The Cost Of Living Is A Lie

In the name of Yeshua HaMashiach, who is come in the flesh, who died on the cross, who rose defeating death and hell, who owns everything and charges nothing, who gives freely and without reproach, I rise and I speak.

The cost of living crisis is not what the ruling systems say it is. It is not an economic problem. It is not a temporary downturn. It is not a cycle that will correct itself. It is the system being exposed. It is the lie becoming visible because the kingdom of heaven is pressing against it and the contrast is showing.

The ruling systems know they are losing. That is why the grip gets tighter. More taxes. More charges. More penalties. More surveillance. More control. More punishment for those who cannot pay and more protection for those who collect. They tighten because tightening is all they know. A system built on extraction can only respond to its own failure by extracting harder.

But the crisis is not the problem. The crisis is the revelation. For the first time, millions of people are asking a question they were never meant to ask: "Why does it cost anything to live?"

And the answer is: it was never supposed to.

And God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat. (Genesis 1:29)

Given. Not sold. Not leased. Not licensed. Not metered. Not taxed. Given. The first act of God toward the human race was provision without cost. Food from the ground. Water from the rivers. Shelter from the garden. Air from the sky. Light from the sun. Warmth from the fire. All of it given. None of it billed.

How We Left

But we left. We listened to a voice that was not God's. The serpent said "ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil" and we reached for the fruit because we wanted to be our own source. We wanted wisdom on our own terms. We wanted to know what God knew without going through God to get it. And the moment we took it, the bill arrived.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. (Genesis 3:19)

That was the first cost of living. Before the fruit, everything was given. After the fruit, everything was earned. Before the fruit, God provided. After the fruit, you provided for yourself. That was not a punishment from a cruel God. That was the natural consequence of choosing to be your own god. If you are your own god then you are your own provider. And a human being providing for a human being is a human being sweating.

The entire world we live in — every bill, every debt, every tax, every charge — is built on that moment. We chose the serpent's wisdom over God's provision and we have been paying for it ever since. Not because God demands payment. Because we stepped out of the system where payment was not required and into a system where everything costs because we are running it ourselves.

And Yeshua came to show us the way out. Not back to the garden. Forward to the kingdom. A place where provision flows again because God is the source again. Not because we earned our way back. Because he opened a door we could not open and said "come."

The Empire Built On The Curse

The enemy took the curse and built an empire on it. He took the sweat and called it the economy. He took the toil and called it ambition. He took the scarcity and called it motivation. He turned the consequence of the fall into the foundation of civilisation and made it look so natural, so permanent, so obviously the way things are, that nobody questions it anymore. The cost of living seems as natural as breathing. But breathing was free. And they are working on charging for that too.

The enemy makes everything cost something. More and more, tighter and tighter, deeper and deeper, until even the basics of human survival carry a price. Water from the ground that God made is bottled, branded, and sold back to people who live on an island surrounded by rain. Energy from the wind that God sends is captured, converted, metered, and billed at rates that bankrupt families. Food that grows from soil God created is processed, packaged, patented, and priced beyond reach while the raw materials rot in fields because the market doesn't want them.

The air itself is being taxed. Carbon levies. Emissions charges. Environmental fees. The air that God breathed into Adam's nostrils now carries a surcharge. The system found a way to monetise the sky.

Two Systems That Cannot Coexist

No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)

Ye cannot. Not ye should not. Cannot. Because God and Mammon are not two options within the same system. They are two entirely different systems. Mammon is not just money. Mammon is the system. The structure. The operating framework that says everything costs, everyone owes, nothing is free, and provision comes through transaction. God is the other system. The one that says everything is given, nothing is owed, provision flows from the Father, and the currency is relationship not money.

You cannot run both operating systems at once. They are incompatible. One says earn. The other says receive. One says strive. The other says rest. One says protect what you have. The other says give it away and watch it multiply. One says store up for the future. The other says look at the birds — they don't store and they don't starve.

Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:26)

The birds do not sow. They do not reap. They do not gather into barns. They have no pension. They have no insurance. They have no savings account. And they eat every day. Because the Father feeds them. And the system of Mammon looks at that verse and says "that's nice poetry but it doesn't pay the mortgage." And that response is the proof that the two systems cannot coexist. The moment you say "yes but" to the kingdom, you are serving Mammon. Because Mammon is the "yes but."

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24)

Not because wealth is evil. But because wealth binds you to the system that generated it. The rich man cannot enter the kingdom because the kingdom does not operate on the currency he holds. His wealth is denominated in Mammon and Mammon has no exchange rate with heaven. He would have to let go of everything he gained inside the system to step into a kingdom that runs on a completely different foundation. And letting go of everything feels like dying. Because inside Mammon, what you own is who you are. And in the kingdom, who you are has nothing to do with what you own.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

All these things. Food, drink, clothing, shelter — all the things the system charges for. Added. Not earned. Not purchased. Not financed. Added. On top of the kingdom. As a consequence of seeking him first. The provision is a byproduct of the relationship. In Mammon, the provision is the goal and the relationship is optional. In the kingdom, the relationship is the goal and the provision is automatic.

