Messages of Grace

Wednesday 1, July 2015

Bible Passage(s): Isaiah 58: 12 -14

Memory Verse: “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in”. Isa 58:12

This month, I feel that the Lord is calling us once again to address the issue of Restoration. Restoration comes in various and diverse dimensions; in the physical as well as the spiritual realm.

Men and women always work at restoring things, mostly in the natural or physical dimension. For example, restoring a house to its original state, restoring relationships and things like equipment, tools or artefacts and monuments. In doing so, the approach, in most cases is always with human knowledge and wisdom. In some cases and for particular cases, this may work. For example, in the case of restoring a house, monuments, artefact and even possessions. This is made possible through the available body of human knowledge and advances in science and technology.

However, the spiritual dimension of restoration is not always so. Issues that have spiritual implication, even if they are physical, many times result in a disaster if approached with human knowledge. In this message, I want to address spiritual restoration. This will include issues of our life, our relationships, work, business, health and leadership in our nation, Nigeria. In many of these cases, there are breaches that need to be repaired for restoration to take place.

God is the restorer of breaches, but many a times He makes use of human elements as the channel to bring about the restoration. As His, He requires us to be agents for the restoration that He wants to accomplish in the various spiritual dimensions of our existence as earlier enumerated. For example, He may use a spouse to bring restoration to their marriage or the marriage of others. Ditto He will use willing and ready hands to bring about His purpose in the world.

This month, the Lord is calling us into the ministry of restoration. He wants to use us to restore issues in our lives and the lives of others. He wants us to be the agent of restoration for our part of the world on His behalf. However, to qualify, we must make ourselves meet and right to come into this vanguard. The requirements for this include:
(i) Being born again and spirit filled; (ii) Holy living, without bitterness and unforgiving spirit; (iii) Walking always in the consciousness of the light by which we were set free; and (iv) Making ourselves available to be used of God in His plan and purpose for restoration in the world.

There are marriages and relationships in need of restoration. Our nations need restoration. But we must rise up at this time to the work of repairing the breaches and be restorers of streets to dwell in. The Lord bless us as we make ourselves available.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace, now and forevermore. Amen.

Have a wonderful month.

Prayer Points
1. Lord, thank you for bringing me into the month of July. Praise Him for bringing you thus far in the year of a New Song.

2. Pray that He will make you worthy to be a member of the vanguard; the repairer of breaches and the restorer of streets to dwell in, both in the lives of others and even in your own life and that of your nation.

3. There are many spouses whose marriage relationships has broken down irreparably, due mainly to unforgiving spirit. Come to the Lord in repentance and ask Him to help you to overcome your hurt and forgive your spouse who has hurt you so badly. Pray that Lord will restore your marriage with fresh wine, peace and joy.

4. There are parents whose relationship with their children has broken down irreparably and ditto for some children who have turned against their parents. If you are in this situation, pray the Lord to help you deal with the issues involved; to forget the past and look forward to a future in Christ. Ask the Lord to bring into your lives agents of restoration who will help you to repair the breaches that separate you from your loved ones and make your ‘streets’ liveable and joyful again.

5. Pray for your nation, and ask the Lord to raise agents of restoration indeed and in truth who will help repair the breaches and make your streets to become places of joy, progress and peace. That all the problems facing your country at the moment will be a thing of the past and that your nation will experience tremendous growth and progress this month.

6. Let’s pray for our world, particularly the United States of America, whose Supreme Court has just legalised gay marriage. Ask the Lord to frustrate every counsel of the evil one against His Church and that His Kingdom will come and His counsel shall prevail in our world. Pray that this judgement shall not be implementable, but that through it, the Lord will bring confusion into the camp of those who may want to implement it.

Bola Olowe,
President, Grace Leadership Foundation.