Gregory Dickow - God Will Restore
Well, I'm teaching you today from the Mount of Olives in the City of Jerusalem, the city of Miracles, the city of God's restoration for your life, and recently the Lord put on my heart to talk to you about how he wants to restore your life there. Several things he wants to restore. And specifically, I want to talk to you about three things that God wants to restore in your life. And as you look behind me, you can see the beautiful City of Jerusalem that was restored multiple times throughout history.
And because God was showing us through those years and through those seasons of history that no matter what the enemy comes to tear down in our lives, no matter what the devil does to steal, kill and destroy, God always has a better plan. You know, the Bible says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus said, But I have come that you would have life in abundance to the full till it overflows. You see, Satan always has a plan to tear down our lives, to steal from us, to damage and destroy us. But God's plan is always better to heal, to bless, to restore whatever the devil tries to tear down. God will always rebuild in your life.
Some of us need our families rebuilt. Some of us need our marriages restored, our children restored, our our health restored. God's are going to restore whatever the enemy has come to damage, to destroy, to defeat. And it's your time of restoration. It's your time today to experience God's restoration plan for your life. And by the time we're done with this teaching, I believe that you're going to have hope. You're going to have faith. You're going to have the expectation of a restored life.
I want to start with a scripture where it says in chapter three, now listen to what God says in the scripture, chapter three, verse twenty and twenty one. It says that there will be times of refreshing that will come from the presence of God that he may send. Then he will send the Christ appointed for you. And this is talking about the second coming of Jesus. It says he will send the Christ appointed. Do you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time of restoration of all things that God spoke through his holy prophets in ancient times.
So notice what God is saying here in x twenty verse twenty x three. Verse twenty twenty one. The saying before Jesus comes back, before he returns the second time he's already come once to save us from our sins and before he comes with the second coming, he says heaven must keep him until the times of restoration. And he says all of the things the prophets have prophesied that would be restored. Jesus is going to stay in heaven until those things that the prophets spoke are restored. And so what I want to encourage you to do is since Jesus hasn't returned yet, at least at the time of this filming, he has not returned yet. And therefore, God is obligated, according to his promise to restore to your life the things that he spoke of through the prophets.
Now, I want to talk to you about the prophet. I'm going to talk to you about the Prophet Joel, and I'm going to talk to you about the prophet Jeremiah. And I'm going to talk to you about some of the things that they prophesied God would restore. And then when you see that these are things God promised he would restore through these prophets, and then you realize Jesus isn't coming back until these things are restored, then you can begin to expect restoration in your life, in these things to be restored in your life, because the devil is the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus wants to restore back to you everything that the enemy has stolen.
So let's start with Joel 2:25. He says, listen to what God says. I will right now. This is through a prophet that God said this prophet is going to prophesy about restoration and Jesus isn't coming back until these things come to pass. Now, listen, he said in chapter two, verse twenty five, I will restore the years that the worm has eaten, the cankerworm, the Palmer worm, the locust. He says, I will restore the years. Now, when I when I see that verse, I think of several things that we can expect to be restored in our lives. He says. I will restore the years. That means God is going to restore the time of your life that's been lost, time that you've wasted, time that's been damaged by your past, by your mistakes, by sin, by the enemy, by the way you grew up.
Maybe you were molested or assaulted as a child, maybe you were abused as a child. And that and that cost you years to recover in years of pain and years of suffering, years of trauma and post-traumatic syndrome and all the things that maybe you maybe were a soldier and you are suffering from post-traumatic effects of war and effects of battle. And that took years off of your life. God's going to restore those years, maybe all the same. Like before I was saved, there were years of sin that cost me my life. Damage my brain damaged my body and God said he would restore those years to me, when he says he'll restore years, it means he'll restore time, heal, restore opportunities, heal, restore us to that youthfulness that we once had. If you're getting older like me, maybe you feel like you lost a little pep to your step.
Well, God wants to restore all of that to you. He wants to restore your strength, your energy. All of that comes when he restores the years that have been devoured, the years that have been eaten by bad decisions, the years that have been eaten by bad relationships, the years that have been eaten by bad circumstances in your life. God's going to restore those years. That's restoration. No. One. Are you ready? We're going to pray at the end of this broadcast. We're going to believe for the restoration of your years that have been lost, your opportunities that have been lost.
That's number one. And remember, this is from a Prophet Joel, and that means God's going to do that before Jesus comes back. So get ready to expect years to be added to your life. It's time for you to age backwards. It's time to stop saying I'm getting so old, I'm losing my memory. Know God's going to restore the years and the memory that comes back with years and the youthfulness that comes back with years and the opportunities that come back with years. It's time for you to stop letting the devil steal your years and time to see those restored.
