Eyes on God or my circumstances

Small cat with big angry male lion shadow

The other day I had my eyes on our circumstance and was saying to God, “I don’t understand, hubby only has a little work (we have a small business) at the moment and not even any quotes. What is happening? We desperately need some money.” I immediately then went to, “Hang on, God has said He will be our provider. Therefore, what do I need to know at the moment? Who does God want to be for me at the moment?” I paused and reflected on that for several moments, getting my focus back on God and not my circumstances. Then I was able to thank Him for the provision that was coming. It didn’t mean that we could just sit back and wait for the money to come in. No. We still have to work but God can orchestrate the circumstances for work to come in.

What do you do when you find that your circumstances don’t match up with your identity and your prophetic words and your promises from God’s Word? How do you react? What’s your ‘go-to’ position/thinking?

If we truly believe and understand who God says we are and who he wants to be for us, then we will live a supernatural lifestyle, not a natural lifestyle. Our prophetic words that have been spoken over us are conditional on us becoming the person who has the identity and character that is needed to steward those prophetic words.

Identity is so important. Who we believe we are in relation to God and how we see ourselves tells us our identity. How we live that out in everyday life says a lot about our beliefs, our theology and our identity. How we see ourselves (our identity) is often reflected in how we pray. Can we decree and declare with confidence or do we approach God like a servant?

I believe that most, if not all of us, don’t actually fully see ourselves as God sees us. He believes in us far more than we tend to believe in ourselves. We need to know who we are in relation to God and let that permeate our own life and change how we act, how we react, and how we think.

Our actions and our doing must flow from our identity. If we see ourselves as God’s child, His beloved, a princess, then that influences every action I make from how I react to my children when they ask the same question for the umpteenth time when I have a 1001 things to do, to how I respond to the car driver who just cut me off in peak hour traffic, to my boss with their huge demands, to the neighbour’s barking dog at 2am.

Take a few moments to ask God how heaven sees you, how you are known in heaven? Ask God to highlight certain things to make it very clear for you. Then reflect on whether your actions and thoughts over the last few days line up with how you are known in heaven. Ask God to show you if there is any part of your identity that He wants to tweak or that He wants you to think differently about. Don’t rush these steps but go on an adventure with God, exploring your full identity in God. I find it worthwhile to journal as I am doing this so that I can go back over it later. It also helps me to stay focused and to really flesh out the hard parts with God. My focus when doing this is that I want to grow and become more God like so I need to allow God to show me the things/ parts/ beliefs/ attitudes/ thinking etc that I need to work on and also how to change them to be more God like. I also line up the things that the Bible says I am and go through and challenge myself as to whether they are my core beliefs too.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy!

Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Have paper and crayons available and ask everyone to draw a picture of how God loves them. Share what your pictures mean. Then choose someone else to draw for and draw how God loves them.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Ask God to highlight a slogan from a business to you that fits your partner and to show you how it relates to them. Share with your partner. Then ask God for a new slogan for your partner – one that describes who they are and who they are becoming. Share with your partner. Then pray for each other, declaring the new slogan over them.

3. Beginner Activation: Put some worship music on and spend some time enjoying being with God. Ask God to show/tell you how you are known in Heaven. Journal what you sense God saying/showing you. Reflect on your feelings associated with that and then how your behaviour and attitude reflects your heavenly identity.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a person who needs some encouragement. Ask God to show you how He sees them and how they are known in Heaven. Contact this person and share what God has shown you about them with them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you someone who is going to influence local history in a huge way in the coming year. Ask God to share with you how He sees them and their part in influencing local history. Share this with that person in an appropriate manner.