It's Almost August—Time to Get Things in Order
I was at Costco recently, picking up some groceries and minding my own business, when I had a vision. I started to see people in their homes, their cars, their places of worship, and their places of fun and entertainment. Each one looked at the calendar app on their phone and saw that we were nearing August. One by one, they looked up and said, "It's almost August. I guess I should get some things in order."
Then the scene shifted. Each person was standing outside their home, working frantically on the outside of it—mowing lawns, doing landscaping, painting, patching the exterior walls. I could see the anxiety and fear on their faces as they worked to "get things in order."
Then I heard the Lord say, "Many are recognizing the call to get things in order in this second half of the year. But some are so gripped with fear of the hard work—the letting go, the letting Me heal and lead—that they are choosing to strive and perform instead. They are making straight only what everyone can see on the outside. They think that what they do on the outside will work its way inward. If that were true, it would violate My Word. (Photo via Unsplash)
"If they keep letting fear drive them into striving and performing, I will expose what is inside—for their own sake, and to protect others. But if you choose surrender, if you put down the striving and the performing, I will heal and restore the very things you have battled for so long and held onto out of fear.
"I desire to make straight your inner person. I promise it will translate outward. But it will never work the other way around."
Make Straight the Inner Man
Jesus was very clear on this: you clean the inside first, and the outside follows. Trying to reverse the order is exactly what He rebuked.
"First clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also." (Matthew 23:26 WEB)
The heart, not the surface, is the source. What you tend to on the inside is what eventually shows up on the outside.
"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life." (Proverbs 4:23 WEB)
"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34 WEB)
God has always weighed the inner person over the visible one. People look at the outside; He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He is not impressed by effort offered in place of surrender. Paul asked the Galatians a question that fits with this word: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3 WEB).
The invitation to stop striving is not new, either. Jesus called the weary and heavy laden to come to Him for rest, not to work harder for it (Matthew 11:28–30). Surrender is the doorway, not the reward.
How to Respond: A Strategy for Getting Things in Order
If this word is bringing conviction, resist the urge to keep fixing the outside. The point is not to do nothing; it is to do the right work in the right order. Here are a few things you can do to get in order:
1. Bring fear into the light. Get honest about what you are afraid to let go of. The outside cleanup is usually a way to avoid a harder conversation with God about the inside. You cannot surrender what you will not name. (Photo via Unsplash)
2. Invite Holy Spirit to search you before He exposes you. The Word warns that what is hidden will come out. It is far better to ask God to show you now, on your knees, than to have it surface on its own. Pray honestly and let Him examine your heart (Psalm 139:23–24).
3. Trade performance for presence. Pick one striving pattern—one thing you keep managing so people won't see the mess—and set it down long enough to actually sit with the Lord about it. Surrender is active. It is choosing to bring the inside to God instead of managing the outside.
4. Do it in the light, with someone you trust. The inner work is not meant to be done alone. Bring one trusted person in. Confession and accountability are how the healing actually takes root instead of staying a private idea.
5. Measure the right things. Do not track your progress by what the neighbors can see. Track it by the heart. Trust the direction God gave: inside first, and the outside will follow in time.
That is the whole promise. He is not asking you to make the outside look right. He is asking you to let Him make the inside right and to trust that the outside will catch up.
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Anthony Medina
HopeFires International
Email:Â info@hopefires.com
Websites:Â hopefires.com|
anthonymedina.substack.com
Anthony and Melissa Medina are a dynamic husband-wife ministry team called to ignite hope, healing, and spiritual hunger—fueling revival lifestyles and reformation in every sphere. They founded HopeFires International, an itinerant ministry that blends their complementary gifts to deliver sound biblical teaching, mobilize fervent prayer, and host the presence and power of God for life transformation. For over a decade, they served as pastors, co-led a school of supernatural ministry, and directed Prayer, Prophetic, and Deliverance Ministries. Today, they travel, resource believers through media, and equip leaders to build sustainable cultures of intercession, prophetic ministry, and deliverance. Their primary focus is Puerto Rico's spiritual transformation. They are CFNI graduates, ordained under Generals International, and parents to their teenage son, Caleb.
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