Prophetic Word for 2023: “No More Excuses”
The Call to Marketplace Prophets
This prophetic word is for marketplace prophets. Marketplace prophets are called beyond the four walls of the Church to lead in God’s Kingdom in unconventional ways. I serve prophets called to online ministry and entrepreneurship (teaching them how to build Spirit-led coaching businesses). If you are not a “marketplace prophet,” then this word is not for you, though the biblical principles will apply to every believer. If you are not sure if you are a marketplace prophet, please download my free guide, “10 Signs You Have a Prophetic Calling,” and stay tuned for my new book, “I AM PROPHET,” in which I teach you how to identify, discern, and be equipped for your calling as a marketplace prophet. If you’d like to go deeper in learning what it means to be a “marketplace prophet,” please listen to my series, “Marketplace Prophets, Arise!” where I go into further depth about what it means to be a marketplace prophet, how to discern your calling, and how to live into it.
God says,
My children are making ten different excuses as it relates to the fullness of them walking on their prophetic callings. They make assumptions about the spheres of influence I have called them to have. They run prematurely into them because they do not understand my ways, my precepts, and my process. This is breeding great disappointment, great shame, and great frustration when they see that things aren't being successful because they are skipping steps and cutting corners. It’s time to assess what went wrong, it’s time to assess what’s been missing.
It’s time to build again, it’s time to press forward again but with fresh wisdom, vision, insight, and revelation. You will build again, but you will not build the way you build before. You are wiser now. The wisdom is not about the pain you went through but the pain you processed. As you processed the pain with me, I taught you, and I am teaching you how to advance wisely, prophetically, and apostolically moving at my pace, in my ways.
2022 was about addressing the compromise in our relationships; 2023 is about the compromise that we tolerate in ourselves. Where God gave us grace and covered us for the things that we did not do, God says, “I am raising your standards for what you can get away with NOT doing.”
He wants to make sure we are prepared to enter the rooms and spheres of influence He has called us to lead in. Unpreparedness is believing God for you to shine in your gifts but when He opens the door, you’re not ready.
This season is all about perseverance. I have shown you what to do, I am teaching you how to do it. You are setting the boundaries you need to set and keeping your eyes on the prize. NOW you must simply persevere until you obtain what I have promised. You know what to do, just keep showing up as I lead you.
Excellence is not to be conflated with religion. I am not calling you to be perfect in this year. You will make mistakes, you will have blindspots, you will miss the mark. There is more pruning, more crushing, more growth you will experience this year, without a doubt. This is a warning not to let the voice of religion be conflated with the voice of My Spirit that is holding you to a high standard.
Don’t get offended when religious people misunderstand what I am doing in and through you. When you become offended, you stifle your anointing. Set a boundary. I have taught you how to set boundary lines towards people who have no authority or position in your life. This is what you must do with the religious who feel entitled to share their opinions with you. Set the boundaries. Still the voices, and speak louder the words I have given you! Declare my promises and keep pressing forward. Press forward with excellence and humility.
When you are trying to be who I have not called you to be, you attract the wrong people, the wrong relationships, and the wrong network. You must be who I called you to be, prophet of God.
10 Areas Where Excuses Are No Longer Being Tolerated
The 10 areas in which we’ve tolerated excuses that God is addressing in 2023:
The Idolization of the Prophetic Calling (“I’m not good enough” - you have told God who you can and cannot be and what you can and cannot do). God says, “It is my presence, not your performance, that will qualify you for your next.”
Lack of Emotional Healing. God says, “I want whole, healthy hearts.”
Avoidance of Accountability (Leadership and Community). God says, “I want to build, heal, and deliver you in family.”
Perfectionism (Rooted in Fear). God says, “I want excellence.”
Religious Behavior (Performance). God says, “I want rhythms of rest to live in your bones.”
Not enough time. God says, “I am eternal. I stand outside of time. Nothing shall hold you back.”
Not enough money. God says, “I am Jireh.”
Lack of Discipline (Laziness, spiritual lethargy, not waking up early to seek the Lord). God says, “I am the God of discipline. I am a great teacher.”
Lack of Stewardship of our gifts/callings (you are building something that doesn’t exist! Voicing something that has yet to be voiced! Delivering in a way that has not yet been delivered!). God says, “I am holding you to a greater standard. You shall steward well all that I have given you.”
Lack of Care for Physical Bodies (Being Overweight, Emotional Eating, Eating of processed foods and junk foods as a lifestyle). God says, “I want you to be physically healthy so that my promise of long life might be fulfilled.”
