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Robin
Prijs
Pre-Revival Night – Dordrecht, The Netherlands - December
9th, 2016
When
we think about restoration, we often think of finances, careers, health, etc.
During
the last decades, and in particular in the Charismatic movements, those areas
were always emphasized.
I
know and believe that God does restore those areas as well, but it is not His
first priority.
When
God starts to move, like we’ve learned in the previous studies, through
teaching us to trust Him again, through restoring righteousness, through
judgments or grace, through His fire and Anointing, then what is His aim?
The
wholeness of man. To make you whole again.
I
know that the majority of today’s Christians are not waiting for this message. It
doesn’t ‘sell’.
Most
people are more interested in the physical results, while God is way more
interested in what happens inside of us.
He
will even drop every other form of restoration, if that prevents us from
wholeness on the inside.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man
if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” Luke 9:24-25
As
I’ve mentioned many times before, there are so many people who think that a
‘revival’ is some great event of entertainment.
They
believe it’s about an outburst of signs and miracles, about shouts of joy and
about singing happy songs, while we’re all being lifted up in the Spirit.
That
is the general image of revival. And because there are so many people who
believe this, they miss the signs of how it truly starts.
I
would say that repentance is needed here. As I also mentioned before,
repentance means changing the way you think, in order to bring it back in alignment
with the Word of God.
Yes,
we serve a God of mighty miracles and yes, He loves to bring joy to our lives.
No question about that.
Does
He do that as well? Yes! Is it His highest priority? No. That all becomes
secondary.
What
is the difference? When we aim at the signs and miracles, and when our hearts
long for that, we are aimed at our personal gain.
Then
it is all about us again. Self-centered faith. To many it’s more like a hype
than like a life changing experience.
“How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to
shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? But know that
the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I
call to Him. Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed,
and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the
Lord.” Psalm 4:2-5
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my
anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24
The
last thing God wants us to do is to pretend, which many are doing in church
today. Pretending that everything is alright, pretending that they live a holy
life and pretending that they are above every situation.
Who
are you when nobody is watching? How do you respond when it gets tough? What do
you do when you’re all alone?
Are
you the type person that surprises people when they find out you’re a
Christian, because your lifestyle doesn’t reflect that in any way?
In
other words, are all the things you’re pretending to be in Church a reality in
your day to day life? What lives inside your heart matters the most.
Your
struggles with sin, your inner pain, your anxieties and everything else is what
keeps your heart away from the depths of His heart.
When
the fire of God comes, that is what it will deal with first and foremost. When
we’re just pretending, we turn His glory into shame.
Sooner
or later, people will find out that it’s fake. Then your faith becomes
worthless to them and it can damage their faith as well.
People
are looking for realness, not for a show. Who doesn’t want the real thing?
God
has never made us to go through this alone. When He longs for realness in our
hearts, then it means that He also gave us all the tools we need to achieve
that.
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring
the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23
Wholeness
in our lives can only come through the wholeness of our Master and Lord, Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Living God.
It
is His wholeness that can make us whole again. But He does not only offer us a
way to become whole as ‘an option’. It is His heart’s desire! That is what
revival is all about.
His
Spirit and His fire will come to expose everything that lives in our hearts. Is
that a joyful happening? Far from. But exposing what lives inside of us is what
is needed.
We
need to realize that nothing that we have from ourselves is an acceptable
offering to Him. All we have in our carnal flesh is decay and sin.
Becoming
a Christian does not automatically deal with these issues. We need to do that
by acknowledging our sins and shortcomings. Only then the power of Christ is
can be released in those areas.
“You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times. I call to
remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit
makes diligent search.” Psalm 77:4-6
It
may not sound inviting, but when the Spirit and the fire of God opens our eyes,
then we become aware of what needs to change. We can only act based upon the
things we’re aware of.
The
aim is always to bring us closer to Him, further from sin, to the point of
wholeness and restoration. And that, my friends, is where the real joy begins.
Only
then, that joy is no longer entertainment, but something that comes from the
heart. Then it is real.
When
you start to discover that you become aware of sin and shortcomings in your
life, then don’t push it away.
I’m
not talking about the accusing thoughts, because those are from the accuser,
the enemy. I’m talking about being aware of the sin.
When
that happens, simply act and confess the sins that the Spirit is exposing.
Don’t
run away when that happens, but run towards Him. He is there, with open arms,
to help you, to guide you and to restore you.
If
He wanted to condemn you, God would never have send Jesus.
Do
not let guilt and shame withhold you from running into His arms. His aim is to
restore you, even when it hurts, even when it feels like you have done the
unforgivable thing.
When
it feels you’re desperately lost, even then. He will never despise your
weakness. The only thing He despises is pride and hardened hearts.
“For when we were still without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet
perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His
own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8
This
shows the remarkable love of God for us. What was there to love in us? What did
we do for God? We weren’t righteous or good.
We
weren’t even searching for God. Yet He found us. It was the other way around
indeed. He was the One searching for us.
When
God looks at us without Christ, there are only sinners to be seen. People
filled with all the things that God hates so much and which are the total
opposite of His character. There was nothing attractive to that.
And
still He decided to look through all of that and He gave us Jesus Christ, Who
gave His life for us.