Number two, it says, I want to read to you in Jeremiah, chapter 30, verse 17. God says, I will restore to you your health and I will heal you of your wounds. Wow, what a promise. Again, this is another prophet, Jeremiah. In this case, he says, I will restore to you your health. Every one of us has dealt with some sort of sickness or pain or disease in our lives. For some, it's physical. For some it's emotional. For some it's relational. But in every one of those areas of your life, God said, I will restore a health to you and I will heal you. Of all your wounds, he literally is telling us he's going to heal us everywhere we're hurting. He literally is promising to restore you everywhere you've had pain, everywhere you've hit, everywhere you've suffered, everywhere you've been damaged, everywhere you've been sick.
God is the God of healing. And he's going to restore your health physically, emotionally, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Aren't you sick and tired of being sick and tired? God said he wants you. Well, God said he'll restore your health. Jesus not only died for our sins, but it says he took our pain and carried our infirmities. And by his stripes we were healed. You can have God's healing power in your life.
In Acts 10:38 said Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. Jesus wants to heal you where you're hurting, heal you where you've been Pierce, where you've been wounded, where you've been damaged, where you've been struggling, where you've been suffering, where you've been in pain, where you've been in misery. For some of us, it's depression. It's an emotional pain that's too much to bear. Sometimes for some, it's physical pain, cancer, disease, heart disease, diabetes, maybe it's been passed down from generation to generation. And God tells us here he's going to restore you to your health and restore healthy and heal you of your wounds. What a promise from God.
Number three, God says in also in Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven through fourteen. I'll read to you from the New American Standard Bible in verse fourteen, he says, and I will be found by you and I will restore your fortunes. I will restore your fortunes. He's talking there about our finances. He's going to restore the money that's been lost, the opportunities that have been lost. Maybe you lost a job. God's going to restore it. Maybe you lost because you made a bad investment. God's going to restore it. Maybe you went through a divorce and that cost you a lot. You know, they say marriage. You know, the old saying it says marriage is grand, but divorce is about two hundred and fifty grand.
So, listen, it's really important that you realize that maybe you lost some money because of a bad relationship, a bad marriage. God's going to restore your fortunes. He's going to restore your blessing. He's going to restore his provision for your life. He's going to be generous with you. It was God's idea to restore you. It was God's idea to bless you. It was God's idea to give you his success and his blessing in his provision, in his prosperity. That's God's idea. OK, now remember, let's go back and remember, in chapter three, God says that I'm going to restore to you these things before Jesus comes back. He's going to restore all the things that the prophets prophesied. In other words, whatever they prophesied would be restored is going to happen before Jesus returns.
So since Jesus hasn't come yet, come back yet, we need to expect the restoration of these things. So so far, we've gone over how God wants to restore to you the years that have been lost, which includes time and. Energy and strength and opportunities and so much more and youthfulness, and no matter how old we are, we can age backwards when God restores the years that have been lost and the years that have been missed, maybe missed years with your family. You missed years with your kids. You missed years of being happy. God's going to give it all back. Restore it all back to you. Secondly, we talked about how he he's going to restore or the prophet said he's going to restore your health. He's going restore healing and heal you of all your wounds.
And thirdly, we're talking about in Jeremiah 29, he said, I'm going to restore the fortunes to your life that have been lost. Fortunes. That means your inheritance, the the blessing that your parents didn't have, that God wants to pass on to you, the blessing that your grandparents should have had and then passed down to their to their kids and then to you. And for whatever reason, it didn't happen. Well, God is going to make all that up to you and the blessing that should have happened in your life because you followed God's way all of your life, but you missed out because you didn't follow his way and you didn't do things God's way and you missed out on so much of God's provision and and so much of his abundance for your life. But God said, I'm going to restore you.
See, we connect to God, not through our perfection. We connect to God through his grace and our faith in what he did for us and through the blood of Jesus. We have the right to see God restore all these things. He said he'll turn the curse into a blessing. And because Jesus died on the cross, Jesus Christ is everyone that hangs on a tree. So the blessing of Abraham would come to you so that each one of us could experience everything God gave and blessed Abraham with God wants to do that in your life as well. God wants to restore to you all that your ancestors had and weren't able to pass on to you. Get ready. It's coming to your life. It's coming if we'll begin to expect it.