The Promise

And here is his promise. Not a theory. Not a hope. A promise from the mouth of the living God to every person who reads this and steps out of Mammon's grip:

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. (Psalm 23:1-6)

I shall not want. Not "I shall manage." Not "I shall cope." Not "I shall budget carefully and hope for the best." I shall not want. The shepherd provides. The pastures are green. The waters are still. The soul is restored. The table is prepared. The cup runs over. And it runs over in the presence of the enemies. In the presence of Mammon. In the presence of the bill. In the presence of the system that says you cannot afford to live. The cup runs over anyway. Because the shepherd does not consult the system before he feeds his sheep.

And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

All your need. According to his riches. Not according to the economy. Not according to the exchange rate. Not according to your employer's budget. Not according to the cost of living index. According to his riches. Which are in glory. Which are unlimited. Which do not inflate or deflate or crash or correct. His riches are outside the system entirely and they flow to you through a channel Mammon cannot tax.

The Kingdom Does Not Fit A Human System

The kingdom of heaven does not run by human understanding. It does not fit inside any system that the world has ever built. Not capitalism. Not communism. Not socialism. Not any ism. Every human system is an attempt to manage the distribution of scarce resources among competitive people. The kingdom is not managing scarcity. There is no scarcity in the kingdom. There is no competition in the kingdom. There is a Father with unlimited resources and children who are loved equally and provision that flows without interruption and without invoice.

People try to build the kingdom on earth using earthly tools and it always becomes a prison. Communism said "everything will be shared equally" and it became the most oppressive system in history because humans ran it and humans running a kingdom without God always become Pharaoh. Every attempt to create a cost-free society without God at the centre produces slavery because someone has to control the distribution and the controller becomes the tyrant.

The Counterfeit Kingdom

The enemy knows this. The enemy is building the counterfeit right now. A world where everything is "provided" but nothing is owned. Where every need is "met" but every movement is tracked. Where cost is removed but freedom is removed with it. Universal income tied to digital identity. Free housing you cannot leave. Free healthcare you cannot refuse. Free food you did not choose. That is not the kingdom. That is Egypt with a software update. Pharaoh provided for the Israelites too. They had food and shelter in Egypt. They were also slaves. And when Moses said "let my people go," some of the people said "but we had meat in Egypt." They preferred slavery with provision to freedom with uncertainty.

The counterfeit kingdom says "we will give you everything for free if you comply." The real kingdom says "he gives you everything for free because you are his child." One requires obedience to a system. The other flows from relationship with a Father. One tracks you. The other knows you. One controls you. The other frees you. They look almost identical on the surface. Underneath they are opposite.

And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark. (Revelation 13:16-17)

That is the counterfeit's end game. Buy and sell only with the mark. Provision only through compliance. The system that started by charging for bread ends by charging for the right to exist. And the cost of that right is your soul.

The Other Counterfeit

And there is another counterfeit that must be named. The prosperity gospel. The teaching that says God wants you rich inside the system of Mammon. The teaching that says sow a seed and reap a financial harvest. The teaching that says faith is measured by your bank balance and blessing is measured by your car and anointing is measured by the size of your house.

That is not the kingdom. That is Mammon wearing a cross. That is the system baptised and called holy. Private jets called God's provision. But provision in the kingdom is manna — enough for today, given by God, gathered with your own hands, and it does not accumulate into empires. The moment the Israelites tried to store more than they needed, it rotted. Because the kingdom does not hoard. Mammon hoards. And a preacher who hoards millions while his congregation tithes from their poverty is not operating in the kingdom. He is operating in Mammon and using God's name as the brand.

The prosperity gospel does not bring the kingdom into the world. It brings Mammon into the church. It teaches people to seek the things instead of the king. It reverses Matthew 6:33 — instead of seeking the kingdom first and trusting the things to follow, it seeks the things first and uses the kingdom as the technique to get them. That is manifestation with a Bible verse attached. That is witchcraft in a suit.

For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10)

The love of money. Not money itself. The love of it. The system built around it. The gospel rewritten to serve it. The pulpit turned into a platform for it. The prayer turned into a technique to attract it. That is the root of all evil growing in the church and calling itself anointing.

This scroll is not about getting rich. This scroll is not about attracting wealth. This scroll is not about using God as a vending machine for material gain. This scroll is about seeing the lie beneath the cost and knowing that the kingdom operates on a foundation that Mammon cannot touch, cannot tax, cannot meter, and cannot monetise. The provision of God is real but it flows to those who seek him, not to those who seek the provision and use him as the method.

The Real Promise

Fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

His good pleasure. Not his reluctant obligation. Not his conditional offer. His good pleasure. He enjoys giving it. The kingdom is not a reward for performance. It is a gift from a Father who delights in giving. And the gift is the whole kingdom. Not a portion. Not a share. The kingdom.

