AUGUST 2025

You may notice that we’re talking about taxes in August, far from the year-end scramble or the springtime filing rush. That’s intentional.

Because stewardship isn’t seasonal. And tax isn’t just paperwork. It’s a parable.

Recently, while reviewing a client’s return, a familiar thought rose again: 

What if the way we handle our taxes mirrors the way we account for our lives?

Every form, every deduction, every overlooked credit… tells a story. Not just of financial decisions but of stewardship, obedience, wisdom, and sometimes… avoidance. That thought unraveled into something deeper, something I’ll be unpacking all month. 

A layered revelation: Tax returns as a living metaphor for the judgment seat of the Most High.

A mirror, not just of money but of soul alignment.

Now, I want to be clear: I know that each of us relates to the divine in our own way. Some call that presence God, others the Universe or Source. For me, that higher power is YAHUAH, the name I reverently submit to, the one I seek to honor in both life and business. My aim is never to convert, only to witness. To share what has come through me in truth and spirit.

If something here resonates, you’re welcome to walk with it. 

If not, I hope you still find something useful, something spacious, something strengthening for your own path.

Filing your taxes isn’t the real test. It’s a reflection.

The test is how you lived the year before, the choices you made, the systems you ignored, the money you spent or stewarded.

And that’s the revelation I want to sit with this week.

Because what if tax season isn’t just about forms but about alignment?

What if our bookkeeping isn’t just business but soul work?

I’ve seen it again and again: businesses running fine on the outside, but spiritually misaligned beneath the surface. Not because they lack strategy. 

But because they lacked awareness. Intention. Reverence.

Let the work begin.

Here are three ways to reframe your approach to money. Not as mere obligation, but as ongoing obedience:

① Real-Time Alignment Over Year-End Panic

Don’t wait until tax time to ask where your money went. Monthly reviews, margin buffers, and consistent categorization are not just best practices, they’re forms of mindfulness. They say: I’m paying attention. I’m preparing with integrity.

② Purpose-Driven Categorization

Every expense tells a story. Every budget line reflects a value. Treat your chart of accounts like a spiritual mirror. Does this category reflect your mission, or just your survival instinct? Are you tracking generosity? Rest? Sabbaths? Alignment?

③ Estimated Payments = Living in Submission

Many see estimated tax payments as a burden. But they’re actually a way to stay in right standing throughout the year, not just scrambling at the end. This is what spiritual congruence looks like in your finances: regular, intentional stewardship.

Many people reach tax season expecting strategy to save what misalignment created. They want grace to do what discipline never did.

But grace isn’t a retroactive plan, it’s a relational covering. 

And systems? They are how we respond to what grace reveals.

This week, I’m returning to something I now live by: Insight without system is exposure.

You can receive wisdom. 

You can even know the truth. 

But without a process in place to hold it, life will default to chaos.

So I ask:

→ Are your systems catching what the Ruach is revealing?

→ Or are they just helping you survive the pressure you never prepared for?

Because the way you build says something.

Your process is a prophecy.

It tells the truth about what you expect, what you believe, and whether you’re living in submission or in scramble.

Here are three shifts that can turn your operations from reactive to reverent:

① Wisdom as Workflow

Systems aren’t just for automating tasks. They’re for honoring revelation. Ask: “Have I created a place to store, revisit, and act on what I’ve learned or am I forgetting what I claimed to receive?”

② Boundaries as Belief

Every system you build reflects what you value. Client boundaries = I value rest. Tax-time templates = I plan to be ready. Time-blocking for inquiry = I expect to hear and respond.

③ Structure as Submission

To create a workflow before the overflow is to say: “I trust what’s coming.” Your systems should say, “I believe in what I’m building, even before it arrives.”

When tax season comes, there’s no hiding.

The numbers speak. 

The forms don’t lie. 

And the return, whether refund or liability, is not arbitrary. 

It’s a reflection of how you lived, earned, spent, and stewarded what was entrusted to you.

Now pause.

What if our lives work the same way?

What if, at the appointed time, what we “file” before the Most High reveals how we really lived, not what we intended, but what we actually did?

This is the weight I’ve been sitting with:

I don’t want to build a business that looks good on paper but bankrupts my spirit.

I don’t want to wait for the amended return.

I want to live in such a way that my performance, my real performance, is already covered by obedience.

Here are the metrics I’ve started tracking, not in spreadsheets, but in stillness:

① Obedience Over Outcome

Did I go where the Ruach led, even when it wasn’t popular or profitable?

② Wisdom Timeline

Did I seek counsel in time to act with integrity, or wait until I was scrambling?

③ Conviction Follow-Through

How often do I actually do what I know I’m being prompted to do?

These are the metrics that can’t be faked. They aren’t about scale. They’re about surrender.

There’s one detail I can’t shake:

When we file a tax return, it’s based on a year already lived. The decisions have already been made. The numbers are already tallied.

It’s the same with life.

Many want grace at the end but avoid alignment during the journey. 

We want reward without reverence. 

Refunds without stewardship.

But grace isn’t retroactive strategy, it’s relational access. 

It’s Yahushua, the Messiah, becoming our amended return. 

Not erasing the year, but covering what we couldn’t account for.

That’s not license to live blindly. That’s invitation to live wisely.

So as we explore money, systems, and soul this month, ask yourself:

➊ Am I waiting until April to align what needs tending now?

➋ Do my business decisions reflect submission or just survival?

➌ What kind of “return” do I want to give for the life I’ve been entrusted with?

This is not just about taxes. It’s about truth. 

About how we account for the unseen. About how we live with intention before the filing is due.

Here’s to walking in spiritual congruence; in business, in life, and in everything between.

Shalom,

Michelle Reyes

Bookkeeping & Consulting

mishael@myadonbusiness.com

(315) 220 - 0684