Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

“I HEARD HEAVEN RESPONDING ASAP TO JUNE WEDDING INVITATIONS: ‘WE’LL BE THERE WITH BELLS ON!’”

• May 27th, 2005

“I saw Heaven’s balcony about to break, with so much weight of angels, miracles, and the glory of God leaning against it, as Jesus was seemingly begging the Father, ‘Can we go again to one more wedding, like we did in Cana, where we released our first miracle on earth to get the attention of generations to come — so everyone would know that they are My Bride to be . . . Can we Father?’” - Bill Yount on the ElijahList

Declare Victory Month 4

• May 22nd, 2005

“This is a month of breaking old cycles. Ask God for signs, wonders, and miracles that will intervene in old cyclical structures of your life. Make a list of old cycles that need to break. Be secure in timing. If you praised last month, then you can be set in God’s perfect timing this month. This is a month to declare that everything in your past be repaired and restored so your future can be unlocked. Look up and see the window of Heaven that is opening over you. This is a month that you will gain victory in strategic warfare. Do not be afraid of ascending in worship. Find times to fast during this month. This is a time to experience God’s glory. Ask God to open your eyes so you can see His glory.” - Chuck D. Pierce on the ElijahList

I will rebuild you

• May 21st, 2005

“From a distance ADONAI appeared to me, [saying] ‘I love you with an everlasting love; this is why in my grace I draw you to me. Once again I will build you; you will be rebuilt, virgin of Israel.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

His grace

One of God’s biggest struggles is with us – getting us to understand just how much he loves us. When He is near, we know His love and comfort, but when he is distant, it’s perhaps a little harder to know. He wants us to know, that even from a distance, He loves us. From a distance it’s a little harder to recognize Him, but we do recognize His voice, “and the sheep follow Him because they recognize his voice.” (John 10:4). We know we hear His voice and we know he loves us, because He said the evidence is in the grace that keeps drawing us to him. We recognize His voice, because He comes in love, the first thing He wanted to say to His people was that he loves them, the first thing he says to you is that he loves you. God wants to build you up, He is creating something wonderful, even although He disciplines and humbles, He always does it in love. When you have condemning thoughts, about how worthless you are, cast them aside, because Jesus comes in love.

This great love

This great love, the Father has for us is humanly impossible to even begin to comprehend, it’s by His grace and power that we understand even a little glimpse of His love. It is of utmost importance that we grasp this great love, because “my people are destroyed for want of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6) Paul prayed this way, “so that you, with all God’s people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love” (Ephesians 3:17b-18).

How else can we know He loves us?

Life has seasons just as the earth does, it’s God’s way of doing things, some of the seasons we go through involve times of silence where we’re not hearing anything. Many of the great hero’s of the bible experienced this. We will too, but in those times, His love can be discerned by His rod and staff. David wrote, “He guides me in right paths for the sake of His own name, Even if I pass through death-dark ravines, I will fear no disaster; for you are with me; your rod and staff reassure me.” (Psalm 23:3b-4) David describes how at times he passes through death-dark ravines (also mentioned in other scriptures as the valley of the shadow of death). The shadow of death, is a hell-like experience on earth, the most prominent torture in hell is absolutely no communication from God. The shadow of death refers to hell-like-experiences on earth, times of silence. The valley characterizes the experience as temporary. In our walk with Jesus on earth we will pass through this valley just as David did, during this time, look for the signs of the Father’s love, His rod and staff. God’s rod is for discipline “for the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves” (Hebrews 12:6), and God’s staff is for guidance because “ADONAI directs a person’s steps, and He delights in his way. He may stumble, but he won’t fall headlong for ADONAI holds him by the hand.” (Psalm 37:23) If you want to be confident of His love, watch for the discipline and guidance, they’re not easy to see, but pray for the wisdom to see because they are there. The Israelites had to have Moses spell it out for them since they couldn’t see His love in the desert, “think deeply about it: ADONAI was disciplining you, just as a man disciplines his child.” (Deuteronomy 8:5) Because you are disciplined and guided, you know you are loved, look back over your life and see how He has guided you. Don’t think that you’re alone either, just because He is distant in communication, he is holding your hand, most of the time He is carrying you through your troubled times. The Israelites had a hard time seeing God’s love because they didn’t see the discipline as love, they forgot about the guidance, they didn’t even know that “God carried you, like a man carries his child, along the entire way you traveled until you arrived at this place.” (Deuteronomy (1:31) We can learn a lot from this. They didn’t think they were loved, just as we sometimes don’t, but God’s love for them was incredible, it was all around them, the evidence was there. Notice the drawing to His word, to Him, notice the discipline, notice the guidance, and be thankful!

