The Depth of Restoration

 

The Depth of Restoration

 

9/19/20

 

 

 

 

Most of us like to hear that there is a plan of restoration that God has for our lives, but how many of us understand just how deep this process goes and what it really entails?  We cannot forget that God is a complete God and that whenever He completes an act He does so in such a complete and eternal manner.  It is necessary that we know as much as possible to this process because when it begins it is not going to feel all warm and fuzzy at first, for you see when a person or nation is restored it must be completely broken from the wicked ways first.  God never intended for anyone to have to endure such agony of being cleaned but moreover, He never intended for us to endure sin either.  This nation and the Church has been spared so far, but God says it is time to begin this restoration process so that He can be first in our lives again and while it may come to the nation and to the Church; the most intimate portion of restoration (revival) is what becomes of our lives through God’s process.

Humans love to do their best and make plans and to detail these plans out and then follow those plans when the opportunities arise, this should not come as a surprise to anyone.  For the most part, planning things out is a good thing for it brings hope and stability to those that are involved in such planning phases; it is a growth process that continues to develop as the time approaches for these plans to be made public and executed.  Many of us have made plans for a family vacation which sometimes takes months to get ready.  I remember we took a trip a while back to Arizona, and my wife began planning this trip six months in advance steadily making reservations, mileage, gas, and food were all accounted for way before we started the car that morning to head down for a few days of relaxation.  There was nothing wrong with this type of planning and she did an excellent job in all the time she spent getting every detail completed.  There was only one problem that arose, and that was one that all of the modern-day planning sessions could not account for and that was constructed on the road that led to our hotel.  It was a mess, and it took approximately ten minutes to get out of the hotel parking lot each time we wanted to go somewhere.  Yes, a minor detailed hiccup but the trip went on as planned and was completed without any glitches.

The human heart is a fascinating organ that continually keeps a certain standard in motion at all times, but when things become wrong inside our bodies it has to grossly compensate itself in order to maintain an adequate supply of vital necessities.  If this life process becomes too difficult to maintain other options are quickly rendered and processes can be restored, but not always totally corrected.  When life decisions begin to mount without God being in control of our lives it soon becomes noticeable that something is wrong and that a correction needs to occur.  However, many times we fail to recognize that we need any correction due to the fact that we have become so busy trying to fix the messes and conditions we have allowed, ironic isn’t it.  We shall see that if we continue to try and repair our hearts on our own terms then disaster and confusion shall only pursue because of the very definition of our hearts that God shows us here and more importantly, just how deep God must dig in order to restore our hearts back to Him.

There is nothing wrong with spending a great deal of time preparing for anything, as long as the project is securely promising and has a wonderful outcome.  The only issue with this statement is that many have proclaimed their own ways as being the truth in their lives and because of this belief countless faltering tendencies have arisen and become prominent as popular culture, or as many like to say “the new normal”.  When our preparations become lost in secular means there can be no way possible that our results can be truly fruitful for everyone around us.  What begins to occur when personal or national decisions come into play that does not belong to God and His Ways?  At first, it seems like nothing does appear to be incorrect, but soon afterward a crack develops and that crack eventually becomes a hole that is a major concern to our lives.  However, instead of remembering the Ways of God for repairs, we once again rely on the same level of correction as development, and a superficial or appeasement application is applied.  The Scripture passages that God will use here give us direction about the human heart and its worldly behavior versus trusting in God.

 

Proverbs 19:21

“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.”

 

The first portion of the first verse here sets the stage for what lies within the heart of mankind and just how divisive it can be if allowed to run without restraint.  As the sun rises each day, it seems like the night produces another way for humans to destroy themselves on a wide array of levels.  “There are many devices in a man’s heart” basically sums up the human heart and categorizes what each one of us commonly thinks about when our heart beats, and since we like to be a progressive lot we tend to start out small and simple and then plan for more in-depth and exciting “adventures” as time goes along.  One of the most forgotten Truths about God is that He is for progress in humanity but His concepts of progress cannot be labeled with human terms they must be based solely upon His Terms and Ways; in other words, it is His heart that must lead the way and not ours.  It is this portion of Proverbs 19 that outlines exactly why we cannot take the lead in any moment of our lives.