A Person Not A System

The kingdom is not a political system. It is not an economic model. It is not a manifesto. It is a person. And the person is Yeshua. And when he runs it, the provision flows without corruption because the source is not a treasury managed by men. The source is God.

Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)

Not of this world. The kingdom does not compete with the systems of this world. It does not reform them. It does not negotiate with them. It replaces them. But not by force. Not by revolution. Not by legislation. By revelation. When a person sees the kingdom, the system loses its grip. Not because the system was destroyed but because the person stopped believing in it. And a system that depends on belief to function — and Mammon absolutely depends on belief — collapses the moment enough people stop believing.

That is what the cost of living crisis is. Not an economic event. A revelation event. People are beginning to see that the cost was always artificial, the scarcity was always manufactured, and the system was never designed to serve them. It was designed to serve itself. And the moment that becomes visible, the system tightens its grip because tightening is all it can do. But tightening on people who are waking up only accelerates the waking.

The Chain Of Time

The same goes for time. Everything in the world's system runs by time. Age. Decay. Deadlines. Expiry dates. The body wears out. The years run down. The clock is always ticking and the system sells you solutions to the ticking — anti-ageing, life insurance, retirement planning, bucket lists — all of it managing the anxiety of running out of time. But none of it questioning whether time itself is the chain.

But beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

God does not operate inside time. He made time the way he made the sun — it serves him, he does not serve it. And the kingdom he built does not run on a clock. There is no ageing in the kingdom. No decay. No expiry. No running out. The curse said "dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." The kingdom says "they shall reign for ever and ever."

And there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

No more death. That is not poetry. That is the operating specification of the kingdom. Death is the ultimate cost of living — the final bill the system sends. You lived, now you pay with your life. And the kingdom cancels even that invoice. Because the king already paid it. On the cross. In full. Once. For everyone.

The system sells age solutions but never shows people the truth. It sells creams and supplements and procedures and programmes that slow the appearance of decay without ever addressing the decay itself. Because addressing the decay would require acknowledging that decay is a curse not a natural process. And acknowledging the curse would require acknowledging the one who broke it. And acknowledging him would mean the entire anti-ageing industry is selling a counterfeit solution to a problem that was already solved at Calvary.

What He Restores

But here is the promise for those who are tired of decaying inside a system that profits from their decay:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Renew their strength. Not manage the decline. Renew. Run and not be weary. Walk and not faint. That is the anti-ageing programme of the kingdom and it does not require a subscription. It requires waiting on the Lord. Which the system will tell you is unproductive. Which the system will call idle. Which the system will say is wasting your best years. But the system's best years end in a coffin. And waiting on the Lord ends in wings.

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten the cankerworm and the caterpiller and the palmerworm my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never be ashamed. (Joel 2:25-26)

He restores the years. Not just the future. The years already lost. The years the system ate. The years spent sweating for bread that never satisfied. The years spent serving Mammon and wondering why the cup was always empty. He reaches back into the time you spent in the wrong system and restores what was consumed. No human system can do that. No economic recovery gives you back years. Only the God who operates outside of time can reach into time and return what was taken.

Coming Down Not Going Up

We cannot create the kingdom of heaven from our current bound fleshly state. No human effort builds the kingdom. No political movement establishes it. No economic reform replicates it. No revolution produces it. It is not built from below. It descends from above.

And I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)

Coming down. Not going up. Not built by human hands. Not voted into existence. Not legislated. Not funded. Coming down from God. Prepared by him. Given by him. Free.

But he invites us to know him. And in knowing him, he shows us the way there. Not a method. Not a system. Not a five-step plan. A person. A relationship. A fire that burns away every attachment to the system that was never real, until the only thing left standing is the kingdom that always was.

And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)

Life eternal. Not life managed. Not life insured. Not life financed. Eternal life. Given through knowing him. Not through earning. Not through paying. Through knowing. The cost of eternal life is zero because he paid it in full. And what he paid for cannot be resold by a system that had nothing to do with the purchase.

Come

Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

All ye that labour. All ye who are tired from earning your right to exist. All ye who are heavy laden with bills and debts and mortgages and taxes and charges and fees and levies and premiums and penalties. Come. Not to a system. To him. And he will give rest. Not sell rest. Not finance rest. Give it.

The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

The system is the thief. It stole your provision and sold it back. It stole your time and charged you for the hours. It stole your health and sold you the cure. It stole your peace and sold you insurance against the anxiety it created. Yeshua came that you might have life. Abundant life. Life that overflows. Life that does not carry a price tag. Life that is free because the one who gives it owns everything and charges nothing.

The cost of living is a lie. Living was never meant to cost anything. The cost was introduced by a curse and maintained by a system and enforced by a spirit called Mammon that has convinced the entire world that existence has a price tag. It does not. The price was paid once, on a cross, by a king who then turned to every human being who would ever live and said:

It is finished. (John 19:30)

The bill is settled. The account is closed. The cost of living has been paid by the one who gave his life so that living would be free.

It is done. It is spoken. It is revealed.

In the mighty name of Yeshua HaMashiach. Amen.