Now, I'm going to take you through now for a few moments the steps you can take to experience this divine restoration in your life. It was God's idea to restore these things. It was the prophets that prophesied these things. And it's us that are uncovering these things from the Word of God so that each of you can experience the restoration of these things in your life. Are you ready? OK, now here's what we do. If you lost anything damaged, everything's been damaged, stolen from you. The first thing we need to do to recover and restore and see the god of restoration restored the years, restore the health, restore the fortunes. The first thing we need to do is simply go to God about it. Just go to God about it.
In other words, he wants you to come to him. He said, come to me to the come boldly to the throne of my grace and you will receive mercy and grace to help you in your time of need. He said, I'll meet all your needs. According to my riches and glory, God wants to restore all these things to you. All you got to do is start by just going to him. Just go to him, ask him God, restore to me what's been lost. And it says in Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven. He said, I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare, not for calamity. To give you a future and a hope, he says, then you will call upon me and pray. Then you will call upon me and pray, and I will listen, he says. You will seek me and you'll find me. And he says, and I will be found by you, and I will restore your fortunes.
Notice before he said I'll restore your fortunes. He first said, You're going to call on me, you're going to pray, and I'm going to answer and I'm going to be found by you and I'm going to restore everything that's been lost. All we have to do is call on him. All we have to do is pray. Right now, I'm standing on the Mount of Olives and you see behind me the old City of Jerusalem and behind the the wall of Jerusalem. There is the Western Wall where prayer, where we where we've prayed, where we recently prayed for the restoration of all things in your life that have been lost. And the reason why I went there to pray for your restoration is because God said, here I will hear you and I will restore, I will answer and I'll restore. And he said, when prayer is offered in that place and it's a place of faith, when we pray in the prayer of faith, then God's going to restore what's been lost in our lives.
All we got to do is go to him, you know, you say I'm not worthy. I've made all these mistakes. God won't listen to me. God is not waiting for you to be perfect. God is not waiting for you to get your act together. He said, come to the throne of Grace. It's not a throne of our perfection. It's not a throne of our holiness. It's not a throne of our performance. It's the throne of his grace. We don't have to go because we've earned the right to go. We go. We can't go because we've earned the right. You can't earn the right to go to God's throne. It's the throne of grace. We come on the basis of what Jesus did for us. Grace, I like the acronym for Grace, G-R-A-C-E: God's Riches at Christ's Expense or in our case today, God's Restoration at Christ's expense. G-R-A-C-E: God's Restoration at Christ's expense. That's coming to you.
All right. So go to him and don't be shy. Don't be ashamed and don't feel like, well, I really blew it. I screwed up my life. I don't deserve to go. You're right. None of us deserve to go. But he invites us to come boldly to the throne of his grace. No, to the second thing to do is we've got to find out where did we let the enemy in? It says in Proverbs six thirty one, if the thief is found, he has to repay seven folder. He has to restore seven fold of what has been stolen if the thief is found. In other words, we got to find out how we're giving Satan access into our lives to steal from us. And once we find out where he's getting getting access, we close off that access point and he's got to give our stuff back.
Can you believe this, that not only will God give you what you ask for, but Satan's got to restore seven fold whatever he's stolen, that all thieves got to send you back your stuff. I don't know how he's going to do it. Made me like the Grinch when he stole everybody's stuff at Christmas and he had to remember, he piled it all up, made his dog take it up that hill. But let me tell you something, then. When his heart changed, he had to restore it all. Now, Satan's heart isn't going to change, but Satan does have to give us our stuff back. He's got to give you your stuff back and restore you seven fold. And so now where do we allow the enemy in? How does Satan get access into our lives?
Well, there's a scripture in 2 Corinthians 2:11. and it says it says make sure to forgive, because when you don't forgive, when you have unforgiveness in your life, it gives Satan an advantage in your life. In other words, unforgiveness gives Satan an advantage. And if we want to close off his access to our lives, we need to receive God's forgiveness and we need to forgive ourselves and we need to forgive anyone else who were holding anything against because the same blood that was shed for your sins was also shed for the sins of those who have hurt you. So forgive them because of what Jesus did. Forgive yourself because of what Jesus did, because that's the reason God forgave you. And unforgiveness is an access point that gives Satan an advantage in our lives. So shut the devil out by releasing forgiveness in your life and through your life.
OK, number three, give thanks for what God already done. God restores to you what's been lost when you begin to thank him for what he's already done in your life. You remember the ten leper's ten of whom were cleansed, nine of them kept going, but only one of them came back to give thanks. And when the one came back to give thanks, the Bible says Jesus looked at that man and said, Where are the other nine? Is not just this one that came back to give thanks for being cleansed, he said. Now your faith has made you whole or has restored you. All the other nine were cleansed. But this guy, because he came back to give thanks, not only was he cleansed, but his whole health was restored. He was made whole, not just cleanse.
The other nine were cleansed of the leprosy. That means leprosy stopped. But the one guy that came back to thank God and to glorify him for what he had already done, Jesus said that man was made whole, which means not only was he cleansed from his leprosy, but everything that was lost from his health was restored. Restoration comes on the heels of Thanksgiving for what God has already done. Are you ready or are you following this? Now, listen, here's another one. Use your words. Your words have the power to activate God's restoration power in your life. And there's a scripture in Job 22:28. It says, I will do, the Job said, I will decree a thing and it shall be so.
But listen to this scripture. I love that verse and I love this one even more. Isaiah 42:22. It says these people look at what God says in Isaiah 42:22, he says these people are robbed and and stolen from continually, they're robbed and and are stolen from continually. They are they are bound in prisons and they have become prey to the enemy with no one to rescue them. And then listen to what he says, because none of them declare restore, none of them say give it back. Do you see what he's saying here? He's saying these people are being robbed continually and they're being put in prison. And the stuff they have is being taken from them, stolen from them. And then he tells us the reason why, why is the enemy, why does the enemy keep stealing from them? Why are they, Rob continually? Because no one is shut in the mouth of the enemy by speaking words of faith and saying restore and give it back.
One translation says, give it back. One translation says: Restore. These people weren't declaring out of their mouth. Restore, restore. They weren't declaring out of their mouth. Give it back. Give it back. What God is trying to tell us here is if we will declare. Give it back, give it back. Our words will go for us on our behalf and we'll begin to attract the restoration of the things that have been stolen and the things that have been lost. For us, your words have power. The Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue, the authority of the tongue. We've got to declare restore.
I want you to just I mean, do this as a as a point of contact, but but, you know, put your hands on your body if you're in pain and and just say restore, restore wherever you're hurting to say restore in Jesus name, restore, declare restoration. I know I'm getting a little excited here, but this the Bible is so exciting and these promises are so exciting. You need to declare restore. You ought to get your your your bank cards out and your checkbook out. If you use a checkbook or you however you handle your finances, put your hand on those on that checkbook and that and declare restore, put your hand on those bank cards that you've lost money on and say restore.
This is not some sort of magic. This is the activation of our faith. God said they're robbed continually because no one declares restore. We need to declare over our family. Restore. Maybe you have a child that's on drugs, begin to prophesy into this earth. Restore my child. God, I thank you that my child will be restored to salvation, restored to deliverance and healing. Say over your body. My body is restored in Jesus name. My finances are restored in Jesus name. My time is restored in Jesus name. This is called prophesying. Prophesying to the dry bones speaking to the mountain. This is the power of God. This is how the power of God flows.
Restore, restore, restore. Say it over your life. Restore! shout it where you're watching right now. Restore something powerful that happens when you begin to make that declaration in your life. Now, finally. So a seed of restoration. This is one of the great steps to seeing God restore what he wants to do in your life and what's been lost in your life. Plant a seed of restoration. I think Zacchaeus is a great example of someone that did that. He went up in the tree to see the Lord and then Jesus saw him. He says the key has come down from that tree and Zacchaeus comes down and as soon as he meets Jesus, he says, Lord. Everything that I have taken from people, I'm going to give it back four times, I'm going to restore four fold of whatever I've taken and half of everything I have, I'm going to give you see.
And then Jesus said truly today, salvation, wholeness, restoration has come to this man's household. Why did restoration, when he uses the word salvation there, it's not just the it's not the salvation that we understand of just being saved and going to heaven. It's the word soso, which means wholeness, complete restoration, being whole spirit, soul and body. And what happened when Zacchaeus released his faith by giving his seed restoration came to his house. And as you plant your seed restoration comes to your house.
If you take these steps and just follow these simple steps, God's going to restore the years that had been lost, the health and healing in everywhere you've been wounded or hurt, damaged or broken. And he's going to restore the fortunes that have been lost in your life, the destiny that he created you for, the purpose that he created you for. The real wealth is not money. The real wealth of your life is your destiny, the purpose for which you were born, the reason why you're on this earth. God wants to restore that destiny, the richness, the fortunes of that destiny, good fortune, a good future, a great future, a great destiny, a great purpose and a great calling. Take these steps and you will see the god of restoration manifest mightily in your life beginning today. Now check this out.