Accountability, Pacing, and Emotional Healing
Prophet of God: You’ve been trying to plant what God has given you. You’ve been trying to sow in the Spirit. You’ve been trying to prove yourself as a good steward of what God has shown you and given you, and it feels like you’re not making any progress. It feels like you’ve tried and tried and tried, and yet you have been left with no fruit. It seems that for all the labor you have endured, there has been minimal to no fruit. You feel like a failure. Maybe the visions God gave you simply are not worth pursuing anymore. Where does that leave you? You want to quit. You want to quit on God; you want to quit on what He showed you. You want to let go. You want to fall into despair and wallow.
The enemy has been stealing your fruit and your momentum because you have been vulnerable to His attacks due to excuses that you have made (both conscious and subconscious) as it relates to being trained and equipped for your prophetic calling. The Spirit of God says, “In this word, I am going to reveal the source of your stagnancy and fruitlessness in the online space.”
My mothers have abandoned their newborns. Their newborns are not being nurtured in prayer. The newborns are the visions that I released and gave to them. They have left the vision vulnerable to attack because they refuse to pray. They spend more time on social media strategy than prayer. The spirit of death and the spirit of perversion are coming to kill and distort visions, so they never become what I have called them to be.
In order to overcome the attacks of the enemy, we must stop being excuses for the following:
In order to successfully heal emotionally, be disciplined, and have stewardship of their gifts/ministries, God’s prophets need training/equipping and THEN accountability consistently commit to this work/have people who will fight with them on the journey.
There are holes in the hearts of my prophets. My prophets have emotional needs that are not getting met. Because they are not intentionally addressing these needs, they are subconsciously looking for these needs to be met through their work and their ministry.
Ministry has become a distraction to my prophets. They have become more concerned with what I am doing through them than what I am doing in them. PRAY THAT I SEARCH HEARTS.
My prophets must take seriously their own healing, much more than they pursue ministry. Their ministry will not be sustainable if these emotional needs are not considered. There are consequences for bleeding on my people. Wolves are attracted to blood. I want to protect my prophets from the wolves that will come as they step out into ministry. I also must protect my children whom I have called my prophets to serve. Too many of my prophets bleed on my people. My prophets must do the deep inner work to be delivered and set free from trauma.
It is pride when my prophets say, “I’m good.” As long as they are on this side of Heaven (earth), there is always brokenness that must be addressed.
You are in a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, the Light of the world, and the by-product of being continuously near me is that I am always healing you. You are in my hands. I ordain the times and seasons. Beloved, now is the time to heal. Now is the time to heal. The consequence of not healing is the compromise of your ministry. It will not be sustainable if you do not deal with your “stuff.”
Do not say to me, “I don’t have anything to deal with.” Ask me to shine the light, and I will begin to expose it. But beloved, let me explain to you how I shine the light:
I shine light in community. You need counsel, a community of prophets around you who will heal with you, cover you, fight for you, pray with you, believe with you, and contend for the vision with you. This light will only shine in the community I have called you to. You need family.
The devil attacked you in your youth and in your adolescence to break your trust in people, but you must trust people (the right people) in order to receive the healing I want for you.
My children want businesses, but they do not want to heal. My children want wealth, but they do not want brokenness. Render your hearts and not your garments. I want the whole heart. I want the whole heart not to condemn the heart but to heal, restore, and deliver the heart from all bondage. There is more. You cannot minister what you have not received. You cannot minister what you have only received on a superficial level. It’s more than your ability to hear me, it’s about living out the words you hear from me.
My prophets often skip integration for the purpose of ministry. They choose to focus on the ministry I have for them more than they focus on embodying the principles I have given to them. They hear me and then rush to post on their social media platforms. Have they prayed over what I have shown them that it would cut them first? My prophets need a culture of hiddenness and secrecy. My prophets strive for the promises I have given them through their social media strategy, YouTube content, and posting. My prophets have skipped steps.
In 2023, I will not tolerate prophets who have skipped steps. I am holding them accountable. I do not condemn them for what they do not know however, in this hour, I am releasing revelation of what they need. Once they know these things, I will hold them ACCOUNTABLE for pursuing what they need and investing in the spaces and resources that will give them what they need.
Power in the Prepared Voice
My prophets feel that they are lost in an abandoned home, but they are right where they need to be. My prophets are where I have called them to be. I have called them to what looks like an abandoned and barren place. Here lies the challenge: they don’t know how to embrace where I have placed them. I have brought them here to build community, to restore what has been broken and stolen from the enemy.
