"Restoration"

(click on picture for a full-sized view and to read the word)

Restoration - a word that the Lord has been speaking to me since the beginning of the year, and to the church.

As I've continued to seek the Lord regarding this, I envisioned a caterpillar.  I then saw the great struggle the caterpillar must go through to emerge from its cocoon so that a beautiful butterfly may come forth in its time.

God is not angry or disappointed with the caterpillar for being just who he is throughout the transformative process.  Nor is He in a hurry, but He watches over him through every stage of this incredible and intricate metamorphosis, never rushing it to its completion.  For if rushed or forced, the butterfly would never come into being, but would be aborted.

So it is with us.  The Father takes great delight as we continue to seek and abide in Him, allowing the very nature of Christ to be continually formed in us as we yield to the Holy Spirit's redemptive work.  All the while, we are wrapped up in His protective covering, safe and secure, and loved by Him.

In another vision I saw thick smoke rising up into the trees.  It was the presence of the Lord.  As the smoke hung in the trees locusts began to fall from those trees to the ground - dead!

The Lord then reminded me of something I saw recently as I went for a walk.  As I rounded the corner towards home, I happened to look down where I saw a locust dead at my feet.  As promised in Joel 2:25-27, the Lord is restoring to His people the years the locusts seemed to have destroyed.  We shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord! 

The Lord then pointed me to Isaiah 6:1-8.  I saw His people in holy worship.  Smoke surrounded them.  Smoke filled the temple.  They were washed, they were cleansed, and they were changed.  Bondages were broken, and bodies, minds and spirits were healed; families and relationships were being restored.  His anointing was poured out as His people were being readied for the great and mighty things He has prepared and the revival being released.

The Father will not leave His people limping and crippled, but by the water's edge commands, "Rise, take up your mat and walk."  

The Lord is our Redeemer, redeeming what we thought perhaps was gone forever.  He is a God of the impossible, a God of the return, and a God of restoration; making whole the broken and shattered parts of our lives, restoring and enlarging us in ways that may seem unfathomable.  

But He is the Resurrection and the Life, removing the stones that have stood in the way, raising His people up, even from the ashes, and clothing us with His joy.  He is commanding, 'Loose My people and let them go.'  He is breathing new life.  He is releasing great blessing that we may be a blessing; more than we could hope or imagine.

He is here to restore the hope that has been deferred and that has made the heart bitter and sick.  But He is the healer and faithful One who satisfies our souls, filling us with all our heart's desire and the ability to fulfill His purposes upon the earth.  He is the One who turns our mourning into dancing that we may sing His praise.

Don't give up!  Persevere!  Keep moving forward in Christ!  He has not forgotten you, but in fact would enlarge the place of your dwelling that all of the nations would see and know the glory of God.

Remember His promises, even those of old.  Meditate on and declare His decrees, for they are the same, unchangeable and life-giving.  Those empty and barren places in our lives, He fills, bringing forth to birth the things He has conceived.  Our "Isaacs" will be born!  God is visiting His people.  At His appointed time, and just as He has said, He will deliver precisely what He has promised.  No, He has not forgotten, but I hear laughter upon the lips of a people who believe.   

Nothing can stop the purposes and plans the Lord has for you.  The enemy will not prevail, for our heritage is His righteousness and freedom in Christ, to take back the stolen, to walk in His truth and His peace, and to establish His Kingdom throughout the earth.

This is a new day, a new season where the Lord is restoring our losses and where He declares the latter to be better than the first.  There is an overflow in the river, even in the desert places you have found yourself in, bubbling up from depths that cannot be seen except in the secret place.  He is turning the bitter to sweet.

Come aside, come away, be set apart.  He is calling for Himself, a holy people, servants and worshipers of the Most High God.  

You are known by a new name in Christ and you are abundantly blessed!

Scripture Meditation:
Genesis 32:24-29 - Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.  Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.  And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”  But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”  So He said to him, “What is your name?”  He said, “Jacob.”  And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”  And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?”  And He blessed him there.
John 5:8-9 - Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
1 Chronicles 4:10 - And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.
Isaiah 54
Genesis 17:1-8 - When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.  And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:   “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.   No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.  And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.  Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
Genesis 17:15-19 -   Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old?  And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”  And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”  Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 
Genesis 21:1-3 -  And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.  For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.  And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.  
Joel 2:25-27 -  So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.  You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.  Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other.  My people shall never be put to shame.

Isaiah 6:1-8 - In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”  And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.  So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.  And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”  Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Job 19:25-26 - For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God...
Job 42:10 - And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.  Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:12 - Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning...
John 11:40-44 -  Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”   Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”  And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Ruth 1:19-21 - Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem.  And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”  But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty.  Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Ruth 3:9-11 -  “Who are you?” he asked.  “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied.  “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.”   “The Lord bless you, my daughter!”  Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor.  Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter.  I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman."
Ruth 4:13-17 - So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.  Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel!  And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”   Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him.  Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi.”   And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.  (NOTE: Obed = SERVANT/WORSHIPER)
Psalm 30:11-12 -  You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.  O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 -  Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.  For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.  Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Proverbs 13:12 -  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
Ephesians 3:20-21 -  Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. Amen.

"Amazing Grace"

He saw me in my struggle, dead, in my blood

He said to me, "Live", it was the time of His love.

He clothed me in robes, royal, spreading his wings

He washed me and cleansed me, redemption to bring.

For He called me and chose me, adopted, a son

Saved through the faith Jesus Christ for me won.

I cast down my crowns, these, no longer my gain

But grace upon grace as I trust in the Name

In the name of Christ Jesus, no longer my own

Purchased, salvation, His blood has atoned

For all of my sin, it was nothing I earned

But the gift of my Father through His sent, living Word.

Joy unspeakable I know for He's my living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus, in Him alone I boast.

My inheritance is incorruptible, it will not fade away

It is reserved for me in Heaven, I am kept until that Day.
I once was lost but now I'm found
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
And so again I lift my praise
My songs to rise unto the Name
To Him who gave His life, to save
To dwell with Him for all my days.

Ezekiel 16:6-14 -  “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’  Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’  I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful.  Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.  “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness.  Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.   “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.  I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.  I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck.  And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.  Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.  You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil.  You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty.  Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.
Ephesians 1:4-6 -  He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Philippians 3:3-9 - For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh.  If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:  circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.  But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved.  You receive it through faith.  It was not our plan or our effort.  It is God’s gift, pure and simple.  You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. 
1 Peter 1:3-5 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.