how John 20:20-23 works, checkout forgiveness part 2.