A work in progress

Reading about the forty year journey through the desert, leaves me thinking, will these people ever learn? They experienced so much of God, we’re still reading about it centuries later, yet after all of this, the manna, the cloud, the parting of the red sea, the ravens, they still grumbled. I doubted that God would even let them into the Promised Land, they seemed like a hopeless crowd, but that’s because I’m looking from the inside, through the words of Moses who saw the flaws and faults and dealt with them every day, but what about what God saw? How did God see His people despite all of this? The prophet, Balaam was not an Israelite, but He was a man of God (well most of the time anyway) and when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and opened his eyes as he looked across the river at the Israelites, this is what he said, “How lovely are your tents, Jacob; your encampments, Israel! They spread out like valleys, like gardens by the riverside, like scarlet aloes planted by ADONAI, like cedar trees next to the water.” (Numbers 24:5-6) Wow. God saw them as something magnificent, what a change of perspective. This is the same change of perspective we need to experience. Because God is working with us, shaping us, “behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand” (Jeremiah 18:6), it’s easy to miss the progress, it’s easy to focus on the flaws, but get some perspective, some of God’s perspective, ask the Lord to open your eyes to see yourself through His eyes.

Restoration

“From a distance ADONAI appeared to me, [saying] ‘I love you with an everlasting love; this is why in my grace I draw you to me. Once again I will build you; you will be rebuilt, virgin of Israel.” (Jeremiah 31:3) At this time Israel was not experiencing God’s best for them, and I’m sure disillusionment had set it in, but through God’s infinite grace and everlasting love he let’s them know that they will be rebuilt. God is in the business of restoration, for God nothing is beyond repair. Because we were made in God’s likeness we too love restoration: restoring old cars, old houses and making something beautiful out of something that was cast aside, God is in the business of beautifying and restoring people. In his everlasting love, he will rebuild and restore us. God’s idea of restoration entails praise and self-employment. Yes, self-employment, we were created to enjoy all the fruits of our labor. We were also created to praise Him because he is good, and honor Him with our fruits. Continuing in the same scripture in Jeremiah, we find what out God’s idea of restoration is about: “Once again, equipped with your tambourines, you will go out and dance with the merry makers. Once again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Shomron, and those doing the planting will have the use of it’s fruit.” (Jeremiah 31:4-5) First on God’s list is the restoration of praise and the fullness of joy. Second is prosperity and self-employment.

Praise

“…those who harvest the grain will eat it with praises to ADONAI; those who gathered the wine will drink of it in the courtyards of my sanctuary.” (Isaiah 62:9) There is a kind of praise that is sacrificial, though things seem to be going wrong, though my finances are tight, yet will I praise you O Lord, “the lifter of my head.” (Psalm 3:3) But there is also another kind of praise, a response to God’s kindness, a response to deliverance and salvation from adverse circumstances. This kind of praise is explosive and contagious. Notice how the eating of the grain and the praises to God are so tightly coupled, the drinking of the wine and the sanctuary. We have come to a place of such abundance and deliverance from the devourer (Mal 3:11) that we can’t but praise Him. The very taste of the fruit of our labor induces praise because we know that it is by His hand, and His hand alone. You may ask, well, how do we know it is by the hand of God? Because God has trained us for this day. There is a reason we have gone through times of lack (times in the wilderness), God “fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. And beware lest you say in your [mind and] heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. But you shall [earnestly] remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:16-18) The times of mere adequacy, of lack, of dryness were to prepare us for the day of blessing, He was humbling us so that we might recognize the might power of his right arm. The other reason we know it’s Him, is because we didn’t do anything, but more about this further on.