The second portion of the first verse gives us the foundation of what our hearts should be doing for such progress and trust:” nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.”  We know that it is easy to seek counsel from those who we consider our friends and sometimes even from our enemies.  Look around you and it cannot be denied that we have fallen for such lies by seeking counsel and refuge from our enemy’s camp.  The tactics that many of us use in order to establish ground around us come from deceitful programs that seem simple on the outside but when they are allowed to bury deep within our lives it is then that the truth be known but still, through shaped motives.  As we look at the turmoil that is currently around us one cannot help but think that something hideous has been released, and it has.  The ugly harboring that we have allowed to fester in our lives and spirits for centuries are now coming prominent enough to manifest themselves physically.  All-the-while, actually portraying what has been inside our hearts during this time frame and serves as the reason why God has to go even deeper in order for His restoration process to be complete.

Are we willing to allow God to work in such openness and depth in order to restore what needs to be done or are we too far gone on the selfish routes that we do not care about anything unless it directly relates to our possessions?  It is foolish for us to conceive the notion that God takes too much f our time each day and this type of thinking shall give our enemy further soil to dig into without us even knowing he is around.  No one knows the depths of the human heart but God and the person whose heart is being referred to, this is mentioned in another Proverb.  What does this actually mean to an ordinary person like you and me?  The result God wants is for us to be complete in Him once again, just they were before Adam and Eve sinned.  This process cannot be done in an overnight setting it takes time and hard work because we are born into this iniquity and have grown in this environment for as long as we have drawn breath.  God loves us so much and He wants us to live in total freedom in Him and through His Ways and we must first understand this Truth about our lives for if we do not then all hope for any type of restoration shall fall away quickly.

See, when God restores something He does so in a complete yet corrected manner and in order for Him to accomplish this task, He must remove all of the damaged portions.  This is the depth that all of us have to endure and to recognize that we harbor.  It does not matter if we have never stolen one thing or even told one small lie about anything, we are still sinners and are just as bad as the most violent rapist or murderer.  It is the human heart that harbors our guilt and develops our lives against God and until we accept this fact about our lives, God cannot complete the work He so much desires for our lives.  Good intentions have plagued our lives so much that we have a saying that deems them to be good pathways to take, but in the end, they always lead to a dead end.  That is why only God can fix the needs we have; however, we have been so transfixed with the ways of the world that we fail to understand that worldly ways are dangerous to our existence so once again we allow our hearts to sink deeper into the mire and muck while at the same time cry victory.  The longer we allow ourselves to be sucked into the world the deeper we will have to be restored.  The world grows in us and is not just a piece of clothing we can take off and discard without any major contribution.  The world soaks into our lives the longer we stay in it and it is this effect that God must work through.

Just a bit about what the world has a hold of right at this moment, most know that God created us in three parts body, soul, and spirit.  There is an order that we need to live in order to survive the world and the wickedness of Satan.  It is evident that this order that God intended for us to exist within has not been followed for Satan has successfully overtaken two of the three that God has given us; the perfect example of when Jesus said in John 10 that the enemy only comes to kill, steal, and destroy.  The world has our bodies and our souls for they are the order that we have been living under, they are first.  The words of Jesus says that Satan wants all of our life to be gone, not just a part of it, we have not taken this verse seriously nor have we lived according to what God commands our order (His Order) to be.  It is evidence of what occurs when the order of our lives is not in the manner that God wants because now we have a major issue on our hearts and eternal lives and that is the existence and fight for our spirit.

Church, we have done a poor job in teaching this Truth to the dying world.  How bad have we been?  We do not even understand the concept of what it means to live in the correct order of creation that God placed within us, nor do we even understand WHY it is important to live by this Standard.  These two passages have pointed out exactly what our potential can be and to what extent God wants to restore our lives but if we cannot or refuse to understand how to do this, we will have no course but to go under eternally.  I do not know how much this depth process will be, but I do know that if we give in to the sins of the world much longer our spirit shall succumb to Satan and all hope shall be lost.  It is time we repent Church and once again teach the Truth about God and how vital it is to have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  If we do not, then we deserve every bit of devastation God doles out on our land, on our hearts, and on our lives.  In other words, the depth of restoration from God strictly depends upon how soon we repent and turn back to God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DLB