The insights I am about to share are products of God’s dealing with me over time but they became rhema to me recently when the month of May was declared the month of restoration in our ministry.
Indeed, God restores. He restores what men consider impossible. He does not only restore things, He restores years; years of men that have been eaten up by devouring army (Joel 2:). He restores people from death back to life, from a demoted status to heights of honour, from spiritual dormancy to revived state. He restores individuals, families, communities, cities and even nations.
Interestingly, God does His work of restoration through men, more often than not. In the words of Francis Wale Oke,” God’s method for reaching men is men. If you are looking God’s method number one; men, God’s method number two; men, God’s method number three; men.” In my little study of God’s word, the knowledge of the history of His move through the ages and personal experience in life and ministry, I have found that God delights in raising men as agents of restoration.
Agents of restoration are not the restoration themselves but they have been sufficiently charged up by God to birth restoration. They are God’s vessels for bringing back what has been lost. They convey God’s omnipotent power to effect positive changes where the negative has taken over.
The story of Elisha’s prophetic intervention in the restoration of Jericho is very apt to our teaching.
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, behold, I pray thee, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth: but the water is naught and the ground barren.
And he said, bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein And they brought it to him.
And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters, there shall not from thence any more death or barren in the land.
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake (II Kings 2: 19-22.)
The land of Jericho is strategically located. By its situation, everything is supposed to be working. The land is expected to yield its fruit in its season and at the full strength. That was divine making because God is the one that sets the boundary of places and people (Acts 17:26). I believe Jericho was created to be very good in the beginning of creation (Gen. 1:31). But all of a sudden, the water became sick and things began to function abnormally. You may wonder why I used the word sick. It is because only things that are sick required healing.
However, the land could not heal itself. There must be a Healer and God is the Healer. He specializes in healing lands to restore them to their highest level of productivity for the people’s benefit (II Chr. 7: 14). However, God heals through His vessels. So, Jericho required a prophetic vessel for its healing (restoration).
Elisha’s prophetic solution to the land is very significant. I know there are Churches today who believes in the use of salt as a medium of communicating healing. How I wish they understand better that prophetic actions in the Old Testament are coded and more importantly are shadows of the things to come. No prophetic action of the Old Testament was borne out of a doctrine or the imagination of men. They were carried out by the direct promptings and instructions of God. Each time God did that, He meant to communicate to them a mystery of the New Testament in coded form.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (II Pet. 1:21)
For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things.............. (Heb. 10:1)
The insight the Holy Spirit is communicating to me is that the Salt in the new cruse represents the Saints of the New Testament.
Ye are the salt of the earth............................................................................. (Matt. 5: 13)
This means Christians are God’s agents of healing and restoration. Just as Elisha called for Salt for the restoration of Jericho, whenever there is a need for restoration, God’s immediate solution is His Saints.
It is important to note that the Prophet was particular about the new cruse. This is because he did not want contaminated salt. And that is a serious issue of concern because whenever salt is contaminated, it is no longer salt; it has become salt plus something. In physical sciences, if they take such material to the laboratory, they can subject it to analysis and separation.
We can therefore conclude that it takes an uncontaminated Christian to bring supernatural healing to communities and people. Why is that we have too many Christians and our lands, campuses, families, offices, religious groups remain sick? It is because we have too many contaminated Christians. God’s method of bringing restoration is raising a new breed without greed that will serve His purpose in their generation. He delights in a new cruse; symbolic of a new Church. Note that a new Church does not necessarily translate to a new denomination. It means a Church out of the Church; a new group out of the groups. My prayer is that God will visit our denominations today and bring out a new system that will bear this uncontaminated salt in Jesus Name.
When Salt Becomes Contaminated
Imagine salt mixed with perhaps an equal amount of sand and is offered as an ingredient for soup. Would you accept it? I could hear you say no. You said no because it will no longer perform its function of adding taste. It has lost savour!
..............but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is therefore good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men (Matt. 5: 13).
The savour is what makes salt what it is. It is the strength of salt. Savour is the character of the salt. It is the glory of the salt. Savour is the essence and the power of the salt. In fact, salt minus savour is equal to useless. It would therefore suffice to state that when salt loses its saltiness (savour), the song is ichabod. You may shake it, stir it or attempt to do anything to it, once the saltiness is lacking, everything will amount to futile effort.
Many Christians today are like salt without savour. They have lost their essence and have become good for no restoration. Their community is sick but heaven cannot count on them for solution. There is no longer anointing. Bishop T. D Jakes once said and I agree with Him that what makes us Christians is because we are anointed. He explained that the word “Christ” which is the root word for Christian means the anointed one. Essentially, the person of Christ himself is anointed. If a Christian therefore has lost the anointing, is he still qualified to be called a Christian?
Many have lost their character, the very semblance of Christ. When you observe them, you see no difference between them and the people of the world. They no longer carry the ability to add taste. For some, there is no more glory. They have lost the power of divine presence. Their steps have become ordinary. They no longer carry sufficient power that can threaten the devil. Instead, it is the enemy that threatens them. If you belong to any of these categories, may the Lord deliver you in Jesus Name.
The Big Challenge
The big challenge is if we lose our savour, how do we regain it?
........................... but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
This is where most believers get hooked. They do not come to terms quickly with the need for restoration in their own lives so that they can function effectively as agents of restoration in the hand of God. It is sad that there are fathers and husbands who have lost the power to function in their capacity. Many leaders today no longer carry the glory of leadership and it does not bother them. Instead of them to ask the question, where shall I be salted, they are busy employing gimmicks that would not work. They try to do what they used to do before all to no avail. They shake like Samson but produce no power for victory.
Let me submit that I know when I diminish in the anointing. It is very clear to me when my “shakings” produce no power. At such time I do not deceive myself. I’d rather ask, what do I do regain my saltiness?
There are no substitutes to getting restored than resorting to God himself. Running from one prophet to the other in the quest for signs and soothsaying will not bring the lost anointing. You had better seek the Lord Himself by yourself for yourself. God is the secret of our restoration. When you sense the glory fading, your character failing and the anointing reducing, seek His face diligently in genuine repentance, unfeigned passion and serious thirst for restoration. Let the Lord fire you up again so that you can fire your generation.
The Expectation and the Promise
If you have read this article to this point, it suggests to me that you are serious about what the Lord is passing across. You need to know that when things are wrong around us and people are trapped in circumstances contrary to His divine purpose for our lives, His expectation is that we shall move the motion for restoration. Nothing will be restored without the efforts of agents of restoration. For every restoration, there are people who champion the cause of that restoration.
But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth, for a spoil and none saith, Restore.
Who among you will give hear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
(Isa. 42:22-23)
From the above scripture, you can see that God has placed the responsibility of the restoration of our environment on us. When people are robbed, God requires a people to carry the burden for their restoration.
I have good news for you. You are God’s choice for this assignment. You have been pre-qualified and preselected for the task. The grace of God will back you up. Here God’s promise for you:
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt 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)
I prophesy to you today that as you seek the Lord for the restoration of the lost savour, the anointing of the restorer shall come upon you in Jesus Name. The Lord by himself will release upon you grace to bring restoration; in your home, compound, campus, Church, office and any place of your location in Jesus Name. No longer shall you be present and things will go wrong around you in Jesus Name. Amen.
great message, as you were blessed am sure, many other people will be blessed
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