Healing can be Messy

I'm trying to find joy after spending all day in the hot, Florida sun, cutting pepper hedges and clearing land for a fence.

How many of you are putting the work in when it comes to healing? Are you trusting God to heal you of the past hurts? Pain? Heartache? Will you follow God wherever He leads? Are you an active participant in your healing journey or only a bystander? Will you get messy, dig through the dirt of the past, so He can truly rule your life?

Healing is a journey. Unique for the individual, and takes a lot of grit! My journey began several years ago and involved my selling everything to follow God. David and I purchased a ten-acre parcel of land. We began a free healing ministry for survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and assault, and all those with childhood trauma, both male and female.

At first, I was uncertain and uneasy, quite uncomfortable with the unknown of ranch life. My husband, David, likes to call it a ranch; others call it a farm. Whatever you call it, God has certainly tested, strengthened, and healed me layer by layer while serving Him on His ranch. Father would direct me to go out and work the land. The photo above was taken after I attacked the pepper hedges and cut down a tree, all while David was at work. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you why.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly when I asked Father what I could do that day to serve His Kingdom. He said it first starts with you helping your husband load the trailer and clear the land for the back fence. My first response was "get behind me, satan." But I heard the voice again, and I knew Father's voice. So, as a good child does, I obeyed and cleared land for weeks on end to make way for our new fence to replace the old, broken one.

I want to tell you that in 2023, when David took this photo at home after work,that I was grateful, never complained, but I would be lying. See, God had to do a work in me while training me to be of submitted, selfish service to others with a pure heart of love. First, I had to learn to serve my husband and work as a team, ultimately serving God, because it's His land. My sweat, tears, cuts, and bruises all spoke of surrender, not my will but Yours be done, oh God.

Where have we heard that before? Who is our ultimate healer? Deliverer? Great Physician? Wonderful counselor? Jesus, of course, with His work done on the Cross. Calvary is the basis for all of our healing, scripture tells us, "By His Stripes Ye were Healed." That is past tense, and you have been healed! You need to believe it, surrender to the process, and walk away from yesterday's wounds and pain, stepping into an abundant life today!

Is it messy, hard work? The answer is yes. Is it worth it? The answer is yes. I am living proof. God is real. Jesus is real. Healing is your portion. Believe it, receive it, walk in it, own it.

Step into all God has for you in 2026, and begin the messy work of transformative healing, complete restoration, and become victorious as a warrior for Christ! If you do not know how, start by getting alone with God and asking the Holy Spirit to help you shed those things in your life that no longer serve you this season. As the Holy Spirit gives you the strength to surrender, letting go of your need for control, and let God shape and mold you on the Potter's wheel of purpose.

I am stepping out in 2026 into the fullness of my calling, His calling on my life, and am asking, will you join me? Will you believe Him for more? I am believing and expecting more. We serve the God of exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ask, think, or imagine.

Let's link arms, walk together, and usher in a year of love, hope, gratitude, praise, worship, yes, even in the hallway of affliction, or even while doing a task you would rather skip, like cutting pepper hedges or clearing land.

Will you obey God, no matter where He directs you to go? Will you follow Him into a lion's den, fiery furnace, or pick up your Cross and follow me, praising Him throughout, trusting Him to deliver you, but even if He doesn't, say, nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done. Will you complain like the Israelites, or will you praise?

2026 is a year of victory and taking territory for the Kingdom of God. Will you allow Him to use you? Guide you? Mold you? Shape you? Heal you? Can you fully surrender to His Lordship, and let the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, lead you along paths of righteousness for His name's sake? Ponder these questions? Remembering, when you put the Kingdom of God first, all else shall be added unto you.

Blessings and Overflow,

Tammy Toney-Butler, Healing Evangelist,

www.tammytoneybutler.com