PROPHETIC WORDS

STEP UP

by Jill Smith

March 2025

This prophetic word was given at the NZ Council of Prophets gathering and Behold Conference in Christchurch, March 2025.

1. We are in a time of spiritual war over our nation, and the world.

2. God is calling prophets, priests and leaders to step up and fulfil our responsibilities faithfully and well for the sake of the church, and the nation/s.

3. It is time for the whole church to learn how to walk in our spiritual authority in a far greater way for the salvation and blessing of nations.

4. There is an urgent call to prayer for the saving and healing of our nation.

Yes, there’s a spiritual battle going on; this is nothing new. It’s a battle in the heavenlies over nations and kingdoms as principalities and powers vie for control of more and more territory, greedy for power and control. It is playing out in political circles, in wars over borders and territories rich with resources.

It is evident in conflict and competition within nations, communities, work places and families, and even the church, as demonic powers actively resist the inevitable – the church arising, sons and daughters leading, stewarding, and governing earth as it is in heaven, under the leadership of the King of Kings.

So what are we to do when we see the impact of the warfare in our nation right now? What should we be focussed upon? What is our role and responsibility in the midst of these turbulent times of war in both the earthly and spiritual realms?

A Call to Step Up

Prophets, priests, and leaders, there’s a clear call in the Spirit to step up and fulfil our responsibilities faithfully and well for the sake of both the church, and the nation and nations.

We are responsible to call God’s people to properly prioritise and actively engage God’s house, His Kingdom, putting God first. We are responsible to teach them how to love and serve the Lord, belonging and contributing their time, talents and treasure together, to build God’s house and bless the world, walking effectively in their diverse gifts and callings.

We must rise to our responsibility to teach God’s people how to first live properly under the government of heaven, walking devotedly in His ways, growing in their ability to align and partner with heaven, understanding their spiritual authority to bless and transform the earth. We, the leaders, must learn to walk with greater maturity in the government of heaven, in order to equip believers to do the same.

Prophet Jeremiah repeatedly chastised the priests and prophets of his day for failing in their responsibility to call and teach the people to love God and walk in His ways, and to reject the seduction of foreign gods and idolatry. Jeremiah linked the decline of Judah’s moral, economic, social, and spiritual standards and the judgment that followed, to the failure of priests and prophets to do their job.

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:13).

We, the church, must not either point the finger at the world judgmentally, or look to the world, political leaders and governments for the solutions that we are responsible to bring.

Prophets, priests, church leaders – God is calling us lovingly, but strongly, to step up, to refuse to be like those false priests and prophets, but to be more like Jeremiah. We must refuse to sell out ministry to man pleasing, money making, compromising with the idols of our day, or neglecting to properly and lovingly address the sin and the wounds in people’s lives.

We Can Make a Difference

In our day there is obvious cause for concern about the condition of our nation. The good news is that we, the church, can make a difference. We can turn things around by turning ourselves around to seek God first. We need to rise to the Spirit’s challenge to turn from compromise and lukewarmness, from doing our thing, to picking up our God-given responsibilities and turning up to do our job faithfully and well, desiring to please and honour the Lord alone.

As we entered 2025 the Lord spoke this passage, and has kept on bringing it to mind:

4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” 5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” 7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labour of your hands” (Hag 1:4-11).

The church carries the solution to earth’s woes, but we must turn from the temptation to “build our own house” and neglect building God’s. There’s a timely application for us today to the pressures of materialism and consumerism tempting us to prioritise lifestyle and material things over our spiritual life – personally, and in relation to church community. There is actually a demonic spirit active in consumerism that is holding the church back, and it needs to be addressed and broken. Right now God is inviting us into freedom and offering a strategy for deliverance, so that we can walk in our calling. This is good news. There is something we can do.

The Spirit of Mammon

Be aware, the spirit of the world has been playing the long game, normalising an approach to life that puts my needs, my ambitions, my comfort, my wealth, building my house, career, image, lifestyle, and future prosperity above all else. This spirit promotes a mindset of scarcity that drives a “to the victor goes the spoils” mentality that empowers self-serving, as well as disrespecting others. Consumerism is rampant. This demonic spirit is greedy for gain. Sadly, we the church, have been influenced too. Remember the unfaithful prophets of Jeremiah’s day were chastised because they were greedy for gain. They offered words that pandered to where the people were at, instead of being faithful to rescue them from deception with God’s faithful challenge.

Jesus taught:

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (mammon). 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:24-33).

Our nation is under the influence of the spirit of Mammon (amongst other things). Yes, our desire as believers is to be under the influence of heaven, but we need to be discerning and acknowledge that demonic spirits are also influencing New Zealand life and culture in 2025. Without a doubt we have been busy building our own houses, and this can lead to neglecting God’s, just like in Haggai’s day.

Whether it’s a home, career, image (or even ministry), tribe (in the widest possible sense), following, our fan base we’re trying to build, expectations about what is required for success, and what we ‘need’, seem to increase exponentially all the time. So much pressure.

The influence of Mammon promotes greed, unhealthy focus on money and material things, dissatisfaction, frustration, comparison, anxiety, spiritual apathy, loss of spiritual desire, and neglect of prayer, worship, Bible reading, fellowship, serving and ministering to bless others.

Mammon is a spirit that can gain influence when people are not in healthy, loving, secure relationship with God as their Father, who is a faithful provider. Money, in and of itself, is not evil, it is a useful servant, but devotion to the pursuit of money is devotion to Mammon, a cruel master demanding all of people’s time, energy, gifts, talents and attention. It keeps people working and consuming, and working more and more to consume more and more, and in return consuming all their time, attention, energy and effort. It promises much, but delivers little, and leaves no time or energy to ‘build God’s house’.

“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Hag 1:6).

To walk in freedom and authority the church must be free from the debilitating effects of Mammon’s cruel temptations and demands. We must seek God and His Kingdom first, depending on Him as provider of all we need, not the spirit of Mammon, not the economy of the world, and not the government of our day.

There is a shift needed. Money and material things must be servants, not masters, in God’s house. Haggai declared that choosing to prioritise building God’s house God’s way is the path to freedom, and there is a lesson in this for us today.

We must also stop building our own house in God’s house, and shift the focus to welcoming, hosting, and stewarding God’s presence, to become His dwelling place, and partnering with Jesus as He builds His church to manifest His Kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven. Our nation urgently needs us, the church, to get our house in order.

The Call

Leaders and prophets, we need to step up, calling the church to prioritise the Lord first, to fervently pray, seek God’s face, align our ways with His, to grow and go in our authority, gifts and callings, for the saving and transforming of our nation as God has planned. The Bible makes it clear that a nation who seeks God first will walk in God’s forgiveness, favour, blessing, protection, and provision, in a healed land, just as He has promised (Matt 6:24-33).

“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14-15).

PRAYER POINTS

1. There’s an urgent call to prayer for the protection, salvation, and refocussing of our nation. More prayer is needed. Let the watchmen, intercessors and prayer leaders be strengthened and reinvigorated to fulfil their callings and to call and equip the Body of Christ to pray.

2. There’s a need to boldly and lovingly challenge accepted cultural mindsets around lifestyle expectations, money, time and priorities, that believers will arise to put God first, to grow in maturity, walk in their gifts, callings, with spiritual authority and the power of God for the sake of the world.

3. Bind the spirit of Mammon and release the spirit of whole-hearted, joyful devotion to, and trust in, God; sacrificial, generous, faith-filled love and service; the bold, clear, loving testimony of God’s goodness.

4. There’s a need for humility to respond to God’s call to change and grow up, and this applies to church leaders, as well as to every believer.

5. Wisdom and discernment, spiritual warfare and deliverance, as well as teaching and equipping must be effectively engaged and ministered to bring the church into greater freedom, effectiveness, and authority to change the spiritual climate over cities, regions and nations, for the saving of many, many, many lives.

BIO