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.

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.

There is a gap between the Old Testament and New Testament regarding Holy Spirit, we tend to view it the same at times, this is when we miss what Jesus really came to do. In the Old Testament Holy Spirit came upon someone and departed, but in the New, this looks different.

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
John 14:2-4

John 14 maps out many truths together of what Jesus came to do.

1.Fathers House – Many Rooms,
2.Go to prepare – come back to take you to myself
3.Where I am you may also be
4. You know the way – to where.

As Jesus said these things the disciples started asking questions, so Jesus started giving them answers.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6

So the Way they knew, was Jesus, and where He was going was to the Father. So that answers No 4.

The questions continue :

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
John 14:8-10

So the amazing part was Jesus didn’t have to go anywhere to be with the Father, because the Father was already in Him! But for them to have the Father in them, Jesus would have to go prepare the Fathers house first!

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home(room) with him.
John 14:23

The word “home” here in verse 23 is the same one found in verse two saying “rooms”. The Greek word is “mone”, you will only find it in John 14 in the bible. This answers No 1, the Fathers house is His body which consists of individuals who are rooms in His house.

But why would He say, He comes back and takes us to Himself so we can be where He is? Notice that John 14 is not before the ascension of Jesus, but it is before His crucifixion. Jesus rose from the grave, they saw Him again after He was dead, then this happened :

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:21-22

Too many mistake Acts 2 as the first time anyone received Holy Spirit, but this was the first time as Jesus was still with them as He promised them in John 14. So Holy Spirit is Who reveals to us all that is in Jesus and the Father, so we can do the works Jesus did(John 14:12).

Lastly as John wrote even after Jesus rose and ascended:

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
1 John 4: 13-17

Jesus came to prepare a place that you can now have in communion with God the Father through Jesus and revealed by Holy Spirit. You are standing in the place He prepared, you are in this world as He is (not as He was), because you are with Him! He prepared it on the cross! He and the Father in you and you in them! No way should we see ourselves far from God. I don’t know about you but I want to occupy my room in the Fathers house! This place prepared is not some physical futuristic room or house, but is Holy Spirit empowering you to live from a different Spiritual place since you can now approach the Father with confidence. This answers No 2 and 3. He is not as far as He feels to you, He is in you as His Word says, and it’s all because He loves you.

Extra Notes for those who love reading :

And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
John 2:16-21

Through growing up in church, I was exposed to all sorts of giving, especially giving of finances. Then also saw many reasons for giving as well. I am sure you have seen it as well and there may be reasons you are positive about regarding giving and then also things that have put you off of the idea.

I have seen God do many supernatural things, from healing the sick, angels showing up, visions, supernatural information from God, divine happenings with people. But regarding provision, I had a hard time because of teaching I listened to while growing up, this cause me to believe things about God that were not true. So I would like to present to you the heart to have provision from God be normal to you. There are many verses that talk about God providing, even has a name Jehova-Jireh – The Lord Provides.

Let’s use some of the most well known scriptures regarding provision.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?Mat 6:25-26

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.Mat 6:31-33

When it comes to giving, I don’t want to get into the laws or how you should give, but rather in what you should expect. It is normal for God to want to give to His children and as this scripture(mat 6:26) says that we are of so much more value than birds. Know that the Lord values you and has even given His Son to have you close, so there would be not reason for Him not to want to provide. Then know that when it comes to providing, it is not just something God does, but it is Who He is, it is His nature. You are allowed to trust Him. The specific thing I battled with was wanting to stay humble, thinking I would be arrogant and entitled to expect provision and somehow I would be taking something from someone else so that I could receive. But as is all condemning thoughts and lies, usually based only on ‘self’ and what it can have. I was not thinking of Who God is to the people that He was sending to give to me, He is Provider for them and is taking care of them as well! As much as God wants to give to me, He also loves providing for them! This way more people receive more to give and my giving also increases.

So it is amazing, God still sends ravens to feed people and make it rain manna as He did in the old testament, now it is is just via people since we are not just cared for, but part of His kingdom work on the earth. Never let anyone condemn you regarding giving and receiving, rather trust Him to take care of you as He sends believers and unbelievers to bring what you need. God will make sure they have what they need too.

