Have You Unwrapped Your Gift?

Hi, welcome to today's episode of Reflective Hour. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler, your host and healing evangelist. But we all know who the host of this show is, and that's Christ. Holy Spirit, come have your way in this time that we have together. May they see you and not me. May they hear you and not me. May they glean from you, Lord. From you, Lord. May they glean from you, Lord, because it's all about you, Jesus. It's all about them seeing you, learning from you, Jesus. And may their hearts be open to receive the good news that you have for them. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Today's message. is on unwrapping a gift. And have you unwrapped your gift? Do you even know what I'm talking about? Do you know what you have available to you as a Christian, as a believer? Do you know that you can be set free? Do you know you can prosper? Do you know you can live an abundant life? Do you know that pain's not your portion? Sickness is not your portion, but healing is? Let's dive a little deeper on this episode today that the Holy Spirit has for you. I was studying and preparing for this episode and the Lord laid on my heart, John. And so I was reading John in my devotion quiet time and gleaning his truth from it. Because as we are in a relationship with Jesus, He talks to us through his word. Because remember, he's the living word. He was the living word walking among us. And that word's still living today. It's still changing people, breaking yokes of bondage off of people. And it's a word of truth that will set you free today. This is the day. This is the hour. This is the minute where you let go of all those things that no longer serve you and step into who God's called you to be. Now let's read John. I'll be reading John four. And I'm reading out of the New Living Translation. And some of it I'm going to read out of the complete Jewish Bible because I just like the way it says. And I don't know the way it's phrased. Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John. Though Jesus himself didn't baptize them, his disciples did. So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually, he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Many of you can relate to Jesus. Many of you feel weary at times, tired from the roads you're traveling. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a drink. He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, you're a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink? Jesus replied, if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. Now, did you catch that? Jesus replied, if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. Jesus is our gift. His work on the cross. But have you unwrapped that gift? Are you gaining access to all it has to offer? Did you look inside? Do you know the meaning of that gift? How to use its contents? Let's unpack that a little bit more now as we continue reading. But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket, she said, and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed? Jesus replied, anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. That speaks of an internal change, an internal circumcision, a heart change. letting go of things that no longer serve you so that you can become who God's called you to be in this season, in this hour, in this moment. Please, sir, the woman said, give me this water. Then I'll never be thirsty again and I won't have to come here to get water. Go and get your husband, Jesus told her. I don't have a husband, the woman replied. Jesus said, you're right. You don't have a husband for you have had five husbands and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth. Sir, the woman said, you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim where our ancestors worshiped? Jesus replied, Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. but the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way, for God is spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Now I want to grab the complete Jewish Bible and start there at verse twenty-three, because I like the way it says this. Let's see. Here we go. Actually, I'm going to start at twenty two. You people don't know what you're worshiping. We worship what we do know because salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now when the true worshipers will worship the father spiritually and truly. For these are the kind of people the father wants worshiping him. God is spirit. And worshipers must worship him spiritually and truly. Spiritually and truly. Are you worshiping spiritually and truly? Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Or has religion placed him on a box? In a box. On a shelf. In your home. and you haven't really unpacked all that he has for you, all that's waiting for you, when you glean from his knowledge, when you dive into his word and listen for his spoken word, his whisper by way of his spirit of truth. The woman replied, I know that Meshech is coming. The Messiah is coming. That is the one who has been anointed. When he comes, he will tell us everything. Yeshua said to her, Jesus said to her, I, the person speaking to you, am he. Wow. Wow. Just then, his Talmudid, His disciples arrived. They were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but none of them said, what do you want or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went back to town and said to the people there, come see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah? They left the town and began coming toward him. Meanwhile, the Talmud and his disciples arrived. We're urging Yeshua, Rabbi, eat something. But he answered, I have food to eat that you don't know about. At this, the disciples asked one another, could someone have brought him food? Yeshua said to them, my food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion. All he wanted was to do the will of his father. And that's why we're here to do the will of father. to do the will of Father, because it's all about the kingdom of God. It's not about us. Don't you have a saying, four more months and then the harvest? Well, what I say to you is open your eyes and look at the fields. They're already ripe for harvest. The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together. Four, in this matter, the proverb, one sows and another reaps holds true. I sent you to reap what you haven't worked for. Others have done the hard labor and you have benefited from their work. Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all the things I did. So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days and many more came to trust because of what he said. So basically many more came to faith because of what he said. They said to the woman, we no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is a savior of the world. They heard the living word and it took up root and became a tree of life within them. They started to unpack that gift, didn't they? Wow. After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galilee. Now Yeshua himself said, a prophet is not respected in his own country. But when he arrived in the Galilee, the people were welcomed him because they had seen all that he had done at the festival in Jerusalem since they had been there too. Now let me switch back to the New Living Translation. And again, I was reading then out of the complete Jewish Bible. And actually, I think I'll start and pick back up because I really, I really want to read it again. Let me start back with twenty three. But the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is spirit. So those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The woman said, I know the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus told her, I am the Messiah. Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, what do you want with her? Or why are you talking to her? The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village telling everyone. Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he possibly be the Messiah? So the people came streaming from the village to see him. Wow. Come and see. Wow. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, Rabbi, eat something. But Jesus replied, I have a kind of food you know nothing about. Did someone bring him food while we were gone? The disciples asked each other. Then Jesus explained, my nourishment comes from doing the will of God who sent me and from finishing his work. You know the saying, four months between planting and harvest. But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. And that's what he is saying to you now. Wake up and look around for the fields are ripe for harvest. It's time for a great awakening in the heart of God's people, in the churches of America, in the nation, and in the world. The harvesters are paid good wages and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. See that? The harvesters are paid good wages and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life, brought to the promise, brought into the promised land, brought to fullness, opening that gift and truly knowing why Jesus died on the cross. on an execution state so that we could live, not condemned by the law, not under the curse of the law, but under grace, under mercy, his love for us. Wow. His righteousness, his goodness. So yummy what he did for us. Not everybody can digest that food at the same level others do. I hope you can digest this word today and let it sink in. Let it sink in. Let the meat of the word fill you up and know that there's no condemnation in Christ. He came to set us free. And look at that. He revealed to this woman at the well, a sinner living in sin, living not married to the man that she's living with, had multiple husbands, was an outcast in the town. That's why she had to draw water at noon from the well. The one who didn't fit in, the one who felt like they didn't belong, who didn't measure up. who was already condemned, who was living in condemnation and shame and guilt and all those things. But he revealed himself to her and chose her to go and tell the good news of the living word being among us to the lost and broken. He chose a broken vessel, mended her up with his love and his trust, redeemed her and restored her, and set her on a path of righteousness, a path to lead others to the shepherd. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike. You know the saying, one plants and another harvest. And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant. Others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest. Many Samaritans believed. That's the title of the next section. Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, He told me everything I ever did. When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, now we believe not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard for ourselves. The living word entered them. Jesus spoke to them and it took root in their heart and a tree of life. bloomed within them. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world, Jesus heals an official's son. At the end of the two days, Jesus went onto Galilee. He himself had said that a prophet is not honored in his own town, in his own hometown. Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there. As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son who was about to die. Jesus asked, will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders? The official pleaded, Lord, please come now before my little boy dies. Then Jesus told him, Go back home. Your son will live. And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. Jesus spoke that boy's healing into existence because he is the healer. And sickness and death is not our portion as followers in Christ Jesus. The word is alive. Speak words of life over yourself. Don't speak destruction and curses over yourself. Don't do it because your words, they matter. While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. He asked them when the boy had begun to get better. And they replied yesterday afternoon at one o'clock, his fever suddenly disappeared. Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, your son will live. And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. This was a second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea. Wow. Wow. Wow. And Jesus is saying that to you today. You can be healed if you believe on him, on his work, on the cross. and why he came for you. Can you trust him enough to surrender, walk in freedom, let go of your old self that no longer serves you, that victim mentality, and rise up victorious in Christ Jesus? I know how hard that is. The hardest thing I had to do was let go of that little girl that all those bad things happened to. I had to let her go. And the shame and guilt and fear and regret, the critical spirit, everything attached to her, the anger, all of it. I had to let it all go so that I could step into who he called me to be. And I had to choose the uncomfortable path of not knowing an outcome and decide to walk in blind trust, in blind faith on a pathway of healing. I had to make that decision, me and Jesus on a park bench or a bench outside of Ave Maria University. I had to make the decision that day to let go of that victim, that little girl, give her to Jesus, truly surrender her at the cross, let her go so I could live. And he's asking you to do the same today so you can live an abundant life. You have to let her go or him go, that little boy, because they're no longer going to serve you where he's taking you. You have to let them go so you can live a life of joy and peace in his strength and not yours. I know it's hard. I had no idea what healthy looked like. I had no idea what, quote, normal looked like. But he helped me and showed me and continued to shed layer after layer. so I could step into abundant wholeness in him. Now he placed on my heart to read a passage out of a book, Stop Hurting, Start Healing by Gaspar and Michelle Anastasia. Stop Hurting and Start Healing by Gaspar and Michelle Anastasia. I'll put that up on the screen so you can see that. And Gaspar and Michelle are the senior pastors of Word of Life Church in Fort Myers, Florida. And he is a bishop of Word of Life Ministries, which consists of sixteen churches worldwide. They also have the New Life Dream Center in Fort Myers, Florida. And I'm going to be reading at a page starting with page sixty five. And just read just a page or two that the Lord wants me to read. Chapter five, God has a destiny for you. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou comest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. But be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. and he's waiting to deliver you. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, behold, I put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant, to plant. Jeremiah one, four through ten. Now I'm going to start reading in the book. We started this chapter with this awesome scripture because as children of God, we must get a very important concept deeply rooted into our hearts so that we can withstand the many trials we must go through. To sum it up in one phrase, we need a sense of destiny. If you believe that you were just dropped here on earth by accident and you should wander around aimlessly until the Lord calls us home, then you'll be easily defeated by the enemy. You will not be willing to pursue high goals in God and you will see no purpose in living by the spirit. Wow. He goes on to say, develop a sense of destiny. As the Lord showed Jeremiah, he gave you and me a purpose before we were even convinced in our mother's womb. In the next verse, the prophet argued with God, like we often do, and said that he couldn't possibly do what he called him to do. How many of you feel that way, that you can't possibly do what God's calling you to do? God simply reiterated his call to destiny while reassuring Jeremiah that he was with him. God then touched the mouth of the man who was destined to be one of the greatest prophets ever known, released supernatural ability, and again stressed the great destiny he had planned for him. The Lord emphasized Jeremiah's destiny three times in one paragraph. He wasn't fooling around, was he? Wow. And then he goes on to talk about in Psalm one thirty nine. King David also realized that God had a destiny for him before he was born. For thou has possessed my reins. Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. And in that book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. Psalm one thirty nine, thirteen to seventeen. He knew that man's destiny was so important to God that he wrote it down in his book. He says God thinks about us constantly. Imagine that. God's thoughts are directed to us constantly. And there are so many thoughts about us, we cannot even count them. Count them. That shows that God obviously cares very much about our destiny. And maybe we should too. God has a destiny specifically for you. The Bible tells us that Jesus had a destiny as well. It was to come to earth expressly to die. He was the sacrificial lamb sent to earth for us so our sins could be forgiven. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without a spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. First Peter one, nineteen to twenty. While he was here, Jesus did great works, but he made an astounding statement about those works. Jesus told his disciples, which include us, that they would do greater works than he did. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my father, John, fourteen, twelve. What was the greatest thing Jesus did? He made a way for us to be forgiven. Remember when I said we weren't under condemnation? Since we know that God changes not and that he does not respect one person over another, we can definitely conclude that he has a divine purpose for our life. Maybe you were not called to be a prophet like Jeremiah or a king like David, but you were called to do greater works. You were called to have the character of Christ. You were called to be a minister of reconciliation, walking in divine forgiveness. And you were called to walk in this destiny since before you were even conceived. Wow. God won't attend your pity party. And again, I am reading out of Stop Hurting and Start Healing by Gaspar and Michelle Anastasia. And this is on page sixty seven. God won't attend your pity party. In Judges chapter six, we see Gideon living in fear and bondage because the Midianites were oppressing the Israelites. He was hiding from the enemy when the angel of the Lord came to him and said, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Go in this, thy my, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? Surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges six, twelve, fourteen and sixteen. Mighty man of valor. That's not quite how we would have described Gideon or even how he would have described himself. When we are down and out, struggling, oppressed, and depressed, ready to quit, who wants to hear, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. We just want God to agree with us that our circumstances are horrible. I can tell you from experience, God does not cater to my pity parties. However, you will not be alone. The devil will certainly show up and he will bring the food. So which food do you want to