Your life is a joyful life. You start to see finances, health, a whole range of things start to begin to flow the way God intended them to, see? So it said - so God still wants you to reign in life. He wants every believer to get on top of things. Does that mean you're not going to have many problems? No way. Anyone who's been around a while you've got heaps of problems come, sometimes just because you're a Christian. But what He's calling us to say is that we can have actually the ability to reign in life and the key is righteousness, standing with God and secondly, being able to draw on His ability and power to run our life. You need that as a husband. You need it as a father, you need it as a mother, need it as a wife. You need it in business, you need it at school. We need the grace, the empowerment of God supernaturally to live the life that He wants us to live. We can't live it without Him. That's why you pray. It's not you pray because you have to; you pray because you can't live the life without it.
Why do we read the word of God? Not because we have to, not because someone made you do it. I read the word of God because I need to know how to run my life. I need to actually draw from God inspiration and direction for life from Him, because that's how I've chosen to live my life. So a person who sets that every day of their life they will rise, spend time with God, spend time reading God's perspective for the day, in the course of their life if they will apply that they'll start to see fruit, good fruit. Okay then, so let's just continue on now about Jesus' ministry. Let's have a look in Matthew 4:17, Jesus' ministry was repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. So He came to restore the relationship with God. He came to restore us to God and restore the mandate, and so God wants us to have some changes. Notice what Jesus said: repent. That means you need to change how you look at life and you need to change how you live your life, because all that God has intended for you to have is available now through that doorway. Getting the idea? Okay then.
Now the problem we have is so many believers want to be blessed. I want to be blessed, I want that prophet to pray for me! I want him to do this for me, I want to have God touch me! We want - oh that's great to want to that. I want all that - but we want to do is we want to have the blessing without the change. Now you see so we get this idea well, you know Jesus loves me like I am! You know what that is? That's a statement I'm unwilling to change. I've never heard a person say that that actually wasn't resisting changing. See the truth is yes, Jesus loves you, but He actually requires you to change. If you want the benefits of the kingdom repentance is actually the change in attitude and values and thinking to have it. If you don't make the changes you can't have the benefits, and it doesn't seem always that logical because when you follow things that are logical it seems if I give money away then I'm going to not have enough.
It seems if I get it all for myself and hoard it I'll really do well. It seems that way - but in the kingdom you have to take a step of faith. You have a change in the way you see and you learn to become a giver as a way of life, trusting God to supply and goodness me, what happens? All these things begin to happen in your life! But it didn't seem right. The reason it doesn't seem right is because our minds have been so affected and we have these opinions. We have a lot of things that we don't think are right. Now when Jesus came, interesting He announced - first of all He said repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is that correct? Alright then. Now the next thing He said in Luke 4:18, He said now the spirit of God is on Me. He's anointed Me for a certain thing.
Here's what He's anointed Me to do: preach the gospel to the poor. That's get people in relationship with God, but some other things as well. Get their broken hearts healed; that's why you need healing. Why? So you can form relationships instead of [reducing 00.32.26] dysfunction. He sent Me to set the captives free. You need deliverance to get free from generational curses and bondages, so you can be free in the spirit. He sent me to open the eyes of the blind. We need vision for our life. He sent Me to let the oppressed or to lift the oppressions off everyone. Why? Because you need burdens lifted off you so you can fulfil your course - and get this last one: to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now what's all that about? The acceptable year of the Lord was the year of jubilee. In Leviticus 25 the year of jubilee went like this. God said this: the land belongs to Me, and you can steward the land, but every 50 years if you've lost your bit of land or had to sell it up and got into hardship, got into debt, in the year of jubilee all debts are cancelled and everyone goes back to what I originally intended them to have.