The condition and heart to have, is seeking His ability, not yours. It’s good to work and get a salary, I don’t mean we shouldn’t work, I mean the belief that you have to work(or give) to impress God so that you can receive is wrong. Mat 6:33 states that in seeking His kingdom, His righteousness we receive all things. From a heart that believes Him for who He is doesn’t mind giving or receiving because we are secure in Who He is for us.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.Matthew 7:1-6

Most of us have read these verse or heard a message about them somewhere. I would like for us to take another look at it, because I believe God is bringing a different message than what we might have learned before.

I don’t think He is just saying we shouldn’t judge, because it says “that you be not judged”. It is because He is not just telling us things to do or not to do, but rather gain a perspective. The perspective we have had before where we look at people while disqualifying them is a reflection of ourselves and how we disqualify ourselves. Therefore He says that the same measure we use gets measured back to us.

Too many a times have we thought this measuring and judgement back on us is God, but I believe it is our own measuring and judgement. We cannot help others when we ourselves don’t walk in what God has for us. Note that He says to help and remove the speck in our brothers eye. He does not say we become experts at pointing to specks in eyes, as if we get really good and pointing to each other’s faults. But rather we help each other gain clear perspective since it speaks of the eye. Our help should bring healing as well to those around us(since it hurts to have something in your eye), but once again this requires us to get our own perspective clear first. This is different than how I heard this before where you need to get your life in order and behave perfectly before you judge other people.

He goes on to say that we are hypocrites if we have the plank in our own eye while trying to look and help, because we cannot see clear to help another. What freedom am I giving someone if I don’t believe it could be had? It’s Hypocritical. Lastly He says to not give what is Holy and pearls to those who cannot receive it. These verses are together because a healthy perspective is not always accepted when given, some people are not willing or not yet willing at least to get help and healed. This is important for you as a believer to notice, to know when someone has a willing heart or not, because it does more damage than good when we give what is costly to those that have not value for it.

So to bring this together, what is a healthy(speckless or plankless) perspective? In Christ you are forgiven, justified, in right relationship with God the Father, healed and are loved completely. That is a good start. If you can accept that, then you can live it out. If you live it out, you will want the same for others.

When we want the same for others that Christ has done for us, then our perspective is clear and redemptive as the Lords’ is over us.

The attack point of the enemy is at the intent of the heart. If your intention is to follow Christ for His name sake wherever and however you can then nothing will stop you. If your intent is to promote and comfort yourself in the name of all things “Christian”, then you will have a hard time indeed!

Jesus talks about our heart and intent as well.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Mat 5:27-30

Many have taught these scriptures in a way to make us think Jesus made it so much harder to live pure since He makes it a thought being a sin and not just the act. But if we look closely at the text He says if it is done with ‘lustful intent’, then it has already taken place.

This means there is something spiritual about the intention of our hearts. It doesn’t make it harder to be free, it actually makes it easier. The scripture goes on to say that if our eye causes us to sin to tear it out or if our hand causes us to sin to cut it off, this obviously is not talking about physical body parts that we need to cut off, but rather that we should choose to see differently and do life in another way.

Thoughts come and go, but what we intend in our heart, we end up doing sometime or another. It is what determines our life. This is why many people find some help with life coaching these days, because they get taught to live with intentionality and on purpose instead of letting our brains auto-pilot through every day.

A small practical example from the Mat 5:27-28. Let us say you are a man, what if your intent when looking at a woman is always to see her calling in Christ and her value in the heart of God first, would lust still be an issue? It would not.

How do we make this intentional shift? By switching from what serves us to what glorifies God. When we test our intentions, we can ask : Is this what He wants or what He is saying? Or is it for me to feel comforted and gratify my flesh while my intent is apart from seeking His heart.

Here I wish to remind you that if you feel you only have to keep punishing yourself to please God, this is where you know you have listened to lies.In God’s heart you are to find real comfort and real rest for your spirit, soul and body. Destiny and purpose is found in Christ instead of performance to earn credits with God. The idea of earning credit with God and punishing yourself to please Him is the old man, the flesh man that died with Christ on the cross. Intentionally throw out the stuff keeping you from the freedom Christ has for you, especially the lies that make you feel like you are the problem instead of the lies being the problem.

For me, I remind myself, for who’s glory is this thought or desire? Then I can look for His heart and intentionally pursue what He desires for me.