Self-employment

Amos 9:14 also makes reference to God’s desire for self-employment and productivity, “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild and inhabit cities; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine; cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.” Through Adam all of man was cursed so that “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19), but sweating for someone else’s food is beyond even what Adam brought upon us. Wage earners are lumped in the same category as widows and orphans - “I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans” (Mal 3:5) I create computer software for my employer, I have worked by the sweat of my brow to create this software, when it’s ready for production, my employer receives the fruit of it’s harvest, I simply receive my wages. I am working in someone else’s vineyard. God has promised restoration! If there was a scale of blessing, it would range from the wage earner to Adam’s life to Jesus promise. It’s time to be rebuilt!

What then should we do?

In Jeremiah, God promises restoration, God promises to rebuild us, couldn’t we just sit back and wait for the promise? Sounds like a good idea, but Isaiah 62:6-9 outlines our assignment in attaining the promise, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Yerushalayim; they will never fall silent, neither by day nor by night. You who call on ADONAI, give yourselves no rest; and give him no rest till he restores Yerushalayim and makes it a praise on earth. ADONAI has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: ‘Never again will I give your grain to your enemies as food; nor will strangers drink your wine, for which you have worked so hard; but those who harvest the grain will eat it with praises to ADONAI; those who gathered the wine will drink of it in the courtyards of my sanctuary.” Wow, firstly we find yet another affirmation of God’s to-do list for restoration, self-employment and praise. I love how this scripture integrates praise, thankfulness, prosperity and the sanctuary. Picture it, God’s abundance as described in Malachi 3:10 where He will “open the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you a blessing far beyond your needs” and with our abundance and full of joy we say, “let us go up Zion, to the House of the Lord,” (Jeremiah 31:6) and give thanks in the sanctuary where we enjoy what he has blessed us with. But until then we have an assignment to focus our prayers and calls to the Lord on restoration, we are to continue persistently until the restoration is complete and he will never take it away again. “Keep asking, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7), this is our mission, our assignment until the restoration is complete. Just as the widower kept on pestering the Judge for her restoration, so we need to be, let us give Him no rest until the restoration is complete, “Hear what the unjust judge said. ‘And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:6-8) Will we persist until restoration comes? Jesus indicates that as we approach the closing of the age, many will not have the faith to persist until they see restoration. Do you want to know if you have great faith? Keep on crying out day and night for restoration until you have been restored in praise and self-employment. Many of my favorite scriptures are the unconditional ones, the ones that say, it’s doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done, this promise is for you. I call these my comfort scriptures. James 1:5 is one of those scriptures, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach; and it will be given to him.” Here we learn that God gives generously (more than we need, more than we deserve) and without reproach (He does not accuse, He does not blame). When we ask for wisdom, God gives generously and it doesn’t matter who we are or what we’ve done. Matthew 7:7 is much like this scripture in James because Jesus said, “though He bears long with them,” even if God has been putting up with our failures for so long, when we cry out day and night God will come through. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we’ve done.

Persevere

“How blessed is the man who perseveres through temptation! For after he has passed the test, he will receive as his crown the Life which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

Just calm yourselves down

“Stop being so fearful! Remain steady, and you will see how Adonai is going to save you. He will do it today - today you have seen the Egyptians, but you will never see them again! Adonai will do battle for you. Just calm yourselves down.” (Exodus 14:13) When our God is about to restore us, deliver us from the hands of the Egyptians who have held us in bondage, kept us from attaining the promises of God, we can be sure that they’re not going to give us up without a fight. There will be a battle, and when we look in the natural we’re going to see armies amassing for assault, but know that the Lord will do battle for us, we just need to remain calm, because we will never see the task-masters again, they will be utterly destroyed, “not even one of them was left” (Exodus 14:28). We can see too how our deliverance is tightly coupled with our response to the chaos rising around us, just calm yourselves down. Again, in Psalm 46:10 we are reminded of God’s way of doing things, “Desist, and learn that I am God, supreme over the nations, supreme over the earth.” Desist is defined as, “to cease doing something,” it seems that Gods way couldn’t be easier - he wants us to sit back, relax so that he can demonstrate his power. In the same way we would sit down to watch a good movie, make yourselves comfortable, get some popcorn and watch as God performs the greatest miracles in your life right before your very eyes. The special effects are spectacular! It’s no wonder that Jesus said, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

Remain calm, cry out day and night for restoration, and remember, it is by God’s mighty arm that you have been restored.