My prophets do not know how to lead, how to run, and how to bring forth deliverance and the word of the Lord. They know (in part) what they are called to, but they don’t know how to build it and lead others in seeing it. They struggle to articulate the vision, they struggle to make it plain, and they struggle to release it to the world. My prophets who have attempted to step out in faith to release it find themselves extremely disheartened by the lack of response and attention.
My prophets know I have called them to nations and thousands yet it seems every time they step out in faith, there is no fruit.
Thus they are in the home (i.e. in my presence), yet they feel abandoned. They know they are sitting on the revelation they need to go where I have called them, but it seems this revelation is not bearing any fruit. This is because my children have not received the tools for building and cultivation they need. My children need apostolic grace. They don’t simply need apostolic covering, they need apostolic grace to build. There is a difference. My prophets, in this hour, need the grace to build in the online space. My children in this hour need grace to start coaching businesses. There must be an impartation, and there must be practical tools they are given to build.
The gift is inside them, but they don’t know how to release their voice. There is an art and a science to the release: the release of the prophetic voice. My children must be trained in the release.
If they shout, if they sing, things will shift not only for them but those around them. Dead bones shall come alive! Those forgotten shall be remembered. The glory of the Lord shall shine through them. The voices of my prophets are powerful. Their voices release remembrance: remembrance of God’s word, remembrance of His power, remembrance of His faithfulness.
There is power in the voice, the prophetic voice. I am raising up prophetic voices on social media. I need them healed, healthy, and whole. I am raising the standards for their consecration. I desire to teach them the art and the science of releasing their prophetic voice in the earth. The reason why my children don’t see the outcome they hoped for is that they have yet to be trained in the release. They hear me say, “I am using your voice to save thousands, and you will have a great impact in the online space,” but then they try to go and post a Youtube video or Instagram reel, and there is no response.
God is Addressing Deferred Hope
My prophets are suffering from deferred hope and disappointment. I need to heal and deliver them from this disappointment then I need to give them the tools and the skills to release correctly.
My prophets say, “Well, God, why didn’t you tell me this before I stepped out in faith? Before I spent the money? Before I invested the time? Before I left the job?” The Spirit of God says, “You moved too fast, beloved. I tried to tell you, but you would not sit still. All of your busyness is anxiety masked in “productivity.” You can’t run from me, beloved I know your heart. So I waited patiently until you hit the wall that I knew would humble you to come back to my presence with a surrendered heart and agenda. This is the assignment upon your life: humble yourself before me. Die in my presence. Come alive by the Spirit of God. Be born again in the Spirit! Prophet, it is time for your becoming, but here is the key:
You will not “become” alone. You need community. You need family. You need grace, you need impartation. You have to be honest about your relational trauma that makes you not want to trust the prophets and leaders I am sending your way to support and serve you. I have died, and they have died on your behalf, but instead, in pride and fear of pain, you reject the resources they provide to you. Beloved, I will hold you accountable for not taking responsibility. You follow hundreds of men and women of God on your Instagram timelines but have you taken any of them seriously, to the point of investment to the point of application and integration? No, instead, you go for inspiration. You run from accountability.
No more excuses, prophet. You need accountability. You need to be accountable to your calling. Not simply to me but to the leaders I am placing in your life. Ask me for the prophetic leaders I have placed in your life to hold you accountable. If I am not providing them in your local church, I promise I will provide you one through the online space. You have no excuse for your lack of accountability and covering. I will not tolerate this in 2023.
By and large, my children are lazy. They do not pursue. They do not pursue the basics of dying to themselves through extended prayer, fasting, giving, and sacrifice. I am tired of it. I will not tolerate religiosity in 2023. I want true religion, not the empty white tombstones that my prophets offer me. Too many of my children put more effort in their earthly jobs/careers than they do in their discipleship to me.
Being a prophet is not a “good idea.” It’s a mandate, an assignment, an identity. Prophets don’t choose who they are. I choose them. Once I choose them, it is their responsibility to press in. I am tired of lazy children that expect me to change their diapers at 14 and 15 years old. In the natural, this is ludicrous, yet they tolerate it in the things of the spirit.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:12-14 ESV
My children think that if they never grow or learn, then I won’t hold them accountable, but I know. My children are responsible for seeking, knocking, and asking! I will hold you accountable for your lack of seeking, knocking, and asking.
I am coming into the “abandoned house” to rescue them from themselves. They have confined themselves to their past and what they used to know. I am bringing you into a deeper place of trust and consecration, hope and deliverance. I am bringing healing, breakthrough, and deliverance to my children.
They can no longer make excuses for not dealing with emotional wounds, trauma, and pain. They can no longer try to run to “my ministry” (to people) without allowing me to minister to them. Many of my children don’t even realize this is what they are doing. I am exposing this.
