Pastor Lanre Odunewu.
Brethren,we serve a God of restoration.The promise of God for you this season is that
He will restore all you have lost.How do I know?Please open your Bible to Joel 2:21-27.
In that passage,we are going to see lot of things the Lord is telling you and me.The Lord
said “ear not,be glad and rejoice”.”Be not afraid”.“Be glad and rejoice in the Lord”.“I will
restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,the cankerworm,and the caterpillar
and the palmerworm”.
Our God is the restorer.He said “Behold,I am the God of all flesh,is there anything too
hard for me?”Jeremiah 32:27.God is the One who created you.He knows everything
about you.He knows what you have lost.He is able to restore them back to you.Nothing
is too hard for our God to do.He will restore every good thing you have lost in Jesus
name.I want you to remember that whatever God cannot give you,no man can give you.
Therefore stay close to God.In Genesis 17:1,God told Abraham “I am the Almighty God,
walk before me and be perfect”.The only thing God is asking from you is to be perfect
before Him.That’s all.
Brethren,restoration can be in three stages.It can be spiritual,physical and material.I
don’t know what you lost,when you lost it or how many things you lost.What I know is
that the God of restoration knows them and will restore them back to you in Jesus name.
In Ezekiel 37:3,God asked Prophet Ezekiel,can these bones live?The Prophet was smart
enough and threw the question back to God and said “Thou knowest”.I want you to open
your mouth and talk to the Almighty God.Tell Him what you have lost and ask Him to
restore them back to you.He knows them!
Let’s quickly look at some of the things you might have lost.First,your dreams.Your
dream is a direction of where God is leading you.When you lose your dream,you lost
your direction in life.Dreams can be stolen or destroyed hence you must be very careful
with whom you share your dreams.In Genesis 37:18-20,Joseph had a dream.He told
his brothers.When his brother saw him afar,they conspired together to kill him and
said “here comes the dreamer,let’s kill him and see what will happen to his dream”.Every
good dreams the enemies have stolen form you shall be restored back today in Jesus
name.
The second thing that can be lost is time.Therefore,you must be careful of time
wasters.Some people are not going anywhere but are time wasters.The Lord will
separate you from time wasters in Jesus name.Ephesians 5:16 encourage us to redeem
the time because the days are evil.Many people have lost their time carelessly.In Luke
5:5,Peter told the Master Jesus “we have toiled all night and caught nothing”.He wasted
all his efforts but when the God of restoration intervened,he got net breaking miracles
and caught many fishes.The time wasted was restored.The lost time was recovered.
Yours is next in Jesus name.
Other things that can be lost are opportunities,connections and vision.I want to
admonish you to be careful of the people you share your vision with.You may know the
witch or wizards but you may not know the friends of the witch and wizard.Proverbs
13:3 says “he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his lips shall
have destruction”.Another thing that can be lost is salvation.Someone said anointing is
like a bucket full of water and when you commit sin,a hole is dug under the bucket and
the water (anointing)inside the bucket starts draining.In Psalm 51:12,David cried to
God and said “restore unto me the joy ofyour salvation”.
Other things that can be lost are prayer life and marriages.Many people fail in
marriage because during courtship,God showed them the incompatibility with the
proposed spouse but they ignored it forgetting that a broken courtship is better than a
broken marriage.Another thing that can be lost is health.It is my prayers that your
health will not waste your wealth in Jesus name.The plan of God for you is to be in good
health.3John2.
As I close,the next question is what must you do to enjoy restoration from God?First,
have faith in God.Look at the man on the same spot for 38years in John 5:1-15.He
failed 38times but the God of restoration visited Him.That same God will visit you today
in Jesus name.Look at the widow of Nain in Luke 7:11-17.She lost her only child (young
man).People consoled her.At what age can she have a child again?But Jesus visited her
and restored the son back to life.The case of Lazarus in John 11 is another pointer.
Lazarus was restored back to life.Every good thing that is dead in your life shall be
restored in Jesus name.
The second thing you must do is obedience.You must be obedient to God and His word.
There was the case of a woman.She got married and had eight miscarriages.She met
the man of God and became pregnant with a warning never to visit her in-laws house.
When the pregnancy was 9months,out of excitement,she visited her in-laws house and
the enemy hanged the pregnancy for two years and medical science could not detect
anything.The Lord intervened and the woman delivered the baby.She had other
children after that delivery.Always run away from disobedience.
It is also important to inform you that when restoration comes,there is transformation
physically and spiritually.Restoration comes with blessings.Peter got many fishes
beyond what he was expecting.Restoration turns sorrows into joy.Psalm 30:5 says
weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.In 1 Samuel 2:1-10,
Hannah who had waited and waited for a child became a composer of songs when God
answered her prayers and gave her Samuel.Restoration comes with a new name.Isaiah
62:2 says “you will be called by a new name”.Jabez (meaning sorrow)got a new name
when his life was transformed and God answered his prayers.Restoration comes with
praise.
Finally,I need to remind you that disobedience;lack of faith in God and His word and
lack of thanksgiving can affect restoration.Thank you and God bless.
Culled from 12th July 2025 edition of Reporter for Christ newspaper