Now
that is sacrificial, selfless and unconditional love, aimed at nothing less
than our complete and utter restoration.
In
this world, restoration means to bring something back to the former or original
condition. That is the image we all have, when thinking about restoration.
But
in the Kingdom of our God that is not really the case. The word ‘restoration’
doesn’t really cover it.
When
we surrender all control to Jesus and when we let Him do the change in us, that
is a whole new level of restoration.
He
doesn’t bring us back to the former or original condition, leaving all the
scars, but He does something even greater. He makes all things new. Without the
scars. Blameless. And even that is not all He does.
In
the Kingdom of our God, restoration always means increase, multiplication or
improvement, so that it becomes significantly better than its original
state.
It
all seems so unfair that those who commit sin and repent will be restored, and
even with increase. That goes against our feelings of righteousness. Is it
unfair?
Well,
we can conclude that those who repent receive something they don’t deserve,
which is forgiveness of sin and restoration. But that is exactly what grace is.
Does
it go against our feelings of righteousness? No. It goes against our feelings
of condemnation and punishment.
Grace
goes against condemnation and punishment, because the aim of grace is to
restore, while the aim of condemnation and punishment is to destroy, damage or
to have revenge.
The
grace of God has been made available to us, because of Jesus. First He will
restore us. Then He asks us to pay it forward and to grant the same grace to
those who have sinned against you.
I’m
talking about the grace that goes all the way, to complete and utter
restoration.
Throughout
His whole life, Jesus showed one huge pattern of restoration. His heart towards
us is to save us, heal us, deliver us and to completely restore us.
The
pattern that He showed was pure grace. He did everything He could do from His
side to make all of this possible for us.
But
in any relationship, there are more people involved. The first relationship God
wanted to restore was and is the one between Him and you.
The
sort of relationship He wants is a heart to heart relationship (Matthew 15:8).
When
the heart isn’t in it, all is in vain (verse
9).
First
God draws us into the conviction of sin. At that point we can choose with our
hearts to respond to that. When we do, He draws us into repentance (renewal of
our way of thinking) and He will continue to draw us through the whole process,
to the point of restoration and beyond, to increased restoration.
But
all of this can only happen when the heart is in it and when our decisions are
sincere. The only thing He wants from us is a sincere heart. He does the work
in us.
When
our heart is not completely in it or not completely sincere, for example
because we rather choose to love the sin, He can’t lead us to restoration.
Simply
because it is not possible to combine His Light with darkness. There are no
grey areas. Every area that is not completely in the Light, belongs to the
darkness.
But
when we have a sincere heart, there is no sin He can’t draw us away from,
towards the Light.
Remember,
the keys are sincerity, acknowledgment, surrendering control, trusting and
waiting (while staying in His Word).
As
you may have noticed by now, the condition of the heart is one of my favorite
topics.
I
used to be one of those many Christians, thinking that my Christian life was
alright. I did many things for the Lord and I was prepared to travel to the
ends of the world for Him.
But
then the Holy Spirit showed me the condition of my human heart and I was
devastated. While I thought I was already where I supposed to be, I discovered
that there were so many areas in my life that weren’t right at all.
He
did not aim at the things I did, He aimed at everything that lived inside my
heart. Each and every thought of sin, the moments I considered sin as an
option, even if I did not act.
It
was what was living in my heart that already made me sinful. Realizing this is
one of the biggest steps forward.
When
we respond to the work of the Holy Spirit, and when our sins are no longer
hidden but dealt with, it will cause wholeness to enter our hearts.
Your
relationship with Jesus will never be the same again. You will never be the
same again. Everything will change.
It
will no longer be about you and about your gain, but about Him and His gain.
Sometimes
that may mean that God chooses to perform mighty signs and miracles in order to
get there.
Sometimes
it will go the other way around. God always looks at the situation from His
perspective.
If
He sees that signs or miracles are needed to get you at the place of wholeness,
it will happen. But only for His glory, not for ours.
The
wholeness that He brings is not just for this life and time. He restores us to
the way that He intended us to be when He created mankind.
He
even wants to go beyond that, to an increasing restoration on a whole new level
of wholeness to the point where His bride is pure, clean and without spot or
wrinkle. We can never achieve that on our own strength.
We
need His help in order to get to that point. It won’t happen without the rain
and the latter rain, the precious Anointing that He gives through His precious
Holy Spirit.
As
darkness is increasing in the world like never before, we also see an
increasing need among the people. Needs on all sorts of areas. To us that
emphasizes how much we need God, especially in these days. As times are getting
harder, naturally and spiritually, we see many people who fall back to old
behaviors and some even turn their backs to Christianity. The main reasons for
that are not understanding, pain, grief and disappointment.
We, as LoveUnlimited, want to reach out to the
lost, the broken, the hurt, the poor, the rejected and to those where everyone
looks down on. Our heart goes out to the people who are considered as
unimportant and unworthy by most of the Church and by society. Not just in a
faraway country, but starting in our nation, in our own cities and in our own
neighborhoods. For if it doesn’t start there, it has no value. If we only want
to help those who are far away, we’re just keeping up appearances. Real change
shows fruits. Real change wants to help the needy, regardless of their needs.
Real change creates an environment of grace, with room for error. Real change
stands with people, not above them.
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