eat? The bread of life that Jesus brings or the devil's food? He will invite others to sit with you. People who would rather eat Satan's lies than dine on God's truth. What table do you want to be at? One where everybody's rejoicing and worshiping? Where there's peace? not confusion. Peace, confusion, chaos, anger, those things are not of God. And you have to let those things go. And you do that by letting go of that little girl or little boy that all those things happen to. Where those seeds of hate and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness first were planted. And we have to uproot those lies, those deceptions, and plead the blood of Jesus over them so you're healed and walk in abundant life in Christ Jesus. We want God to tell us how he will beat up everybody that hurt us. We want him to pat us on the back and say, oh, there, there, dear poor thing. Everything is going to be okay one day. But God will not do that. He will not talk to you about your history of misery. He will not talk about your present condition. He only talks about your destiny, your future. He only talks about what he's done for you and where he's already taken you in your victory. He wants you to see the vision he has for you. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs twenty nine, eighteen A. And this verse perish means amount to nothing. God wants to instill in us his vision. And then I'm going to skip over to sixty nine where I love what Gaspar and Michelle say here about get brainwashed. I just love this. God wants to talk to us today about our destiny in him. Let's get rid of this. Woe is me. Everybody is against me. If anything bad happens, it'll happen to me. Victim mentality. It's negative and it opens the door for Satan. Remember, you don't want any open doors for Satan. The problem is that we often don't want to hear the truth. If we tape recorded our reaction to someone who tells us the truth, we see that we get uptight and angry. We only want to talk about our circumstances, our hurt, our pain, and it's just begets more hurt and pain. What we sow is what we reap. If we keep talking about the problems, we will keep getting problems. We own them, even calling them ours. That is how Satan sets up the assignment over our lives to perpetuate the same scenarios with different people in different circumstances and in different geographical areas. Let me read that again. That is how Satan sets up the assignment over our lives to perpetuate the same scenarios with different people, different homes, different places you're living in. different jobs in different circumstances in a different geographical areas you can change your location you can change jobs but unless you look inward and let go of what no longer serves you no matter how difficult that is and you only do it in the strength that christ gives us then you won't move forward. You'll stay in that bottomless pit of misery, dying that spiritual death while others around you are trying to live and trying to show you the pathway to life. But it's your choice. Will you accept it? Will you lay down what no longer serves you and walk on a pathway to true healing? for you, for your family, for generations to come, so that generational family oppression can be broken through you and off of your children, off of your family? Will you trust God? Will you trust Jesus' work on the cross and unpack that gift that's been sitting on your shelf waiting for you to look inside? He'll give you the courage. He'll bring others across your path to help you. You won't do it alone. You won't have to, but you have to receive it. And you cannot ask others to carry. Let me say it again. You cannot ask others to carry what you refuse to surrender. You cannot ask others to carry what you refuse to surrender. God's calling you to surrender it. Lord Jesus at the cross. His blood heals by his stripes, by his wounds. You were healed. You were healed. It's already done. It's past tense. You just have to claim it. You have to own it and you have to surrender. It's all about surrender in different circumstances and in different geographic areas. But it's the same situation over and over again. Get rid of the victim mentality. Get rid of the victim mentality. And I wanted to read that so that you didn't just get it from me, a woman of faith, but you heard from a great leader of faith, a great man of God, his wife and him. They pastor a local church and it's just wonderful. And they do great things in our community. They believe in you and they authored that book. And I know obviously with the help of the Holy Spirit as he's authored my books and continues to help me put out that healing. And I do recommend that you do read my two books, When You Know That You Know That You Know There Is a God, and A Journeying Journal to Wholeness Through the Lens of Faith. You can buy both on Amazon. I recommend you read the first one, the memoir first, and then do the journal that helps with triggers. We both are in this together. We all are in this together. None of us are walking this journey of healing alone. We aren't. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. There's no racism in Christ. There's only people groups. We all came from Adam and Eve who came from God. Look at Genesis one through eleven. You get all those answers. So we are united. Doesn't matter our color. Doesn't matter. We are believers in Christ and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we get to do life together with Jesus, in Jesus. And Jesus gets to flow through us, his living water of truth, by way of his Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKadosh, so that we can grow in abundance in the knowledge of him and step out in our authority as believers and help to transform a nation and a world. And that's what he's calling you to do. And each of us has our part in the kingdom of God. He's the head. You may be the arm. You may be the toe. You may be the leg. But we all have our part to play as a unified body under the head, which is Christ, so that we can bring about Father's will on earth as it is in heaven. And that's today's episode of Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney- Butler. I invite all of you to unpack that gift that God has for you, that abundant life, that healing, healing is your portion, and walk in the fullness of all that he has for you this day, this moment, this year and beyond. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus.