The Restored Years

“What’s new?”

For I have answered my own question, yet you struggle with the answer!

For I have broken, brokenness, I have restored, restoration.

For did I not promise to restore the years the locust has eaten?

For your memories are broken, your recollection stolen, your joy stolen.

Your eyes see only glimpses of joy, whenever she smiles, whenever you taste the goodness of life together.

You only remember the joyful times, past, present and future with the one you call “beloved”.

It is your word for her, it is the word I use to describe the one I love.

It is my best expression of our relationship.

“My beloved is mine, and I am his and his banner over me is love”

The best word you use to describe how you feel about her, is how I feel about you.

For you are my beloved, yet you are yet to experience the fullness of my love. For I know you like to use your enemies words against them in order to win the argument. Yet I have given you the power to disarm. Is that not something to behold?

For anyone can fight, and maim, and kill and dismember, but I want you to be like Elisha, go for a walk with your enemy until they become your friend.

They seek to kill you, to wipe away your existence, to eliminate you from the equation, to reduce your impact to zero. They come with swords raised, and yet I have given them, into your hand. You have the power to close eyes and to open them, to change mindsets.

Be confident, exuberant and expansive.

For I am not using your words against you, but I will use my words for you.

Be loved, just be loved, I want you to be loved like never before.

I am restoring the years.

Let’s start with your earliest memory.

Picture it now.

The front cover of a Motor magazine. A black 1969 Mustang. I think I still have it my collection.

A memory revealed, a life restored…

The years restored, this is my starting point.

For me this is personal, very personal. I want you to experience a new kind of love.

No retreat, no surrender, I surrender all

For I am touching you where it hurts.

Just be touched.

“Rebuild and restore, release miracles”

In the place of the wounding, in the place of retreat, in the place of the dream, in the place of love.

In the place of withdrawal, in the place of retreat, in the place of imagination, in the place of pain, in the place of lack, in the place without a place, in the place of displacement, in the place of rejection, in the place without hope, in the hopeless place.

I was present….

I was not absent.

I know what happened, you do not need to explain it to me…

In the place of hope.

Let’s go back to the start.

This is what restoration looks like.

I am giving you want you dreamed of.

Let’s start with the fanciful, let’s start from the beginning.

New for old replacement.

For this is no boyhood fantasy, this is personal.

They said, “don’t take it personally”…

They said, “it was for your good”.

They said, “it was for your protection”.

“Leave him out of it” they said.

In the place of exclusion, I’m making this exclusive. You can join my exclusive club. It is for all those who were excluded. It is for all those who were rejected, who were excluded.

I’m making a point of this. I am making a proclamation, I am declaring my goodness to all who will receive it.

For it multiplies in your hand, it overflows in your hand, abundance is in your hand.

It is your means of transportation, your transportation reveals and represents my love, my goodness.

It’s personal…

I’m showing off.

That which was rejected I’m placing at the centre.

The outcast, the one cast out, the one who was lost, is found and is my guest of honour.

The cornerstone, the one backed into a corner, the one restricted and restrained, shall now be the one at the centre of attention.

I have given you this mouthpiece, this platform….

For today this day, I have made you a mighty fortress, go out.

Be out, not in, be on the move, for I am moving, I am shifting the landscape.

That which was is no more, behold the new has come.

From the mire, from the mud, from the mess, from the pits of hell, I have pulled you out.

For this era shall be called, “the return of the king”.

For I have given you all authority, to plant, to establish, to pull up, to tear down.

I have wed you to the one who shall restore, for she is my oil of joy, her impact shall spread across the land, like milk and honey.

You see the flow drip from your hands, for I am mixing it up, the hands held, the foremost expression of togetherness, of love, of unity, a new mix, milk and honey.

Produce and preserve. The product of fertility, from the barren place bursts forth restoration.

From the infertile, shall come, has come abundance.

Accelerated restoration, accelerated abundance.

An abundance of love, an abundance of joy.

New for old replacement.

The restored years…

Joel 2:21-27 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Be not afraid, you wild beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness have sprung up and are green; the tree bears its fruit, and the fig tree and the vine yield their full strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He gives you the former or early rain in just measure and in righteousness, and He causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, as before. And the threshing floors shall be full of grain and the vats shall overflow with juice of the grape and oil. And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten—the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you. And My people shall never be put to shame. And you shall know, understand, and realize that I am in the midst of Israel and that I the Lord am your God and there is none else. My people shall never be put to shame.