Too many of my children spend time with me just to get a word from me they can share on social media. I am tired of it. I am tired of my gifted children (prophets) relying on their gifts for their identity rather than me. I want to heal my children. I want to deliver them from this hypocrisy, from this mediocre life they are living.
My children have run, and run, and run from me. They have made excuses for why they have “earned” their running. They have said to themselves and to me, “I must do this, to that. If I don’t run, God will have made a mistake in choosing me. If I don’t get out of the way, God will make the mistake of choosing an assignment, and I will fumble, and I will lose. I will drop the ball, and He will be disappointed in me. If this happens, where will I go? I will lose Him. I will lose my beloved. I will lose our intimacy.”
But my children do not see their callings the way I see them. I am divorcing perfectionism from their callings. They are not called to be perfect. They are not called to perform. They are called to do life with me. Stop running from me my daughter, my son. Stop hiding with the fig leaves of busyness and life, beloved, come to me. Find refuge in me. The safest place you could ever be is with me. Will you come sit under my wings? Will you come rest under my pinions? You don’t have to perform for me. I know your faults, failings, insecurities, and “personality defects.” Come under the blood and receive my GRACE to be who I have called you to be.
You cannot earn identity, it is freely given. You cannot earn your assignment, it is freely given. I know you are scared. You are squeamish. You are doubting if you hear me at all. But you do! You hear me. You hear me. You do. You do not need to defend your calling to those around you and those who I have called you to serve. Embrace who you are; fall in love with who you are in the Kingdom. I have formed you and knit you for such a time as this in the earth.
Spiritual Warfare
6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
Judges 6:1-6 ESV
The devil has sent an assignment to look for opportune moments to take God’s prophets out. I am exposing your enemies in this season in preparation for the new year of building. The devil is strategic when he attacks. All of the areas addressed in this word if gone unaddressed shall be open doors to religious spirits, controlling spirits, and manipulative spirits. Each and every one of these areas are open doors for the enemy to attack strategically at the moment when you are most vulnerable and closest to your point of divine manifestation and breakthrough.
I am warning my prophets and granting them wisdom and strategy in this word to overcome the enemy’s devices. I am exposing these demonic attacks for what they really are. I am protecting my prophets from deception for these next seven years of abundant harvest that they are to lead and pioneer in, in this hour.
I am cleansing my prophets. I am preparing my prophets. I am opening their eyes, so they are vigilant and discerning of the attacks of the enemy.
so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
2 Corinthans 2:11 ESV (“evil schemes” NLT)
My prophets must set boundaries to open doors and access points (i.e. addressing traumatic experiencing, unforgiveness, unrepentant sin, wounds from the past) = shutting the door on what was! You have passed the test of shutting the door to religious/manipulative spirits, satan's army is now looking for new ways to plot against you. These familiar spirits (religion and manipulation) always seek to be near but you can live physically near someone carrying these spirits and still be spiritually far.
2023 is the year of the test of shutting the door to your excuses.
When we have not obeyed God’s voice, we begin to fear the gods that are around us, the gods that are in culture, the gods that have been in our bloodline. Jesus is the only one with blood powerful enough to drive out all of these other gods but when we reject Him, His leading, His voice, His covering, and we fail to obey Him, we reject His blood. This is the very life source of our life. Without His blood, we only have death, dying seeds, dreams, no hope, no gifts, and no manifestation. God is redeeming the power of His blood in your life.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” 1 Samuel 15:23 NIV
The enemy’s assignment is to keep you discouraged and defeated. As you kill these excuses in your life, the enemy will have no access point to discourage or defeat you.
The enemy is setting up traps for my prophets, and he is using religion to do it.
The religious trap is everything you are thinking in addition to the temptation to prematurely build on social media without having received proper authority in me, discerning the timing of ministerial release.
Anger, bitterness, complaining, unforgiveness in my prophets are tainting their wells, but they are here because of their own disobedience and sin. This is a warning. My children must submit to my cleansing /preparation or they will NOT be prepared for my ministry. The enemy will trap them. I need to deal with the roots of their temptation to disobey rooted in undealt with wounding that has created a need to be important, a need to be needed. This is not from me.
My prophets need supernatural deliverance, for they have been fighting in their own strength. I am still a deliverer at the moment of repentance (a repentant heart is what I desire).
Pray, prophet of God! Pray. It is pride not to do what I have required.
Followed My Ways. Be on My agenda and My process. Live Matthew 6:33 (ESV),
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Remember Hebrews 12:1-2,
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
This is a year of casting off weights for My Glory!
Be blessed.
